Montreal Cycle Tours

Today was an incredible day. End of story. Or the beginning of a very lengthy one, but all-in-all it was amazing (You don't really need to read anymore but if your interested there's lots more). $55 dollars, 4+ hr. tour including croissants and lattes, plus lunch with beer.

After a not so solid night of sleep in part to my 5 other suite mates coming in at 1, 2, 3... and what seemed like every hour of the night taking showers, I awoke to my alarm at 6:30 and got ready for the day. I took advantage of the complimentary breakfast including fresh croissant's and relaxed before heading for towards the meeting point for my tour.

When I decided I was going to come to Montreal I wanted figure out some things to do since my main attraction for coming, the Pro Tour cycling race didn't start until 12PM on Sunday. Turning to my trusty old friend Google I typed in "Things to do in Montreal?" The first hit was TripAdvisor.com which listed 220 attraction in Montreal. #1 on the list Montreal Cycle Tours, huh...bikes and an amazing city, plus the number one rated attraction; how could it get any better?

I headed the short 1.6k walk over to Parc La Fontaine (very proud I didn't get lost on the way there) and waited as others slowly trickled in for the tour. On my way I saw this awesome White/albino squirrel (No he was not old or gray, but actually white!) who stopped just long enough for me to get a shot.

WHITE Squirrel!

A cool piece of artwork along the side of the park, the objects below the chairs included a soccer ball, binoculars, book, newspaper, and some other stuff I can't remember.

Cafe across from where we met. La maison des cycliste (House of cyclists).

A quick not about the cafe above: attached to the cafe is Velo Quebec, a non-profit that schedules bike tours across Canada, had a large part in establishing the cross Canada bike trail, La Route Verte, and helped establish the Bixi bike program (more about that later).

I met David, our tour guide at the corner of Rue de Rachel and Rue de Brebeuf. We were informed to meet at 9:30 so the tour could start at 10 (I got there around 9 so I had plenty of time to observe), after the last few stragglers rolled in we walked over to the garage where we met Shea (the owner and founder) and were fitted for our bikes and had an opportunity to test them out and make sure they'd work. The group was very diverse with some folks who were relying on the "once you learn, you never forget" principle and others who could hold their own. The idea of the tour was that we would bike and then stop and have something explained to us, bike some more, stop eat, bikes some more etc.

My ride for the day.

The group. David (red) and Shea (white, closer to the tree). Two couple's from Boston (which is apparently only a few hours drive), a couple from Brooklyn, a guy from west of Boulder (I think Jamestown...maybe), a few folks from Canada, Sweden, and some others.

We didn't make it very far before our first stop, well actually it was only about 2 blocks but we had arrived at our first location, Mr. Pinchot Boulangerie (bakery).

Bakery which smelled super delish!

David grabbed 2 dozen baguette's loaded them in two of our baskets and we headed off again. Shortly after that wee stopped by a rack of bikes along the side of the road called Bixi bikes that I mentioned earlier. The program is modeled after a Paris program that began in 2006. It promotes bike travel throughout the city with the use of over 5000 bikes, and now includes the outskirts at some metro stops. You can pay $5 (CAD) to rent the bike for a day (in no longer than 30 minute increments), or $28 a month, or $78 a year. Awesome! Granted the winters are brutal but it's a super cool program that is now being used to model similar bike systems in London, Boston, DC and a bunch other cities. The idea is grab one, travel to your destination and put it there for someone else to use. In addition to being sweet it also has helped the economy since the bikes are manufactured, assembled, and serviced in Canada.

Bixi bikes, we saw them all day long all over the city. Duh! There's 5,000 of them!

We hit Avenue Duluth. David explained that their are some amazing restaurants that are Apportez Votre Vin (bring your own wine) and some featured chefs cooking Fois Gras meals.

Avenue Duluth. Fois Gras is liver from a duck or goose that has been especially fattened.

Next we went through a neighborhood that had some really interesting architecture. The "Plateau" neighborhood was a an up and coming area in the late 70's early 80's. To maximize space the designers wanted to build up to the road, maximizing space inside and adding room for an alleyway behind the homes. Shortly after the city passed an ordinance that force all building to be constructed a minimum distance from the road. The designers got creative and proposed to move the stairways outside to maximize space, the city didn't like it, so instead they proposed the stairways outside were to reduce energy losses from heating stairwells which the city LOVED. So in the plateau region the walk up apartments have their stairs on the outside.

A shot on the road in the Plateau neighborhood.

Unfortunately a terribly dark photo of the Plateau neighbor hood and their walk-up exterior stairs.

Schwartz's restaurant has been serving for over 80 years, EST. in 1928, their specialty is smoked meat. Word is on a weekday during lunch the line can take over an hour to get a seat inside with the line wrapping all the way around the corner. I returned here later in the evening for an amazing dinner. A carry-out was added 2 years ago to help reduce to line during peak hours.

David talking about Schwartz restaurante.

Apparently graffiti in the city has been a problem, with enforcement officials resorting to hiding in alleys to catch artists in the act and fining them, evening going as far as fining the parents of individuals not of age. The city decided to allow certain artists to decorate parts of the city in an attempt to reduce the graffiti. Below David showed us graffiti that was new since last week and a piece that had been done by a city approved artists that hadn't been tagged over out of respect even after 1o years in existence.

Some new mediocre graffiti. Definitely no Banksy. Hooligans!

I believe this one has a Spanish influence with the spirit of life.

Right before we reached our first stop we had a cool shot of Mont Royale and the cross atop it. The mountain is featured in tomorrows Pro Tour race, and while only 764 ft. (233m) it's going to be a brutal 16 laps.

A view of Mont Royale in the distance.

Finally we reached the cafe in the plateau region where we had the opportunity to sit and enjoy our croissants and drinks of our choice. Of course I chose a Cafe Latte which was delicious. It was a great to learn a little more about the people we were riding with all day.

A sample. Half of a almond power and half butter croissant. Both were super tasty!

Cafe Latte.

After a nice little break we got back on the road toward Parc du Mont-Royale, the largest park in Montreal and where the Pro Tour race was centered around. Mont Royale was named by Jacques Cartier on an expedition in 1535, names as being Royal after King Francois. The name Montreal is derived from this mountain Mont Real from middle French (I actually did learn all of this on the tour and remembered most of it, I'm just citing my sources in case you're interested).

A better view of Mont Royale and the cross that has fiber optic lighting which can only light colors other than white for 24 hours due to special occasion.

**Neat fact about the park at the top of Mont Royal, it was designed by Fredric Law Olmsted, most popular for designing central park in New York City.

After a nice descent through the park we McGill University. One of two English or anglophone universities in Montreal. A few guys came down from McGill during their spring break to train in Blacksburg with the cycling team, I completely didn't put two and two together until I saw one of their cyclists riding around kitted up. When James McGill died he left his estate and with it $10,000 (CAD) which at the time (1813) was a ton of money, with a clause that university be built in his name within 10 years or his wife would receive everything. The university was established 8 years later in 1821. A statue was built in his honor and placed on campus, with a purposeful gap in between his hand and hat that perfectly hold a Molson beer who Montreal may hold more dear than James McGill.

James McGill statue...and part of David's back that got in my shot.

The group used its size and claimed an entire lane in downtown Montreal with motorist not minding at all. Montreal is super bike friendly if you couldn't tell by the bike program, obscene amount of bike trails though the city (elevated and separated), and ridiculous amount of people on bikes...oh did I mention they're hosting a Pro Tour bike race this weekend? So riding downtown wasn't a problem.

DT Baby!

They stopped and talked about this building but I don't remember much as I had to pee, very badly and couldn't really focus.

Downtown sites that I didn't get pictures of that were significant include a Metro entrance as a gift from Paris for the 67 expo/world fair, Canadian WTC, and statue of Victoria, the longest reining Queen (....I think, unless Elizabeth lives another 5 years).

The Fleuve St. Laurent (Saint Laurence River) meets the edge of downtown. We made a right at the river and hopped on the bike trail that runs along the locks that are now a historic landmark.

Grain silos that I snagged a bunch of shots of on the way back. It closed in 1996 has sat empty since, the city is debating whether to make into a hotel, apartment complexes, or an art musuem but can't find an investor willing to take on the massive project. It is solid contcrete after all.

Picture perfect day. Yes.

After a good ways we stopped and got this picture perfect shot of the skyline. I was finally able to focus and came away with what I thought was a pretty sweet shot.

Montreal skyline and cool reflection.

I was really impressed with David and Shea's knowledge of the city and pretty much any question I asked them. I was curious if they'd had much problems with bike lane graffiti. They had a famous guy who got caught and was taken to the court, now he works for the city as an artist...that would NEVER happen in the USA.

A quick stop at a closed sugar factory and then we headed to lunch. The closed sugar factory has now been turned into apartments with a rooftop garden.

Closed red sugar factory now apartments.

The newly renovated locks that are used for personal boats. To think big BIG ships used to use this.

For lunch we stopped at one of the two markets in town. I'm not sure which but it was sweet!

A shot of the market from the outside.

The purpose of this image isn't the performer but the obscene amount of bikes behind her. This was all over the city.

A performer down by the market, who's talent was not appreciated. I considered paying her to go away but decided against it since she may think I really liked her and wanted her to continue.

For lunch Shea and David took us into the market and allowed us to choose what style pizza we wanted. We then headed down the way to a local store and hit the beer cave where they recommended some local favorites. Definitely have to be careful as most of them were +8%. I choose a local micro-brew St. Ambroise Pale Ale and delicious basil, mozzarella, and tomato pizza.

The market, tons of great looking produce. I'm sure customs wouldn't like it.

Les Pommes

Sweet dude selling stuff at the market.

The beer cave. Une bier of our choice.

Tomato, basil, mozzarella pizza!

The ride back was much quicker, possible in part to the beer. We only made a few stops on the way back including a couple piers. We stopped at the old location of the Cirque du Soliel where you could see a really neat apartment complex. The complex was a thesis project of an architecture student at the time. Originally designed as low income housing, the apartments were modular, assembled like Lego blocks which is especially cool because you can see right through the building in some places. The project became too expensive and was eventually abandoned. Pretty sweet though for only 24.

We could also see the biosphere, not to be confused with the Biodome which is also in Montreal (however it's near Olympic park about 7k away). The biosphere sits on an island that was man made, the interesting thing about it is the where the dirt came from. The Biosphere was part of many attractions built for Expo 67, the Worlds Fair that Canada hosted in 1967. The city of Montreal opened the metro in 1966, just in time for the world fair. The city used the dirt from the metro to construct the island and join it to an existing island, this island was used for all Expo 67 attractions. Most of the exhibits were temporary and torn down since they couldn't handle the harsh winters, however some are still standing including a piece of artwork from France, a roller coaster (now theme park which is owned by Six Flags, and the biosphere (the American exhibit). The island now has a casino and man made beach.

Five Roses Factory.

More grain silo.

A cruise ship in the port while we were there.

The sweet apartments designed by a 24 year old architecture student.

The man made island and you can barely make out the transparent Biosphere in the background. The reason it's transparent is because it burned down, but they left the frame erect.

The route for the most part. I forgot to turn my watch back on at the cafe, you can see the straight line where we obviously didn't go straight across the blocks, but you can get an idea of how much of the city we saw.

We did hit one small undulation on the way back to Parc La Fontaine which was probably the most strenous part of the ride.

All-in-all: The ride was awesome, probably the best excursions/tour I have ever done including Europe and last summers trip.

Pros: Very very knowledgable about almost any question we threw at them and very informative tour. Lots of history learned as you can tell by my boring Montreal encylopedia post. Croissants and lattes were really tasty as was lunch from the market, a great value for $55 (CAD)(when booked in advance) and they gave me restaurants to eat at for the rest of my duration in Montreal.

Cons: The shirts they had were super cool, look like they had been screen printed and had three sites we saw on the tour on them, but they were $30. I really wanted to pick one up for someone back home but I had just given them a $10 tip and didn't have enough cash on me and no card was accepted. Shirts are free advertisement, Shea - you should eat some cost on the shirts or just not make profit because you'd benefit from the advertisments they'd give you. Disappointed about that, maybe I'll try to buy one over paypal (or two) if you contact me.

Read more...

B&B - Butterflies and Bikes

As a journalist once criticized Damien Hirst for his "Horrific Barbarity" over a bike that was ridden last year in Le Tour featuring wings removed from various varieties butterflies of, my encounter with butterflies and my bike last week is slightly less controversial.

The controversial bike in question.
Photo from TrekBikes.com

Last Thursday I was planning to go out for an easy in preparation for the weekends upcoming mountain bike race when I realized my back tire on my Madone was shot. I decided to dust off the cross bike and take it for a quick ride around town, after all cross season is quickly approaching. I followed my usual procedure of filling a bottle and putting my license and insurance card in my back pocket and set my bike outside while I went back in for my glasses. When I returned I found a huge butterfly enjoying my bike. Instead of removing it's wings I decided to grab my phone from my pocket and grab a few pictures. This isn't a plug but this was my first encounter with my iPhone4 that I really tested my camera and I was amazed by the results, have a look for yourself.

The guy/ or gal (w/e) was practially giving me a photoshoot.

Ya ya, I know bottles don't go on cross bikes but this was just a relaxing ride.

Eventually after procrastinating for about 10 minutes I finally got on my bike and pedaled on my way...without removing the wings from the butterfly Mr. Hirst!

I told you I rode, I just didn't say how hard or long.

Read more...

Fools Gold 50 - Miserable. - 8000 ft. Ascent.

I don't even know where to begin with this post; possibly the horrendous conditions that led to the 100 mile race being cut short and the pro's asking the race director to cut it short, or maybe the average speed one can push a bike up a mud pie hill, oh wait...how about the fact that of the record 300 starters for this weekends Fools Gold mountain bike race 120 DNF'd, over 1/3 of the field!

As my first mountain bike race I must admit I had higher hopes then what occurred on Saturday. I mean I wasn't expecting to podium or anything but I believe everyone will agree that nothing could have prepared me for what I endured.

Race weekend routine, laying out all of the gear.

We arrived in Dahlonega, GA the site of the race around 5PM EST, since we lose an hour coming from central time in Fort Payne, AL. We picked up our race bags with free samples of stuff (nothing special) and without race T-shirts, that is a separate post all together. We checked into our hotel and then began the search for dinner, I mean for a 100 mtb. race we need proper race fuel after all. Moe's Southwest seemed like a logical choice, where else do you get nearly 2000 calories of southwest deliciousness for only $5.69 (+25 cents apparently now for ranch dressing).

On a side note this was Shane and Tim's first time to Moe's; Greg and I were both familiar with Moe's and the menu. A Moe's custom is to welcome all of its customers with a warm "Welcome to Moe's" (which we didn't get) but I informed the guys about and mentioned now tomorrow during the race when this burrito hits you and you have to go...WELCOME TO MOE'S!!!

We returned to the hotel and got a proper nights sleep. After a sleepless night of wicked thunderstorms and possibly the loudest thunder I've ever head we rose at 4:30 to get ready for the race. A breakfast including a banana, PB&N sandwich (peanut butter and Nutella), and some coffee and we got on the road. When we arrived at the race it was still dark and remained that way until about 10 minutes before the 100 milers went off at 7AM sharp. I fastened my number and got ready and mentally prepared myself that I could handle a 50 mtb. race no problem!

The morning began by flashlight including numbers and checking tire pressure.

Filled with butterflies and Nutella I snagged one picture of the guys before we were off and began the long 10 mile sustained climb from the start.

The field at the start.

The guys. Tim, Greg, and Shane from left to right.

I was feeling really good, talking and chatting with other riders including a VT alumni and another guy from my future home Florida. It began to rain and then poured but all the time I still had a smile on my face. After nearly dying on the descent down (don't want to elaborate but basically ate it off the side of the road barely grabbing onto a tree, with about a 30 foot drop below a 60 degree inclined slope, seriously if you looked off the side of the road you saw tree tops....IT WAS BAD! Thanks to the two guys who slammed on their brakes and came back up the hill to make sure I was alive, they were shocked to say the least).

When the volunteer indicating the first left onto the single track said "watch out it's muddy down there" it was the biggest understatement of her life. What followed in the ensuing hours was a lot of pushing my bike up slopes and aiming my front wheel downhill on death defying downhill with little to no brakes by mile 30.

Mud at the 2/3 SAG stop.
Photo courtesy of Russell Sandidge via cycling news.

Literally the toughest day of my life on a bike...and one that I will never forget. I finished and that all I want to say.....cough cough...pathetic (9:39:22 - 0:16:00 from the 100 start = 9:23:22) Ouch! Over 8000 ft. of climbing!

"Look Ma, I made CyclingNews.com" Only 4:49:34 behind the leader.

This really downplays the amount of mud during the race. This was right after the finish where we crossed a foot and half deep creek cleaning most of the gunk from our bikes.

Throughout the day trying to make be positive about the day the phrase was coined "Making Memories" and as I was told by the end of the day "I'm tired of making memories, and just made 50 I want to forget!"

My battered and bruised legs after the race.

Below are links to numerous articles discussing the horrendous conditions and lack of brakes!

• BBC News
• Singletrack.com
• MTB Race News
• Cycling News
  

Read more...

Stitches - Weren't part of the days agenda.

In preparation for next weekends Fools Gold 50, I decided to get a 40 mile Mtb. ride in on Saturday morning, a week before the race to see how 40 miles on the mtb. would feel. Last summer I rode just over 4000 miles cross country, so whats 40 miles on a mountain bike? My longest ride to date was in the neighborhood of 15 miles. Granted they were technical and tough miles but not a long duration in the saddle.

I grabbed a good breakfast including cereal, a banana, and a PB&J to start the day off right. Greg showed up around 7:30AM and after a few quick adjustments on his bike we were on the road. I had planned a ride that included about 11 miles of flat road out to a nice long sustained climb and a 5 mile ride atop the ride before entering Desoto State park where I've been riding recently. The loop in the park is just over 11 miles putting us at 30 before the 10 mile ride home.

The first 18 miles went really smooth and took just over an hour and a half. We got into the park and I was super pumped to be out and riding and getting in a long ride before my weekend in Nashville. Michelle and I were headed to Nashville as soon as I got home, hopefully getting on the road not later than noon.

The trails were going really well finishing almost the entire loop in just over an hour which is a great time. Right after the hill that is appropriately name Nothin' there are a few technical sections that include some hard off camber 90 degree turns. I wound up eating it about 500 feet from the trail head with the blunt of my fall being caught by my left elbow. A few expletives later I pushed my bike to the trail head and headed down to a campground with running water. I rinsed out my elbow to hopefully get any grit and dirt out. After cleaning it up I noticed that my elbow was pretty bad and I may need to get it looked at. Not before I snapped a quick pic though:

I was more bummed that I wasn't going to get the full 40 miles in then about my elbow!

I decided that I didn't want to blow our weekend in Nashville so I called Michelle to come pick me up without notifying her about why I needed a ride. Fast forward about 20 minutes and Michelle showed up and I loaded my bike in the car and calmly said that we should make a pit stop on the way home...the E.R.

After explaining what happened we figured if we had any shot at making Nashville we should find an urgent care and avoid the E.R. at all cost! 2 urgent cares later and I was seeing a doctor within 10 minutes, getting cleaned up and.....STITCHED. The following is what ensued...

Michelle documented...

Cleaned up, looking rough!

Iodine and sterile!

The Novocaine shot was the only part that hurt.

Getting stitched up, feeling better once the Novocaine kicked in.

Thanks Doc! All stitched up!

All in all, the stitches weren't part of the day. And we did make it to Nashville for the weekend, just got on the road about 2 hours late. To add insult to injury my Garmin was dead so I didn't get any ride data. Last I checked with Greg though we hit 29.8, so while short of the planned 40 miles it was still a decent ride on the mountain bike.

Read more...

Beckley, WV to Blacksburg, VA 2010 JOH Ride Along

Last Friday after working an extra hour for the first four days of the week I took at half day and started my long...very long drive north to Beckley, WV. Eight hours later (7+1 hour loss to EST) I arrived in Beckley at the United Methodist Temple where this years Trans-America Journey of Hope team was staying. When I arrived most of the team was out and about for the evening (Starbucks, movie theater, etc.) and the epicness that was the dirt track racing extravaganza! I hoped on my bike and met some of the guys down at Starbucks who were catching up on their blogs and emails.

When Danny and Matt arrived we hoped in the car headed out for our traditional pre-century ride ice-cream binge. After fulfilling that necessity we headed back to the church by which time most of the team had returned from their evening festivities. After a long and sleepless night the next morning began as an morning does on the Journey; we awoke to music blaring and the buzz of gymnasium fluorescent lights warming up. Most things seem so to be moving by you at 100MPH as you stand still but in 30 minutes I managed to pack up my sleeping bag and pad, get dressed, fill my bottles, freshen up in the men's room, and get my bike and bags out the front door. After a binge eating breakfast, a dedication for the day (Ride for 32), and prayer we hoped on the bikes and the 5 Virginia Tech guys headed South towards Blacksburg.

I miss riding as the sun is rising and in the crisp mountain air, having an opportunity to relive the experience of the Journey makes me wonder when or if I'll ever get to ride it again. The day went smoothly with a few rollers out of town and a few "Hey team discovery could you ease up on the hills?" later we were at lunch. We told Kenny he was pulling for the first 25 miles. We were kidding. He was not. He pulled for the first 30!

A typical crew stop on the Journey of Hope. Our paceline didn't see another all day except for lunch!


The day cleared up as we went but started our pretty chilly and hazy.

The route differed tremendously from last years with most of the ride cutting through the valleys instead of going over the mountains. The reason for the different route was a sponsored lunch in Peterstown, the team indulged on homemade chili and sloppy Joes.

The team refueling over lunch.

Right after lunch we crossed into Virginia, the last state line crossing of the trip until the team heads into D.C. This marks the beginning of the end for the guys and some of my favorite days of the trip biking through my home state.

Schmidt, Danny, and myself at a different Welcome to Virginia sign than last year.

The rest of the abbreviated ride was on Rt. 460, an interstate with no shoulder and 55+MPH traffic on it. To say the least we were not happy about the route and wouldn't ride it again in hindsight.

What would a day on the Journey be without a Road Side. Danny armed with TP headed for cover!

Once we finally arrived at the town limits Kenny and Fred posed with the Tech flag, Finally home!

All in all the numbers for the day weren't too bad including just over 6600 ft. gained and 87 miles on the day. It doesn't really compare to last years but I'll let you look at the numbers yourself.

The longest ride I've ever done with the PowerTap

2009 Elevation map

2010 Elevation map

Finally at the end of the day I had earned the reason why I ride...a Burrito...

The soon to be Blacksburg Chipotle!

....Unfortunately Chipotle hasn't opened yet, so I had to resort to Moe's...Drats!

Moe's, my reason to ride!

Read more...

Journey of Hope - Beckley, WV to Blacksburg, VA

This Saturday last year I was completing one of my toughest days on a bike ever, if not the toughest day for me. I was 63 days into a cross country trip to raise awareness and fund for people with disabilities. Over 3000 miles into the ride, the team was entering my college town and and Home of the Hokies, Blacksburg, Virginia.

The schedule 105 mile ride took us just over 6 hours on the bike with 7000+ ft. of elevation gain for the day, it was brutal. Running on adrenaline we charged up the last climb of the day, a climb I had done quite often in training regime leading up the my journey. This Saturday I'll be reliving that pain and hopefully charging up that last hill, or at least make it up that last hill as I ride along with the 2010 Trans-America Journey of Hope team.

Don't believe me? Here's the numbers with the Garmin elevation correction enabled.

I wrote a blog while biking cross country, that inspired me to continue to ride about my cycling adventures. Here's entry from that day:

BLACKSBURG, man oh man did it feel good to be in a familiar place. Today was a homecoming for me and it was tough, exhausting, and it felt amazing!

We had been told that today could be the toughest day on bike and with over 100 miles to go and a really hard day yesterday I was a little apprehensive about how the day would go. I was excited to get the day on the road and with a wonderful cooked breakfast we were ready to tackle the difficult day that we had ahead. Fitting for the day our crew chief played "Enter Sandman" by Metallica as we prepared to hit the road. The topography for the day looked like a heartbeat, up and down all day with what appeared to be a lot of climbing hitting the high point at 16 miles into the ride.

My legs hurt, physically drained and as if there was nothing left in them; the worrying feeling that I had gone too hard the day before into Beckley was proving to be true. At mile 16 I was cooked and right as I pulled my paceline including the other two tech boys over the summit I felt as if I was going to have to rack into my home town and wouldn't be able to complete one of the most important days on the trip.

Today the teammate aspect of the trip really showed through as my teammates pulled me through 40 of the toughest miles of the trip. As we began to draw closer to Virginia and I began seeing roads I recognized and see mileages for towns I found my second wind and finally was ready to ride hard and fast to Blacksburg. The hills continued all day and we topped our total ascent in a day for the trip by over 1800 feet!

The roads today were awesome including huge descents and gorgeous winding roads under tree cover that formed a canopy shading us from the sun. Not only was the day 103 miles to begin with but the crew missing a turn and letting us go 3 miles before they recognized we were missing added 6 miles to our day and a trip back up a very steep hill after blowing past the Virginia state line sign on the way down we added another 2 miles making the day 111 miles.

We went back up a hill to take this photo

We were so excited as we rode into campus that we almost left the last two members of our paceline but waited to finish the day as a team the way we started.

Today was also special for me because my girlfriend Michelle drove to see us, it was the first familiar face I've seen all trip and really made my day. We showered quickly and headed to Steppin' Out, the downtown Blacksburg street fair that happens the first weekend of August every summer. The town mayor came and recognized us and declared today as Push America day in Blacksburg.

Our welcoming party at stepping out and some of my chapter brothers

We had dinner together and then spent the rest of the evening relaxing and enjoying the festivities Blacksburg had to offer.

Read more...

Finally a day off

I've been trying to resist the ride ride ride urge understanding that recovery is just as important as riding.

After an awesome get together with the Fort Payne cycling club Friday night, I decided I would drive to Chattanooga in the morning and make the Suck Creek cycle "Standing Ride." Standing ride means it always takes place and is a reliable, dependable, did I mention ALWAYS happens ride.

Chattanooga is on EST and Fort Payne is on CDT, an hour behind the East Coast. In order to make the 8:30AM departure, I'd have to leave by 6AM my time to make the hour commute and lose an hour to the time change. I made it out the door a few minutes after six and to Chattanooga by 8 AM (EST). After waiting around in the parking lot for 20 minutes, no one had showed I figured it was a lost cause, I hoped on my phone enjoying the 3G that I can get in Chattanooga that isn't present in Fort Payne and found a group ride about 15 minutes away. Made the short drive there and missed that ride as well.

It wasn't a total loss, I stopped by Rembrandts coffee shop and drowned my sorrow's over coffee and french toast.

Delicious baguette french toast and iced latte at Rembrandts!

I drove home to Fort Payne discouraged and debating whether I was going to ride, but found energy to get out for a ride and got 41 in before the afternoon storms rolled in.

At the top of Tutwhiler Gap, before a long narly descent

Although it was a hazy day, it was still a nice view from the top.

The power file from my Saturday ride.

On Sunday around 2PM a group of us left for Big River Grill in Chattanooga; a brewery at the end of 50 mile ride the served as motivation. It was without a doubt my hardest day ever on a bike. A record heat index made the ride nearly impossible for me, I cramped at 40 mile worse then I've ever cramped. After rolling around in someone front yard for nearly 10 minutes and two people stopping to ask if I was alright (thinking I had been hit by a car, and using lots of expletives) with both of my legs completely locked, I managed to get on the bike and coast down the hill into the city.

Power file from Sunday's incredibly hard ride.


The group that left, not even half braved the whole ride, only 6 made it to Chattanooga.

The hill that ruined Sunday's for me. Burkhalter used to be in the tour of Georgia.

The heat just proved to be too much for me, hopefully this isn't an indication as to how my ride this week from Beckley, WV to Blacksburg, VA. The suds at Big River Grill were totally worth it though!

Monday after my horrendous Sunday I went out for an easy recovery. I think it was the first time I've actually stayed at a recovery effort and stayed in my recovery heart rate zone.

An actual recovery ride for once.

Tuesdays ride didn't go much better than Sunday's. I've decided to never eat Mexican again the same day I intend to go for a ride. The amount of grease and heavy food in my ride almost made me vomit twice, I cut the evening short and relaxed at home.

Tuesdays group ride that I cut short.

In other news I joined a gym today in hopes to begin doing core exercises and minimal lifting to try to trim off some excess weight and record my weight. I'm toying with the idea of doing this Omnium in just over a month, may give me something to work towards.

Read more...