We had a first today. Joe Booth once said: "It never rains on the TDD"
It took 21 editions, but boy can it rain on the TDD.

The volunteers did a great job watching the turns and donuts for us today. Thank you for to make our ride so much safer than in the old days.

My brother and I got into Staunton around 8 am and there were already at least 100 cyclist lined up at the start line. No riding at the front today. By the time we got to the start we lined up with a couple hundred in front of us. We never even saw the police car escort us out.

1200 of us stood waiting for the official start and it began pouring. With the weather and so many people, I expected to see some crashes today. Fortunately, the start went off without any crashes. Most of the riders near me were behaving themselves due to the wet roads.

My biggest complaint about the TDD is the amount of casual riders that line their mountain bikes up near the front of the race. There was even one older gentleman that was walking his mountain bike to the start line if front of us.

These same riders like to take up more than their share of the road. I'm not that fast of a rider, but it really gets to me how many people ride on the left part of the right lane and don't move over. With it raining so much, it was ever more dangerous passing them than normal.

When someone says on your left, move over, you are going too slow to be taking up the left side of the lane.