Well it can now start. 13 hardy souls were out enjoying a fine ride this am. The rest of you *cough* Loooosers *cough* were somewhere else. How embarassing for you.

Did anyone else notice how much more manly the men were this morning? Must be why there was so many women out, gravitating to the manliness.

Darn it, I must have missed something this morning!

whoah, easy there!

you're supposed to be on the gloaters side!

Dont worry about it Rita. you were probably pushed out of the way by Josh. He was clearly quite taken by the "manliness" on display. Personally I didnt notice anything - but then again it depends on what you are into I guess and now we know what Josh likes!

you too now, huh?

I don't know about fairweather riders, but there was definitely fairweather *somethings* out this morning apparently.

True Josh. At least we were there not like the crying mama's boys that hid behind their wives' skirts all scared of the rain!

Ummm, I was out at 7 when I got off - so I too am manly - until I got home and resumed my post as man servant. But for 1 hour I was THE man..

I dunno why everybody else stayed home this morning, there wasn't that much rain. Only 15mm or so by the time the ride ended.

I got up at 5am with every intention of becoming one of the much vaunted "hard men of winter".

While staring out at the torrential downpour, I quickly came to the realization that it's a) not technically winter and b) not really that cold, so the ride would not qualify me for the much sought after title.

Sadly, the best I could hope for today was a "sodden man of fall".

What, skinny guys in sodden lycra covered with mud isn't your cup of tea? What are you, normal or something?

(PS I missed Pete's earlier post about gloating; any way mine can merge into this thread?)

Moved from Gloaters GC thread:

Hey bed slugs. 12 (make that 13) non-wimpy souls showed up today. So I'm unilaterally imposing a new gloating points system.

20 points this am for showing up when it's already raining: to Carly, Jenn, Rita, Ian, Steve, Josh, Roland, JJ, Pete, Barton, plus Blaize

25 points to Paddy for showing for his first ride all summer when it's pouring. (Minus 2 points for the too short rear flap though.)

And you thought being a 'quitter' at coffee was bad.

Points system:
1. For showing up on a day when it's raining when you leave the house, 20 points.
2. Showing up on your first ride in three weeks or more, when it's raining when you leave the house, 25 pts.

Deductions:
1. -2 points for faulty rear flap. -20 pts for no rear flap.
2. Deliberately not showing up for three weeks until it rains to gain more points, -40 pts. We WILL know.

Bonus points: If you do everyones laundry, 40 pts.

Hehe, I'm so used to those skinny guys in lycra that I define them the norm! Is there a life beyond lycra???

I've heard it rumored that some people go several days, even weeks, at a time without wearing lycra even once.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to exclude "Ditch Dude" Dave from any of my gloating, as he informed me on Sunday that he should, in all fairness, be given a mulligan for the rides last week.

And for today's hill ride, as noted by Roland, we had 10 SUPERFANTASTICAWESOME people out. Where were the rest of you chumps?

Peter, I like your style. Show up for one hills ride, then call out everybody else.