Yet another video, this from Tom from Arizona, a 5-time PBP finisher. We rode with him for much of Day 3.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
California Sun & Fun
Aaron, one of the riders on last week's Santa Cruz 1000k put together this video of the event. Enjoy.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
For our DC Rand friends...
Lothar in at 73 hours.
Roger in at 63:30
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
Roger in at 63:30
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
Done!
In at 9:29. A picture by Lois of me and Todd. Great event.
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Solvang
Lunch at the Big Bopper. 70 to go. Tailwinds so far but headwinds on the way. Riding with Joel Dave Tom and Todd. Easiest day so far.
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Whee! Tailwinds
Hit 49 with big push down PC1. Now in Santa Cruz
with Joel eating burritos.
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
with Joel eating burritos.
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
Moss Beach
Over La Honda big descent fog on coastal highway thru Half Moon Bay. Gabe in foreground
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
- Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
Registration
-sign in and Bill talking with rider.
Posted from the RTP Mobile PhoneBooth
Location:N 1st St,San Jose,United States
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Santa Cruz 1000K / Cascade 1200K
Lots of fun / long randonneuring events this week. I've just finished setting up the Coho for the Santa Cruz 1000K.
Here's an overview map:
Here's a snippet from the ride description:
My current plan (subject to change) is to ride with each of those locations as my daily goal. I'm really looking forward to the scenery on the Pacific Coast Highway and our tour through the redwoods.
If you're interested, you can follow the ride on the Santa Cruz Randonneurs website. We get going at 5:30 a.m. Thursday (8:30 a.m. East Coast time). Bill and Lois will be updating the Rider Progress link when they're able. For the first time, I'll try to post to this blog during the event. Those "RTP Mobile Phonebooth" posts are coming from my iPhone.
Also going on this week is the Cascade 1200K, a fantastic loop tour of Washington State, which starts Saturday morning. Here's the link for that ride.
Here's to the safety and success of all riders on both of those events.
Here's an overview map:
Here's a snippet from the ride description:
This route is a tour of California's central coast region. There are many miles of fine cycling and wonderful scenery throughout. The course is designed as a point-to-point most of the way, followed by a circuit on the last day that starts and ends in San Luis Obispo (SLO). One could think of it as three stages: San Jose–King City (226mi/365 kms), King City–SLO (211 mi/341 kms), followed by SLO–SLO (184 mi/297 kms).
My current plan (subject to change) is to ride with each of those locations as my daily goal. I'm really looking forward to the scenery on the Pacific Coast Highway and our tour through the redwoods.
If you're interested, you can follow the ride on the Santa Cruz Randonneurs website. We get going at 5:30 a.m. Thursday (8:30 a.m. East Coast time). Bill and Lois will be updating the Rider Progress link when they're able. For the first time, I'll try to post to this blog during the event. Those "RTP Mobile Phonebooth" posts are coming from my iPhone.
Also going on this week is the Cascade 1200K, a fantastic loop tour of Washington State, which starts Saturday morning. Here's the link for that ride.
Here's to the safety and success of all riders on both of those events.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
My Cycling Vacation....
You know you’re among friends when the wireless router is named RUSAHQ and the Honda in the garage – the one with the RUSA 7♥8 license plate – shares space with an assortment of bikes, shop tools and a framebuilder’s jig.
I’m in Santa Cruz, counting down the hours to the start of a 1000K on Thursday. Bill and Lois, the ride organizers, invited me to spend a couple nights in their home, and that is my good fortune. Lois, an ancienne with five PBPs to her credit, currently serves as RUSA’s president, and Bill has held that title in the past and is also the recipient of the American Randonneur Award. Both were instrumental in helping the fledgling organization get up and running. Impressive credentials indeed!
Bill and Lois have decades of cycling and randonneuring experience, and we are having a fine time talking shop, and looking at cases of PBP medals and bike parts and trophies that RUSA the organization has amassed over the years. The living room walls are decorated with framed prints of Eddy Merckx in his glory days. Out in the garage, we go over the details of a Bill Bryant frame, set up for distance riding, examine a line-up of classic Phil Wood hubs, and debate the merits of classic lighting systems versus today’s LED offerings.
As I wait for my Coho to arrive via FedEx, I check Google maps and find I’m less than two miles from the Santa Cruz surf museum. Ah... My cycling vacation has begun…
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
More NC RAAM / RAW News
At about 2:40 or so you'll see Terry Landsell's team, featuring an interview with our very own Jimmy Williams....Enjoy.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Get 'er Dunn!
North Carolina just added a new permanent to its growing list of choices: Dean's Get 'er Dunn, a fantastic 100K route from a store near Dean's house just outside Raleigh, down to Dunn and back.
Dean and I did ride in yesterday's heat and had a fine time. Definitely check this route out. It meanders past the former home of the state's largest denim producing textile mill (you'll know you're near it when you're on Denim Street). You'll also get a view of the underbelly of Erwin / Dunn with a tour past the local slaughterhouse....
...before entering Dunn's glory day neighborhood where there is a cluster of magnificent mansions.
In this shot from Erwin, Dean explains the best way to outsmart a coyote. (Dean's advice -- carry several 12-oz ribeyes and occasionally toss one into the underbrush.)
Did you know Erwin has a bike sculpture?
The tobacco is looking good this year. Must be all of the rain.
Here's Dean powering past to steal another county line....
Another fun day on the bikes....
Dean and I did ride in yesterday's heat and had a fine time. Definitely check this route out. It meanders past the former home of the state's largest denim producing textile mill (you'll know you're near it when you're on Denim Street). You'll also get a view of the underbelly of Erwin / Dunn with a tour past the local slaughterhouse....
...before entering Dunn's glory day neighborhood where there is a cluster of magnificent mansions.
In this shot from Erwin, Dean explains the best way to outsmart a coyote. (Dean's advice -- carry several 12-oz ribeyes and occasionally toss one into the underbrush.)
Did you know Erwin has a bike sculpture?
The tobacco is looking good this year. Must be all of the rain.
Here's Dean powering past to steal another county line....
Another fun day on the bikes....
Going the Distance
Someone who gives of his time not only at the local and regional levels, but serves all RUSA members at the national level as Newsletter Editor and Vice-President, Mike D has certainly gone the distance with his selfless volunteerism. For that we are greatly indebted and extremely thankful.
Mike has also been known to go the distance on his bike, inspiring many of us in the process. Just this year, he completed his hundredth consecutive (and counting) monthly ride of at least a hundred miles. This month he completed his fourth R-12 Award. If Mike finishes 2010 anywhere near his current pace, he will garner yet another honor for which there is no RUSA award. Not yet anyway. I'm talking about 10,000km in one calendar year. RUSA Distance Awards are in 1,000km multiples from 1,000km to 5,000km.
Adding some perspective to just what 10,000km means, it is roughly one-quarter of the earth's circumference. Accomplishing this feat in a single year calls for an average of one 200km RUSA ride per week! Understandably, less than 1% of RUSA members achieve this goal.
In prior years, our local brevet "season" traditionally ended the first week of June. But just because our traditional brevet season has ended, don't expect Mike to shift out of his big chain ring and slow down.
There are plenty of riding opportunities for the remainder of the year. Thanks to Regional Brevet Administrators Alan and Tony, the brevet calendar reads like a smorgasbord, which not only boasts rides most months, but in some cases choices of distances and venues. In effect, Tony has created a second brevet season. Thus, it is still possible to complete an SR series! Don't forget those special "pick-up" rides called permanents and permanent-populaires, which can be scheduled at any time by a RUSA member with route-owner approval.
Last year, I predicted that a NC Randonneur would do 10,000km. Having already eclipsed 5,000km this year, Mike has jumped out and set a blistering pace. Let's cheer him on as we watch him accomplish something no other NC Randonneur has done. I'm predicting a number of NC Randonneurs will eclipse 5,000km this year, a tremendous feat in itself, as others set personal distance records.
Me? I'm poking my front wheel into the excitement. We still have the greater part of the calendar year staring us in the face.
Go, Mike!
Let's Ride!
Photos courtesy of Branson KimballSaturday, June 12, 2010
Shenandoah 1200K Control / Last Riders Out
All remaining riders have cleared Mt. Airy except for Mark and Bill Olsen, who are leaving now.
3 A.M. Update
Bill and Mark Olsen and Paul Donaldson are in, got food and are off for 90-minute naps. Still out are Larry Midura, Michael Fox, David Rudy and Phil Creel.
At 3:33, Phil Creel, Larry Midura and David Rudy arrived.
At 3:33, Phil Creel, Larry Midura and David Rudy arrived.
No Worries --- we can true that up...
Ride organizer Matt Settle is in after a run-in with a car. He's fine. Bike is not.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Shenandoah 1200K Control / 2 Riders In
Jon Pasch arrived at 20:02 and will be heading back out at 22:00. Jim Solanick arrived at 20:56 and is sleeping until 1:30 a.m. Both guys looked amazingly good for the 440-mile mark, both had two burgers (Jim's were veggies) and both had minor mechanical issues that Bob and John P dealt with. A photo of Jim on arrival:
Jon getting ready to leave,,,
Midnight update: Other riders now in include John Lee Ellis, Aaron Little, Chuck Howes, Henk Bouhuyzen.
Jon getting ready to leave,,,
Midnight update: Other riders now in include John Lee Ellis, Aaron Little, Chuck Howes, Henk Bouhuyzen.
Shenandoah 1200K Control / The Mayberry Edition
The NC Randonneurs are once again helping out with the Mt. Airy Control of the Shenandoah 1200K. We've got coolers of drinks, a hot grill, burgers, franks and beans.
Helping out will be fearless leader Al...
...As well as John O, Biker Bob, John P and one or two guests....
If you're out and about, stop by the Knights Inn in Mt. Airy and say hi.
We're expecting the first riders of about 15 still riding sometime around sunset. We'll update with pictures, etc., so check back for the latest information.
After we set up shop and did the day's shopping, we headed to uptown "Mayberry." This is where Andy Griffith is from, and the Main Street strip is a living museum to the Andy Griffith show. Don't be making no jokes about it -- or you're liable to find yourself in the back of Deputy Barney Fife's patrol car.
Images of the TV show grace every window, and tourists wander the street hoping to recapture some early 1960s innocence, relive the days before the hippies fouled the air with smoke and the hollow promise of free love.
Once uptown, you're just about obligated to have a world-famous porkchop sandwich at The Snappy Lunch. (Uh...yes, right next door to Floyd the Barber's.)
Here's John O enjoying one all the way.
Even the outskirts of town feels the magnetic pull of that 60s TV show. Just across the street from us is Aunt Bea's Hickory Smoked Barbecue restaurant and Goober's 52, which is serving up oysters and live music this evening.
So...if you show up at our control and nobody's home, be sure to cross the street. We just might be shagging at the oyster roast....
Helping out will be fearless leader Al...
...As well as John O, Biker Bob, John P and one or two guests....
If you're out and about, stop by the Knights Inn in Mt. Airy and say hi.
We're expecting the first riders of about 15 still riding sometime around sunset. We'll update with pictures, etc., so check back for the latest information.
After we set up shop and did the day's shopping, we headed to uptown "Mayberry." This is where Andy Griffith is from, and the Main Street strip is a living museum to the Andy Griffith show. Don't be making no jokes about it -- or you're liable to find yourself in the back of Deputy Barney Fife's patrol car.
Images of the TV show grace every window, and tourists wander the street hoping to recapture some early 1960s innocence, relive the days before the hippies fouled the air with smoke and the hollow promise of free love.
Once uptown, you're just about obligated to have a world-famous porkchop sandwich at The Snappy Lunch. (Uh...yes, right next door to Floyd the Barber's.)
Here's John O enjoying one all the way.
Even the outskirts of town feels the magnetic pull of that 60s TV show. Just across the street from us is Aunt Bea's Hickory Smoked Barbecue restaurant and Goober's 52, which is serving up oysters and live music this evening.
So...if you show up at our control and nobody's home, be sure to cross the street. We just might be shagging at the oyster roast....
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