Though May 21 dawned drizzly and gray, nothing dampened the spirits of Rob Henry and the biking buddies for whom he had spent nearly two years planning a Lake Martin cyclo-circumnavigation ride. The 64-mile bicycle tour around Lake Martin covered 26 roads and carried the friends over picturesque bridges, past old cemeteries and through stands of thick forest. And when they completed their trek, Sam Thurston, Taylor Dawson, Ken Williams and Henry started talking about doing it again, perhaps in the fall. 

The ride was Henry’s brainchild. He rode touring bicycles in the 1980s and rode through Europe before wandering away from riding for a time. He knew Thurston from grad school at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Thurston has been riding for 45 years, having ridden across the U.S. twice. Dawson has been riding for eight years, and Williams started doing triathlons 10 years ago.