On Saturday, I rode about 30 miles with two of my old racing buddies - Bruce G. and Tom(Turkey) C. and and Jeff, another strong rider that is a friend of Turkey, in South Bend. Bruce, Turkey and I used to work together at Rickeys Bike Shop in Mishawaka back in the mid to late 70's. We were part of a small group of local riders, including my brother John who formed the Team MBA bike racing team. I was never a very good racer but that experience was very memorable, fun and very formative for me. Bruce continues to race very competively in the Masters class and was on the US Para-olympic team for a couple of years, competing in the Netherlands. Turkey has "retired" from racing but is still a strong rider.
This ride was a lot of fun, and pretty darn fast. For the warm up portion, I think they found the steepest hills in the area to remind me of my cycling roots. I like hills but a little longer warm up on the flats would have made these a bit more enjoyable. The ride started at Clay High School, north of the ND campus and proceed northeast into Michigan, west around Barren Lake, thru Niles then back to the high school.
I was warned that there would be a sprint to the Niles, MI city limits sign but they didn't tell me which one and it had been 30 plus years since I had ridden the roads we were on. I figured it out though when Bruce did a loud "grunt" and started the lead out about 1/2 mile away from one I sort of remembered on the east side of Niles. With about 300-400 meters to the sign we were at 30 mph and my heart rate was in the mid 170's. The other 3 kept getting faster and faster and I had to back off before I popped a gasket. I ended up about 50-75 meters behind them. Hard sprints like this were kind of my specialty back in the 70's but three knee surgeries on my right knee over the years has left that joint with no cartilage between the bones.
As we were getting near the finish of the ride where my car was parked, Bruce started speeding up again, so I figured it was time for another sprint to the Clay High School sign. At about 100 meters out I went wide to the left and took off but they never reacted and in fact pulled up and soft pedaled the rest of the way. They got a good laugh out of it.
Overall average was about 18 mph, due to the early hills and riding thru the middle of Niles. I am sure this training ride for the 3 of them was only at medium to easy pace but it was on the upper end of my physical abilities.
Bruce and Turkey brought up some really funny stories from back in the day. We talked about our current lives as well. It was nice catching up with them again after all these years and hopefully there will be more rides together in the future.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
3 State 3 Mountain, May 1, 2010
This was my 2nd attempt at completing this ride. In 2009, Ron and I turned around after the first mountain pass called Suck Creek,due to severe weather. It was raining hard, lightening and thundering and watching the number of riders going down the 1st mountain while climbing up it along with the stories of riders sliding off their bikes due to the volume of water going over the road on the other side convinced us to turn around and go back to the hotel.
Sand Mountain was a tough climb. I never walked any of it but I did stop twice to catch my breath. Mark S. caught up with me about half way up and he proceeded to pass me. There were several steep switchbacks but I finally made it to the top and continued riding towards the sag stop. The views at the top were breath-taking and I eventually caught up with Ron and we stopped to take a few pictures. At the rest stop, I was feeling very fatigued and took a longer break than Ron so I was on my own at this point. Unfortunately, I did not review my route map and proceeded to go the wrong direction from the stop. I ended up riding about 3 miles over several smaller hills before realizing I needed to turn around. As a result I ended up adding 6 miles to my ride before turning on the correct road.A lady on a trike rode up next to me and told me I was in last place. I proceeded to tell her why and decided that I was not going to stay in that spot by the finish. I ended up riding over 30 miles non-stop and passsed a bunch of riders along the way before I got to the sag stop below Burkhalter Rd. Mark had warned me about a steep little climb before the sag stop and when I got to it, I just hunkered down and slowly got to the top of it. There was a very strong and fit looking rider about 50 yards ahead of me at the bottom of this climb and somehow, I actually passed him on this climb. It had to be pretty demoralizing for him to see this big goliath of a rider cruising by up that hill.
Unfortunately, because of the pace and length of riding before stopping, I started to develop some severe hamstring and calf cramps by the time I got to the sag stop. I tried to stretch them out and rested a bit but they wouldn't stop so I asked if a sag driver could take me to the finish. There was another lady biker who was feeling pretty sick who also hitched a ride. We drove up Burkhalter Gap Rd and saw Ron and Mark climbing the mountain. At the top I changed my mind and decided to ride the rest of the route. You can imagine the surprise in their eyes to see me already at the top. I took a lot of grief by hitching a truck ride to the top but my legs would never have survived that climb.
Ron and I rode together for most of the way into Chattanooga. I ended up with like 103 total miles due to my error at the sag stop after Sand Mountain. The ride down Lookout Mountain was exciting but unfortunately I had to take it slower than I wanted to because it started drizzling along the way.
All in all, this was a great ride with scenic views, lots of climbing and many friendly riders along the way. And most importantly, I was not last !!!
The forecast this year was looking bad all week and didn't really change when we got to Chattanooga. 40-60% chance of thunderstorms, heavy rain and temps in the 80's. Nashville, a scant 120 miles to the West, ended up with something like 14" of rain during the ride (yes, that's a fourteen). But, while the skies looked threatening a few times, we didn't get a drop of rain. I suppose the hillbilly God's were making up for the past 2 years when there was copious amounts of rain for everyone. We guessed that it would rain by 3pm so we'd need to finish before then to stay dry. While this turned out to be a non-factor, it was a good motivator. Descending Lookout Mountain in the rain is just plain crazy and not something I wanted to do.
I was in much better shape this year for this very hilly ride. I made it up Suck Creek right behind Lige with no problems. The descent was a lot of fun and reminded me of the twisting downhills along the Costa Brava back in March. We hit a bit of wind along the large reservoir but the clouds helped keep the temps down along the the ride before we got to Sand Mountain. The road leading up to Sand Mountain is appropriately called the "Goat Road". It was very bumpy and with lots of road kill on the roads.
Sand Mountain was a tough climb. I never walked any of it but I did stop twice to catch my breath. Mark S. caught up with me about half way up and he proceeded to pass me. There were several steep switchbacks but I finally made it to the top and continued riding towards the sag stop. The views at the top were breath-taking and I eventually caught up with Ron and we stopped to take a few pictures. At the rest stop, I was feeling very fatigued and took a longer break than Ron so I was on my own at this point. Unfortunately, I did not review my route map and proceeded to go the wrong direction from the stop. I ended up riding about 3 miles over several smaller hills before realizing I needed to turn around. As a result I ended up adding 6 miles to my ride before turning on the correct road.Unfortunately, because of the pace and length of riding before stopping, I started to develop some severe hamstring and calf cramps by the time I got to the sag stop. I tried to stretch them out and rested a bit but they wouldn't stop so I asked if a sag driver could take me to the finish. There was another lady biker who was feeling pretty sick who also hitched a ride. We drove up Burkhalter Gap Rd and saw Ron and Mark climbing the mountain. At the top I changed my mind and decided to ride the rest of the route. You can imagine the surprise in their eyes to see me already at the top. I took a lot of grief by hitching a truck ride to the top but my legs would never have survived that climb.
Ron and I rode together for most of the way into Chattanooga. I ended up with like 103 total miles due to my error at the sag stop after Sand Mountain. The ride down Lookout Mountain was exciting but unfortunately I had to take it slower than I wanted to because it started drizzling along the way.
All in all, this was a great ride with scenic views, lots of climbing and many friendly riders along the way. And most importantly, I was not last !!!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Brown County State Park Ride - April 9th, 2010
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Ron, Lige and I made a trip to BCSP on Saturday looking to have some self-inflicted pain in preparation for 3 State 3 Mountain. The weather was ideal, started off cool and warmed up nicely with clear and sunny skies. It was a tight fit getting us into Ron's Honda Element, but it all worked. It was a punishment-fest climbing and we did 2 laps, but we all did well. I was feeling particularly strong that day and was able to make it up a steep climb and go around the turn without stopping for the first time ever. Lige was his typical conisistent, competent self and looks ready to go. Ron got ahead of us at the end of the 1st lap and a different direction. At the top of the hill, Lige and I turned and added some extra milage. Lige and I ended up with 38 miles and 3,000 feet of climbing. One of the downhills, I hit just over 40 mph.Overall, a great day: near perfect weather, we all felt good about our performance.
PS. Here is a video I took on the last downhill. I had my camera dangling from my wrist, so be careful it might get a little dizzy on the way down.
Riding in Girona, Spain - April 2nd, 2010
Fastforward to the present. Kim and I took a trip to Spain to see our son who is studying in Madrid the Spring semester of 2010. We did a lot of neat stuff but here is the long-awaited ride report from Spain.
I won’t go into detail of our whole 2 week vacation in Europe other than to say if you haven’t yet taken a trip “across the pond” for at least a week, please do so some time during your life. Observing, respecting and enjoying how other parts of the world live is worth every penny spent on this trip. There are so many things that are different over there – such as the varied architectural styles, their traditions and varied cultures, the food, including when they eat (e.g. dinner is typically at 9-10 pm), and the people.
We flew out of Cincinnati on March 25th, and began our Mediterranean cruise on the 26th. The cruise started and ended in Barcelona, Spain.
We met up with our son Alex in Barcelona on Good Friday, April 2nd. It was so nice to see him finally. He has been studying in Madrid since January 11th and he doesn’t come home until July 3rd. We did our hugs and kisses thing, then walked to the subway with all our luggage to get to the main train station to catch a train to Gerona, a small town about 60 miles northeast of Barcelona, in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains. We rented an apartment in the old town section just two blocks from the Santa Maria Cathedral, a beautiful piece of gothic architecture. Many of the pro cyclists who reside in Gerona, including all of the Garmin-Transition team live within just a few blocks of this church. George Hincapie owns an apartment in the plaza at the foot of the 86 steps up to the entrance of this cathedral.
After dinner Friday night with Jaume Cabruja, the owner of Bikecat and my Saturday ride partner, along with his “significant other”, Debbie Stein, Alex and I went over to the cathedral to watch a most amazing Good Friday procession. More on that later….. Kim was very tired from the hectic travel day we had stayed home and went to bed early. Besides, this procession had the potential of a lot of hilly walking.
Jaume and I decided on a 65 mile route called the Costa Brava tour. It’s hilly but nothing like some of his tour routes that actually go into the Pyrenees Mountains. According to Jaume, many of the pro cyclists will ride this route as an “easy” cool down ride. On Saturday morning around 9 am, with the temps in the low 50’s, Jaume met me at our apartment. We made a couple final adjustments to the bike I rented – an Orbea Team Replica 2 with Shimano 105 components. My gearing was a compact crank 50-34 with a 10 speed 12-25 cassette.
Alex and Kim spent the day with Debbie touring Salvador Dali’s homestead, museum and his summer home in Cadaques and Port Lligat. Debbie keeps a blog of her tours if you’re interested in seeing details of this trip. http://www.vadevitours.blogspot.com/
The ride began by meandering thru the skinny and crowded streets of Gerona. Since it was a Saturday morning we encountered a number of open markets in Gerona and several other towns we traveled thru on our way to the Mediterranean Sea coastline. These markets would go on for blocks at a time riding over cobblestone streets and dodging lots of people.
After we made it thru the center of Gerona and the city market, the next road took us south out of town and gradually started going uphill. Jaume described the 3 km climb out of town as just a “ramp”. Well that “ramp” sure got my legs stretched out and warmed up. The next 20 km’s were pretty flat and easy but the hills along the coast line were getting bigger and bigger as we got closer to the coastal area. The skies were also getting darker and it appeared we would get rained on by the time we got to the real climbing.
We stopped for a short rest and take some pictures at the foot of our first real climb – a 6 km hill with a grade that probably averaged 6%. The climb was fairly gradual and it kind of reminded me of the 1st mountain at the 3 State in TN. I did stop once on the climb for a short rest but made it up to the top better than I expected. During this climb, the skies got darker and the headwind started to gust over 20 mph. Jaume said the weather for this time of year was very unusual. It was much colder and windier than normal. After cresting this hill, the fun really started. Somehow I led it out and took off and didn’t stop till we got to the bottom. The descents were very twisty and technical to maneuver but the road surfaces were great. No chuck holes gravel or sand whatsoever. And the best part was the cars were very patient when climbing. There were no horns blaring at you, or cars passing by just an inch or two to your left. The scariest part of these descents was not the winding roads or speed but rather the high performance motorcycles that were everywhere. But even those were not a real issue, once you got used to suddenly encountering one of these “flying” up the hills around the corners.
We stopped in a coastal town named Tossa for are really good cup of coffee. Fortunately the dark clouds only “spit” on us for a little while and eventually they cleared and we had sun the rest of the day. The hill out of Tossa was the steepest one of the day. It was about 2 km’s long with an average grade of like 10% with some spots hitting 15%. But that coffee I had seemed to give me a huge energy boost and I didn’t have any problem getting up that hill. From there we had 20 km’s of ups and downs all along the coastline. It was some of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. Picture 006 above is a view from the top of the hill going out of Tossa.
Our next stop was lunch in San Feliux. We had the most awesome pizza ever. It was so good I had to get a picture of it. By now the sun had broke thru and it was finally starting to warm up into the 60’s. From here, we did another 10 km’s of climbing up and down and then started our way back north to Gerona. After leaving the coastal hills which ended with a really fun downhill, he took us on some country roads that went thru farmland and terrain that was very similar to riding in Hendricks County, including the wonderful aroma of a large cattle farm. The last 15 or so km was on a state highway with a large paved shoulder. The end of the ride was made even more exciting because we were riding with a strong tail wind. He picked up the pace as fast as he could but I stayed on his wheel. He later told me that we hit 55 km/h for a long stretch of this road. That works out to like 33 mph! We finally made it back to Gerona and stopped for some more pictures on the famous Stone Bridge. Unfortunately, these and others that I took are at home. I’ll send some of them on a subsequent email.
According to Jaume’s Garmin 705 we rode 65 miles and climbed 3500 feet. It was a ride I’ll never forget. I never got really tired for long periods of time that I typically do and when we finished I felt really good. I even felt good the next morning. I guess all that spinning this winter did help out.
Jaume’s company specializes in week long tours and fills in his schedule with these one day custom tours for couples or individuals. I think it would be really cool some day to go over there as a group and go on one of these week long tours. His web site address is below and includes all the details. He caters to Americans which is why he is so good to ride with. He is very fluent in English, Catalan and Spanish. And Debbie, who handles tours for the non-riders that come on the trip, is American. She grew up in Anderson, SC just outside of Greenville. Jaume knows many of the pro cyclists who live in Gerona. He used to race professionally in the USA based out of Philly. He is very close friends with George Hincapie and Freddie Rodriquez. Jaume rides one of Freddie’s old bikes that he bought from him a couple years ago. It’s a Ridley frame with full top of the line Campy. It is a really nice bike. His physical therapist is the Garmin-Transitions PT. What’s interesting about cycling in Europe is that getting a massage is standard fare after a long ride. He said his PT would have come to my apartment after our ride and done a full deep body massage for $45 Euro. I’ve never had one and I probably should have taken him up on the offer.
That’s it. Sorry it took so long to get it sent out.
I won’t go into detail of our whole 2 week vacation in Europe other than to say if you haven’t yet taken a trip “across the pond” for at least a week, please do so some time during your life. Observing, respecting and enjoying how other parts of the world live is worth every penny spent on this trip. There are so many things that are different over there – such as the varied architectural styles, their traditions and varied cultures, the food, including when they eat (e.g. dinner is typically at 9-10 pm), and the people.
We flew out of Cincinnati on March 25th, and began our Mediterranean cruise on the 26th. The cruise started and ended in Barcelona, Spain.
We met up with our son Alex in Barcelona on Good Friday, April 2nd. It was so nice to see him finally. He has been studying in Madrid since January 11th and he doesn’t come home until July 3rd. We did our hugs and kisses thing, then walked to the subway with all our luggage to get to the main train station to catch a train to Gerona, a small town about 60 miles northeast of Barcelona, in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains. We rented an apartment in the old town section just two blocks from the Santa Maria Cathedral, a beautiful piece of gothic architecture. Many of the pro cyclists who reside in Gerona, including all of the Garmin-Transition team live within just a few blocks of this church. George Hincapie owns an apartment in the plaza at the foot of the 86 steps up to the entrance of this cathedral.
After dinner Friday night with Jaume Cabruja, the owner of Bikecat and my Saturday ride partner, along with his “significant other”, Debbie Stein, Alex and I went over to the cathedral to watch a most amazing Good Friday procession. More on that later….. Kim was very tired from the hectic travel day we had stayed home and went to bed early. Besides, this procession had the potential of a lot of hilly walking.
Jaume and I decided on a 65 mile route called the Costa Brava tour. It’s hilly but nothing like some of his tour routes that actually go into the Pyrenees Mountains. According to Jaume, many of the pro cyclists will ride this route as an “easy” cool down ride. On Saturday morning around 9 am, with the temps in the low 50’s, Jaume met me at our apartment. We made a couple final adjustments to the bike I rented – an Orbea Team Replica 2 with Shimano 105 components. My gearing was a compact crank 50-34 with a 10 speed 12-25 cassette.
Alex and Kim spent the day with Debbie touring Salvador Dali’s homestead, museum and his summer home in Cadaques and Port Lligat. Debbie keeps a blog of her tours if you’re interested in seeing details of this trip. http://www.vadevitours.blogspot.com/
The ride began by meandering thru the skinny and crowded streets of Gerona. Since it was a Saturday morning we encountered a number of open markets in Gerona and several other towns we traveled thru on our way to the Mediterranean Sea coastline. These markets would go on for blocks at a time riding over cobblestone streets and dodging lots of people.
After we made it thru the center of Gerona and the city market, the next road took us south out of town and gradually started going uphill. Jaume described the 3 km climb out of town as just a “ramp”. Well that “ramp” sure got my legs stretched out and warmed up. The next 20 km’s were pretty flat and easy but the hills along the coast line were getting bigger and bigger as we got closer to the coastal area. The skies were also getting darker and it appeared we would get rained on by the time we got to the real climbing.
We stopped for a short rest and take some pictures at the foot of our first real climb – a 6 km hill with a grade that probably averaged 6%. The climb was fairly gradual and it kind of reminded me of the 1st mountain at the 3 State in TN. I did stop once on the climb for a short rest but made it up to the top better than I expected. During this climb, the skies got darker and the headwind started to gust over 20 mph. Jaume said the weather for this time of year was very unusual. It was much colder and windier than normal. After cresting this hill, the fun really started. Somehow I led it out and took off and didn’t stop till we got to the bottom. The descents were very twisty and technical to maneuver but the road surfaces were great. No chuck holes gravel or sand whatsoever. And the best part was the cars were very patient when climbing. There were no horns blaring at you, or cars passing by just an inch or two to your left. The scariest part of these descents was not the winding roads or speed but rather the high performance motorcycles that were everywhere. But even those were not a real issue, once you got used to suddenly encountering one of these “flying” up the hills around the corners.
We stopped in a coastal town named Tossa for are really good cup of coffee. Fortunately the dark clouds only “spit” on us for a little while and eventually they cleared and we had sun the rest of the day. The hill out of Tossa was the steepest one of the day. It was about 2 km’s long with an average grade of like 10% with some spots hitting 15%. But that coffee I had seemed to give me a huge energy boost and I didn’t have any problem getting up that hill. From there we had 20 km’s of ups and downs all along the coastline. It was some of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen. Picture 006 above is a view from the top of the hill going out of Tossa.
Our next stop was lunch in San Feliux. We had the most awesome pizza ever. It was so good I had to get a picture of it. By now the sun had broke thru and it was finally starting to warm up into the 60’s. From here, we did another 10 km’s of climbing up and down and then started our way back north to Gerona. After leaving the coastal hills which ended with a really fun downhill, he took us on some country roads that went thru farmland and terrain that was very similar to riding in Hendricks County, including the wonderful aroma of a large cattle farm. The last 15 or so km was on a state highway with a large paved shoulder. The end of the ride was made even more exciting because we were riding with a strong tail wind. He picked up the pace as fast as he could but I stayed on his wheel. He later told me that we hit 55 km/h for a long stretch of this road. That works out to like 33 mph! We finally made it back to Gerona and stopped for some more pictures on the famous Stone Bridge. Unfortunately, these and others that I took are at home. I’ll send some of them on a subsequent email.
According to Jaume’s Garmin 705 we rode 65 miles and climbed 3500 feet. It was a ride I’ll never forget. I never got really tired for long periods of time that I typically do and when we finished I felt really good. I even felt good the next morning. I guess all that spinning this winter did help out.
Jaume’s company specializes in week long tours and fills in his schedule with these one day custom tours for couples or individuals. I think it would be really cool some day to go over there as a group and go on one of these week long tours. His web site address is below and includes all the details. He caters to Americans which is why he is so good to ride with. He is very fluent in English, Catalan and Spanish. And Debbie, who handles tours for the non-riders that come on the trip, is American. She grew up in Anderson, SC just outside of Greenville. Jaume knows many of the pro cyclists who live in Gerona. He used to race professionally in the USA based out of Philly. He is very close friends with George Hincapie and Freddie Rodriquez. Jaume rides one of Freddie’s old bikes that he bought from him a couple years ago. It’s a Ridley frame with full top of the line Campy. It is a really nice bike. His physical therapist is the Garmin-Transitions PT. What’s interesting about cycling in Europe is that getting a massage is standard fare after a long ride. He said his PT would have come to my apartment after our ride and done a full deep body massage for $45 Euro. I’ve never had one and I probably should have taken him up on the offer.
That’s it. Sorry it took so long to get it sent out.
More postings from the past and present will be forthcoming.
Tom
PS. Regarding the “more on that later” in paragraph 5 about the Good Friday procession Alex and I attended. Here is a link to Alex’s photos of the event. I would estimate that over 50,000 attended this ceremony including those lining the streets that the procession followed. We didn’t get back to the apartment until past midnight.
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ca&tl=en&u=http://www.facebook.com/album.php%3Fid%3D681205691%26aid%3D216560%26l%3De7253b661b%26s%3D0%26hash%3Da0e2d5e3bf5584857499273c10ed5df2&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhhq45AatA33wr2mooz-HW15y4ZYZA
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ca&tl=en&u=http://www.facebook.com/album.php%3Fid%3D681205691%26aid%3D216560%26l%3De7253b661b%26s%3D0%26hash%3Da0e2d5e3bf5584857499273c10ed5df2&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhhq45AatA33wr2mooz-HW15y4ZYZA
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