NC Rider at Endless Mountains

Endless Mountains, the new kid on the U.S. 1200K schedule, is officially under way as of 4 a.m. this morning. Tar Heel rider Jerry Phelps is among the randonneurs who have lined up for this challenging event.

He called this morning to say he and a group of riders are now at Mile 82, at the Blairstown, NJ control. Skies are overcast, temps are cool, but no rain so far and all are doing great, Jerry reports. He says the route has already had a few good hills. The area sure looks lumpy in the terrain map below.


View Larger Map

Bonne route to Jerry and the rest of the Endless Mountains crew.

Sept 30, 9 p.m. update: Jerry called last night from Carbondale at around 9. He'd ridden about 170 miles and said "it's cold here, and it's been tough." He had another 34 miles to go to the overnight control, which he apparently reached at 23:03, according to this photo caption.

The Endless Mountains organizers are doing a good job with updates. You can see them here.

Update: Noon October 1. Jerry called to say he has packed it in. He said he had a rough night and did not have 200 miles in his legs for today. Jerry, we're sorry to hear that. You'll get it next time. The good news is that the organizers have one more volunteer on the route.

Roadside Attractions

Tar Heels in Texas

Congratulations are in order for two Carolina randonneur women who competed in the 500-mile event at Texas Time Trials this week.

Longtime NC randonneur Caroline posted this note on her Facebook page: "Finished and showered. Ahhhh . . . 500 miles in 38 hours. We even took a couple breaks together for breakfast, etc. Great event, and great to be done."

Caroline took part in the event as part of Team Zooma.













Lynn, who began riding with the NC Randonneurs this year, placed first among the women participants, with a time of 42:07 over the 500-mile course. She is now RAAM qualified. In an e-mail, she said, "Well, I can cross the Texas event off the list as done and never to do again. Brutal brutal brutal." Lynn, we predict in a week you'll be ready for a repeat performance!



Congratulations to both, and thanks to Dallas RBA Dan Driscoll for hosting the event.

Bike Biology: Wooly Worm, Wooly Bear, Woolly Bully

What cyclist hasn’t crossed paths with the charming wooly worm on a nice autumn day: those fuzzy little black and orange critters bent on crossing the road just ahead of your front tire?

Recently, I was taken aback as I spotted one attired not in the usual Halloween woolens, but as a blonde! I wasn’t sure whether I’d spotted a mutant or whether it meant we were in for a warm winter!

In spite of getting all worked up over my sighting of a blonde wooly worm, it turns out that I hadn’t discovered a new variety, after all. Either that or “my” Blondie had somehow managed to travel long distances on little legs, given the fact that I was able to locate another blonde wooly worm on line.

Here is her picture. Ain’t she beautiful?

Everyone’s heard of wooly worms, also spelled “woolly.” In some locales they’re called wooly bears. According to legend, wooly worms portend the severity of the approaching winter. Supposedly the wider the orange middle band, the less severe the winter. Some take it further. The wooly worm caterpillar is comprised of thirteen segments, and each black segment is taken to represent a week of winter weather, in this case, up to thirteen weeks of winter weather if the entire worm is black! Brrrrrr!

Here is a short video describing coloration and weather.

Wooly worm sightings this time of year raise several questions. What is a wooly worm? Where are they going? Why the hurry? And the question everyone is asking: Is wooly worm coat coloration a reliable forecaster of winter weather? I’ll attempt to answer these questions best I can, having access to unrivaled resources at Research Trailer Park (RTP).

Research Trailer Park, courtesty of sagittandy.

While I was pouring over thick monographs at RTP on the subject of wooly worm biology, it occurred to me while I was daydreaming that the typography of the word “wooly” along with its variant, “woolly,” resemble caterpillars. That’s it! The wooly worm is a caterpillar! And everyone as smart as a fifth grader knows that caterpillars metamorphose into either moths or butterflies depending upon whether these winged wonders work the night shift or whether they work days, respectively.

As an aside, if you would like to have your very own pet wooly worm and personally witness this spectacular metamorphosis, here are directions for its care. But first you will need a wooly worm.

Although there are literally hundreds of simple and effortless ways to catch a wooly worm, I prefer a bicycle equipped with panniers and a small plastic container in which I normally carry electrolyte capsules. First, I dump the electrolyte capsules from the container. Second, I exchange my wide 700 x 28 touring tires for narrower 700 x 23 racing tires so as not to needlessly endanger my future captive during the chase. Third, I mount full, double panniers—front or back, it doesn’t really matter—so as to have ample space for my electrolyte capsule cum woollybear container. Lastly, I practice dismounting, attaching cleat covers, and sprinting at least ten meters on pavement.

All is not lost if you don’t have a bicycle and the aforementioned accoutrements and still want to join the fun. You can simply enlist a neighborhood kid to join you with your science project. He or she will locate and catch a wooly worm in the back yard for you before you’ve even had time to don your cycling helmet.

If your wooly worm science project is successful, you’ll be rewarded for your effort with something like this:

. . . a beautiful tiger moth!

Bug people known as entomologists assert that our wooly worm goes by the scientific name: Pyrrharctia isabella thanks to a naturalist named Smith back in the year 1797.

Most species of caterpillars turn into moths or butterflies prior to winter. The wooly worm is unlike other caterpillars, since it will overwinter as a caterpillar. The “hairs” covering its body are called setae. They are a form of insulation. Additionally, the wooly worm’s tissues are protected from freezing by a cryoprotectant similar to but not necessarily ethylene glycol, otherwise known as antifreeze. The reason we witness wooly worms in a hurry may be due to the fact that they must locate a suitable place to hunker down for winter.

Here is a cool video entitled Wooly Worm Winter with bluegrass music.

The wooly worm hairs are not stingers, nor do they secrete noxious chemicals, one reason these fine fuzzy friends make such good pets. When disturbed, the wooly worm turns into a ball, playing “dead,” like this:

Finally, regarding the reliability of wooly worm forecasting: the number of black segments may be an indication of the age of the wooly worm rather than a reliable means of predicting weather. As the worm ages the middle orange segment encroaches upon the black ends. If one were to collect a number of wooly worms this time of year, one would find a variety of color patterns.

But that hasn’t stopped the numerous wooly worm festivals that occur usually in October with a central theme of winter prognostication. Move over Punxsutawney Phil. In fact, there’s one in Banner Elk, NC, each year. The following video provides a somewhat “comprehensive” account of last year’s event and related wooly bear miscellany. At about 2:33, you’ll see the Lees-McRae College cycling team that sponsored a winning entry in the wooly worm race. According to these adherents, the coloration of the race winner is the veritable predictor of winter weather.

Now you know what wooly worms are, why they haven’t yet taken flight, why they’re in such a hurry, where they’re going, and something about weather prediction, which is bound to start an argument!

Let’s hear it for the wooly worm! Wooly Bully!

All things cycling

When you look for cycling references, you can spot em everywhere...


Like on a 300K. Here's the starting line-up. Special thanks to Tony and Ed and Jerry, and the crew that carried me home -- Branson and Joel and Tom and Kevin, and to Albert for hanging the red light.



Sunday I met Matt and few others for a ride uptown to SparkCon...



Uptown to the art show, with complimentary bicycle valet parking and lots of street art...






And some video art, with biking images....



An old friend, of Holy Smoke fame, who just bought a bike for his law school commute...he wins the weekend's cool t-shirt award.



The boys on fixies watching the skaters...



Finally, some recorded art, in the mailbox, from Chip...Mylow is out. Highly recommended.

2009 Gold Rush Jersey

I've been eagerly waiting for the jersey from this years Gold Rush Randonee. It was the first week of July but the Davis Bike Club waits to order the GRR jerseys when the have the total number of finishers. Aron, who I rode almost the entire ride with, sent me an email (w/o a pic) that his arrived. Mail was much better then usual today, no bills and the jersey.

Front


Back

Time Machines

Feeling a little blue as I watched a beautiful day pass me by, I went down to the basement and took the McLean off the hook. This bike has been curing for 30 years now. Built in 1979 by McLean Fonvielle, this touring bike appears to have spent most of its life leaning against the garage wall of the original owner. Here's how it looked pre-purchase.

I got this bike late last year but had not ridden it more than 400 yards until today. When I first acquired it, I rode it down my neighborhood street and quickly realized how horribly out of whack the front derailleur was, and how wrong the seat was. Back on the hook it went. I had rides to do, and other bikes to do em on, and my focus was on training, not tinkering with the set up of a new machine.

Also, I debated whether to even ride this bike, which is effectively a time capsule of the day it was made. We're talking original tires, the original chain, no wear on the brake pads. The paint is pretty close to immaculate. Check out the headtube.



It's tempting to let it sit for another 30 years, let my heirs sell it to the next collector or take in on the Road Show. Should you decide to ride one of these vintage beauties, the issue is always how original to keep it. This one is nicely appointed, with Phil BB and hubs (the front one has a bit of play), and a TA triple crank. But the handlebars, standard issue for the day, are too narrow for my taste and with too much slope near the brake levers, and the stem is a tad short. The tires are 27 1 1/8 -- every other rider I own is a 700C, and I'm partial to that size. Then there's the downtube shifters. I don't mind em, but I really prefer bar end shifters, even on the 70s vintage bikes.

So you see the quandary. Let it be, living with the quirks of the set-up, or switch a few things around, turn it in to a more practical randonneuring machine and give it a place in the batting order.

Well, I leave those decisions for another day. The fact is, just to get it out on the road required a parts swap. I switched a big rivet Brooks Pro on it, did a bit of adjusting on the front derailleur, pumped up the original tires, put on some modern pedals, and off I went to a couple coffee shops where I could sit outside and keep an eye on it. The bike drew attention from the folks who know a little about older bikes -- and there are more and more fixed gear riders around Raleigh who fall into that category. Simply put, it looks like a time machine, right down to the cream puff paint job.

I'll bet this bike and I could have some big adventures together. And maybe we will. But in the meantime, it's back on the hook, waiting for another sunny Sunday and another cuppa joe while we ponder the future.

Remi Gaillard + Cycling = Great

If you aren't familiar with Remi Gaillard, he is a French prankster who posts all his videos on YouTube. I'm not sure what I would do if I turn the corner and see this mob.....

Foto Fun

I guess our friends in England have some of the same headaches with cars as we do. In a lighter moment, the folks on the Audax list have proposed this cycling accessory to "be used against white vans, 7.5 tonners and boy racers."

The comment from one poster: "Is the helmet compulsory?"

The End for the El-Berta?

Any randonneur who has done the NC 600K hosted by RBA Al Johnson is familiar with the El-Berta Motor Inn on Market Street in Wilmington, NC. For years the motel has served as the turnaround on the event, the place where the crew devoured a few slices of pizza and grabbed a couple hours of shut eye before heading backing up the course to Raleigh, like the riders in the above picture.

The motel made the newspaper today because of its connection to Michael Jordan, the former basketball star who hails from Wilmington and who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this week. The Raleigh News & Observer is running a three-part series of Jordan. The first installment, which appeared today, chronicled Jordan's early years in Wilmington, including his part-time job cleaning the pool at the El-Berta, where he earned $3.35 an hour.

The article also points to the imminent demise of the El-Berta, stating that the pool "will soon be demolished along with the 82-room inn."

He said, she said, NSAIDs: Ibuprofen and Endurance Athletes

Although probably not the last word on the subject, an editorial this year in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) sounds a cautionary note concerning the widespread prophylactic use of ibuprofen among endurance athletes. Prophylaxis is the use of ibuprofen for pain prevention: taking it before exercise. The author claims that not only does prophylactic use of ibuprofen not reduce pain but, in fact, slows tissue healing.

The BJSM editorial was picked up by and introduced in a recent New York Times blog article, which provides a section for readers’ comments.

Neither article is a difficult read. Both provide hot links to abstracts or in some cases to the original research they quote.

Blackbeard's Permanent

I own several RUSA permanents. For those unfamiliar with those rides, a permanent is like a brevet, our official scheduled events, but you can ride it any time, not just on one specific date. One of my routes, Blackbeard's Permanent, doesn't get ridden all that often, probably because it's a one-way route that runs from Raleigh to Swan Quarter, on the North Carolina coast.

I try to get out there on it at least once a year, to kick the tires, as it were, see what has changed and what needs adjusting.

This year, there were three trouble spots. First, there's a new bypass that turned one road into a dead end. That was an easy adjustment -- just pick up 264 for an extra mile.

The next fix was not so easy. A bridge was out on Hwy 32, on the far side of "the Original" Washington (so says the sign). That put me out on 264 on a busy section for several miles. Finally, as I raced up to the final section, just three miles from the Swan Quarter ferry with only 30 minutes to spare, I saw the dreaded "Detour: Road Closed" sign. This was potentially a show stopper. The next ferry was not until the following morning. As luck would have it, a local woman sitting outside with two pugs and three energetic Jack Russells advised me about a dirt road workaround for the Swan Quarter detour. Disaster averted.

If the route needed a few repairs, so did the driver. A fierce bout of cramps set in around mile 100 and continued on and off for the next 80 miles. There was lots of stopping and walking, and lots of soft pedaling, my favorite kind.

I had a simple goal on this ride. Break 12 hours. Missed it by two minutes. As I was racing up the final stretch to the ferry, leg cramps humbled me once again.

I was on such a tight schedule, I didn't stop for many pix. Here's early morning fog on Antioch Church Road. Music courtesy of Google...





I took this one on the ferry. What is it, an idea horn?


Arrgh.... Pirates!


Ferry sunset.