Le Tour de Downbeach, in its 3rd year, will be held on September 11. The ride runs from Ventnor to Longport and back to Margate.
There’s a barbeque planned after the ride. The Tour begins at 9:30 a.m. at Newport Avenue in Ventnor.
This will be my first year attending the event. I was recently informed by one of my fresh kids that mastery of the French tongue has, in fact, never been a requirement for participation. To think that I’ve wasted 2 years, the result of costly misinformation from one of those condescending, spandex-clad bicyclists who was snickering with his trophy gal-pal by the poster.
The race is advertised as a “friendly bike ride.” I, for one, am not the amiable type when it comes to serious competition like Le Tour. I’ve been training with intensity and focus just to be nice? Come on! Off come the training wheels, my friends. I am out for victory. 2nd place would surely be heartbreak. 3rd, social suicide. After that, I’m back to quoits at the Senior center with my mother-in-law.
Fair warning, if you are in my way on the 11th, I will squeeze the horn but ONE time. Fear it. Move it or lose it, Grandma. I’m driven for the recognition, the adulation, the respect this “ride” (r-a-c-e) promises to bring me.
See you there…and eat my dust.
