For once, the weather forecast was correct. The rain arrived as predicted, midafternoon, just in time for the inaugural Eugene Bicyclist Race for the Beer.

It was genuine Oregon rain, too, the kind where you walk outside and say, “It’s not so bad, just a drizzle” but after 30 minutes you begin to suspect this is somehow a wetter than a normal rain.

But who cares? We had a good turnout anyway.

(I think there was some water on the lens for that one.) We had one crate bike (though you can’t see it here) a couple of cargo bikes, a fixed gear or two, some kids on Xtracycles …

And amazing wildlife, like this herd of gazelles crossing the Serengeti:

Oh, wait, that was this one:

Hey, did you know there is a brand of bike called a Gazelle?

It’s Dutch, and this one will run you about 1,200 bucks.

If you know about bike frames, you will notice that this one has what we might call a relaxed geometry. That means the seat tube and the forks lean way back. In layman’s terms, it’s a La-Z-Boy with wheels.

In fact, Gazelle touts this bike’s “unique 66-degree geometry for a very comfortable upright seating position and allows you to arrive at your destination in a nicely relaxed fashion.”

We’ve drifted off on a tangent, haven’t we?

Well, I don’t think anyone was riding a Gazelle yesterday. But I do think we arrived at our destination in nicely relaxed fashion.

The overall pace was not what you’d call brisk. In fact, we were led for a time by a 5-year-old who has been riding a two-wheeler for all of a couple weeks. But he did a terrific job — the longest ride of his young life.

Our destination, by the way — after an easy ride around the River Trail — was the Ninkasi tasting room, which kindly gave us a good deal on pints.

I enjoyed chatting with everyone, and meeting people I’ve corresponded with only in blog comments — or not at all.

Since most of my photos from the day are very bad and blurry, it is fortunate that Austin of the Breadbike blog took some better shots. I think he’s working on some video, too.

UPDATE: Breadbike posted a fun video.

Thanks everyone! We’ll do it again sometime. In the meantime, I’ll get back the usual nonsense.