Cycling Group Members to Participate in Georgia Ride

By LAUREN MCDONALD, The Brunswick Information

BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — They describe themselves as a bunch of buddies using bikes collectively. Or “the 70s Membership.” Or “a bunch of retired previous males chasing one another round Jekyll Island.”

Even with out an official title, the biking group places in hundreds of miles a 12 months on their bikes via weekly rides and biking adventures just like the annual Bicycle Trip Throughout Georgia, developing June 4-11.

The riders will be noticed each week someplace across the Golden Isles, possibly crossing the F.J. Torras Causeway to or from St. Simons Island, zipping down the oceanside paths on Jekyll Island or pushing themselves over the Sidney Lanier Bridge.

The biking group fashioned years in the past when Fred Collins was on the lookout for somebody to hitch him on his common bike rides.

“After which about 5 years after that, Phil (Curry) and I, we met and we have been each retired and we started to trip through the week on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Collins stated throughout a short relaxation cease final week at Daddy Cate’s espresso store in downtown Brunswick. “And now our little Tuesday and Thursday group has grown. Typically we’ll have as many as 12 individuals.”

Every rider lives on St. Simons, however they do most of their biking on the mainland. And so they ensure to alter up the routes typically, Collins stated.

“We trip in McIntosh County, in Camden County, in addition to Glynn County,” he stated.

The group goes on 4 organized rides every week that whole greater than 100 miles. The routes differ, typically starting close to the Winn-Dixie on St. Simons, crossing the causeway and taking a relaxation cease at Daddy Cate’s earlier than heading again or including the additional problem of a trip throughout the Sidney Lanier Bridge.

On Thursdays, the group often does two laps round Jekyll Island.

“That’s most likely the very best trip, I’d say,” stated Greg Gates, one of many riders. “It’s 29 miles, and we’re pushing fairly exhausting.”

On Saturday, they do a trip in Darien or one other a part of Glynn County. On Sundays they take one other journey to Brunswick.

The group is loosely organized however seems to Collins because the “de facto chief.” They trip all 12 months, climate allowing, and purpose to surpass 5,000 miles by 12 months’s finish via their weekly rides. The BRAG provides extra miles to their whole.

Because the statewide trip approaches, they’ll stretch their each day rides slightly, going 40 as an alternative of 30 miles every time, and so they’ll add the Sidney Lanier Bridge to their route rotation extra typically in preparation for the state’s hillier areas.

The BRAG contains greater than 1,000 riders of all ages, together with an area youth group referred to as the BRAG Dream Crew Gullah/Geechee Membership.

Collins will trip on this 12 months’s BRAG with 4 others in his group, together with Gates, Curry, Robert Hermann and Gary Larkins.

The trip will conclude on June 11 in downtown Brunswick for the primary time since 2017.

Curry, who has participated in probably the most BRAG rides amongst his group, stated he’s excited to see the trip end in Brunswick.

Others who’ve been on many BRAG rides stated they take pleasure in seeing the smaller cities throughout the state from the vantage of their bicycles.

“The man now working BRAG has completed a superb job of establishing leisure at night time, so it’s type of enjoyable to get out and socialize after 50 or 60 mile rides,” Collins stated.

They benefit from the camaraderie of so many individuals working towards a typical purpose. And despite the fact that riders are exhausted every night time from a day of using, many will turn out to be stronger riders with the passing of every day.

The neighborhood might be invited to return out and have fun the riders, together with native ones, who full the BRAG.

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