Everyone predicted heavy rain for the start of the Coach Hep Challenge that started on the northside of IU's football stadium this past Saturday, May 14th, 2011. Ron and I got up bright and early and drove down for the ride anyway. As we were driving on SR 67, south of Mooresville we were first greeted by a large coyote in the median eating some venison for breakfast. Then a few mile down the road we started seeing large breaks in the clouds that eventually gave way to clear skies and temps in the 60's. Initially we had planned on doing the 100k route but changed our minds and did the 50k route because we felt that the rain gods might change their mind and provide a good soaking later in the day.
This was the first time I rode this event. I knew it was going to be hilly but I was most excited to ride on some of the old day 2 course of the Hilly Hundred going back to the 1980's. Unfortunately they made a course change and we ended up doing an out and back loop north of Bloomington thru Morgan Monroe State forest. This loop was part of the originally planned route and it included climbing Beanblossom which is still part of the day 2 HH route. Years ago, that hill used to just kill me, just like Mt. Tabor, but for the last 4 or 5 years I have "learned" how to climb it and now it's one of my all-time favorite climbs.
There was no mass start for the bike ride, so Ron and I picked up our bag of "swag" ( A new term I learned last fall at the Div III Cross Country Nationals. It stands for the goodies all the participants get at a large athletic event). It included a nice t-shirt, a couple of Cook Medical Group lanyards, and some Coach Hep red shoe strings along with a variety of coupons for local businesses. The snacks provided were great. All you can take of Clif Bars, Kashi Bars, Bananas, pastries and bagels. I love Clif Bars on my bike rides so I grabbed a few more than I really needed for the ride since they were "free".
The 30 mile ride went pretty fast considering the hills and beautiful scenary, especially around Griffey Lake. My Garmin measured about 31 miles, with approx. 1700 feet of climbing and an overall average of 13.5 mph. Ron and I stopped quite often to enjoy the scenary and/or to empty the bladder. The steepest hill was at the beginning/ending of the ride. I measure a 23% grade on a portion of that 1/2 mile climb. There were a lot of walkers on that hill but thanks to my 34/32 gear ratio, I slowly made it up without any problem.
Later in the day my hamstrings were a bit sore from all the intense climbing but honestly, after only riding in flat Hendricks County for the past 2 months, my legs needed a good wake-up call.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Riding on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées
My wife and I met up with our son in London who just finished a semester abroad in England on April 20th. Unlike last year's big vacation to Spain where we visited our other son who was studying in Madrid and where I did an all day tour along the Costa Brava from Gerona with Jaume from bikecat.com, this year's trip had no plans to ride a bike. We were visiting England and France and although it was tempting to try and fit in a real one day ride, I decided it wasn't practical with everything else on our itinerary. Without going into all the details of our 15 day trip, we did spend 4 nights at a very nice apartment in Paris, south of the Invalides. Once we got there, I remembered those wonderful bike rental stations they installed a couple years ago in Paris - Velib - http://en.velib.paris.fr/ . So I got the bug to rent one for a few hours and go for a ride.
My son and I got up early on May 1st and rented a couple of these beater bikes with a front basket, 3 speed internal gears and big gnarly tires and fenders. Our goal was to ride up to the Champs-Elysees and ride it from the Place de_la_Concorde on the east side to the Arc_de_Triomphe on the west side. As we were cresting the bridge over the Seine River, we started hearing what sounded like a bunch of turbo prop jet engines to our right adjacent to the entrance of the Louvre Museum park. We had no idea what it could be this early in the morning with very little traffic on the street. Then as we made it over the bridge, we saw to our rigt, over 100 new and vintage red and silver Ferrari's all revving their engines. It was a sight to behold. Just after we rode past them and turned left onto the Champs-Elyseees, all of these Ferrari's started to pull out. I got onto to the wide sidewalk but my son was still on the street as these high performance cars started flying by. My guess is that he ended up in 100's of photos that were being taken of these beautiful cars flying by.
What a thrill it was to ride on the finishing stretch on the final stage of the Tour_de_France. I had not ridden on a street bike like this in years. It was obvious that these rental bikes take a beating but it was still a lot of fun riding it. We ended up riding about 15 miles that morning. So now I have ridden my bike in 3 countries - USA, Spain and France.
Here is a nice view of that most historical street in Paris.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Champs-Elysées,_vue_de_la_Concorde_à _l'Etoile.jpg
One other bike-related note from our vacation to England and France. While waiting for the Eurostar at St. Pancras station in London, I wandered into a bookstore and came upon a most wonderful book that any distance cyclist would enjoy reading. The title of the book is "The Man Who Cycled the World", by Mark Beaumont of Scotland. In February 2008 he took over 60 days off the world record for circumnavigating the world. It is quite a read.
My next big ride is the Coach Hep Challenge in Bloomington, IN, this Saturday, May 14th. 65 miles of Morgan/Monroe and Brown county hills. Yee Ha !!!
Update on 06/16/2011:
Here is a picture of the Ferrari Meeting in Paris. It is dated from 2009, but it is almost exactly the way it looked when Kenny and I rode by back on May 1st. And they are parked in the exact same spot!!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arka002/4008750437
I found a YouTube Video that has Kenny in it at the end. You really can appreciate the noise these cars create when so many drive by you. Right at the end, you will see Kenny ride by on his bike. You can faintly here him responding to me telling him to jump a curb!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRC8qMcsc8M
My son and I got up early on May 1st and rented a couple of these beater bikes with a front basket, 3 speed internal gears and big gnarly tires and fenders. Our goal was to ride up to the Champs-Elysees and ride it from the Place de_la_Concorde on the east side to the Arc_de_Triomphe on the west side. As we were cresting the bridge over the Seine River, we started hearing what sounded like a bunch of turbo prop jet engines to our right adjacent to the entrance of the Louvre Museum park. We had no idea what it could be this early in the morning with very little traffic on the street. Then as we made it over the bridge, we saw to our rigt, over 100 new and vintage red and silver Ferrari's all revving their engines. It was a sight to behold. Just after we rode past them and turned left onto the Champs-Elyseees, all of these Ferrari's started to pull out. I got onto to the wide sidewalk but my son was still on the street as these high performance cars started flying by. My guess is that he ended up in 100's of photos that were being taken of these beautiful cars flying by.
What a thrill it was to ride on the finishing stretch on the final stage of the Tour_de_France. I had not ridden on a street bike like this in years. It was obvious that these rental bikes take a beating but it was still a lot of fun riding it. We ended up riding about 15 miles that morning. So now I have ridden my bike in 3 countries - USA, Spain and France.
Here is a nice view of that most historical street in Paris.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Champs-Elysées,_vue_de_la_Concorde_à _l'Etoile.jpg
One other bike-related note from our vacation to England and France. While waiting for the Eurostar at St. Pancras station in London, I wandered into a bookstore and came upon a most wonderful book that any distance cyclist would enjoy reading. The title of the book is "The Man Who Cycled the World", by Mark Beaumont of Scotland. In February 2008 he took over 60 days off the world record for circumnavigating the world. It is quite a read.
My next big ride is the Coach Hep Challenge in Bloomington, IN, this Saturday, May 14th. 65 miles of Morgan/Monroe and Brown county hills. Yee Ha !!!
Update on 06/16/2011:
Here is a picture of the Ferrari Meeting in Paris. It is dated from 2009, but it is almost exactly the way it looked when Kenny and I rode by back on May 1st. And they are parked in the exact same spot!!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/arka002/4008750437
I found a YouTube Video that has Kenny in it at the end. You really can appreciate the noise these cars create when so many drive by you. Right at the end, you will see Kenny ride by on his bike. You can faintly here him responding to me telling him to jump a curb!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRC8qMcsc8M
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