More than 100 bicyclists have assembled in The Villages for the seventh-annual Florida Tandem Rally.
Fifty-two couples from eight states and Ontario, Canada, registered for the rally that includes rides, meals and other social events The event, the country’s final tandem rally of 2016, is sponsored by the Florida PANTHERS, a statewide tandem club based in The Villages.
New this year were two organized rides of 42 and 22 miles on Friday for cyclists who arrived early. Â Â Â Â
The final rides of the weekend will begin with a mass start at 8:30 a.m. Sunday at the Waterfront Inn, rally headquarters.
Terry Smith of Portsmouth, Va., enjoying a post-ride lunch Saturday at RJ Gators, said she and her husband attend tandem rallies “up and down the East Coast.”
“IÂ check out the elevation,” she said with a laugh, adding that she had forgotten this part of Florida has hills. Tandem riders pedaled up many of those hills Saturday. The 46-mile route had
1,071 feet of climbing. The 36-mile option climbed 871 feet. Patrolmen with the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office directed us through traffic to the open road.
The PANTHERS (Partners Aboard Neat Tandems Happily Enjoying Riding Simultaneously) are the state’s only tandem club. For more information on the PANTHERS and the rally, go to www.floridatandemclub.org.
