Beautifully said, @Erika. It's a great ride to meet like-minded women, but I think this year will be even more Instagramy than last year's. @Gwynna, bring lots of water, and take photos to show our sponsors some love--there will be lots of stopping, so use that time to photograph away. 

FWIW, tomorrow's "skills" ride on the roads of Tenafly/Alpine is totally non-competitive. No KOM/QOM points, we're climbing to work on technique and body mechanics. We will aim to keep smooth while doing pacelines, even if I have to grab the jersey pockets of people going too fast.

@Gwynna and @Lindsay, I'm doing the first wave of the Rapha ride tomorrow, you?

Hi Emily - I'm planning on first waving it also. I hope it's not a ridiculously long day

Great! Pretty sure it's no drop and I'm sure you'll be fine either way. Also, I've made a couple friends (also in wave 1) who are ripe for conversion, so maybe with your help we can add some more kissena women to the fold

Haha, thanks @gwynna  That was FUN.  Didn't intend to initiate beast mode, was just trying to get out of the back of the accordion on the climbs, but then some of the ladies hopped on my wheel and were jazzed about it, so I was like, well then lets DO THIS.  Though as I've learned, my challenge in race times will be responding to those moves when they're not on my terms.      

EmilyAtwater said:

Ahh, yes I'm concerned it was poor form to pull a breakaway, but the girls with me at the end were so happy to let loose like that.  It was impulsive, but I'll probably try to be more patient next time.

All, "let[ting] loose" and "impulsive" behavior highly encouraged at upcoming races...here are just a few coming up soon.

Women's 4 and 3/4 racing in Central Park coming up on August 9 and 23

https://www.bikereg.com/crca-womens-development-series

31-mile hilly road race in Northwestern MA (just to the right of Albany, NY) for 3/4 Women on July 26.

https://www.bikereg.com/ncc-tour-of-the-hilltowns

45 minute circuit race on the Lime Rock auto track course for cat 4 women in Connecticut.

https://www.bikereg.com/2014limerock

3 day stage race for cat 3/4 women Aug 1-3 in the nearby Catskills

https://www.bikereg.com/tour-of-the-catskills

I'd also like to read a little bit more about the Rapha 100 so I can use some of the material in a write-up of all the weekend's activities I plan to doing for our FB page. Thanks

^ The ride was divided into two groups, wave 1 (faster pace with elevation) and wave 2 (bit slower and flatter), big age range in both.  Rapha fed us in the morning with lots of tasty homemade stuff, and then we (wave 1) rolled out at 8:30, with wave 2 a little bit later.  Wave 1 took River Road, with a pit stop and photo op at the Ranger Station.  During the photo op the #creeps100 hashtag was coined when a couple guys tried to crash our photo, one of them by stuffing his jersey to imitate breasts.  It should go without saying that this was not well received.  After that we made a brief stop in Piermont, and continued all the way through Nyack to the state beach entrance, where we doubled back for a lunch stop at Runcible Spoon.  Afterward we cruised back on 9w, regrouped at Strictly, and then later at Rapha for champagne.  I talked up KCC to a couple people and got their emails, so will have to try to get in touch again.

Any more pictures to share? Twitter, Facebook are always hungry for orange, white & blue....

I didn't get anything else featuring our kit, but Rapha had a photographer there and will probably be posting more "official" photos at some point, which we may or may not be in.  Here's a group photo via Jen Nordem with Gwynna and I peeking out http://instagram.com/p/qreI2rLAwM/

Nice running into Gwynna and Emily. Rolled into the Ranger Station and snapped a quick selfie with Andy as the group photo was being taken. Neither of us were the fella who stuffed his jersey and I'm sorry to hear that happened.

Stuffed jersey?  WTF?

Gwynna Smith said:

Aaand, the official photographer's photos are up! http://theradavist.com/2014/07/nyc-womens-100-rapha-ride-chris-lee/#1

Uh... one photo?

Gwynna Smith said:

Jules said:

Stuffed jersey?  WTF?

It was really classy. Almost as classy as the NEXT guy who did it. They were quite the hilarious pair. I almost wished they were wearing team kit so I could kindly request some of y'all rip their legs off at the next race.

I'm still confused.  Did they show up for the start in drag, or hop on and find, uh... roadside *stuff* to stuff?  So much #SMH I don't know where to start...

EmilyAtwater said:

hoto op at the Ranger Station.  During the photo op the #creeps100 hashtag was coined when a couple guys tried to crash our photo, one of them by stuffing his jersey to imitate breasts.  It should go without saying that this was not well received.

I guess #moron tag would be more appropriate; who wants to have his picture all over the internet looking like an idiot... oh wait.  Nevermind.

What in the fuck?  That is straight up harassment.

At least we're front-liners in the main group shot.  Hoping he adds more to his Flickr account.  Btw his name is Chris Lee, and I'm not sure if anyone knows him, but I spotted some Kissenas in his other albums as well, so might bookmark him for future reference: https://www.flickr.com/photos/x512x/