They describe themselves as anarchists on two wheels.
"The Morning Ride" might sound a bit like an AM radio program for commuters, but it's an anti-club club whose mission is to have no mission other than to stay fit through bicycling and have fun doing it.
"There are no expectations, no dues or membership - and that's what people really like about it," said Dave Tambeaux, a Columbia resident and controller for a chain of footwear and apparel stores. "The glue that holds us together is that nobody takes it too seriously."
Seriousness is in the eye of the beholder, apparently.
TMR, as it is affectionately known, covers a 24-mile circuit that begins at the intersection of Routes 103 and 104 in Ellicott City and basically makes a big, convoluted loop around Patapsco Valley State Park.
Clearly, this is not a hobby for the casual biker. And at an average speed of 16 mph, serious exercise is definitely under way for about 90 minutes.
The group's first turn off Route 103 is onto New Cut Road, which is a curvy, country lane that leads the pack down past the B&O; Railroad Museum and onto Main Street. From there they pedal into Oella, just past the arched bridge over the Patapsco River.
After eventually passing the campus of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the Thomas Viaduct in Elkridge, among other landmarks, the riders gradually work their way back toward their starting point on Montgomery Road.
Bicyclists convene twice a week at 6 a.m. sharp in the parking lot of ChildTime, a children's day care center.
"I think it's appropriate that we leave from here," called out one rider, jokingly referring to the center's name as the group prepared to roll out Thursday. "We're just a bunch of kids at play."
There are 95 names on an online mailing list managed on Google groups by Mike West, who works as a software engineer. He and Tambeaux started riding with two other bicyclists in 2004 and the idea continuously attracted other riders, mainly within about a 2-mile radius, he said. Some bicyclists come from Baltimore or Severna Park to join the group.
About two dozen people show up regularly, some starting earlier and peeling off before the end of the route and some joining the group mid-stream, depending on their day's agenda.
"The idea is to get our exercise in before we go to work so we can stay fit and still have a life with our families," said Tambeaux.
"No one in my family could live with me if I didn't get outside on a regular basis," he added. Luckily for him, his wife, Birgitta, joins the group frequently, so she understands the innate need to be part of the great outdoors.
"And if you don't ride frequently, then it becomes no fun because you quickly feel out of shape," he said.
Frequency will be a personal challenge for Tambeaux for the next five or six weeks as he recovers from a broken collarbone, which occurred when he accidentally touched wheels with the biker ahead of him a couple of weeks ago and flew over his handlebars after losing control.
While TMR meets year round, West said there are combinations of weather conditions that put the brakes on participation.
"Dark, wet, cold - if it's two of those three things on one morning, chances are I won't ride," he said.
West waxes poetic about the TMR experience, though, saying that a driver following their route wouldn't get the same benefits that come from being an organic part of the landscape.
"When we ride down Levering Avenue we get to see the Thomas Viaduct at sunrise - I just love that area," he said, referring to the masonry railroad bridge completed in 1835.
"We are far more aware of our surroundings than someone in a car, who is separate from the environment," West said.
There's also the constant e-mail banter among riders, which takes a close second in a list of reasons why people hook up with the TMR group.
"I'd say that 99 percent of the bikers have a great sense of humor," said West. "Google rates its groups' activity levels, and ours is ranked as high and chatty."
An interesting offshoot of this hobby has been the sense of community that has developed, said Brian Hughes, lead pastor of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Columbia, where West and Tambeaux are members.
"This is almost a bicycle ministry, since our church encourages people to take their faith out into the world," he said, noting that TMR "members" have raised money for causes and actively participate in Adventures for the Cure, which is a fundraising-through-biking organization run by two TMR riders.
"It's not a smack-the-Bible-up-against-people's-heads kind of ministry, just them living their faith in the world," said Hughes.
Tambeaux said TMR riders once raised about $3,000 in a week to have a custom bike built for a young father in their congregation whose son uses a wheelchair.
"One of the first real liberating events of your life is when you first learn to ride a bike under your own power, and we just couldn't imagine his son never getting that experience," he said.
Meanwhile, the riders keep on riding, managing to squeeze in a "Wrench Fest" every six to eight weeks, which is an event that began as a repair session but turned into pure socializing.
"We have real esprit de corps," said Tambeaux. "Riding a bike really never grows old."
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