Bike team from left to right: Sarah, Emily, Lydia, Mom, Dad, 'Manda and Zeno! 
Lydia and Emily start out easily taking the lead!!!!
But their confidence comes too soon... here comes Zeno!!! So fast the camera can't even keep in in proper focus:
However, not wishing to leave the others too far in the dust he drops back to a more leasurely pace and catches up on the latest news from Mom's sphere...
Wow!!! In a flash of light here comes Sarah!!!!
Oh, ho! Watch that attitude... though, I will admit, those paperazzi certainly deserve no less. Why, their photography maneuvers are going to result in a biking accitend if they don't lay off a bit!
Dad comes up and it's neck and neck...! And he pulls out in front of Sarah for the lead position!!!
But don't underestimate Amanda! She's not here just for the scenery, if you look closely you'll see some smoke coming from her bike's tires...
And, saving her energy reserves for the final stretch Mom soars down the road at a frightening speed outdistancing the others with seaming ease... and note not a drop of sweat in sight! Amazing woman!
There were a certain amount of necessary pauses along the way:
Of course to greet and play with the local animal life. Zeno really clicked with this little calf. I think his sneakers were seasoned with just the right amount of salty-sweat - Yum!
Of course there were also the truly necessary stops: waiting in line to use the porta-potty. There's Zeno 1...2...3...4... the fourth person from the right in picture number one and of course there's me too!
Yet another necesssary stop occured when we had to fix Mom's ride which decided to break down. Thanks to Dad and Zeno she was back in the race in no time!
After thirty-some miles we arrived at the final destination and enjoyed lunch with the College Park church group!!!
Whew!!! Finally it's truly time to relax... rest some of those biking muscles and bums that aren't so used to going around for those 30-some miles!
Dad and Zeno are the ones who really did all of the tough work. While the girls rested up, the guys took care of the bikes. Thanks for looking after us!!!
In the end we all wone the prize of: Rootbeer Floats!!! (Or, as in the case of Em, Lydle and I... vanilla ice-cream with a drop of Rootbeer).
2008 was a truly successful and fun Hope Ride!!! Now to start training for next year... maybe we'll make it all 100 miles!
A&Z
Everyone! Great Job!
The final contest was who will keep their wrist band on the longest after the race? Drum roll please.... the contest winner is yet to be announced. So stay tuned!
