SUMMER DOLDRUMS

Here we are in the midst of summer and I have not upheld my end of our "blogging deal" and updated you on my latest cycling escapades...so, here goes:

BIKE VIRGINIA

 Bike Virginia ('BikeVA') is a great organization that organizes the state ride in Virginia. For years it was a 'cross state' ride much like the CycleNC "Mountains to Coast" ride that I rode last fall but now it is a 'two stop' ride where you set up your camp for three days of riding, break camp and move to another location and then have three more days of riding. With other summer 'obligations' looming (we had to go to the beach some time, right?) we opted to just ride the weekend portion in Woodstock, VA and had a great time! The headquarters was on the grounds of the Massanhutten (?) Military Academy and Bike VA did a great job with organizing the ride so that there were plenty of spaces to camp, plenty of food options and a lot of great routes to ride.
Over the weekend we rode three rides that went thru the really beautiful central Virginia area and at one time we passed a sign that said "West Virginia State Line 12 Miles" so we were obviously 'out there' in the country. The total mileage for those three rides was 178 miles (37+104+37) and they were all fun but I'm not going to kid you - the guy who put a 2 mile, 8% grade climb at mile 88 of our 104 mile ride on Saturday is a cruel bastard. 
One of the most exciting events of the weekend was that I hit 6,000 miles on my bike. I purchased it almost exactly two years ago to the day and it's been a great bike to get me this far in this amount of time.

Translation: "It's Gonna Get Ugly"

Lots of nice scenery !!

6,000 miles in TWO years !

 The rest of the rides were pleasant and full of really cool vistas and things to see along the way. And as usual with rides like this, we got to meet lots of really nice people to share our stories with.
Bike VA does a great job and it would have been fun to ride "Part Two" but I needed to get to the beach, so I drove from there to Corolla on Sunday for 2 1/2 weeks with friends. And I managed to get in a few rides during that time too :)

RIDING with the BRANDS

You may remember that I told you I would be riding with a few old friends as part of my learning how to tour. Scott and Angela Brand are some of the first people I met when I started my 'work life' in Arizona way back in 1982 and are still very good friends to this day despite the mileage between us now. They were riding from north central Colorado all the way to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and were kind enough to let me tag along with them for their last six days of riding from Richmond, Va thru NC and over to the Outer Banks. Their friend John Crofts had joined them a little earlier in the month and I took an Amtrak train to Richmond to meet up with them there. The next morning the four of us left Richmond and rode the really nice and almost brand new "Capital Trail" that is a cyclists dream as it meanders southeast towards Williamsburg, VA. It was a great ride despite the wet conditions and we encountered lots of local and some long distance riders along the way. After a great dinner and good sleep we spent the day touring around in Williamsburg and then headed across the James River then next day to begin a cross country trek towards my house in Greenville, NC. We found a nice B&B in Murfeesboro, NC for our overnight after a good ride and then we were up and on the road early the next day for the long ride to Greenville. It turned out to be a little longer than we wanted thanks to some poor planning on my part and as the day wore on the wind picked up and created havoc with our riding speeds. BUT, we made it to my house and feasted on tasty Eastern NC barbecue for dinner.

Scott making a few last minute adjustments before we head to Belhaven, NC

The 'view' from my seat most of the time - map with highlighted route and open road

 We took the next day off and took advantage of it to get a pesky issue with Angela's bike taken care of, take a short tour around Greenville and have a good dinner followed by a good nights rest. We then hit the road again and made quick time all the way to Belhaven where we stayed at yet another nifty B&B and met lots of interesting locals. A short ride to Swan Quarter was followed by a 2 1/2 hour ferry ride across the Pamlico Sound to Ocracoke Island and we were on the Outer Banks. It's always cool to take people over to the Outer Banks for the first time and traveling by bike & ferry was a great way to see just how remote the banks are.

One of Blackbeard's victims?

We checked in to Blackbeards Lodge, had a good dinner and a restful night and then parted ways the next day as they pedaled north to Hatteras and I began my trip home. 
Riding with experienced touring riders and learning from them was quite the experience. Hopefully I'll retain a small portion of what I learned and observed as I continue to try and become a touring rider. Scott & Angela's total trip was about 50 days and covered over 2,500 miles... as usual, I hope to be like them when I grow up :) 

Me, Anglea, Scott and John leaving Ocracoke Island

Are You Watching the Tour?

Of course I'm watching the Tour de France, just as I have for years and years. I think there has been a lot of great racing and I always marvel at just how fast those dudes ride - sometimes up to 40mph on the flats and over 60 on the downhills! That's crazy fast. Chris Frome, Peter Sagan, Tyler VanderGarden and all those dudes are really top notch athletes that perform at their peak not just once a week, but EVERY DAY for three weeks! BUT, I don't kid myself and think I'll ever ride like that. That speed and style of riding requires a lot more effort that I can put forward and would also require a time machine to take me back 30+ years! So I'll stick to my slow riding and enjoying the scenery as it rolls past at 15 or so mph :)

 

NEXT?

Right now I am in the process of planning a trip from Santa Barbara, CA down to San Diego, CA in early August. It's only about 250 miles and I am hoping that I can do it in about 5 days. The Adventure Cycling route runs pretty close to the coast and that should provide cool and pretty riding. The neat thing about this route is that the train runs parallel to it so if I 'blow up' somehow and feel like I can't ride the whole thing I can always take the train back to San Diego where I'll meet up with several friends for our annual California Beach Trip. I plan to use an online app called "Warm Showers" that is a network of touring cyclists that allow others to stay in their houses during their rides. So far I've had positive responses from two and hope to get a couple more before I head out to California. If I can't find any Warm Showers hosts then I'll just resort to staying at cheap motels as I don't think I'm up for camping while riding quite yet. Wish me luck and keep up with the ride on my "James Ride From the Couch.." facebook page.  https://www.facebook.com/jamessridetoragbrai/?fref=ts

After that and as the summer winds down I'll probably be doing a number of one day rides unless one of you hits me up for a week long adventure to somewhere - well? ? ? 

Until later, take care and keep riding your bike ! ! !
 

HOW'S YOUR WINTER GOING? ? ?

Well, we are a few weeks past the Winter Solstice so the days are getting slightly longer and longer and there is a rumor of a Spring coming up soon so I figured it is about time to update the blog with what has been happening over the last few months.

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Well, that’s about it J

Nah.... in all honesty I have managed to ride a few times during some of the warmer days and those rides felt ok despite the windiness of the days. There’s a new sheriff in charge of the local bike club and he is intent upon having more group rides and getting more people involved in riding in the area. I hope that works out as it is always fun to have new people to ride with and learn from! Their first ride used a local ‘bottle shop’ as the start/stop spot and they had pizza brought in for the after ride lunch…that was quite fun and I hope that they can keep up those kinds of activities as the summer starts.

A few of us rode on Saturday AND Sunday this last weekend and it was quite fun despite the wind and chilliness. And if I thought my butt hurt after the first day it was really a surprise when I first sat on my bike seat on Sunday – O U C H! But (pun intended) that’s just the price I have to pay in order to get back in shape for summer riding J

I have still yet to put my old bike onto my trainer but I’m confident that will happen ‘soon’. Once I do I’ll be able to ride in the comfort of my house versus out in the cold, dark, windy winter days and hopefully that will help me get ready for the summer rides sooner.

PLANNING FOR SUMMER RIDES

I have been looking at rides for this summer and have signed up for the three day CycleNC Coastal ride which will be a fun time. It will be in the town of Edenton, NC in mid-April and have 2 ½ days of rides. Check it out if you live near Eastern NC. I am on the wait list for a week long ride from Nashville, TN down thru Mississippi on the Natchez Trail and am seriously looking at a three day Bike Virginia ride and the “Assault on Mt Mitchell” ride. The Mt Mitchell ride will be the most challenging and I am hoping that a little training in the hills over the next couple of months will help me accomplish that ride. One of my cousins has challenged me to ride it with him and we are actively trying to loop in another cousin to make it a ‘family ride’ day… should be a fun 100 mile ride from Spartanburg up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and then up the summit of Mt Mitchell, the highest point on the East Coast ! ? ! ? !

I am still working on a plan to become a ‘touring’ rider and if I get on the Natchez Trail ride that will be my first taste of touring versus day riding and not really going anywhere. Generally speaking a touring rider will carry their clothes and gear with them but I doubt I can jump right into carrying that much stuff plus my road bike is not really designed to carry stuff. So I am going to start riding my old hybrid bike more and more so that I get used to a heavier and slower bike. I plan to add some weight to it as I get more experience on it. Unfortunately the slower riding will be a challenge in that the scenery will be going by slower but I’m hoping to get stronger as I ride the heavier bike and slowly get back up to a reasonable speed. If all goes as planned I hope to meet up with a couple of friends who are riding across the country and ride a few days with them as they pass thru Virginia on their way to the NC Outer Banks. They’ll be old hats at touring by the time they reach here so hopefully I will be able to learn a great deal from them too!!!

SPONSORSHIPS

I am very happy to report that I was asked to be a Ride Hincapie Ambassador again this year and am really looking forward to working with the great people at Hincapie Sportswear and the other ambassadors as the season rolls on. If you are interested in getting some super great cycling gear you should check out www.hincapiesports.com and see what they have for you. Use my discount code and you will get 20% off of you whole purchase! ! !  (The code is: James16, please feel free to share it with your friends and clubs. You can also get 20% off of your registration for the 2016 Hincapie Gran Fondo ride. Keep your eyes out for their race team as they had a great deal of success last year.

The Hincapie people introduced us to the Michelin people and as a result I will soon get some of Michelin’s finest road bike tires. I am really looking forward to seeing how well the Michelin people do with bike tires, I already am a big fan of their car tires so I am sure that I will like their bike tires too. Check them out at http://bike.michelinman.com/ and keep your eyes open for me positng lots of pics with me and these super cool tires!

I also managed to get a sponsorship from F1 Ceramic and will be trying out their ceramic bearings on my wheels soon. They make some super nice ceramic bearings right here in the USofA that are heads and shoulders above the standard steel bearings and should give me miles and miles of enjoyable and smooth riding. They just arrived today and here's a photo of them...

F1 Ceramic Wheel Bearings

I am considering using their bearings for my bottom bracket too but will need to find a willing bike mechanic to install them as I do not have that skillset yet. If you are interested in some 'go faster' bearings be sure to check out their website at www.f1ceramic.com.

That's about it for now...

Look for me on the road every now and then and in the meantime:
"Ever Forward" (stolen from a friend :) )

The End of the Summer....

I figured it was about time to 'blog' about what's been going on with my riding as summer winds down so here's a few updates for your reading pleasure...

HINCAPIE GRAN FONDO

A few weeks ago I rode in the Hincapie Gran Fondo that is an annual ride that George Hincapie sponsors in the Greenville, SC area to support the local “Meals on Wheels” program. Wikipedia (the reliable source that it is) defines a Gran Fondo as “…a type of long-distance road bicycle race, in which riders are individually chip timed and have the right of way at all intersections.” .  The Hincapie GF did indeed have timing chips for each rider and that was a first for me. Practically everyone crowded the start line in order to minimize their time and that was a little unnerving but once the ride started, everyone got pretty much spread out and the fun began. Riders could pick from three separate rides: an 80 mile ride that included four mountain peaks, a 50 mile ride with two peaks and a 15 mile ride. I chose to ride the 50 mile event because the 80 was too tough for me and the 15 was too short.

All of the rides left from the George Hincapie’s hotel (Hotel Domestique) that is a little north of Travelers Rest, SC and then went up into the mountains. The 50 mile ride passed thru Tryon and Saluda, NC before coming back into SC along the Greenville reservoir and returning to the hotel. It was quite a ride since there were several very famous professional cyclists there including Christian VandeVelde, Cadel Evans and many others that have ridden in big races around the world. And then there was me and several hundred rank amateurs hoping for some type of glory. I kept thinking:  If I could pass one of those guys just once….but alas, I just managed to pass a few people and even some on the climbs :) . 

Overall it was a great ride. I worked hard to get up the hills and really enjoyed the downhills. The rest stops were good and most of the riders I rode with were lots of fun to be around. The winning male time in the 50 mile ride was about 2:20 and my time was 4:18, finishing darn close to the bottom of the group (463 out of 577)…oh well, I still finished better than the people who did not ride, so I am happy with that!

The party afterward was a lot of fun and the food was great. After about an hour of watching riders come in, eating my fill and a few ‘post ride beers’ it was time to head back, begin the recuperation and begin planning on how I could finish higher than #463 next year! If you ride you should consider signing up for the ride next year, I can even get you a discount on the registration fee if you would like!

MOUNTAINS TO COAST

About two weeks before the Hincapie GF I decided that I needed to finish the CycleNC “Mountains to Coast” ride that I rode in during late September. You may remember from my last blog that I decided to quit the ride after 4 rainy days since they were only going to be followed by 3 more rainy days as the ride was scheduled to go right into Joaquin (the hurricane that brought the flooding to the lower part of SC). After 4 days I had just about enough of cold and rainy riding along with sleeping on the floor of stinky gymnasiums with mildewy clothes – so I went home Wednesday afternoon after my fourth riding day. The ride went on the next day, in the rain, to Lumberton and then the organizing group wisely canceled the tour that evening. They decided that the hurricane and weather was just too much to continue riding towards and that it would be better just to call it quits.

My decision to leave after four days was a good one but it bothered me that I didn’t finish the ride so I decided to work towards finishing the ride, even if I was a month or so late. So on Thursday the 15th I did a one way drop off of a car to get myself to Southern Pines and then rode about 65 miles, along the same route as the “Mountains to Coast” ride to Lumberton. It was a really great ride and day and I enjoyed the hours by myself and with the occasional dog. I did have to ask for directions once or twice as I missed a turn or two. (What is it about the counties in NC not putting up road signs with the names of their roads?) After I got to Lumberton I ate a big meal at the nearby Cracker Barrel (thanks Uncle Randy) and then I left Lumberton and went to Clemson for Homecoming that weekend. I was technically done with the 2015 Mountains to Coast ride but still did not feel like I deserved to wear the t-shirt. So, the week after the Hincapie GF I did the one way car drop again and rode from Lumberton to Oak Island. The total distance of the route was intended to be ~130 miles over two days. I looked closely at the maps and thought that I could shorten the routes a little and also that if I rode straight thru the first overnight town that I could also end up riding a little less mileage overall. So I set out on for a ride on Thursday that was supposed to be about 85 miles. Unfortunately I had to loop back to pick up my water bottle after my first stop, then I took a wrong turn (or two) and got some bad directions so I ended up riding ~110 miles with the last ~30 into a fairly consistent headwind along a busy two lane highway. Ugh. After a rough night of soreness I cut out a few turns of the route for Friday and quickly rode ~25 miles to the beach. (I broke it up that way so I would optimize my Thursday daylight time and give me time to get back to Greenville on Friday after a shorter ride.) Both days were lots of fun despite the mistakes I made and I enjoyed the majority of the time on the bike. I met a couple of guys who started riding in western Virginia and had been riding for 8 days, I saw lots of fun dogs, ate at a couple of interesting diners and had great weather the whole time. AND NOW, I can say that I have ridden from the “Mountains to the Coast” in NC. I can also say that I have ridden across TWO states (Iowa and NC) in the same summer.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Our weekly Monday and Thursday night rides have ended now that Daylight Saving Time is over, so the only regular rides I will be doing will be the occasional ride on Saturday or Sunday as long as it is not tooooo cold. My winter plan is to mount my old road bike on to my trainer and ride it at least during the weeks that I do not ride outside. If I can fight the boredom while I am on it I will try for at least two days a week. Next year as spring begins I hope to start riding my heavier (ie: slower) hybrid bike with the intention of getting used to it more and carrying more weight on the bike with the goal of doing some short multiple day touring rides carrying clothes and ‘stuff’ sometime over the summer. There are a number of great trails in the country that I would really like to ride and my road bike just is not suited for carrying any weight at all. I will continue to ride the one and two day rides and may even try the Mountains to Coast ride again or another similar cross state ride, but the goal for 2016 is to ease into ‘touring cycling’ while carrying enough stuff so that I can stay gone for a few days. 
One of the lessons I learned about myself during the last two days of riding is that I need to learn to appreciate the journey more than seek the destination. More often than not I find myself riding past interesting stuff just so I can get to where I’m going – I need to figure out how to switch that all around in order to enjoy touring to the maximum effect.

The profile of the 50 mile ride

George Hincapie and his son Enzo

PHOTOS

I recently drove thru the Mt Pisgah area on a nice day and took a few photos of the scenery I passed on the first day of the Mountains to Coast ride. Here are a few of those: 

The sign as we began our ride up Mt Pisgah

 

What goes unsaid here is that the grade is now ~10% and will continue that way until you crest the hill....ouch.

 

 AND…

So, that’s about it for this edition of the blog. Hopefully you have noticed that I have changed the name from “Ride to RAGBRAI” to “From the Couch to RAGBRAI and Beyond”. The web address will stay the same but I felt it was more appropriate to add the “Beyond” since I am continuing to ride and blog. I hope that you are enjoying this and if so please let me know. I would also like to know what I could do in order to make it a more enjoyable read for you so send in your ideas and questions and I’ll see if I can address them in the next edition….until then – ‘get on your bike and ride’.