33 Days of Pedaling - The Most Awesome Vacation Ever

Its been a week since I finished and I still don't believe I actually did that.

Here is a map of the actual Garmin GPS data files for the route we took through the U.S.

And here is the whole ride profile.

I created these using the GPS Visualizer site (www.gpsvisualizer.com) and the GPX files programmed into our Garmins.

I created a YouTube playlist of all the videos I took during the ABB tour. I have a lot of videos of various people so please feel free to browse it and look for some of yourself.

Here are all the photos I took both as tests the week prior to the beginning of the tour and while on the tour.

My Fast America Experience by the Numbers

• 1,000,000 pedal strokes
• 155,000 calories burned
• 125,000 feet of elevation gain
• 3,500 miles traveled
• 350 pictures taken
• 250 hours of pedaling
• 175 gel packs consumed
• 70 SAG stops
• 50 gallons of water and 10 gallons of Gatorade
• 33 Days (31 pedaling and 2 rest days)
• 30 AAA batteries
• 24 riders (usually a few women too but not this year)
• 15 Gigabytes of cell phone uploads
• 14 States (CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK, KS, MO, IN, IL, OH, NY, VT, NH, MA)
• 10 lbs of weight lost
• 7 wrong turns
• 4 tour staff
• 4 bottles of sunscreen
• 2 oceans
• 2 tires and 2 tubes
• 1 rider with hemophilia
• 1 rider with an insulin pump
• 1 rider 64 years of age
• (all three of these riders were stronger/faster than me)
• 1 set of cleats and 1 chain
• 1 unforgettable, life-changing experience

Thanks for the Support

There are just a whole bunch of people I want to thank for all their support in this adventure starting with my wonderful wife, Sandy, who has spent a lot of weekends alone since I started training for this ride back in early January. Many a weekend activity was either missed or cut short because of my training. And, when I wasn't training, I was often too tired to do anything else but meet my regular work obligations. On top of that Sandy's prayers and advice and lotions and potions for how to deal with various ailments were invaluable. At one point when my rear derailer started acting up a lot, Sandy reminded me that the key to finishing a long ride like this is going to be adaptability. In the last week of the ride, I had to make a few key adjustments in the way I was riding to ensure I could continue the ride to completion including adjusting my cadence and favorite gearing. I can't thank Sandy enough for all her support and encouraging comments on the blog.

My mom and dad surprised me by coming all the way to the finish to support my accomplishment. That was great. Thanks for taking a lot of pictures at the finish. Don't forget I still need copies of all those ;) In addition, my mom cooked a lot of meals during my training and sent some great care packages with goodies I ate and shared with other riders who also really enjoyed and appreciated them. Thanks so much mom and dad.

Thanks to Eric Brugger and other LLNL project leaders who supported my taking this adventure and approved such a long, concentrated time away from my work responsibilities. I am thankful for my job and thankful it was waiting for me when I returned. Though I have to admit I am having some difficulty now sitting in front of a computer for 10 hour work days. Sitting on a bike seat and pedaling over steep hills seems much easier ;)

In my original post, I forgot to thank my core group regular followers/commenters on the blog; Sandy, Mom, Scott, Jim, Steve, Kathleen, Calpooia (I still don't know who that is ;). Thanks for thinking about me and for all the encouraging words.

Thanks to Andrea and Terry Jones for several surprise care packages of food and goodies to help with heat and relaxation. That was so thoughtful and appreciated very much. Thanks to Tara Johnson for cooking up a batch of her special chocolate chip cookies along with Sandy and sending along in a care package (I only shared those with my roommate). Thanks to Suanne and Bernita and her sons William and Ronald for sending some surprise cards and words of encouragement.

Thanks to Benjamin Sherrill at Ken's Bike and Ski in Davis for all the work he has done on my very old bike the last 18 months. I am sure he is tired of hearing me say I am getting a new bike soon but still need some tweeks on my 30 year old Centurion to keep in going ;)

Thanks to all my family, friends and colleagues for following along on my blog and posting encouraging comments of support. I can't tell you what it means to me that you shared with me in this experience. This was a significant event/accomplishment in my life and its great when others recognize and celebrate that with me.

Thanks to the wonderful staff of America by Bicycle, Mike and Barbara Monk, Jim Benson and Karen Bauer. I could not have done it without their guidance, encouragement and support. Thanks to all of the 24 riders of the ABB 2013 Fast America Tour especially those from who I wheel-sucked so many free miles ;)

Thanks be to God for a safe completion and return home free of injury or illness for all of the riders.

What I Learned

I discovered I am stronger than I thought I was. I'll be honest. The first week really scared me, 120-130 mile days often with 8,000+ feet of climbing. I was nervous about even being able to make it to Albuquerque. And, even after making Albuquerque and having a rest day, I still started every day with a certain degree of aprehension that my legs just wouldn't have it. Every little ache or pain I felt I was concerned might be the beginning of a tour-ending injury. And, that is in spite of the fact that I rode pretty conservatively. I just had no idea what to expect from my body from day after day after day of 100+ mile rides with several thousand feet of climbing too. As the tour drew near the end, I started worrying about becoming stupid with fatigue and making dumb mistakes causing myself or someone else to crash or something. I need to relax!

On the very last day of the ride, I decided to try to push myself a little bit and worked harder on some of the climbs and flats. And, I felt pretty darn good given that I had over 3,300 miles on my legs. I was a little surprised how much I still had in the tank.

The last period of my life where I spent concentrated periods of time (6-10 hours a day) outdoors was when I was a young kid in high school. The outdoors can wreak havoc on your skin, eyes, ears and sinuses. Just doing all the stuff I needed to do to protect and then help recover my body from being out in the sun, wind, and heat was sometimes overwhelming.

I have no doubt that with a new fangled, modern carbon frame bike, I could probably go faster than with my ole' steel frame bike. On the other hand, my old bike is so comfortable to ride that I had few ill effects from being on it day after day. For all but competitive racing -- which I have no desire to do -- I don't think the bike plays that big a role in one's performance or experience of riding. I think comfort is the biggest factor to your overall experience. I would have appreciated integrated shifters on the rollers in Missouri though.

My wife reiterated to me several times in phone conversations that adaptability is the key to getting through a ride like this. She couldn't be more right. At one point, I really started getting frustrated with various idiosyncracies my bike's shifting started exhibiting. But, I had to let that go and just adjust to how it was riding. And, when I did, my riding got easier and more enjoyable.

Finishing each day's segment is all that matters. Not where you finish relative to others or how fast a speed you average. Just getting from one hotel to the next, safely and without putting undue stress on your body is the key to finishing a ride like this. Nonetheless, I am just amazed at the strength many other riders had to push hard efforts on one day going really fast up tough climbs and then to recover and continue the next day without any problem. They made it look easy! The various riders older yet significantly stronger than me was inspiring. The riders facing chronic health challenges yet not letting those challenges get in the way of their goals was also hugely inspiring.

I am glad I had a roommate. If I hadn't, it is likely I would have spent too much time isolated and apart from other riders. I am fine riding alone for long stretches and there are often some disadvantages to riding in groups. But, it was great to have a roommate to talk things over with or go have dinner and socialize with. Probably the nicest day of the whole tour for me was the day Max asked to ride with me and we spent the whole day talking about various things. It really made the work easy and we finished with plenty left in our legs for the last few big climbing days.

My wife and I can live apart for 30+ days, though neither one of use really enjoy it or think its a good idea in the future.

My 30 Year Old Bike

It is a Centurion Pro Tour 15. A triple, 50-42-28 in front, and ultra-six, 12-30 freewheel in back, lugged steel frame with downtube, friction shifters and Brook's leather saddle, 27" 38 spoke wheels and 27x1.25" Specialized Armadillo Tires. It even has the original break pads. I did add wider bars and aero bars and more modern break levers in the months before the ride.

I wound up using the triple for only a few miles of the whole ride where there was a steep gradient and I just didn't want to be using a lot of pedal pressure.

I had only two flats the entire ride. Both were the slow leak kind; hard to find sitting on the side of the road trying to patch the tube. I replaced the rear tire at about 2,000 miles. The front tire went the whole distance.

I had a couple of close calls with my rear rack and the bunjy-cord, cargo net I used to hold things on the rack. In the first case, I was descending from Flagstaff at about 25 mph and hit a very rough section of Route 66. My teeth felt like they were going to vibrate out of my head. My shell jacket came loose from the cargo netting, got entangled in my rear wheel and wound around the freewheel several times. Luckily, I coasted to a stop and was able to untangle the mess and discovered there was no damage to my rear wheel. That could have gone really, really badly though. I was very lucky. I thought the problem was how I packed my jacket onto the rack though and didn't suspect the problem was with the bunjy-cord cargo netting. But, on another day, maybe day 29, I had nothing on the rear rack and only the bunjy-cord cargo netting there in case I needed to remove clothing and pack it later in the day. I hit a rough section of road and next thing I know, the bunjy-cord cargo net had wound around the non-drive side of my rear wheel. Again, I coasted to a stop, unwound the mess and immediately discarded that damn bunjy-cord netting and vowed never to use that kind of mechanism to attach stuff to my rear rack again. For the rest of the tour, I either carried what I needed in the way of clothing in my jersey pockets or chose to forego carrying any extra clothing. That hurt me on the very last day though. The temperatures didn't climb like I expected throughout the day and I wound up getting very cold by the lunch SAG. So, I dove into the back of the luggage trailer, found my bag and fished out my rain jacket. Eventually, the temps did go up and I took the jacket off maybe 10 miles later and had to carry it in my jersey pocket. But, that's way better than risking another problem with my rear wheel.

I also changed my chain at just about the mid-way point of the ride in terms of mileage. When I did, it started skipping in the smallest, 12 tooth cog, on the rear. Mike and Jim immediately thought it was as shark-toothed freewheel. The only problem is that I never rode more than say 1500 miles with the same chain with that freewheel and so found it very hard to believe I could have shark toothed it. On the other hand, I did wind up doing a lot of training miles on that gear and at lower cadences and higher pedal pressures (so more tension in the chain). As Mike said, it was my "pet" gear and a relatively small one at just 12 teeth. So, I could see it being more sensitive to a chain change than the other cogs on the freewheel. I continued to ride the bike with the new chain though being extra careful how much torque I put on it in that gear. Eventually, the slipping problem reduced significantly in frequency and I rode the rest of the tour with it in that condition.

I did have problems with my rear derailer getting into the smallest cog and getting into the largest cog on the freewheel. With any tension on the chain at all, getting into the largest cog, 30 tooth from the next largest, 26 tooth, was problematic. I would have to shift down one cog and then slam it up while also reducing chain tension (e.g. slowing or stopping pedaling) to get it into the largest cog. Same problem on the other end. I would have to up shift and then slam it down to get it to shift down onto the smallest cog. Sometimes, the derailer would then pull the chain right off the freewheel and it would get bound up between the freewheel and the bike frame. I would have to gingerly re-shift it to get it back onto the freewheel, sometimes after several attempts. This behavior became problematic as we encountered more rollers. In fact, I really started to feel the limitations of my bike on the rollers in Missouri. Having to take my hands off the handle bars to shift (sometimes both the front and rear derailers) really, really became tiresome after a long day of riding.

My IT Center

My IT center was my Droid RAZR Phone and Google Blogger.

I took all the video and pictures with my Droid RAZR phone and would make blog posts from my phone. I was probably the only rider who was not carrying a laptop computer. So, everything I did on line I did either from my phone or from whatever deskside computer the hotel provided in their business center. I did not very often use the hotel's wifi either opting instead to use my cell network. A lot of the time, it proved to be faster and more reliable than the hotel wifi. I was pretty impressed with how it all turned out.

I didn't spend any time at all researching blogging alternatives. I first tried Google+ but found it insanely complicated and difficult to use. So, I turned to Google's Blogger (blogspot.com). I did several tests with it prior to leaving for Costa Mesa to make sure I could do everything I wanted. I did encounter a lot of idiosyncratic behavior in the way the Droid's blogger app worked. Image upload wasn't at very high resolution. You couldn't choose where in the blog text to embed images from the Droid app. You couldn't easily create links to videos (but you could create whole new blog posts that acted as links to videos). It took me the first week of the tour to really learn how to use the Droid's blogger app. If you started editing a post on a deskside system, you'd get raw html when you went to edit it from the Droid with the blogger app. After creating links to videos, whenever I tested them in the blogger app, they would just hang there waiting to load a video. But, the links would work fine when testing from a deskside computer.

I also purchased a video editing app for the Droid; "AndroVidPro" so that I could edit videos on my phone. I used it mainly to trim and rotate videos. I discovered that if I started recording a video in horizontal orientation and then turned the phone to a vertical orientation, it would still treat the video on the phone as horizontal and vise versa. So, at first I created several videos that I wound up having to rotate 90 degrees with the editor app. And, that took a long time, sometimes 10-15 minutes to rotate a short video. 

I purchased an extra 32 GB memory card for my Droid phone just before leaving and so had plenty of space. I wound up using about 21 GB of it for all my videos and photos.

I created a YouTube playlist of all the videos I took during the ABB tour. I have a lot of videos of various people so please feel free to browse it and look for some of yourself.

Here are all the photos I took both as tests the week prior to the beginning of the tour and while on the tour.

outlook.exe \resetnavpane

This was the command I looked up on Google just after waking up on day 24 to help my wife resolve a problem with her email at home.

Outlook would not startup for her and she was desperate to get it working. It would immediately error out and never come up to display her email inbox.

Ordinarily, I provide all of my wife's "IT" support. But, I was away on the tour. So, when I woke up that morning, I found several text messages and emails emploring me for help to fix her email. Sandy had a slew of events happening that week and was lost without functioning email. So, I talked to her while I was leaving a deposit in the porcelin bank. After hearing her describe the problem, I Google'd the error message and discovered this command might fix the problem. So, I called her back and explained over the phone -- I was still leaving a deposit, it was a big one -- to go to the "Start" menu, and select "run" and then to type in the above command. Lets see is that a forward slash or a back slash? I explained to use the slash key with a slash that slants upper left to lower right.

Sandy dutifully typed it in and...it worked! Outlook started up and her email was once again working and she was forever grateful. All in a morning's work for an ABB cyclist ;)

Mechanicals

Various riders experienced various mechanical problems.

Phillipe, the rider from Isreal, probably had the worst misfortunes. On the first day, he had 4 flat tires. But, Mike later concluded the problem was with the bike wheels. Even with adequate rim-tape, the wheels kept poking holes in the tubes. So, Phillipe changed his wheels the first week. But, later on the bottom bracket (that's where the pedals connect to the bike frame) started getting noisier and noisier. The bearings were going. The problem is that with today's newer bikes, the bearings are press-fit into the bottom bracket (this is so the bottom bracket can be made as wide and as stiff as possible) and you cannot easily find replacement bearings at some Joe-Shmoe bike shop in middle-America. Phillipe pedaled with his bike in this condition as long as he could but eventually got himself a whole new bike on day 24, a Trek Madone. As luck would have it, the first morning he used that bike, it had a flat before he even left the parking lot of the hotel. That same morning, Phillipe's Garmin sent him off-route and he wound up pedaling through Pennsylvania alone and unsupported the whole day. Phillipe also accidentally washed his cell phone along with his cycling shoes and so needed new phone and shoes mid-way through the ride too. Phillipe even had trouble with the rental car the day after the ride ended. He accidentally drove over a curb and got a flat tire on the car. But, I never saw Phillipe get down in spirit or fail to have smile on his face and a happy demeanor. He really enjoyed himself and got stronger and stronger throughout the ride.

Another rider broke his carbon seat post. He probably had nearly 12 inches of it sticking out above the top of the seat tube. So, that certainly contributed to it. But, I think it was the really rough roads that probably did the seat post in.

Another rider broke his Dura-Ace cranks. I mean the crank arm just cracked into two pieces....

That was Dan and he was very lucky it happened as he was transitioning his weight to the other pedal. Dan has really strong legs...

Here he has Kenesio Tape on to protect his sore achilles tendons. If the cranks had failed while he was pushing hard down on the side that cracked, his foot would have hit the ground and he would have most likely injured his foot and/or crashed.

As an aside, another rider used Kenesio Tape for his knees. Thats big Tom. He said it saved his ride. He would not have been able to make it through the last climbing days without it.

Max had probably the most exotic bike of the whole group. It was a new Merida with Shimano 11 speed, Dura-Ace components. Max had a couple of drive-side spokes break, one each day on two successive days. He also had a problem with his front derailer cable that Mike worked on for more than an hour to fix. The bike was so new, Mike had to look around on line for an owner's manual that explained how to service the derailer.

Roger, one of the Fab 4 riders, had a cracked rim. Luckily he discovered it before it manifested as a problem on the bike. Mike drilled into us the need for routine inspection of our tires and wheels and Roger found the cracked rim during one of his daily checks. 

Ralph and Eric came with tubeless tires. I think they switched to tubed tires within the first week because the got too many flats.

The Riders

Barry Hardee, 47

This was his second crossing of the U.S. He did the North tour last year in 54 days. He is the only hemophiliac to do it. He was riding for a charity to bring the medications that help him to people in other countries with the same condition. He has had a total knee replacement in one leg and was nonetheless very hard to keep pace with. His story is known by people all over the world and there were frequently people waiting to meet him at each hotel. He kindly autographed my ABB jersey.

Richard, 47

Richard was my roommate and a very strong rider. He is also very knowledgeable about cycling training and fitness. It was great getting to know Richard. I feel like I've made a new friend. We have a lot in common; we're computer geeks, like Big Bang Theory and other tech stuff. He had his Garmin setup for live tracking so that his wife and other family and friends could see where he was in the country, how fast he was going, what his pedal cadence was, what his heart rate was, how many watts he was generating, what the temperature was, etc.

Greg, 57

I asked Greg if he wouldn't mind pairing with me on the ride to Dalhart, TX in those 30 mph headwinds. We rode 60 miles together trading 1 mile pulls. It took more than 6 hours to make the lunch SAG that day. The winds were so loud, we couldn't say but a few words to each other. I would not have made it that far without Greg's help. Greg and I worked in other pacelines on other days. But, I will never forget Dalhart. I think that was some of the hardest riding I've ever done. Just staying up on the bike at times was a challenge.

Dave, 55, (small) Tom, 59, Roger, 50 and Floris, 40

These were the Fab 4 riders (at least that is how I referred to them). All of them were very strong. They would start way later than me and eventually overtake me, usually before the first SAG. One day I tried hard to stay ahead of them as long as I could. I think I made it to mile 50 before being overtaken. As Floris passed, he said "you are really cranking today" and not long after that, he and they were so far ahead I couldn't see 'em.

Tim, 57

Tim was a real steady eddy. I probably rode more miles with Tim than any other rider. Our levels and pace were about equal. Tim set a very sane pace. When we happened to be leaving a SAG stop at the same time and facing some headwinds, we'd work together doing 1 mile pulls. I have a lot of video of Tim. He was great to ride with.

Dan, 41

I didn't ride much at all with Dan. He was usually ahead of me. But, we did share a meal together in Albuquerque. When we got to Springfield, we both recalled that meal and how much it felt like a lifetime earlier. Dan was also riding with a challenging medical condition. But, he didn't let that slow him down.

George, 49

George was the rider from England. He and Richard would frequently ride together, setting a pretty fast pace. I told George he was the only rider who was mean to me. With 20 miles left to go in day 25, he asked if I wanted to ride with him and then promptly set a very fast pace. After several minutes of drafting off him I wondered if I would have any left when it came my turn to pull. I tried my darndest to maintain the pace George set and he and I traded pulls finishing the last 20 miles of that day in something close to 50 minutes. It is probably the fastest I've ever ridden my bike for such an extended period of time.

Max, 59

Max was one of two riders from Australia. Here is a picture of Max's rear end...

The reason I am including it here is this was pretty much my view for several days through Kansas. Max was a very strong rider and pulled me a lot through the headwinds and sidewinds of Kansas. During one 30 mile section Max, Norman (another rider from Austrailia) and I traded "pulls" of sorts battling sidewinds while on the shoulder of a major highway. There was barely enough room for the three of us to stagger and it took a lot of concentration and effort to maintain our line with the tough sidewinds. That was probably some of the most technically challenging riding I have ever done. I was mentally exhausted when we reached the hotel.

Max and I also had another very enjoyable day where we chatted through most of it and rode at a very relaxed pace. We finished the day in around 8 hours and the time just seemed to fly by. And, when we reached the hotel, we still had plenty left in our legs for the last 2 days of the ride.

Jim, 64

At 64, Jim was the oldest of the riders. I recall seeing him on the Saturday before the tour started. He appeared slumped over his handlebars staring at his front wheel almost in a daze. I thought to myself that at least there was one rider I was going to be able to stay ahead of. I don't think I finished ahead of Jim one day. He was an incredibly strong rider. I hope I am as fit and able as Jim is when I reach 64.

Ralph, 55 and Eric, 22 (father and son)

Way cool to do this ride as father and son. Ralph and Eric were great. They taught me a new card game called "nine-fives." They were always smiling and positive and got stronger as the ride progressed. They had done only one century ride prior to this tour and showed amazing courage I think to take on this challenge given their brief experience. They did an awesome job.

Jan, 54 (the Doctor)

Jan (pronounced Yaan) is a Lung doctor. We often rode in the same pacelines together. On the first day into Missouri, when we started to hit the rollers there, Jan and Max took off over the first rise and I never saw them the rest of the day. Jan said that was his kind of riding and he definitely showed it. Jan and I wore the same kind of compression sox too. They came all the way up to the knees and other riders thought they looked a little ridiculous. But, once Jan saw me wearing mine with no shame, he sported a pair of his own the rest of the tour.

Shane, 27

Shane was from Ireland. Everyone loved his accent. He often rode with big Eric, Dan and big Tom. He made my mom's day when he commented at the banquet about how much he liked my mom's care package treats.

Phillipe, 54

Phillipe was from Isreal. A half hour into the first day, I passed him and he looked awful; sweating profusely, breathing hard, etc. He was pushing himself way too hard. I thought to myself, "Dude, you've got 32 more days of this. You need to ease off a bit." On top of that Phillipe's group riding ediquette needed some polishing. For example, as a group of our riders approached a 90 degree turn onto a 1-lane bridge crossing, we all slowed lining up behind each other and he sped past all of us appearing to me at least to be trying to use the (risky) opportunity to get to the front. On several occasions departing Palm Springs on day two, I would pass Phillipe by going out into a car traffic lane only to have him shoot by me (and any other riders who may have been there) stopped at a stop signal. Eventually, I had to pass him again by once again moving out into the car traffic lanes. If this happened once it must have happened half a dozen times leaving Palm Springs. Although Phillipe sometimes had the worst of luck with his bike, he was always smiling and looking like he was having a good time. He got significantly stronger as the ride progressed.

big Tom, 56

Prior to this tour, I think big Tom had ridden only one century ride. He was tall; 6',4" I think. He broke a carbon seat post somewhere around Albuquerque. He ran into some serious problems with saddle sores and his knee joints mid-way through the tour and had to make all sorts of adjustments to mitigate them. He started leaving the hotel earlier and earlier and did a lot more riding alone than he had done up to Albuquerque. He started using Kenesio Tape on his knees too. He said that helped a lot. He stayed focused and managed to complete the tour in spite of various challenges he was dealing with.

big Eric, 41

Big Eric was the first rider I met on the tour. We had some breakfast together the Saturday morning in Costa Mesa before the tour began. I learned he was a college professor of English. He had a nice Cervelo bike and was a strong rider. I wasn't fast enough to keep up with Eric and his group though. Eric left us in Springfield to get back to his wife and children who he missed a lot. Who could blame him after 24 days of doing nothing but living, eating and sleeping cycling with the same 24 guys.

Jody, 55

Jody was one of those really quiet guys but is nonetheless an animal on the bike. I didn't ride with Jody much but I recall helping him during one of the mechanics periods. He was hearing a clicking sound from his cranks on every pedal stroke and I suggested he had a loose chainring bolt. I had had the same problem 2 months prior and it took me weeks to figure out what it was. I thought it was the bearings in the pedals or cranks. But, he grabbed a wrench and checked all his chainring bolts and sure enough found a loose one. After he tightened it, he test rode his bike and the sound was gone. I was impressed with myself that day.

Joe, 54

Joe was another one of those really quite guys. Joe was using this tour to get in shape for some triathalons later this year. He was from the Boston area so the whole time he was basically pedaling back home. Joe kept a very steady and sane pace each day but I just had the impression if he wanted to at any moment he could explode up a climb or on the flats. He often rode with Ralph and Eric, I think to keep the two of them out of trouble ;)

Phil, 51

Phil rode for the wounded warrior project. He often rode with Jim which meant he was often way ahead of me. So, I didn't ride with Phil too much. I recall on one of those rare days we had a good wind from the west, he rode hard for a personal record century time of 4:30. Thats a fast century -- even if it was wind-aided. Phil was a bit of a jokester too.

Norman, 54

Norman was the other rider from Australia. He joined us in Albuquerque. He brought a steel frame bike for the tour too. But, it was damaged in shipment and so he had to buy a whole new bike before starting in Albuquerque. He bought an aluminum Trek Madone and was very strong on it the whole tour. He agreed to sell the bike to my roommate after finishing but walked out the hotel with two brand new bikes he had ordered from custom shops here in the states to take back to Australia. He came here to do this tour to help prepare for a national Australian race in October. Good luck to you in the race, Norman.

Gary, 59

Gary joined us in Springfield and was a very strong rider. But, several days after starting, he had to leave the tour due to family health issues. Gary was my card partner when beating Ralph and Eric at "nine-fives."

The Staff

Mike Monk - Colonel

Mike was the tour leader and was very experienced at leading cross-country tours. He's done over 50 now. He was retired airforce (Colonel I think) and so ran the tour a bit like a military boot camp. At least that is what it felt like at times. On the other hand, given all of the logistics, I can't imagine running it any other way. Mike also rode a lot of segments of the tour too on a Roark, custom titanium frame. His routine was to ride the white SAG van in the mornings ahead of the riders and take pictures as they passed and then get on his bike in the afternoons. He rode a couple of times with me and I don't think broke a sweat keeping up with me. He also crawled all over the top of the SAG vans to load and unload bikes even in the 30 mph winds in Texas. Occasionally, he would help Jim during evening mechanics time too. Mikes emphasis on safety was essential to the success of this tour.

Barbara Monk - Mom

Barbara was like a mom/wife away from home. She made sure we all washed our hands before we pawed through food and checked in at various SAG stops and made sure we were taking care of ourselves in the way of eating and recovering. Barbara also encouraged various of us to shave after we started looking pretty haggard. Barbara rode her bike on a few segments and I rode with her for a little bit somewhere through New Mexico - just before a big descent off a mesa. Barbara drove the blue SAG van with the luggage trailer. I looked froward to every SAG stop, Barbara. Barbara's emphasis on hygien was essential to ensuring no one got sick or passed sickness to anyone else.

Jim Benson - Mechanic

Jim would ride his bike in the mornings and drive the white SAG van in the afternoons. Jim also handled all of the mechanics activities every evening. Some evenings, he would be busy for more than 2 hours fixing various  rider's bikes. I recall battling with the car traffic of Albuquerque with Jim the day we rode to Las Vegas. We had to make a left turn by crossing three lanes of 45 mph car traffic. There was a small gap in the car traffic and I followed Jim's lead and made it through that really busy intersection without a mishap.

Karen Bauer - Navigator

Karen would walk us through the route during each RAP meeting and alert us to any places where extra caution was needed or where a turn could be easily missed. She would also let us know what to expect in the way of restaurants, shops and bike stores upon entering various towns or around our hotels. Karen would also ride a Roark custom titanium bike part of each day. I rode with her a couple of times and she is a very steady rider. On the big climbs, she would easily overtake me. Karen also helped getting SAG stops set up and she was always encouraging everyone along with a smile and upbeat attitude.

I Finished!

Been too tired and busy to post anything the last few days. But I did finish yesterday afternoon.

 

Woohoo! All 24 riders finished safely.

 

What an awesome experience.

 

I will post more later....

 

In the last few days we completed Liverpool to Amsterdam, NY, Amsterdam, NY. to Keene, NH. and Keene NH. to the Atlantic ocean in Amesbury, MA.

I took this video I think during the run into Liverpool.

We have been really lucky with the weather this whole trip and particularly within the last few days. The forecast for Liverpool was severe thunder storms. But, we arrived in Liverpool with only light rains. Boy did it get stormy that night though. We had high winds, rain and a lot of lightening. Richard and I decided to order out for pasta and salad...

We got a bunch of food! Way too much to eat comfortably. But, it was good.

We had another 3 state day leaving Amsterdam for Keene. We started in New York, went through Vermont for about 4 hours and then arrived in Keene, NH.

I don't have the New Hampshire state border picture yet because it was taken by Mike. I rode the rest of the way into Keene from the New Hampshire state border with Mike and Karen. When I arrived there, I got the weirdest collection of cards and comments. Someone had left a card and a squirt gun for me. The name "Mark Miller" is such a common name I figured there must have been a mistake. But, the hotel front desk attendant said they didn't have any other Mark Miller's at the hotel and, in any event, it was intended for one of the ABB cyclists. They said the squirt gun was to help with the occasional dogs that sometimes chase after us. It was really wierd! More on that later.

There was a lot of climbing in these last few days; a total of about 15,000. 3,000 on day 31, 7,000 on day 32 and 5,000 on day 33. I made some handlebar videos during these climbs; climbing with Ralph and Joe, another one climb with Shane, Dan and Tim, another one nearing the top of Hogback.

Passed this amazing church in a small town in Vermont, whose name I cannot remember now...

We paralleled this river for a couple of the climbs. I don't remember the name of the river though

This was the panarama from the top of Hogback climb. I think this is still in New York. Amazing view. Not at all what I envision when I think of New York.

 

Here I am at the top of Hogback...



 

 

Here the riders are assemblying at the last rondezvous point before the final 2 miles into Salisbury beach in Amesbury, MA.

 

 



And, here is Sandy at our hotel room in Amesbury...

 

 

And, guess who also met me at the finish...

 



...my Mom and Dad. A total surprise. They were the ones who left the funny package and card at Keene hotel.

More pictures later...

Dunkirk to Batavia to Liverpool NY

Short day yesterday. Just 82 miles. Took it pretty easy to put some in the bank for the last few days. My body is definitely feeling some cuumualtive fatigue. My energy levels are decent in the morning but drop in the afternoon. I feel like I am struggling then.

The weather has been very nice. Low 80s by mid-afternoon.

Tomorrow we may face some thunder showers. Our instructions are to duck into some nearby shelter if we are in lightening.

I got into Batavia around 3pm.

Today's ride was Batavia to Liverpool: 120 miles and about 2500 feet of climbing. I felt great in the morning. Richard passed me about 7 miles before lunch SAG and pulled me into lunch. I tried like mad to stay in the aerodynamic sweet spot behind him. He rides pretty low so he is hard to draft off of.  But he must have pulled at about 22 mph. It was nice to go that fast and not have to work so hard. With Richard's help and help from Jim earlier I finished the first 60 miles in 3:30. That's a little fast for me. Burning too much fuel early. 

When we hit lake Seneca the temperature dropped maybe 15 degrees.

I took some more video from my bike during the Batavia day.

Three more ~120 mile days to go!

You're Invited...

We are planning on having a recap party on June 9th at 3 pm at Round Table Pizza in Davis. Please RSVP to sandy@cultureco-op.com. I hope to show pictures and videos, tell stories and answer questions.

3 States in one Day

First, the state of confusion; easy to get lost leaving Warren because there were a few unmarked streets to follow. Next, state of hunger. I have been getting hungry in the middle of the last couple of ride days and that is just very unusual for me. I know I have lost weight but I am eating everything in site. Finally, state of fatigue; it was 140 miles today and we had 15 mph headwinds the last 50 coming off Lake Erie.

But, really, we started in Ohio, went through Pennsylvania and finished in New York. Three states in one day. Thats pretty cool...

And we entered New York a couple hours later...

I knew this was going to be a tough day. So, I decided to start as early as possible. The tour staff helps to get some of the weaker riders started earlier to help reduce the spread late in the day. So, I loaded a half hour early, at 6:30 am and was pedaling by 6:35. I was the first out of the hotel and rode alone to the first SAG stop at mile 35. The other early riders had problems with their route due to Phillipe's Garmin sending them in the wrong direction. So, even though they got an early start, all that was negated by going 10 miles off route. But, I've heard Phillipe was a bit stubburn and refused to revert to get back on route. So, the other 3 riders left him and no one saw Phillipe the rest of the day though he was calling the tour staff on a regular basis to let them know he was "...somewhere in Pennsylvania."

I really worked hard on moderating my effort. I rarly used by 12 tooth rear cog and instead used the next lower gear, 15 tooth. I also up'd my cadence from mid-70's to mid-80's to compensate a bit for the smaller gear. That worked really well most of the day. My legs felt reasonably fresh at the end of the ride. I was still able to take several pulls at the front with a group of other riders during the last 50 miles.

I rode to about mile 90 alone. I got passed by the Fab 4 plus several other riders (Richard, Max, Norman, Phil, Jim) somewhere around mile 60. We hit a detour that several riders chose to ignore. But, the tour staff had spray painted some markers on the ground diverting us onto other roads. So, I followed those markers and they lead most of us unto a few miles of dirt road. If I had just ignored the markers and broken through the detour, I would have discovered there was really nothing to prevent bikers from getting through. There wasn't even a road crew working. But, I hate to ride several miles down a road past a detour point only to find out the road is impassable and I should have taken the detour. So, I followed the markings like most other riders behind me.

Here is a nice picture right on the lake from Route 5...

Thats the white SAG van in the foreground. Mike was waiting here for riders to pass.

Lunch SAG was at 110 miles. There I met up with Tim and eventually Jan and Greg joined us and we did the last 30 miles together fighting the headwinds coming off lake Erie. Here is some video. We each took 1 mile pulls and it worked really well. We did have one very close call where Tim's front wheel rubbed Greg's rear wheel when Greg went to stand. Greg did announce he was standing but often riders announce it at the same time they do it which doesn't really help too much. I could see Tim struggling to maintain control as he started to fall (to his right fortunately -- away from the traffic lanes) and he managed to get it under control before he fell. It was close though.

We saw an Amish horse and buggy go by and an Amish farmer tilling his field with a horse and plow. That was really cool.

I finished the ride in 10 hours elapsed time today. I am really proud of myself on this segment because it was a long, segment with some difficult headwinds at times but I maintained my focus and kept my effort moderated so that I completed it without a huge toll on my body. My roomate finished it in around 8 hours. One advantage to having such a fast roomate...when he got to the hotel, he asked for a room with a view. So, we got a room with a view of the lake...

Also, saw a really nice car that reminded me of guess who...

Just 87 miles tomorrow. So, we can sleep in. Load isni't til 8:30 am. Woohoo!!!

Wooster to Warren OH

Did 98 miles today from Wooster to Warren Ohio.

It was sunny and nice temps at the start. But, about 10 miles into the ride, it got really, really foggy. I seriously considered pulling off the road for a while because I was starting to feel uncomfortable with how foggy it was. I couldn't see anything because my glasses kept fogging up. Then, it occurred to me..."take your damn glasses off, stupid." Its pretty amazing how fatigue can make you stupid! Then I could see again! It was still pretty foggy and I was concerned about traffic being able to see me. We didn't see the sun until after about 3 hours of riding.

We had some slightly longer climbs today but still a lot of up and down rollers too. My energy levels were still below normal early in the ride. I was actually feeling hungry when I got to the lunch stop. Ordinarily, I never feel hungry during a ride. I ate a lot; a PB&J sandwich, a ham and cheese sandwich, two cokes, a reese's peanut butter cup, a snickers bar, a banana and two pickles. Then, I had more energy later in the ride and started feeling my normal self again.

Here is the Fab 4 plus Jim (far left) and Phil (next to Jim) at the lunch SAG...

I got into Warren about 2:30pm and went straight to a Taco Bell for 3 tacos. Had a very nice chat with a local woman who is a teacher here. Another guy eating there asked to take a picture of my bike because he just couldn't believe anyone was riding such an antique ;)

I've already had one dinner. At Outback Steakhouse, I had a ceasar salad and a salmon filet with broccoli. It was good but not filling enough. Went to Chipotle for my second dinner. While on the phone with Sandy, I felt my energy levels just plummet and felt like I might be getting a head cold.
So, instead of participating in the T-shirt trade, I went straight to my room.

Thats Tim. He won the shirt I brought from Davis. He is 57 and he and I have ridden many miles together; last 30 into Blythe, last 50 into Topeka and last 50 into Dunkirk.

I had to change out my front wheel tube. It was an old tube, maybe 4 years, and it was a Schrader valve and just wasn't holding pressure with a darn. I would inflate to 90 psi in the morning and by the time I got it, it would be below 60. Since I have had so few flats since switching to Specialized Armadillo tires, I guess I've sort of forgotten how old my tubes are and have been riding with the same old spare tube for a couple of years now. That isn't good. So, I got a new tube in Wooster and put it on in Warren and things are back to normal there.

Saw some more flowers that reminded me of my wonderful wife...

I got another care package from my Mom. I don't have any pictures of it because it was all gone 20 minutes after I opened it. It was Chocolate Chip cake. I had a piece along with my rooomate, Richard, and then I shared it with everyone at the T-shirt swap. You can see Floris, the Netherlends rider, having a piece in this picture...

Floris said he loved it! Here is some video from the end if the swap and people eating the cake.

We got to bed a bit earlier before heading out for the big 140 miler to Dunkirk, NY.

Poor Phillipe had to buy himself a whole new bike in Warren. His carbon Fuji was just falling apart on him. He had to replace both wheels in the first 150 miles of days 1 & 2. He has had a problem with the bottom bracket bearings going bad for several days now and it was becoming problematic to pedal. To save manufacturing costs, manufacturers are building bikes with bearings that are 'special' to each bottom bracket. They are impossible to service in the field because you have to match bearing sets to bottom brackets and cranks. Phillipe bought himself a Trek Madone 5.2. Thats probably a $2,500.00 bike. He then moved the saddle, pedals and handlebars from his old bike onto the new bike. But, would you believe, before leaving the parking lot in Warren heading for Dunkirk, he had a flat tire? To add insult to injury, his Garmin computer apparently sent him in the wrong direction shortly after leaving Warren and he was lost and off-route the entire day. Phillipe has not had very much luck. But, he has a can-do attitude and continues to stay positive and enjoy himself.

I made another video from behind the bars