Pinnacol Employees Get in the Spin of Things...

Wednesday June 27 saw the Denver metro area celebrate its annual Bike to Work Day and as usual Pinnacol had a group of intrepid cyclists mount up and brave the local roads and bike paths as they journeyed into work. The morning was beautiful with temperatures in the seventies and it was nice, at least for one day, to be out of the rush that is normal city traffic. Depending on one's conditioning you can't but help slow down on a bicycle but it seemed that everyone made it in good order and with a smile on their face.

Denver is a great host to this annual event with morning breakfast stations strategically placed on major bike routes throughout the city. Biking to work is one heck of a good excuse for partaking of the goodies at these aid stations and its sometimes tough to get back on the bike and continue riding. Experienced Bikers to Work know that the ride in is the easy part - it's going home that can be challenging. Muscles that were made sore during the morning ride haven't had much chance to recover, and the afternoon weather can be problematic with thunderstorms and gusty winds.

Anyone who has ridden much this year has probably noticed that it seems windier than normal and yesterday, at least in the Lowry area, was no exception. Right on schedule, about the time most were thinking about riding home, the skies turned threatening and we actually got some heavy rain for about half an hour accompanied by very gusty winds. What with all the fires active in Colorado I don't think anyone was complaining about the moisture, but I know I breathed a sigh of relief when the rain and wind finally stopped and I could head out on rapidly drying pavement. Some years we have ridden home in a continuous rain so it was nice to see the sun poking through the storm clouds.

Bike to Work Day is meant to entice people to commute more regularly using alternative transportation and every year I see more and more cyclists on the roads morning and night who are obviously commuting. Some of these folks participate year round. I clearly remember driving into work in January when it had to be 10 degrees below zero. While wondering what was taking my car heater so long to warm up, I saw several cyclists who would not be deterred from their daily commute. Of course they were dressed up in so many layers that they looked like the Michelin Man, but I was still very impressed. Our brave Pinnacol cyclists on Wednesday didn't face that level of challenge, but kudos to all who participated and hopefully it won't be a full year before they saddle up once more!