Looking for the perfect resort community?

Pull out your wallets. Adrian Hands sent along this item from the NYT real estate section. Finally, a place we road riders can call home...

Pla d'Adet

WHAT Resort community aimed at cycling enthusiasts (it’s pronounced PLAH-da-day).
WHERE Just north of Greenville, S.C.
AMENITIES An extensive training facility and a spa, among others.
PRICES Homesites from $399,000.
STATUS Construction is scheduled to begin this fall, and the development will begin opening in 2009.
DEVELOPER Pla d’Adet Development Company.
CONTACT (864) 561-9134 or www.pladadet.com.

DETAILS Headed in part by George Hincapie, the professional cyclist who has won several major events and was a teammate of Lance Armstrong, this more than 300-acre performance training center and residential resort is in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northwest South Carolina. It will comprise 97 one- to two-and-a-half-acre homesites surrounding a village with a restaurant, a bike shop, the spa and the training facility, which will include an indoor pool, a sauna, a fitness center and cycling training rooms. The village area will also have three-bedroom chalet-style houses and one-bedroom town houses that may be used by owners — or their guests — for at least six weeks a year. There will be trails for running and cycling: a 4.6-mile rubberized loop and another seven miles of single-track mountain-bike trails. Some trails will link with popular cycling routes in the area. Greenville’s airport, about 40 minutes away, is served by major airlines.

Hmmm... both the prices, and the hills, look too steep for me.

Still, it'd be fun to borrow a cup of carbohydrates from your neighbor George.

The Velorution will NOT be motorized! A Q&A With Adrian Hands

The Velorution will NOT be motorized! -- Quote from Adrian Hand’s Web site, Mi Pagina de la Bicicleta

When the Velorution gets under way, when bicycles take back the Earth and cars are rarer than a rubber machine at the Vatican, we can count on Yo Adrian to be leading the troops.

Simply put, Yo A is the best cycling advocate we’ve got.

He is the former president of the North Carolina Bicycle Club and has organized several of its century rides.

He’s been an active leader of a local charity ride, the Frostbite Tour.

He's always on hand anytime bicycling is publicly promoted in the Triangle.

And have you checked out his Web site? It’s Links-O-Rama, baby: Bikes, Routes, Safety, Clubs, Randonneuring, Advocacy, Cycling Heros, Bike Camping. You want it? He’s got it.

Maybe every cycling club has a character like Adrian. If they don’t, they need one.

Adrian is the guy who will cycle anywhere, anytime, no questions asked.

Have a few extra vacation days? Book a jet to Germany, borrow a bike from a new Internet pal, and explore the river paths, or radwegs, along the Main, Rhine, Mosel and Kyll.

Bulgaria sounds like a cool place. While there, what the hey, why not do a little biking -- say a little 1200K called Sofia-Varna-Sofia.

Up for a 200K? Hmm… this ride in China sounds interesting.

Adrian is the guy who believes bikes belong everywhere.

I remember driving back into Raleigh from a beach trip. As I hit the edge of town on Hwy 64 -- one of our busiest arteries -- I saw a fixed gear in the far right lane. Yup: Yo A.

Adrian is the guy who believes carrying water on a 600K is optional. There’ll be some along the way, right?

Adrian will be part of Team Tar Heel at this year’s Paris Brest Paris. In typical fashion, he’s arriving through Belgium for a little sightseeing beforehand.

Adrian will be riding a recumbent this time around. He has nerve damage in his left hand that has made it hard for him to use the bars and brakes on a standard bike.

Following is his e-mail Q&A. I’ve left untouched his e.e. cummings’ approach to capitalization.

You've done PBP once before. What did you learn in 03 that will help you this time? lots of little things--e.g. don't leave your drop bag on the metro--but mostly that i can do it. prior to pbp, the longest rides i'd done were the 600kms, and i'd never finished one feeling like i could take a short nap and repeat. but after pbp, i felt on top of the world. i couldn't wait four years, so i went to bulgaria the next summer to ride the 1200km there.

as far as lessons learned--get some rest BEFORE the ride...we'll see. on long rides its good to have an accurately calibrated odometer--in kilometers, more important on the rides with fewer participants to follow. france is colder than nc. pick up as many french phrases as you can.

As a randonneur, you tend to take as much time as the ride allows. If you get 90 hours, you take 90 hours. Your philosophy? we call it "getting your money's worth" ;-) i think it should be a ninety hour ride. if you finish in 80, you should do another loop, maybe to belgium and back.

sridhar said it best: "it's important to finish with a certain measure of style and grace." who wants to drag themselves half-dead across the finish line? don't finish before noon on Friday, please, it's not in keeping with the l'esprit. on an epic ride, like pbp or cnc, i hate for it to end, so theres no way i'm finishong before i have to.

Your most memorable brevet, and why? did i mention i really enjoyed bulgaria? i got a kick out of doing jim wilson's brevets in gainesville beginning in january after pbp. it was neat having randonneurs from all over--well, not all over the world, but from several states--descend on this unsuspecting florida town to light out at 4am on a brevet, whiring generators, geeky lights, reflective vests, long miles and all.

You've switched over to a recumbent. Do you prefer bent over nonbent? i really like my diamond-frame fixed-gear, but i want to do pbp on the 'bent this time, so i've parked the fixie until after pbp. i got the 'bent after a physical therapist recommended it--i've been having motor nerve problems since 2005, but honestly i'd thought about touring 'bent even before--for a better view of the french countryside, though i like the respect for tradition and heritage inherent in a proper upright bike (like Velocio rode!)

What ride or adventure is on your "Gee-whiz, I gotta do that one" list? m-g-m, s-r-s, the baltic-star lake ladoga, maybe iceland. i'd like to ride bulgaria again, but it doesn't have to be the 1200km. i've been thinking about riding from varna on bulgarya's black sea coast to istanbul--that would be cool!

You never seem to get down or show your suffering on these long rides. Your secret? maybe i'm fortunate that i don't suffer much--i don't get cramps and i've a cast-iron stomach. maybe i'm too lazy to push myself to the point of severe suffering. i was born in louisiana and though i didn't grow up there, i spent a number of years there--got married twice there--and le Joie de Vivre is one aspect of the culture i choose to retain. i think it makes sense that randonneuring attracts cheerful people--the "vineger tasters"--who know how to enjoy life even when things get uncomfortable. "Laissez les bons temps rouler!"

What book(s) are you taking to Paris? books are great, but best left at home--travel light--read them before you go, then carry memories!

What's in rotation on your I-Pod? french language lessons. the language structure seems more difficult for english speakers than spanish or even german, but it's very rewarding to learn.

When's the last time you owned a car? Why'd you sell it? seven years ago--a giant ford econoline conversion van. i was embarassed to drive it to sierra club meetings! i swear i thought the salesman was joking when he said "10mpg". over an eighteen year span, i've owned a couple vw vans, a buick, a chevy, a ford, a toyota, a mazda and then i discovered i like everything about bikes much more than anything about cars.

Any questions you wish I'd asked? i wish you'd ask me to recite the bene gesserit litany on randonneuring. thus i have heard:

"I must not sleep.
Sleep is the brevet-killer.
Sleep is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fatigue.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fatigue has gone there will be nothing.
Only the brevet will remain."

In the Blogs / On the Lists

A quick look around today:

* News & Observer blog. N&O reporter Joe Miller continues his saga here of Branson’s pre-ride of the 600K. It’s only fitting the recap took two days to tell. That’s also how long the ride lasted. Joe gives a link back to the Trailer Park. Thanks, Joe!

* Mark Thomas’ blog. In case you haven’t been keeping score, RUSA President Mark Thomas has been racking up serious miles in this PBP year.

Just how many? His wife has finally noticed and accused him of overtraining. Ouch!

Mark just completed a pre-ride of a 1000K being hosted this weekend by Oregon RBA Susan France. That epic ride runs from Portland to Whitefish, Mont. The route promises tailwinds, scenery and Hills O’Plenty. Mark’s recap is here.

For the record, El Presidente has now completed 8 1000Ks, including two in the last two weeks. Like the guy said in Princess Bride, “Inconceivable!” If Mark completes two more, I move that RUSA create a special trophy and immediately retire it…

* Audax Atlanta list. The stories about the latest PAC Tour just keep getting better and better. Kevin Kaiser has now posted a fuller account on the Georgia Randon list about how tough this year’s ride was. Here’s a sample:

Day two was predicted to have only moderate temperatures, but a headwind and 106 degree afternoon spelled doom for 40% of the riders, including myself. I lost 10-12 pounds before I sagged in at 155 miles. I was devastated and looked for ways to abandon the tour. All I could think of was that it was an extremely cheap way to find out that I could never handle RAAM.

The full story is here.

* Surly Dave. Down under in Melbourne, Australia, Surly Dave has finally found a label that fits him: Retrogrouch. Check out his blog here.

Got a blog site you’d like to have listed in the links at right? Please send it along: mdayton@nc.rr.com.

A Season of Recovery: Q&A with Wes Johnson

I had a sick feeling when I heard the ambulance heading toward us.

Capn Ende, Wes and I were halfway done with last October’s Bonifay 1000k in NW Florida. We’d finished the climb up Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama, around noon.

Now we were homeward bound, riding a tailwind, the overnight stop at Auburn in our sights. A beautiful day, a straight road, good company. And bicycles.

Sometime after the climb, Wes drifted off the back. Ende and I weren’t concerned. We had a planned stop about six miles up the road. We’d get a soda or a burger, wait for Wes to roll in.

Then came the ambulance, siren and lights on.

I pulled over and powered up my cell phone.

“Ende, I’ve got a bad feeling,” I said. We rang up Wes.

When Wes answered, the pain in his voice was unmistakable. He’d been hit from behind by a pick-up hauling a utility trailer.

The truck mirror clipped him in the back. The wheel well of the trailer apparently caught him behind the left knee.

We spoke with Wes for a minute more before the ambulance transported him to a nearby hospital.

We debated quitting, Ende and I, but with no easy way to do that, we rode on and eventually finished the ride. But it was not the sweet joy it should have been. There was supposed to be three of us.

Early reports about Wes’ condition were encouraging. There were no broken bones, no life-threatening injuries. But his cycling season was over.

Wes was off the bike for months, in and out of physical therapy, as he attempted to regain the full use of his left knee. He still complains about numbness there, and his doctors say that may be permanent.

Wes completed the brevet series, qualifying for Paris Brest Paris -- but it wasn’t always pretty. He showed up in racer form for the Morrisville 200K. Three weeks later and 35 miles from the finish, he dropped out of the 300K, chalking up the DNF to mental frustration and physical exhaustion.

And he nearly threw in the towel on the 600K, taking an eight-hour break at the turnaround, declaring he wanted to sag in, then climbing back on his bike and successfully completing the ride.

That took a lot of guts.

His whole season took a lot of guts.

I’m proud to count Wes among the Carolina crew heading to PBP. Because he’ll do us proud.

An aside: When Wes started randonneuring, he was only 25 -- about half the age of his riding buddies. He got painted with the obvious nickname, “The Kid.”

There’s now a new kid on the brevet block -- 18-year-old Justin -- so we’ve had to retire that moniker. We’re open to suggestions.

Following are Wes’ comments in the latest installment on Tar Heel riders heading to PBP.

First, how's the knee? Fully recovered? I was very apprehensive about the knee this spring. Normally I ride through the winter, but I went about 3 months without riding. Physical therapy and 30 minute easy trainer rides were not the best gauge. I still have numbness on the back of my knee.

The doc said if it is like that after a year it most likely will be permanent.

I guess if everything else is really hurting on a ride I don’t have to worry about 1 spot.

After the Bonifay accident, was it tough to get your head back in the brevets? Physically I seemed to be in good form but mentally I really had a tough series.

Yea, I really wanted to take the year off. Because it was a PBP year I felt really pressured to ride and I was worried about the knee.

It was up to the last minute trying to get in shape enough to ride a 200k. The 200k went pretty well and I kept waiting for the knee to hurt on longer rides.

You nearly dropped out on the 600K, but then got up and headed back up the route after an eight-hour break. What got you rolling again? Forgetfulness and sleep. All I needed was 8 hours off bike with a few hours of sleep. My brain forget the previous day of mental suffering.

In one word, what does PBP represent for you? Adventure. Never been to Europe, Never done a 1200k.

Your most memorable randonneuring moment? I think there are just too many to pick one. 1) Having to stop 5 miles from the end of the 2005 600k and rest, I was so overheated. I lost 7 pounds that ride, lesson learned. 2) Crashing hard during a county line sprint at last year's Spartanburg 300k. I have since "retired" from sprinting. I'm pretty sure most of my riding buddies also retired shortly after. 3) Finding this awesome restaurant on the first day of last year’s Bonifay-Cheaha Challenge 1000K. Mike Dayton, Cap'n John Ende and myself laid waste to the buffet.

What book are you taking to Paris? No idea, my wife has a list of books she wants me to read. She'll give me something to take.

You're only 27. Several of your riding buddies are in their 50s.What's it like riding with those old farts? I’m 28 so at least I’m slightly more then half their age now! If I could climb like JoeRay (2007 Town mountain hill climb masters champion), have a pain threshold like John Ende and ride forever like Mike Dayton, I just might be getting somewhere. It will take years though. JoeRay keeps telling me I’ll never catch up to them since they have been training for 20+ years. Maybe when I’m 40 and they are nearing 70 I can take them…..

One of your hobbies is salt water aquariums. How'd you get started? Abi and I had freshwater fish for a while and she thought we should get saltwater. I’d wanted to try a saltwater reef tank and once she said we should I jumped onto the net looking at websites on it. If anyone is interested I have some pictures.

Last three CDs you bought/downloaded? I don’t buy music that often, I mainly listen to streaming audio stations on Shoutcast. Mostly the punk/ska station on RantRadio. I did buy the new Anti-Flag CD recently before I saw them at Cat’s Cradle.

Describe a week of training. During the week I ride 2 or 3 days, most of time with JoeRay.

Wednesdays -- The non-racers have named our regular route “Tour de Chapel Hill." It is a fast, race-like ride around Orange County. Last week the leg crushing pace was 22.3.

Thursdays -- If I can still feel my legs there is a group who leaves just outside of Chapel Hill. It’s equally fast but a little steadier. If my legs are dead I’ll go do 30+ mile loop myself.

On the weekends I try to get in longer rides (150k+) with Dayton, JoeRay, Dan and others. If not there is a 100k group ride that leaves from Wilson Park in Chapel Hill.

This year to train for PBP I’m planning on riding from Chapel Hill to Lake Norman and back the next day. It’s a pretty hilly route about 220k each way. If anyone wants to do that ride for training let me know. I am thinking about riding it again the last week on July or the first weekend in August.

What question do you wish I'd asked? Two bikes leave different cities heading toward each other at different speeds. When and where do they meet? Answer – No Idea - I was only a math major in college, not a bike rider.

Randonneuring in the Mainstream Media

Raleigh N&O reporter Joe Miller has been chronicling Branson Kimball's quest to do PBP. In a June 28 blog entry, Joe has a recap of the 600K pre-ride that Branson and I did over Memorial Day weekend. Looks like it might be a two-part installment. Here's the blog's lead-in.

It's not unusual to be wiped after biking 100 miles. And it's no big deal if you're doing a century and you're about to debike and dive into a big pasta dinner.

It is a big deal when you've still got 277 miles to go.

Joe's been an enthusiastic supporter of cycling in the Triangle. I've seen him at Cycle North Carolina and the Frostbite ride, a local charity event.

Meantime, on the Georgia randon list, Kevin Kaiser posted a link to a Savannah Morning News article that announced the arrival of "the 39 survivors of the 2007 Pacific-Atlantic-Cycling Elite Tour." Kevin and brother Chris were among the finishers.

Lon Haldeman, who runs the PAC Tour with Susan Notarangelo, reported a 22 percent attrition rate among the 50 riders who started. Two riders were injured in crashes, and the heat accounted for the other dropouts, according to the newspaper article. One of those injured was Ed Pavelka.

Finally, I mentioned Nancy Guth in a recent post as the perennial champ of the women's 24-hour race. Here's an article about her from a Virginia newspaper.

The Metamorphosis: A Q&A with Caroline Atkins

I first interviewed Mars Hill rider Caroline Atkins in 2005 for American Randonneur. Back then, she was in her rookie season of randonneuring. She said she’d “started cycling in an obsessive, maniacal way in 2001. Prior to that, I was a long-distance runner and dabbled in triathlons.”

Caroline has been a mainstay of the N.C. series ever since.

She came to randonneuring from a racing background. Her explanation for switching focus: “I was a lousy racer,” she said in an e-mail Q&A.

Caroline is selling herself short. She occasionally pursues her former passion and competed in a UMCA 24-Hour race in 2005, where she finished second by three miles to perennial champ Nancy Guth of Stafford, Va.

I’m fortunate to be on Caroline’s e-mail list. Her ride reports reveal a sharp eye, a self-deprecating wit and a talent for looking on the lighter side of randonneuring headaches.

Consider this frontline report from the ongoing war between man (or woman) and machine. Her bike’s shifting “had been fussy all day,” she reported, and she dropped her chain as she headed up a climb on the Middle Tennessee 600K on June 2-3, which she jokingly described as a “death march.”

I tried to save it, as I can usually do, by shifting back to the big ring. Nope. Not this time. In fact, the chain got STUCK, and my cranks/pedals would no longer turn. My weight was to the right, trying to drive the pedal down, and the bike started going. No time to unclip. I SCREAMED, and BAM!! I was down. In the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, by myself. My helmet hit the pavement, hard, and I remember thinking, “oh. That sounded kinda bad.” But then, I was so spittin’ mad, that I knew I was probably OK. However, I was on my back, shoes still clipped into my pedals, like a beetle stuck on its back with its legs flailing in the air. What’s the name of that play by Kafka about the cockroach stuck on its back? [The Metamorphosis.] You get the picture. Add the soundtrack of every expletive you can think of; I won’t elaborate, as your obscenity filters probably won’t allow passage.

In the 2005 Am/R interview, Caroline said randonneuring fulfilled a need “to keep a focus outside myself.”

Whether it involves a spiritual faith, an appreciation of the natural beauty I'm riding through, being thankful for the health, strength, and determination to ride, or focusing on the love of my spouse, family, and friends, I've found it very important to focus on something much larger than my own little internal world.

Caroline's focus is now on PBP. Read on for her thoughts about participating in that fabled event.

[One note: Caroline kindly gives me a litle credit for helping in her first year. For the record, that help was largely limited to shouting out the next turn while drafting her rear wheel...]

What attracted you to PBP as your first 1200K rather than some of the U.S. events? The enormity of PBP—the event’s history and the fact that it is an incredible celebration of cycling attracted me most of all. The timing is also appropriate, in that I have ridden the brevet series for only the past 2 years, and was uncertain whether I was ready for a 1200k before this. Not that I’m certain I’m ready now!

Do you have a time goal in mind? Nope. Anything under 90 hours will do. I’m there to enjoy the experience, and hesitate to make myself miserable with a time goal, other than what is required.

Do you plan to ride with friends or on your own during PBP? I plan to ride whatever pace my body allows at any given moment, with friends made along the way. Hopefully, I’ll ride parts of it with NC friends!

Who’s the first person you’ll call when you’ve finished? My husband, Tony.

When you get your PBP medal, will it go on the wall or in the drawer? It will eventually go on the wall, when I get around to arranging the series’ memorabilia in a frame. It might not be completed until the NEXT PBP.

What book is going in your travel bag? Very good question. Cycling has contributed to my downward spiral into illiteracy. I rarely find time to read anymore, and when I do, I instantly fall asleep. A good friend gave me a really cool book about the history of bicycles written by David Herlihy. That, and a book of Sudoku puzzles will go into my travel bag, if there’s room.

You have racing in your background. Why did you make the move to randonneuring? 1) I was a lousy racer. 2) Many road racers are, to put it politely, cranky. Racing, by its very nature, requires riders’ motivation to come from other riders. There was a lot of emphasis on beating your colleagues to a bloody pulp and/or excuses why you weren’t able to produce said bloody pulp. Randonneuring requires one to be much more self-reliant and self-motivated, which is right up my alley—something I can get juiced about improving. Best of all, Randonneuring offers terrific camaraderie with diverse folks who all ultimately respect one another (even during those occasional bloody pulp moments at county line signs!).

What has been your proudest randonneuring moment so far? Completing my first 600k in 2005, and completing the TN 600k/deathmarch several weeks ago.

Tell us about your training plans. Yikes—you mean I have to CONTINUE training until PBP? On a larger scale, I generally ride a cycle of 2 weeks of harder effort/more miles followed by 1 week of “recovery.” The 2-week stints will include 5-6 hours during the work week (4 days on the bike, 1 off) with intensity work for at least 2 days. The weekends will consist of back-to-back days of 100-150 miles each day, including a fair amount of climbing, and possibly some night riding. I plan to participate in a couple metrics/centuries by riding to the event, completing the event, and riding home. My “recovery” weeks will consist of teaching my 3 indoor cycling classes (easy spins for me, while the class works!) and the weekends will still include distance rides, but not quite as long (60-80 miles each).

Favorite food on the bike? Off the bike? Right now, favorite food on the bike is Infinit Nutrition drink mix and First Endurance bars. Off the bike, Thai and Indian cuisine.

Have you had a “mentor” in the sport? My most valuable mentors have been the folks who I rode with on the Morrisville series during 2005 and 2006. Rich Bruner, Mike Dayton, Glenn Himstedt, and Tony Goodnight. They all quietly showed me the tricks of the trade and most importantly demonstrated the positive, patient, generous attitude one must possess in order to complete these rides!

Any other question you wish I’d asked? Thank you for NOT asking “WHY do you ride these distances?”

What do they call French Fries in France?

If you’re heading to France in August but don’t speak a lick of French, here’s a little online help for food and drink.

1. Follow this link for electronic audio flashcards, with translations in English and French.

2. Voila...flashcards. Click on em to turn em over.

By the way, fries are called "des frites."

Bon appetit!

Oasis: Not Just A Band

oasis (ō′ā•səs): (geography) An isolated fertile area, usually limited in extent and surrounded by desert, and marked by vegetation and a water supply.

I know an oasis when I see one. They have nothing to do with the water supply. They’re all about food.

An oasis is that general store with the grill in the back. The roadside stand or the freestanding restaurant which appears, like some genetic freak of nature, on a winding side road, miles from any village or town.

It’s a marvel that the establishment survives the change in seasons. One slow weekend could threaten its very existence. But there it is. Wrapped in the ethereal perfume of crisp bacon. Luring the famished cyclist with the siren song of the $4.95 Breakfast Platter. The $5.99 Cheeseburger Special.

I came across my first oasis on a winter cycling tour from North Carolina to the Deep Frozen South. The farther we rode into Dixie, the colder it got. I feared for the thermometers and the citrus crops. I feared for my toes.

The year was 1975. We’d spent a night on the frozen tundra of Alabama, shaking in flimsy tents and absurdly inadequate sleeping bags. Sweet Home Alabama. Where was Lynyrd when you needed em? Probably with their boots up on a roaring wood stove.

In the morning, after knocking a crust of frost from our bags and bikes, we got rolling. The only thing worse than the cold was the hunger.

Just five miles later, parked at a crossroads, we hit one of those places. I don’t recall the name, but to this day that simple meal of eggs, biscuits, grits and slab bacon ranks on my list of Top Five Culinary Delights. I’m certain the Big Guy in the Sky was lobbing the biscuits down to the fry cook. They were not of this Earth.

Every table had a mason jar filled with homemade blackberry jam. I loaded each biscuit down like a pack mule until it fairly collapsed from the weight of its syrupy cargo.

I left there with a warm belly and a new take on life.

Perhaps we only get to see the light on the road to Damascus once. But I’ve come close a few other times.

Last year on BMB, as I labored through the interminable hills between Ludlow and Brattleboro, I came upon a family dairy farm that operated a small ice cream stand.

For 15 minutes or so, I forgot all about my sore hand and my sorer legs. I was just the kid with a double scoop of vanilla, my only pressing worry whether I’d finish before the ice cream began its inevitable melt through the waffle cone.

The ice cream story brings me round to the point of this entry: the Mapleview Farm Store just north of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

We’re talking about a store smack dab in the middle of nowhere -- and just one cow pasture away from the herd that contributes sweet cream to the cause.

Chapel Hill and Carrboro are arguably the epicenter of cycling in the Tar Heel state. Mapleview has helped clinch that reputation.

When Orange County cyclists are done for the day, chances are they’ll stop in for a shake or sundae, sit in one of a dozen rockers on Mapleview’s front porch and debate just how sweet life is.

Good ice cream knows no season. This picture shows a group of randonneurs enjoying a frozen treat following an icy December century in 2005.

As if the ice cream weren’t enough, there’s another reason to support Mapleview.

At a time when the land surrounding urban areas is being carved up into subdivision after subdivision, Mapleview stands as an oasis of enlightened land planning and conservation. In 1995, the owners of the farm granted a conservation easement to the Triangle Land Conservancy to insure continuation of the farming and dairy operations, and to help preserve the area’s open spaces.

Wouldn’t you know it? There’s a solid cycling connection here. Kate Dixon, the former head of TLC, helped make the Mapleview easement a reality. A cyclist herself, she has ridden across the state in the annual fall ride, Cycle North Carolina. Her husband Dan is a RUSA member and most recently completed the Morrisville 300K.

How I Train For PBP

I’ve finished the qualifying series for Paris Brest Paris.

I’ve sent in my application.

I’m brushing up on a few French terms that could come in handy: "Un croque-monsieur, s’il vous plaît!” Or “Pardon, ou est le WC, s’il vous plaît?”

(As you can see, my game plan is to end every sentence with s’il vous plait: “J’ai la diarrhée, s’il vous plaît!”)

Time to put the feet up? Mais, no! With qualifying over, now the real training starts.

I’m not much of a planner in this regard, but here’s a look at what I did in 2003. I’m following a similar program this year. It's largely a seat-of-the-pants approach, but it works for me. Your training mileage may vary.

Biking in July and August

In 2003, I did a mix of short around-town cruises, fast weekend runs and three or four long (200-300k) rides. I probably racked up 800 miles in July, and 300-400 miles in the first two weeks of August, but those are just guesses.

* Neighborhood rides. In July, I began joining two neighborhood friends who do a 15-mile loop each morning before work. The pace probably averaged 13-14 along local greenway trails and a few feeder roads. Not much mileage, right? But it helped keep my legs moving, and I added another 10 miles by commuting to work. Those little rides added up -- I wound up with 75-100 miles before the weekend arrived.

This year, I'm joining those guys once or twice a week. I'm also doing a couple weekday rides of 25-30 miles on my fixed gear. Those are usually easy-paced rides, with a short sprint or two somewhere along the way.

* Fast rides. In 2003, when I hadn't planned a long ride on Saturday, I’d head out for a fast-paced 75 miles or so, really getting the heart rate up.

Most of the Saturday rides in 03 were small affairs with one or two friends. This year, I've been doing speed work with the Gyros, a North Raleigh group that gives club riding a good name. Their company and their routes are highly recommended.

* Social rides. In 2003, Sundays were reserved for the local crew. Those were typically poky affairs, with more yammering than hammering, for 45-60 miles. Time to forget about the training, roll down a few country lanes, have some fun in the sun.

I'm repeating the pattern this year. This Sunday's ride was a typical low-key recovery day. JoeRay, Dan and I did 50 miles at 16.5 mph. The route was strategically mapped so that we hit Maple View farm, with its ice cream store, just as its doors opened at noon. (Truth be told, Maple View is the focal point for many of our Orange County rides.) For the record, I had a vanilla shake. Joe bought.

Another popular Sunday route is The Pancake Ride -- a 60-mile out-and-back from Raleigh to Durham, with a stop at Mad Hatters for breakfast.

* Long rides. I did two rides of 200K or more. On the first, I rode what is now the Kerr Lake Loop permanent, a 208K course through the scenic lake country. In 2003, I followed up that ride the very next day with a fast century. The second long ride, just shy of 300K, was my other permanent, Blackbeard’s Permanent. I started this ride at around 2 in the morning, effectively turning it into a test shakeout for my new Schmidt dynahub and E6 light.

I have a similar schedule on tap for this year: We're looking at one weekend of back-to-back 200Ks, as well as the Blackbeard Permanent.

Swimming

I’ve been a lap swimmer most of my life, and I think that helped my overall fitness in 2003. I gave up lap swimming most of last year -- and my cycling suffered. Lately I’ve been in the pool about three times a week.

Other Training

In 2003, doing the Blackbeard permanent in July was the prelude to a week at the beach for surfing at Hatteras. While there, I rode my bike about 15 miles. It made me a little nervous letting go of my legs so close to PBP, but I figured my time was better spent with family and friends. At least Le Tour was on TV, so all was not lost.

Final ride

The weekend before I boxed up my bike in August 03, I did the Bikefest century outfitted just as I planned to ride in Paris. With fenders, lights and Berthoud bag, I looked like a lost tourist among the carbon racing crowd. I got a little practice on tire changing during that ride, something that never hurts. Within the first 2 miles I hit a monster pot hole and tore a huge gash in my front tire. Like a good randonneur, I had a spare with me…

What would I have done differently? I wish I'd had more hills in my schedule. PBP proved to be much hillier than I anticipated. This year, I hope to train for a few days in the N.C. mountains.

If you know how many training miles you're likely to do in July, please submit your response to the online survey at the top of this page.

A Single Ambition: Q&A with Jerry Phelps

I remember the first brevet that Jerry Phelps did on his single speed. It was last year’s North Carolina 600K, which runs from Morrisville to Wilmington and back.

As we passed through Erwin and hit a hilly patch near Buies Creek, Jerry went shooting up one of the steeper rises. I recall thinking, “I wish he had some gears. Maybe it would slow him down.”

Not much has been slowing Jerry down this year -- it’s been full single-speed ahead. He completed the brevet series with one gear, and he’s decided to take his single speed to Paris Brest Paris, where he’ll likely be in good company among other riders who believe that one cog is plenty.

Jerry’s single-minded ambition does not stop with PBP. He’s decided to earn the R-5000 on it.

“Now I’m just three rides away from achieving that goal—a 1000km brevet, PBP, and a fleche,” he said in an e-mail Q&A. Following are his responses.

With so many gears available, why just one? Pretty simple really—I try to follow the KISS rule—Keep It Simple, Stupid. Actually, my single speed is my most comfortable bike, and it is a joy to ride. It reminds me of my first bike as a child—just climb on and ride—nothing to fidget with. Hmmm, maybe my development stopped at childhood?

Your bike? Specialized Langster—highly modified with a Forte carbon fork, Mavic Open Pro rims with a Phil Wood hub in back and Shimano 105 in front, Ultegra rear brake, and a Specialized carbon seat post. It’s a mixed-up mess, kind of like me. Jennifer Wise says the Buckhorn bars I had are classified as aero bars so I had to change those back to classic drops.

The set-up? (gearing, in particular) As of now, I have three gearing choices. The chain ring is 48. I have a White Industries 16- and 18-tooth double free wheel on one side and a 17-tooth on the other.

Have you done a full SR series on it? I rode the full series on the bike in 2007. 48:16 for the 200, 48:17 for the 300 and 400, and 48:16 for the 600.

Are you taking it to PBP? Yes—once I had ridden the 400, I decided to take it to Paris. I will probably switch to a 45 tooth chain ring just to make the hills a little easier.

The advantages of a single speed? As I mentioned earlier, the simplicity of the bike is the biggest advantage--there just isn’t much to go wrong with it. The whole bike only has one cable. I can replace spokes without removing the free wheel. It also weighs about 2 pounds less because of all the missing parts.

Any disadvantages? Sure—when I’m tired, shifting gears is a real problem. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve instinctively grabbed for the lever and tried to shift. The other problem is my speed tops out on the flats at about 25 mph. After that I have to spin too fast to keep up. That’s why I can never ride with Wes!! Yeah that’s the ticket . . . . .

Will you ever move on to a fixed gear? I tried it fixed and almost threw myself off the bike 5 times in the space of 3 miles. I like to coast too much evidently.

What motivated you to contemplate riding the full series on the Langster? Last year at BMB, I saw Emily O’Brien riding fixed. I was very impressed! I started thinking about riding PBP on the single-speed. That led to contemplating earning the R-5000 on it. Now I’m just three rides away from achieving that goal—a 1000km brevet, PBP, and a fleche.

What’s the fastest ride you’ve ever done on it? A 4:40 century (including a 10-minute stop) at the MS-150 last September. That’s only 10 minutes slower than my record on my geared bike.

Will you ride it again on the series next year? Probably not! In this case, once IS enough. Next Fall, I hope to get a new “plastic fantastic” bike, to borrow your term, or a custom made titanium randonneuring bike.

How to Avoid the Bottlenecks at Paris Brest Paris

Yesterday’s mail brought another fine edition of Bicycle Quarterly (Vol. 5, No. 4), the newsletter published by Seattle randonneur Jan Heine.

BQ began life in 2002 as Vintage Bicycle Quarterly, with an emphasis on French cylotouring. Heine has since dropped vintage from the name, although the focus remains squarely on classic bikes.

Fans of historic British marques will find much to love in the latest issue, including features on a 1951 Scottish Flying Scot Continental, a 1953 Claud Butler Jubilee and a 1957 Maclean Eclipse.

There’s also a photo essay, with pictures by cycling historian Hilary Stone, on some of the unorthodox frames concocted by British builders from the 1920s through the 1950s. One of my personal favorites is the Flying Gate, a design dating to the 1930s that is still in production today. I saw one British rider on a Gate in PBP 03.

Speaking of Paris Brest Paris, Bicycle Quarterly has two articles of particular interest to riders heading to France in August.

* Group riding and paceline. Jan has pointers on paceline etiquette, including when and how to draft -- and when to let the group go. He also describes the rotating paceline, and offers techniques for riding in crosswinds. (One personal observation about paceline riding in PBP: if you fall in with a group that is clearly a club, be sure to ask whether it’s okay to sit in, and be sure to take your turn at the front of the line.)

* Avoiding crowds during PBP. As Jan notes in another article, you’ll have 4,000 other cyclists on the road with you during PBP. Hundreds of riders will arrive at controls at or near the same time, making the food lines long and slow, and making sleeping accomodations scarce.

Jan, who gave me permission to quote from his article, says the lines form early. Riders from the three start groups -- 80 hour, 84 hour and 90 hour -- begin to merge at the first control in Villaines-la-Juhel, “with the faster riders of each group catching up to the slower riders of the previous one.”

If you arrive around 11 a.m., you will find yourself with more than 1,500 riders at the control. This peak then travels across France, spreading out remarkably little, because many riders travel at roughly the same speed.

Jan’s advice for staying ahead of the curve:

Keep your time at the early controls to a minimum to gain valuable time. Carry enough food so you only need water for the first 311 km. Incorporate hill intervals into your training regimen, so you can draw ahead of crowds once you reach the hills of Brittany.

Jan's article includes a chart that shows when peak crowds are likely to arrive at each control. The biggest traffic jam: Loudeac, where hundreds of riders arrive and linger on Tuesday evening.

Many stay to eat and sleep. This means faster riders remain at the control as slower ones arrive. The resulting bottleneck soon has close to 2,000 riders crowding the facilities… Many ride reports speak of 3 or more hours at the control before going to sleep.

To avoid that headache, Jan advises sleeping outdoors, weather permitting, in one of the villages past there, or riding the 77 km to Carhaix, “where the crowds will be smaller and the services more efficient."

Loudeac can pose similar problems on the return trip from Brest, according to Jan. After that, “riders will have spread out enough that controls no longer will be crowded.”

Jan also offers recommendations for finding food outside of controls. The bottom line: If you’re pressed for time, choose bakeries over restaurants.

Another nutrition tip: A French liquid meal replacement, Renutril 500, is available at pharmacies, easily spotted by their green cross sign.

With 500 calories in a can, you can ward off an impending bonk without standing in a long line.

Very useful information all around. Of course, for Jan, getting caught up in the logjam of “average-speed riders” is largely academic. At PBP 03 he captained a 1948 Rene Herse mixed tandem with Jaye Haworth, a Canadian rider and a member of the Toronto Randonneurs. The two finished in the remarkable time of 52:45.

That qualified him for membership in an elite group: La Société Charly Miller.

According to an article by author extraordinaire Bill Bryant:

Charly Miller of Chicago was the first American to ride Paris-Brest-Paris. In the second edition of PBP, in 1901, he finished an excellent fifth place in 56 hours, 40 minutes. This was an outstanding achievement for an unsupported rider, especially when one considers the poor roads and bicycles of that bygone era. Though many of his opponents at PBP had elaborate teams of pacers and helpers along the route, Miller persevered alone for three days and two nights, non-stop. While other racers with better support threw in the towel, Charly Miller had to use all his resolve to overcome a disheartening amount of punctures and a broken bicycle in order to finish. Yet, even on a hastily borrowed replacement bike obtained 350 kilometers from the end, the 26-year-old still set the fastest speed over the timed final kilometer to the finish line in Paris!

To honor Miller’s achievement, American riders who equal or best his 56:40 finish time are enrolled in La Société Charly Miller.

Subscriptions to Bicycle Quarterly are available here.

Postscript:

My buddy Adrian e-mailed me with another sure-fire strategy for beating the crowds: "Dropping back behind the curve," he said.

Absolutely. Adrian is one of those cyclists who believes in getting his money's worth by riding for the entire alloted time of each brevet....Look for him around Hour 90...

PBP on the Radar: Q&A with Branson Kimball

I love riding with first-year randonneurs.

It was not that long ago that I was in their shoes. I can identify with the fear in their eyes as they line up for each successively longer event.

I remember the sweet and utter joy of crossing the finish line after that first 300K or 400K, distances that once seemed hopelessly out of reach.

I was lucky enough to ride with Durham rider Branson Kimball on his very first RUSA event. We set off on my Kerr Lake Loop permanent on a freezing day back in February. I knew Branson had Paris Brest Paris on his radar -- Raleigh News & Observer reporter Joe Miller did a phenomenal article about Branson’s quest to ride in that fabled 1200K randonnée.

After riding with Branson on his first 200K, I had no doubts about his physical abilities to finish PBP. As for his mental tenacity? Well, I've since discovered that he's as stubborn as an old mule.

I watched with dismay as Branson abandoned with an unbearable leg pain just 100 miles into the pre-ride of our local 600K brevet. I headed down the course without him. An hour later, my phone rang. Branson had worked through the pain and was back in the saddle.

About 26 hours later, as we reached the final control, Branson achieved Super Randonneur status and qualified for Paris Brest Paris.

This morning I sent Branson an e-mail Q&A to get his thoughts on his first season of randonneuring. His comments are below.

Look for Branson in Paris. He’ll be the guy on that monster yellow Serotta. With the big smile on his face....

How many brevets have you done? I finished 8 brevets, not including the Lake Loop permanent in February.

What was the hardest event you did? Why? Without a doubt, it was the DC Randonneurs' Middletown 600k. 21,000+ feet of climbing and temperatures in the mid-90s with very little shade. The jaw-dropping scenery and terrific company kept it fun though.

Easiest event and why? Only in looking back does the NCBC 200k seem easy. Surely didn't at the time when Wes Johnson punched it up to 30mph on the return and left most of us behind.

What was the biggest surprise about doing the brevets? That I could ride that far! I felt that way every time the distance got a bump. Until February's permanent, I had never ridden more than 105 or 106 miles at one time.

Lowest point? Throwing in the towel on the NCBC 600k pre-ride and watching my buddy ride off with 300 miles to do solo.

Best moment? Oh man, hard to say since there are so many. Two that leap out: 1) summiting Caesar’s Head on Bethany Davison’s Spartanburg 200k; 2) getting back on the bike after a close call with abandoning on the NCBC 600k pre-ride.

Make any rookie mistakes along the way? Learning the hard way to always get your brevet card stamped first-thing at the control. As I said, I nearly abandoned on the 600K, and when I decided to continue an hour and a half later, I forgot that I never got my card stamped. A phone call to my riding partner to tell him I was back on the route clued me in. First thing Mike asked, "Did you get your card stamped?" Uhhhhh -- no. Back to the control. Cost me another hour and a half and maybe a dozen extra miles.

Any pains along the way? Just the usual -- some saddle sores and learning how to keep the feet happy by adjusting the straps often.

What do you typically eat while riding? I love Fig Newtons and orange Gatorade on the bike. A can of Starbucks Doubleshot Espresso during the night hours. A Subway veggie sandwich with extra cheese is my favorite sit-down meal on the longer brevets.

Best pre-ride meal? Best post-ride meal? My rides go so much better when I can have a Deluxe Veggie Burrito from Cosmic Cantina the night before a brevet. The only times I've had troubles are on brevets where I couldn't get that CC fix beforehand. So I'm trying to convince the owners to franchise in Brittany by August. Post-ride, I'm not nearly as finicky and love any good, cold stout and a salad.

What are your ride and training plans from now until PBP? Lots of shorter, faster rides a couple of times a week with a century on the weekends. Maybe the NCBC 1000k and BikeFest as well.

I noticed you switched bikes and are now riding a steel Serotta Why’d you settle on that bike? Yep, it's a custom steel Serotta circa 2000. My wife Loree was keen to list it on eBay if I didn't start riding it. I'd been on my old Cannondale exclusively for the last couple of years. The Cannondale was for racing and I purposefully bought it too small to keep the weight down and make it stiffer. You guys were extolling the virtues of being comfortable, posting "Comfort uber alles" and I decided the thought of riding insane distances of 130 miles or more meant bringing the Serotta out of mothballs.

Will you be back next year? Oh yeah -- I'll be back but maybe not as a rider. My wife Loree and I are adopting a child so I'll probably be volunteering with our main man Alan Johnson more so than riding. But we've met so many incredible people that I can't imagine being away completely so yes -- I'll be back in some capacity.

3 Tales of Tar Heels at PBP

If you're fairly new to randonneuring, you may not know that RUSA has twice published a PBP Yearbook with retrospectives from members who’ve participated in that celebrated event.

The 2003 edition, with 28 accounts, was compiled by two of RUSA’s most devoted volunteers: former president Bill Bryant; and Lois Springsteen, who currently processes RUSA’s brevet results.

The book was a rousing success. Here’s how one Canadian reviewer described it:

An interesting feature of this collection is how nicely the stories complement each other. Participants experienced similar sorts of things -- encounters with the "British Triple", the overcrowding at Loudeac, and droopy head syndrome ("Shermer's neck") for example, are recurring themes -- but the descriptions are always from a slightly different angle. The riders are moving at different speeds, passing through locations at different times and so their observations are out of phase with each other. It all adds up to a vivid portrait of the event that could not have been written by one person. You can think of this as a single story told from multiple points of view.

North Carolina was capably represented in the 2003 edition by three riders -- Adrian Hands, Capn John Ende and Will Martin.

Adrian and Capn’s stories are available online. Will sent me his story so I could excerpt portions here. All three accounts are instructive reads on the highs -- and the lows -- you’re likely to encounter in your own PBP adventure.



Capn John Ende

Let’s start with Capn Ende, one of the most enthusiastic under trainers I’ve ever met. Any time you ride with Ende, you can count on a little wry with your ham.

Ende's PBP 03 account proves the old Carol Burnett maxim: Comedy is tragedy plus time. Here’s how he described the 80-hour start:

The streets were closed to traffic and lined with enthusiastic spectators. The start line was wild, complete with some type of Moroccan music and kids doing crazy stunts. One girl, about eight years old, was riding a stationary bike spinning hypnotic wheels. As I watched they spoke (pun here) to me, “You are crazy, you are crazy, you are crazy”. It was awesome. It was festive.

Ende chose the 84-hour start, which departed at five a.m., hours after the 80 and 90-hour groups left.

It was an exhilarating feeling to finally be on this ride. Our peleton was huge. It was dark. It was fast. It was PBP! Exiting the suburbs, the course descended onto relatively flat farmland. This was the flattest part of the route, I would later learn. I was surprised at how quickly we were into the countryside. Weren’t we just in Paris? The first hour was fabulous, but intense. Such large packs in the dark make attentive riding mandatory.

Things went swimmingly for a while…

All in all we covered the first 100 miles in 5:50. Now I know that this is nothing to write home about but I thought that it wasn’t bad considering that I was scheduled to complete 6.5 more consecutive centuries after this. I was half an hour ahead of schedule in Mortagne, and then 20 minutes ahead of schedule at Villaines-la-Juhel. At this pace I thought that I could make La Trinite Porhoet by 10 PM, climb into bed and sleep between five to eight hours. Plans and pace are funny things. They are dynamic things. Things change. That is all you can count on.

And then la merde hit le ventilateur:

Thirty-five km out of Tinténiac on a relatively easy section it hit. Stomach cramps! What was this grumbling in my stomach? Was it the large volume of Sustained Energy that I had consumed? Was it the water that I had accepted from a kid on the side of the road? Was it mesenteric ischemia, a life-threatening condition that I thought may have been reported in ultra athletes? Hey, that’s weird, am I an ultra athlete? Every time I pedaled over 10 km/hr the cramping became so intense that it sent me doubled over to the side of the road where I would stand over my bike until the intense pain had stopped. I would continue a short way and the pattern would repeat. It ultimately took me three hours to cover the last 30 km.

Did the Capn recover? Mais, oui! But his struggles, in and out of the water closet, make an entertaining read. Check it out here on Adrian's site.


Adrian Hands

The adventures of local velorutionary leader Adrian Hands began long before the event. Here’s his account of a train ride to the start:

I rearranged my belongings into hotel stuff and PBP drop bag contents and we set out for St. Quentin. Our subway ride toward the regional rail line at St. Michel was going along smooth as silk when Sridhar noticed I was no longer carrying my drop bag. Uh-oh. Left it at the station. We double back, but no-go, it’s gone. So, it turns out I’m riding PBP sans drop bag—another good reason to pack all the really important stuff in the pannier. Hey, drop bags are for wimps anyway, right?

It would be a full year before he and his bag were reunited. Get him to tell you the story. And that was not the only bag he lost. He left a pannier in Carhaix, intending to retrieve it on the way back from Brest. Guess what…

Horror of horrors!...my pannier is not be found! I check around, to the point of annoying the staffers, at the control, read the message board, leave messages, try to buy a jacket or at least a reflective sash -- no dice. Too much time wasted. Let’s go, Allons, mes Amis!

But wait! He’s not done yet.

Miles up the road I remember the headlamp I just borrowed from Lisa is still hanging in the shower room. Arrghh! That’s two headlamps I lose before ever using either one!

Adrian suffered throughout the ride from sleep deprivation. Here’s how he describes a roadside nap:

It is getting close to the control closing time; I don’t see Sridhar or anybody else that I know, but the crowd is SO large I could’ve easily missed them. Push on. Did I eat too much? I’m feeling sleepy...hot afternoon sun...better pull over and let the plan slip. No way around it, the charming French countryside, the small farms with stone buildings that smell of ripe apples and warm hay-straw, they all whisper to you to relax. “Lie down with us in the pastures”, they say, and it is ten times more intoxicating than any silly sirens singing to Ulysses. I take a caffeine pill, set my new watch alarm for a ten minute snooze, shut the eyes and lay back in the fresh sun-baked straw. Zzzzz.... An hour and a half later I wake up to find I had set the alarm to 10:36 PM instead of AM! Oh well, if I was that out of it, I probably needed the rest. Now that I’m refreshed, I can push a bit harder.

Neither lost luggage nor lost sleep kept Adrian from the ultimate prize. Here’s the link to his full story.



Will Martin

Adrian was not the only one to suffer from sleep deprivation. Winston-Salem rider Will Martin described a similar experience, with a dash of hallucination tossed in for good measure:

About ten miles west of Carhaix, I am suddenly overwhelmed by the desire for sleep. I get off my bike at a traffic circle. I know that if I lie down, I will quickly get cold, so I try to take a short nap sitting with my back against a signpost. I can’t fall asleep and get cold anyway. I press on in the darkness in the direction of Brest, which now seems impossibly distant.

I climb a long grade, and the exertion makes my shivering go away. But as the shivering subsides, the sleepiness returns. I eat some energy food; I yell; I sing out loud, something from the Sound of Music of all things. Nothing works. I pedal on aimlessly for a while. I stop again and get an emergency space blanket out of my rear rack bag. I lie down and wrap myself up in it as best I can. I begin to think that my wife and three children are with me. We are all cold. I know it is a delusion, but I can’t make it go away. Sleep escapes me and I begin to shiver again. I have to get back on the bike and try to keep moving.

Will was in phenomenal shape for PBP 03, and he finished in under 70 hours (69:48). But his physical exertion eventually exacted a dear toll. Here’s how he described an alarming problem he had with his neck about 672 miles into his epic journey:

At some point I realized with alarm that it had become nearly impossible for me to keep my neck bent to see the road ahead. This presented some obvious safety concerns, especially in paceline riding, which requires constant attention to the small gap between your front wheel and the rear wheel immediately in front of you. I reluctantly dropped off the back of the paceline.

I reached up and felt my neck. The muscles running along my cervical spine were like steel rods. On ultra marathon rides, you expect that just about every hinge in your body will get stiff and sore, including your neck, but God almighty, this was something else altogether! It was as though there was an anvil on the back of my head when I tried to bend my neck. It required a tremendous effort that I couldn’t sustain for more than a few seconds at a time. I quickly developed a new riding style to keep my neck as straight as possible. On the climbs, I looked straight down, keeping an eye on the distance between my front wheel and the right edge of the pavement. Every so often, I bent my neck back just enough to quickly peek over the handlebars at the road ahead. On the descents, I sat up straight in the saddle, hands off the handlebars, and coasted to the bottom. In this way I struggled into the checkpoint at Mortagne…

Will also describes the magic personal connections he made at Mortagne au Perche…

Before leaving Mortagne, I had an extraordinary series of encounters with several local people. It started with the man in charge of the dorm and culminated with a baker at a boulangerie. In between, there was a beautiful woman who escorted me to the showers, a volunteer at the checkpoint infirmary who tried to treat me for sunburn when what I wanted was sun block, a little man with a mustache and a mechanical voice box who led me to the tucked-away pharmacy that had been mapped out on a scrap of paper by the infirmary volunteer, and the pharmacist who finally understood and sold me a tube of 60-strength sun block to replace the one I’d put in a blue duffle that never got delivered to the bag drop at La Villaines. I was deeply, deeply touched by their efforts to help me. By the time the baker handed over the ham and cheese baguette sandwich she’d made for me, I had tears in my eyes. There I was, pretty bad off and facing a difficult ride to the finish, but somehow I was feeling an incredible joy. It was as though the people who helped me were lit up by some special light that gave extraordinary life to their simple acts of kindness. I felt like I was catching a privileged glimpse of something, some rarely seen reality that had briefly opened up, because of, not in spite of my pain. But I had to move on and leave it to others to ponder the connection between suffering and gladness.

Ah... the magic and madness that is PBP...

Fun Things to Do in Paris before PBP

Congratulations! You’ve qualified for PBP.

Like many other cyclists, you’ll be staying in the Paris suburb of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, where the ride starts.

But remember that the City of Lights is just a short train ride away, so head on in for some sightseeing. Here are a few suggestions that won’t break the bank.

Go see the big two. Yes, the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame. These are mandatory stops for every Paris tourist. And if you need some last-minute hill work, be advised that both monuments have considerable stairs. Note: the Hunchback is long gone, retired to his bell tower in the countryside, but you can still light a candle in his memory.











Soak up the outdoor sculpture. The admission price can’t be beat.These two pieces caught my eye in 2003. The fish I get, the big head -- not so much.







Take a walk along the Seine. The river promenade is the perfect place for a stroll. Is that a boat or a botanical garden? Thank goodness there’s a ready water supply nearby.

Visit a bike shop. You know you need something, so duck on in. But first, practice this line: “Just for a minute, hon….This won’t take long, I promise.”




Browse the street art. You’ll earn valuable bonus points if you find something with the Eiffel Tower AND a bike race.



Listen to a street performer. Don’t forget to drop a Euro in le chapeau.
















Visit the Arc de Triomphe. Go ahead. Take a victory lap. Lance would approve.












Relive “The Da Vinci Code.” Yes, there it is. The pyramid that played such a pivotal role in Ron “Opie” Howard’s movie. Contrary to popular belief, it was not blown up in the filming of another movie, “Team America: World Police.”






Ride the Ferris wheel. Do it for the view. A little known fact: this is actually where Ferris Bueller spent his day off.












Skip the Louvre and head straight to the Musee d'Orsay. A truly great museum on the left bank of the Seine, housed in an old railway station, with several fantastic Van Gogh self portraits. Also, a pretty good café. Another good choice is the Picasso Museum. By the way, when you’re done with PBP, you’ll feel -- and smell -- like an old goat.




Explore the side streets of Paris. You’re sure to stumble upon a superb restaurant tucked away in a narrow back alley -- and Lord knows you need the calories. This shot was taken behind the Pantheon.




Spend a few moments checking out those funny European cars. They call this one the Smart Car. At 58 mpg, it’s looking smarter every day. Not sure where the bike rack goes, though. I understand they’ll soon be imported to the U.S.




Take a stroll down the Champs- Élysées.With a thousand of your closest friends. But stay out of the stores. This is a serious, high-rent district.

Treat your honey to a romantic, candlelight dinner. He or she deserves it for putting up with all of your kooky bike rides.

Bicycles & The Gas Tax

We’ve all had our close calls. My buddy JoeRay had one this morning.

Returning home on his bike from a training ride, JoeRay said he signaled to make a legal left-hand turn into his neighborhood.

As he moved toward the center line, he was nearly clipped by a car that tried to pass him on the left. The woman driver slammed on brakes and skidded off the road into a ditch, narrowly missing JoeRay.

The woman was shaken but unhurt. Her car was not damaged.

“It’s as close as I’ve ever come to being hit by a car,” JoeRay told me a few minutes after the incident.

Then the fun began.

A motorist in a V-8 pick-up who'd witnessed the incident pulled over and began to berate JoeRay.

“This is your fault,” the motorist told him. “You don’t belong on the road.”

JoeRay found himself simultaneously calming the woman and defending his right to the state's public highways and byways.

“You need to take a look at the law,” JoeRay told the pick-up driver.

The driver responded, “I don’t give a damn about the law. You don’t pay any gas taxes.”

Ah…there we have it. The pick-up driver showed his hand a bit too early in the game.

It’s an argument I’ve heard I thousand times. It boils down to this: Public roads are built using a tax on gasoline. Since bicycles don’t use gasoline, they shouldn’t be using the road.

Is our pick-up driver correct? Well, yes and no. He is correct that bicycles don’t use gasoline. However, bicycle riders pay for a portion of the public roads by other means, mainly property and other taxes.

Consider these numbers from a 2007 study by the Reason Foundation (which, by the way, is pushing a “pay-as-you-go” approach -- also known as toll roads -- in the face of declining gas tax revenues):

* $134 billion is spent each year to construct and operate roads, or $1,199 per U.S. household, representing about one dollar in 37 of median gross household income.

* Highway user fees composed of state and federal fuel taxes, registration and license fees, tolls and other charges levied as a consequence of using public roads, generate $104 billion a year or 77.5 percent of road spending. The remainder (mostly local roads) is financed by sales taxes, property taxes, and general fund appropriations.

* State and federal fuel taxes (on gasoline and diesel) are the largest single highway user fee at $53 billion per year, but they provide less than half of total road funding.

A blogger and cycling advocate named James in South Carolina recently addressed a letter from a Greenville motorist who argued cyclists weren’t paying their fair share, tax-wise. James’ response:

The first and most obvious point to bring up is that most cyclists are also drivers…. We pay the same taxes as other road users, with the exception of a little less in gas tax if we choose to replace some car trips with bicycle trips. For the sake of argument though, let’s look at the situation of a cyclist who does not own a car. That person still pays income, sales, and property taxes that heavily subsidize the construction and maintenance of the federal, state, and county road systems that we all use. Furthermore, the bicycle that he or she rides does not cause the damage to roadways that cars and large trucks do (when is that last time you saw a pothole caused by a bicycle?)….Please stop falsely accusing cyclists of getting a “free ride” on the roads.

Well said, James.

A central point that James makes is that road costs have been shifted to property owners. That’s in line with a May 15 article, “Property Taxes Help Fund Roads As Gas Tax Revenue Dwindles,” about that very trend in Minnesota:

"Dedicated roads funding from state and federal road-user sources such as fuel and vehicle taxes has been relatively stagnant for years. Meanwhile, local property levies for roads and bridges in Minnesota have doubled since the mid-1990s -- to an estimated $1.6 billion in 2006. The result, little noticed by most Minnesotans, is that property taxes have become the state's single largest funder of roads, nearly equal to all state and federal sources combined."

JoeRay’s run-in with the pick-up driver came on a day when the Raleigh News & Observer ran an article about a growing shortcoming with the gas tax.

Here are a few quotes from that article:

“North Carolinians are driving more miles every year, but they're buying less gas. Although better fuel economy sounds great for the pocketbook and good for the planet, it spells trouble for our long-term reliance on gas-tax money to finance transit and highway needs. After spending more than it takes in for several years, the federal Highway Trust Fund is expected to run out of money for road projects by 2009.”

“In the old days, when cars got 13 or 14 miles to a gallon, we were pretty flush with cash," said David J. Forkenbrock of the University of Iowa Public Policy Center. "But we’re already seeing major drops in the revenues coming in. We know it's going to get worse.”

One possible solution, according to the gas tax article: charge by the mile, not the gallon. Forkenbrock is overseeing a two-year, $16.5 million study in North Carolina and five other states on the feasibility of replacing the fuel tax with a mileage fee.

According to the article, volunteers’ cars will be rigged with computers and satellite gear to record where and how far they drive. “Each month, the volunteers will receive sample bills for how many miles they have driven. Their mileage fees will be compared to the per-gallon taxes they pay now,” the article states.

Researchers will also look at whether to vary the mileage fee according to the kind of vehicle driven and the time of day it’s operated. For instance:

* Heavy trucks could be charged a higher fee “to reflect their share of pavement wear and tear.”

* To relieve freeway congestion, a rush-hour premium could be charged.

* Lower fees might be charged for alternative-fuel and low-emission cars.

Well, now, there’s a plan I can get behind. As I cyclist, I’d welcome the opportunity to pay a true “road use” fee. Simply put, the more you use the road, the more you pay. The heavier your vehicle, the more you pay. Want to get a break on those user fees? Get an alternative-fuel or low-emission vehicle.

Bottom line under such a scheme: Bicycles would come out a big winner.

With the study results at least two years down the road, I’ve got a little advice for the guy in that pick-up truck, the guy who lectured my buddy JoeRay.

Next time you see someone in a fuel-efficient Prius, pull ‘em over and give ‘em a lecture: Don’t they know they’re not pulling their weight on the gas tax?

Notes From Ireland

Call me a proud papa. My son Daniel just graduated from Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, N.C. a small mountain town just east of Asheville.

Never heard of Warren Wilson? You will soon.

The 800-student school is dedicated to putting the “liberal” back in liberal arts. One recent survey ranked WWC students first in the category of “Most Nostalgic For Bill Clinton.”

At a time when all eyes are focused on global warming and green technologies, Warren Wilson is turning out a bunch of optimistic tree huggers. Their mission, should they decide to accept it: save our desperate planet.

The Mission of Warren Wilson College is to provide an education combining liberal arts study, work, and service with a strong commitment to environmental responsibility and experiential opportunities for international and cross-cultural understanding in a setting that promotes wisdom, spiritual growth, and contribution to the common good.

Warren Wilson started life in the 1890s as the Asheville Farm School and even today is a working farm with an emphasis on organic and environmentally friendly agriculture. All resident students must work at least 15 hours a week on one of 100 work crews that help run and maintain the college.

Daniel got a double major in biology and environmental science. While living on campus he worked on the garden crew, and he has developed an interest in organic farming. To that end, he is spending a good part of this summer working as a volunteer on an organic farm in southwest Ireland, near Sneem.

The 40-acre farm is an incubator for energy alternatives, with wind, hydro and solar power. The owners’ goals are to “develop ways of living, eating and consuming that can co-exist with the 21st century…. We think about the effects our lives have on the planet.” The farm serves as a teaching center, with courses such as “Living Off The Grid” and “Homemade Hydro.”

Here’s Daniel’s first dispatch, which happily arrived on Father’s Day:

Sorry I haven't emailed earlier. The Internet has been down at the farm and the closest town only has Internet a few hours a day when the women's resource center is open. The farm is great though. It's run by a British couple with two children, aged 15 and 10. There are three other WWOOFs at the farm. They're all French, one guy and two ladies…. The farm is beautiful. It is set in one of the prettier areas I've ever seen. There are mountains all around with sheep grazing everywhere, including along the main road by the farm. The wife is a baker and so there is a surplus of good bread and pastries. The work has been pretty laid back so far. We start work around quarter to nine and then take a tea break around 11:00. I've become fond of dark British tea. Lunch is around 1 and then we get back to work around 2 and stop at 5. It really feels like a feed lot where they force gourmet food on us every two hours with exercise in between to build muscle. The work so far has consisted of a lot of weed-whacking and weeding as would be expected. It's really wonderful though and I've been spending no money which is very nice. The couple are hilarious and cuss more than I could have imagined possible…. I think I'm going to work on another farm in the early part of August and then head to France.

Call me a proud papa.

If you think we're nuts, try RAAM...

Ah, I love this time of year. At last, there’s a crew on the road way nuttier than us randonneurs.

I’m talking about the annual insanity known as RAAM, or the Race Across America. The 3,000 mile event is modestly described on RAAM’s Web site as “the world’s toughest bicycle race.” No argument here.

The guys at the front of the heap average something like 600K for eight days straight. Just thinking about that makes my saddle sore.

As you might expect, the race attracts monster international athletes who’ve learned that suffering is the purest form of performance art. Sometimes the physical demands of RAAM, combined with a lack of sleep, send riders off a mental cliff.

There’s no better example than the 42-year-old Slovene racer Jure Robic, who won the men’s event in 2005.

Jure was brilliantly profiled in a 2006 New York Times article, “That Which Does Not Kill Me Makes Me Stranger,” by Daniel Coyle. Here’s one of many compelling quotes from that article:

‘‘He pushes himself into madness,’’ says Tomaz Kovsca, a journalist for Slovene television. ‘‘He pushes too far.’’ Rajko Petek, a 35-year-old fellow soldier and friend who is on Robic’s support crew, says: ‘‘What Jure does is frightening. Sometimes during races he gets off his bike and walks toward us in the follow car, very angry.’’

What do you do then?
Petek glances carefully at Robic, standing a few yards off. ‘‘We lock the doors,’’ he whispers.

The entire article is well worth a read here although you may have to register on the NYT site.

Jure is currently leading this year’s race. Get em, Jure!

I’m proud to count a RAAM competitor, John “GameFace” D’Elia, as a friend and teammate. He has competed in RAAM twice -- once on a team and once as a solo rider.

GameFace was our certified ringer on Team Fleche Wound in 2004.

He also signed on this year when the Wound reassembled for a reunion tour. Which goes to show that the guy truly is nuts.