So it's official, I'm registered for the Great Ohio Bicycle adventure in June.
I'm excited to get one more state done in my quest to bicycle all 50 states. I'm not sure how challenging it will be however, as I've never been to Ohio.
Winter time is always a time of reflection for me, and not nearly as much riding. December has been unseasonably warm in Colorado, however, it's not without it's problems. The snow comes, albeit sporadically, and the constant freeze and thaw leads to icy patches which are dangerous to traverse on a road bike.
I do have a mountain bike for such things, which I should probably get out today.
I will keep you posted on my training.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Meetup Groups: Your Mileage May Vary
I was interested in finding a way to increase my cycling time, and meet new people. That's when a friend suggested I look into meetup groups.
For those of you not familiar, I am talking about the site meetup.com. This is a site where you look for users with similar interests, and meet up across town. They have groups on everything from dating to cars to fitness. But I will focus today on cycling. I joined a cycling meetup group and waited for someone to organize a ride. Within a week, another user had posted a 50+ mile ride around Denver. It was on a Saturday, with planned good weather. So I loaded up the bike and headed down to Southeast Denver.
What Meetup is:
1. A good, low pressure way to meet up for a ride, stick with the riders, talk with riders, ditch the riders, whatever gets you the most out of your experience. If you like the social aspect of meeting other cyclists, we had up to 15 with us at one point. It's a pretty loosy goosy organized ride, so if you get tired, no big deal, turn around and go back to start. At one point we were down to 5 riders.
2. A good way to get some experience riding in a larger group, and drafting. When you train for bigger rides alone, you neglect the impact of climbing a hill in a group. Consider what it will be like if you have to climb that hill, and you're a little wobbly, with 10 riders surrounding you. Well good news, now you're in a group, so you'll get that practice!
3. The best of cycling culture. You will share snacks, sunscreen and tubes with your new found friends.
What Meetup is not:
1. This is not a recommended dating service (unless you join one of the dating meetups). Every guy on this ride was married or had a girlfriend. Even for grins, I chatted up the lone lesbian in the group, (hey, in the event I ever wanted to swing that way!) she had a girlfriend too.
2. A professionally organized tour. The person setting this up, bless him, is going to organize the best route he can, but that doesn't mean he's necessarily done the route before, or could get confused finding roads or even - eek! put you somewhere that isn't really safe (like on the shoulder of Arapahoe road during rush hour traffic)
3. This is not always the best of cycling culture: Ok Lance, I'm impressed that you powerfully climbed up that hill. You know what would be more impressive? Not telling me I needed to ride behind you because I'd get tired. I passed you and left you behind because I spend a lot of time cycling. Remember when you told me the biggest ride you did was 50 miles. Well not to brag, but I've done twice that, in the mountains. Oh and by the way your average 15 mph pace is my 13 mph pace. But guys lie about size all the time.
For those of you not familiar, I am talking about the site meetup.com. This is a site where you look for users with similar interests, and meet up across town. They have groups on everything from dating to cars to fitness. But I will focus today on cycling. I joined a cycling meetup group and waited for someone to organize a ride. Within a week, another user had posted a 50+ mile ride around Denver. It was on a Saturday, with planned good weather. So I loaded up the bike and headed down to Southeast Denver.
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| A beautiful scene from Cherry Creek State Park, part of our meetup route. |
1. A good, low pressure way to meet up for a ride, stick with the riders, talk with riders, ditch the riders, whatever gets you the most out of your experience. If you like the social aspect of meeting other cyclists, we had up to 15 with us at one point. It's a pretty loosy goosy organized ride, so if you get tired, no big deal, turn around and go back to start. At one point we were down to 5 riders.
2. A good way to get some experience riding in a larger group, and drafting. When you train for bigger rides alone, you neglect the impact of climbing a hill in a group. Consider what it will be like if you have to climb that hill, and you're a little wobbly, with 10 riders surrounding you. Well good news, now you're in a group, so you'll get that practice!
3. The best of cycling culture. You will share snacks, sunscreen and tubes with your new found friends.
What Meetup is not:
1. This is not a recommended dating service (unless you join one of the dating meetups). Every guy on this ride was married or had a girlfriend. Even for grins, I chatted up the lone lesbian in the group, (hey, in the event I ever wanted to swing that way!) she had a girlfriend too.
2. A professionally organized tour. The person setting this up, bless him, is going to organize the best route he can, but that doesn't mean he's necessarily done the route before, or could get confused finding roads or even - eek! put you somewhere that isn't really safe (like on the shoulder of Arapahoe road during rush hour traffic)
3. This is not always the best of cycling culture: Ok Lance, I'm impressed that you powerfully climbed up that hill. You know what would be more impressive? Not telling me I needed to ride behind you because I'd get tired. I passed you and left you behind because I spend a lot of time cycling. Remember when you told me the biggest ride you did was 50 miles. Well not to brag, but I've done twice that, in the mountains. Oh and by the way your average 15 mph pace is my 13 mph pace. But guys lie about size all the time.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
2013 Rides
So it's about time to start thinking of my weeklong rides for 2013. My goal is to do a weeklong ride in all 50 states. I have three down, so only 47 more to go, woo hoo!
A few years ago, while I was doing RAGBRAI, I met a nice woman who is part of a bike club out of Quincy, Illinois. We kept in touch through the years, and she's kept me apprised of other fun rides throughout the Midwest. In fact, last year, we did the Michigan Shoreline Ride, and it was a great ride. I also got to know some other Midwest cyclists.
This year they are going to be doing the Great Ohio Bicycle adventure. It is their 25th anniversary year, so I'm hoping they pick out the best Ohio has to offer. It seems to be covering all of Western Ohio, which I'm not sure if that's the most scenic part, and that's why they're doing it. But I imagine it's probably pretty hard to cover the more urban areas of Ohio. I guess never being to Ohio (even for a layover) I don't know what to expect. But it should be fun. This will be in early June.
Then, I realized, I better get cracking on these states. If I don't start doing more than one a year, I will be 80 when I'm done. So I found another good ride in Oregon. http://www.cycleoregon.com. In September, which should also be a very pleasant ride to do, and maybe a nice gift for my 34th birthday. If you look at the tour menu, it looks to be incredibly well supported.
Well, it's a beautiful day in Denver, unseasonably warm for November, so I'm going to hit the Cherry Creek and South Platte trails for about 55 miles today. Hope your turkey day was festive!
A few years ago, while I was doing RAGBRAI, I met a nice woman who is part of a bike club out of Quincy, Illinois. We kept in touch through the years, and she's kept me apprised of other fun rides throughout the Midwest. In fact, last year, we did the Michigan Shoreline Ride, and it was a great ride. I also got to know some other Midwest cyclists.
This year they are going to be doing the Great Ohio Bicycle adventure. It is their 25th anniversary year, so I'm hoping they pick out the best Ohio has to offer. It seems to be covering all of Western Ohio, which I'm not sure if that's the most scenic part, and that's why they're doing it. But I imagine it's probably pretty hard to cover the more urban areas of Ohio. I guess never being to Ohio (even for a layover) I don't know what to expect. But it should be fun. This will be in early June.
Then, I realized, I better get cracking on these states. If I don't start doing more than one a year, I will be 80 when I'm done. So I found another good ride in Oregon. http://www.cycleoregon.com. In September, which should also be a very pleasant ride to do, and maybe a nice gift for my 34th birthday. If you look at the tour menu, it looks to be incredibly well supported.
Well, it's a beautiful day in Denver, unseasonably warm for November, so I'm going to hit the Cherry Creek and South Platte trails for about 55 miles today. Hope your turkey day was festive!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Fall Time Training
I've been very neglectful of my cycling duties since summer's end. Part of it is due to the fact that an absolutely beautiful ride I used to make from Edwards to Vail every weekend morning, I am no longer able to do.
It's getting far too cold in the mornings, and far too dark. The kind of cold that can't be suppressed by arm and leg warmers. I need to also get some new head and tail lights. Most road bicycles have handlebars too wide to support anything but an adjustable head and tail light set (like those made by nogs).
I'm going to go out running tonight. But will try to come up with a training plan that will keep me in shape for my next cycling adventure.
It's getting far too cold in the mornings, and far too dark. The kind of cold that can't be suppressed by arm and leg warmers. I need to also get some new head and tail lights. Most road bicycles have handlebars too wide to support anything but an adjustable head and tail light set (like those made by nogs).
I'm going to go out running tonight. But will try to come up with a training plan that will keep me in shape for my next cycling adventure.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Pedal the Plains was a blast
Around the time I committed to doing Ride the Rockies, my aunt came across another Colorado ride called Pedal the Plains. It was its inaugural year, but the appeal of flat lands vs. Rockies was immediately appealing to my family. My aunt sent out an e-mail to the family, and we got 5 committed souls to Pedal the Plains in September. Getting into the spirit of things, and after hearing about all the shenanigans that happens during RAGBRAI, my aunt created a team name for us (the Landsharks), and team t-shirts and fins for our helmets. These fins should have made us more aerodynamic, but I'm convinced otherwise.
My training was embarrassingly non-existent for this ride. After doing Ride the Rockies in June, I took the Diva into my favorite bike shop, and short of a weekend ride between Edwards and Vail, I really didn't ride too much at all. But the route seemed pretty achievable, and in this case, the ride was all about FUN. Lots of parties, BBQs, and excuses to ride with fins on our helmets. But, the ride was short, so I figured no matter what shape I was in, I could power through it. And if you're in Colorado looking to do a fun, short and (relatively) easy ride, you might enjoy this one.
There were about 1,000 riders for the 3-day event. It is organized by the same people who do Ride the Rockies, so you will find this ride better supported than some other rides around the country. There are plenty of support vehicles that will take you as little as 5 miles down the road if you just need to catch a break, or catch up with your friends, or will take you to the beer garden at the end of route host city. Did I mention they have beer? Colorado breweries represent on this ride, with lots of choices from Oskar Blues, Odell Brewery and Left Hand (who can do no wrong in my book).
For your meals, you are on your own (no meal plan is included), but the communities do a good job of covering you. Some of the breakfasts were a little weak, but that was more than made up for when stopping in the lunchtime stops of Eckley (day 1) and Idalia (day 2). There were a significant number of food options. The lone vegetarian in our group sometimes felt a little left out (this is cow country, after all, so the number of red meat options were large), but at the end of the day, there was always a couple of options for her to choose from. As far as sleeping goes, they have support for just about every option you can envision. For camping, you can camp inside or outside (with your tent, it got pretty cold at night to consider under the stars in a sleeping bag), they have a tent service that will provide you with a tent and sleeping bags. You can also bring your RV, or sleep with a local host.
We chose the RV route, and had no issues in finding parking at any of the host communities.
Besides Ride the Rockies, this was probably one of my favorite rides. Even so, there were a couple of things I would probably have changed if I could. First of all, I would have either altered the route, the days we rode or both. On the last day, which was a Sunday, we were to ride from Burlington to Yuma, a total of 83 miles. Think about it. Most people are going to average around 10 mph, and they are to get to Burlington by 3 pm? Unfortunately, that meant that a few of our group either skipped Sunday entirely or had the RV drop them in partway through the course. Either way, not really maximizing enjoyment. If they shortened the route on the last day (as most rides do) or even schedule the ride so the last day is on a Friday or Saturday, people may have been more relaxed. The other thing, which I must warn you about, is there are many cattle out in Eastern Colorado. A few years ago I heard somewhere that Eastern Colorado/Western Kansas is where McDonald's gets most of its beef. And maybe watching the cattle graze on the prairie is relaxing. Unfortunately, you do go by some pretty significant feed lots (one had over 111,000 head of cattle). And having so many cows living on top of each other, you do get a certain amount of "aroma" and flies. But nothing that would stop me from enjoying this ride again next year. It was great, and I hope to see you there.
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| Lo and behold, we find non-genetically (?) modified corn on the plains. |
There were about 1,000 riders for the 3-day event. It is organized by the same people who do Ride the Rockies, so you will find this ride better supported than some other rides around the country. There are plenty of support vehicles that will take you as little as 5 miles down the road if you just need to catch a break, or catch up with your friends, or will take you to the beer garden at the end of route host city. Did I mention they have beer? Colorado breweries represent on this ride, with lots of choices from Oskar Blues, Odell Brewery and Left Hand (who can do no wrong in my book).
For your meals, you are on your own (no meal plan is included), but the communities do a good job of covering you. Some of the breakfasts were a little weak, but that was more than made up for when stopping in the lunchtime stops of Eckley (day 1) and Idalia (day 2). There were a significant number of food options. The lone vegetarian in our group sometimes felt a little left out (this is cow country, after all, so the number of red meat options were large), but at the end of the day, there was always a couple of options for her to choose from. As far as sleeping goes, they have support for just about every option you can envision. For camping, you can camp inside or outside (with your tent, it got pretty cold at night to consider under the stars in a sleeping bag), they have a tent service that will provide you with a tent and sleeping bags. You can also bring your RV, or sleep with a local host.
 |
| Not just plains, the town of Wray had beautiful sweeping bluffs |
Besides Ride the Rockies, this was probably one of my favorite rides. Even so, there were a couple of things I would probably have changed if I could. First of all, I would have either altered the route, the days we rode or both. On the last day, which was a Sunday, we were to ride from Burlington to Yuma, a total of 83 miles. Think about it. Most people are going to average around 10 mph, and they are to get to Burlington by 3 pm? Unfortunately, that meant that a few of our group either skipped Sunday entirely or had the RV drop them in partway through the course. Either way, not really maximizing enjoyment. If they shortened the route on the last day (as most rides do) or even schedule the ride so the last day is on a Friday or Saturday, people may have been more relaxed. The other thing, which I must warn you about, is there are many cattle out in Eastern Colorado. A few years ago I heard somewhere that Eastern Colorado/Western Kansas is where McDonald's gets most of its beef. And maybe watching the cattle graze on the prairie is relaxing. Unfortunately, you do go by some pretty significant feed lots (one had over 111,000 head of cattle). And having so many cows living on top of each other, you do get a certain amount of "aroma" and flies. But nothing that would stop me from enjoying this ride again next year. It was great, and I hope to see you there.
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| Me at the finish line with my "Landshark Fin" |
Friday, September 28, 2012
Hello World
My passion is cycling tours. My goal is to do a multi-day cycling tour in each of the 50 states. I've conquered 3 states so far, so I have quite a ways to go. I hope to share with you my experiences. And what I hope to get from you, dear reader is input on the best cycling tours in the US to experience.
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