NO MAS

We're done, it's over.

Long slide show and presentations tonight - and I'm on the road early.

So, my post will wait until tomorrow sometime.

Later.

Day 30: Ashland to Yorktown and Williamsburg, VA

NO MAS. Done.

Will be good to have a day off the bike.

Relatively leisurely day dropping down off the piedmont to the very gently rolling, pine forested flatlands. Progressively increasing tourist influence and Williamsburg is a big tourist trap. Continued on through Williamsburg down to the shore at Yorktown for a chance to dip the bike into salt water, go for a swim, have a picnic.

I rode 3500 miles and waited until about 5 miles from Yorktown to break a spoke - made quite a loud noise, and slowed me down fairly promptly. So, opened the brake, limped a couple miles to a support van, changed wheels for the rest of the day.

Warm,humid but pleasant day.

After lunch and before riding the 14 miles back to Williamsburg and the hotel, took a ride and walk around the Yorktown battleground. Pretty interesting to see it in real life - those guys were looking down each others throats and with pretty small defensive earthworks, and little to fight back with, I agree with Cornwall - time to quite while some of us are still alive and let the damn colonists have the place.

We started early today: great sunrise on the road.

For the first time, we all rode together for the last 2 miles - 38 folks in a double line - made for a big group. Then, cringe, got a chance to test how nice drivechains and carbon frames held up to salt and sand!

By the end of the trip (and before the salt and sand) all those quiet, newly tuned bikes were making an awful lot of creaks, squeaks and groans. As were the riders.

5.8 hr, 151 km (90 mile), 87 av heart rate, 16.1 mph.

Summary: EFM

Don't do something like this to see the country - if you do it, do it just to ride a lot. Too much time is spent riding to really enjoy what you're seeing.

Don't do it to have fun, it isn't much fun - but it is a major accomplishment. And is enjoyable, if not fun.

Remember, There aren't too many other things in life that we do every day, no interruptions, with some days being very hard - for 30 days straight. Every day. Did I mention - every day? Hard work? Every day.

Don't do it to meet a wide variety of people: many if not most of the people on a ride like this are so focused on riding that they don't have too much besides bicycling to talk about. And, your day is so tied up with riding, caring for the bikes, ingesting enough calories, that there isn't a lot of time for interacting with people.

If you want to "see" the country, plan on 60-80 miles per day - and plan your route to take in the history and the culture. And, leave time to visit the sights, and enjoy the people. And, take a day off every week or two.

The country is really big, and really interesting, and I wanted to stop and talk to folks, and see stuff and take side trips. Would like to do it again and take 2 months to do it - or do it in sections. Did I mention, the country is really big!

It isn't really that hard if you don't get competitive and go hammering along too much (though you can certainly do that at time: a few days we had great fun racing each other up each hill, and once I settled in, I did occasional days of hard intervals). Treat each day as a long but easy recovery ride and you'll go plenty fast enough, and have plenty of gas to complete each day sand be ready for the next.

Pacing came surprisingly naturally - I couldn't believe, on the first few days, my low heart rates. But that persisted, even when I consciously tried to go harder: my body just said "Dude, you're gonna be out here for 8 hours - 90 beats per minute will be just fine!"

I never really had any severe sore spots - just occasional twinges here and there (butt, knee) and for the long days on the plains, my neck was sore - not too unexpected considering the injury last fall. I never had any days where sagging was a consideration (Yes, I did EFI - Every Fabulous Inch), nor days where I felt like I was dragging to the finish (though some days, I treated the last hour or two as a very leisurely cruise), nor days when I felt like I might collapse of exhaustion or heat (heat was a significant issue for some people, not much of an issue for others including me).

Many folks entered and left this as a huge life event: desperately wanting to do EFM and disappointed if not successful. They got pretty emotional when they finished. It was a big enough deal that there were some tears at the finish, and about 15 families that had come in from all over the country to congratulate (Dad, son, husband, wife, etc) finishers.

9 of the clients were women - reportedly the largest group ever - of 38. Several on recumbents rode near the back - a function of the bike. Others rode near the later part of the pack. There were 2 hammerheads that rode hard and looked uncomfortable. And, the young Swiss woman would have buried 9 out of 10 of the men - but rode all day, every day, on the wheel of her partner who was the hammerheadiest of the hammerhead guys.

Youngest was 17 years (2nd transcontinental for him - and he was a license plate collector for a hobby). Oldest was 71. Many were quite overweight - tough in the hills, non-issue on the flats. One was using it as a fund raiser for diabetes research - pulled in $20,000.

There were 3-4 that hammered hard, were fast, and off the front every day - alone on their aerobars. There was a group of 5-6 that rode in a fast paceline at the front almost every day. The recumbents brought up the rear. And there were several groups of 3-5 that typically were just in front of the recumbents and rode pretty slowly most days - and some days, some of us from the middle would drop back to these groups and ride with them for a more relaxing pace, often taking major pulls for them. The rest of us rode either alone or in varying mixes of 3-5 person groups in the middle, often mixing and matching between and within days - riding alone at times, and joining forces as winds, paces, and tiredness dictated. Occasionally a stronger rider riding at a comfortable pace would pick up a few followers and pull them along for many miles to the benefit of all. (There were times when I felt strong, but didn't particularly want to go fast, and between 1 and 4 folks would latch onto my wheel and stay there for a long time. On the other hand when I wanted to go slow, I preferred to just get down on the aero bars and cruise along easy - I believe that I've roughly tripled my total lifetime experience on aerobars!)

I liked to ride with a pace line at times, but rode a majority of my time alone so that I could look around at the scenery and have more freedom to stop for a photo or to read a roadside sign.

iPods were prominent: some used them all day and rarely spoke. I liked to put on some tunes late in the day when groups tended to splinter, and I would choose music based on mood and pace. Never pulled it out before lunch.

Funny experience to get to 100 miles and say, glad that we've only got another 20 to go today.

Photography on the fly was prominent, and somewhat surprisingly, caused no mishaps - even when 38 people simultaneously reached into a rear pocket on the last day to photograph, on the move, the sunrise!

7 crashes on the trip, the rumble strip that several of us found on day 1, one high speed with a little concussion and a few lower speed tipovers including in the parking lots.

My laptop and Wikipedia and Google were great for reading up on towns we visited, and geology, and history, and culture. iPad would be even better. And, for a quick update, the Blackberry in my pocket with Google or Wikipedia gave me quick information when we stopped for breaks and lunch (and for keeping up with the TourdeFrance and World Cup during the first week).

The wood-framed master map that was carried along and updated daily, and signed by all at the end was auctioned off for charity at the end: $1100. Only Canadian and Australian bidders! Go figure.

A few practicalities:

I used mini clip-on aero bars. A life saver when riding alone both to gain a fraction of an MPH and save time in the saddle, and to rapidly abolish symptoms when the hands went numb. (Yes, a few people had bad enough neuropathies by the end that working on the bikes, changing tires, etc. were very difficult.)

Although Lon recommended standard wheels, many of us took aero wheels - lots of Ksyriums, and Dura-Ace in my case. I lucked out in that my spoke didn't break until the last 5 miles, but with spokes not really being field replaceable on these wheels, it would have been a real problem if it happened earlier - involving a FEDEX overnight delivery of a new wheel. If you ride a tour like this, use standard-spoked handbuilt wheels - and carry spare spokes.

Insulated water bottles are life savers!

Next summer, I'd like to do a transcontinental of Europe - any takers? Look at the Oriental Express on www.tourdafrique.com - Paris to Istanbul in 6 weeks.

Thanks to all who have read this stuff, who have posted comments, and who have expressed interest. I guess I'll go back to work now..

Sorry if today's post was TMI

This will be my last post unless I have some late epiphany.

Day 29: Harrisonburg to Ashland, VA

UNO MAS!

Note well: I may never, ever, have said this before, but I'm looking forward to day off my bike!

Today, left the Shenandoah Valley, short climb up over the Blue Ridge, crossing the southern end of the Skyline drive, fast descent down to the Piedmont. A pretty section of the ride, but not really any views because of the thick forests.

Then rode across the entire Piedmont to Ashland which is right near the fall line, where we'll descend the last couple hundred feet to the coastal plain. The Piedmont itself is lots of rolling hills. Supposedly jumbles of various bedrocks crunched up when America was in contact with Africa - several decades or more ago. The bedrock is then really old, and really worn down. And, has had a lot of filling in with sediments worn down from the higher Alleghenies. So, as we rode along, we saw occasional outcrops of various kinds of rocks - mostly granites and metamorphics. Mile after mile of short ups and downs, hard to keep a steady rhythm. Slow going because of the terrain, a headwind, and really tired legs.

Lots of forest interspersed with large farms and towns.

Passed Montpelier, home of James Madison - 4th president. And, lots of signs pointing to various Civil War Battlefields. Closest to Chancellorsville and The Wilderness. The northerners won Chancellorsville, but then retreated. A year or two later, under US Grant, the northerners didn't do as well at the Wilderness, but advanced anyway putting enough pressure on Lee to eventually finish the war.

Stopped at a "re-enactment" encampment by the Montpelier civil war re-enactors. Pretty interesting. I'm not too sure why someone would like to put up a tent, get out some old clothes, and sit around looking old all weekend, but..... Got to hear a long discussion of how them Northerners had a big advantage of having most soldiers equipped with rifles (accurate out to 300 yards) while the South was limited largely to smooth bores (accurate only to about 100 yards) even out to the end of "the war". The locals still seemed a little annoyed at having lost the war.

We're in Ashland, like Richmond, at the edge of the Piedmont - the fall line where rivers and streams head down to the coastal plain - so both the end of navigation from the sea, and a good source of water power for mills. Therefore, a popular location for towns all up and down the eastern seaboard - and the route for US Route 1 which connects all the cities on the fall line.

We're in Kudzu land now!

Note the bicycle route sign: 76 is for the "Bikecentennial Route" which we followed part of the day.

Tomorrow - on to salt water.

7.8 hr, 197.5 km/122 miles, 15,6 MPH, 90 pulse.

Day 28 a few more photos

Day 28: Elkins, WV to Harrisonburg, VA

Today was as good as it gets!!! Fantastic riding over ridge after ridge after ridge of the Alleghenies all day. Pretty little farms and villages, quiet roads with trees for shade, fog in the valleys in the morning. Some roads were just tunnels through the trees.

As everywhere in the east, impressive court houses in little county seats.

I counted 9 ridges that we climbed over for a total of about 10,400 feet of climbing. Kinda like doing hill repeats on Flagstaff - 9 times.

Some of the folks were pretty tired, but if you didn't hammer every climb it was a very pleasant day - exceptional riding.

Warm, but not as humid as it has been.

4 foot rattlesnake crossing the road. Pretty cool. He even rattled for me.

Couldn't find much interesting about Harrisonburg except that Janet Reno called it "the methamphetamine capitol of the East."

We are now in our last state.

Went through Seneca Rocks. Jean and I were there to climb in the 70's when the village consisted of one old general store that still had a phone that you cranked to get an operator, and give a phone number verbally. The town has tripled in size: 3 buildings now. The old store is gussied up and painted. There's a newer "family" restaurant. And, across the street is a climbing guide operation with a huge outdoor climbing wall (for training, I presume) and a yuppie coffee shop!

7.9 hours, 171 km (106 mile), 99 pulse av., 13.5 mph av,

10400 feet climbing.

Day 27: Parkursburg to Elkins, WV

What an exceptional day of riding. Some of the day was on a busy 4 lane with good shoulders, but once we were off the 4 lane we were in the forest with small farmhouses - some modernized, some run down, and some abandoned. Looked for, but didn't find, an old lady smoking a corncob pipe. Little narrow roads, little traffic, up and down over ridge after ridge after ridge, along little streams, shaded by thick trees, chased by farm dogs (mostly, actually all, just glad to run along side us for a little while). Agriculture was all small fields for hay, a few little plots of vegetables. Looks like hard to make a decent living, but real pretty.

Nothing much to take a picture of, but the overall effect of delightful riding and pleasant surroundings was quite exceptional. For those from Boulder, think 70 miles of old Apple Valley Road with a few more trees and more abandoned house and for sale houses.

We finally did our first "tour" of something today: ate lunch at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (really!). Took a 20 minute tour of the old hospital (in the picture). Peaked at 2600 "patients" (inmates?) in 1967 and was down to 141 when it closed in 1994. Thanks to the Thorazine that they used to dissolve in the coffee and sneak to the people.

Note the rather tired looking riders - interesting, that we all are getting to look a bit bedraggled.

Second flat tire of the ride today. And, a weird mechanical: the glue holding my cadence magnet must have loosened in yesterday's deluge, the magnet came off and was strong enough that it jumped to and attached itself to my chain and was then pulled into the derailleur. Took more than a little while to find the little tiny magnet, and sort out what happened! No power readings today and until I get the magnet glued back on.

Although billed as 9000 feet of climbing today, it only read (and felt like) 6000 feet on my Garmin.

7.8 hours, 122 miles/201 km, 99 pulse, 16.0 MPH (tailwinds again).