We are in the middle of a multi-day rain event. Up to 5 inches of rain is to fall between Monday evening and Thursday evening. Many of us were thinking that riding in the rain in temperatures below 50 just didn’t seem like too much fun. When the rain cleared out overnight and there was a dry weather window until about 9:30 am AND it was Coffee Ride day … well it was time to get out on the bikes and ride! I dusted off the fixie and immediately noticed the better fit than the new Kona frame. It was a joy to ride the fixie.
Five riders took it easy and continued to recount the Flèche, but after just a few good stories, we turned our attention to the next big ride, LOL in July. That’s our 1000k.
It was another of those incident-free rides, and frankly I don’t remember much of the ride itself. The conversation was the thing.
Bible Verses for the Day:
Take your flocks and your herds, as you said, and be gone. And bring a blessing on me too! (Exo 12:32 NRSV)
You have no part or share in this, for your heart is not right before God. (Act 8:21 NRSV)
The failed Flèche was a disappointment, but I got out and rode this morning as usual. There were 5 of us out, including 3 who had completed the Flèche. We rode easy, and I still felt the effort. I’m still in recovery mode. Stories about the Flèche were the topic of the day. It was a non-memorable ride.
The main purpose of this post is to catch up with the stats.
For the month, 530 miles.
Total distance since June 1, 2013 = 6,076
Total funds raised for the Malaria Campaign = $7,293
Bible Verses:
This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance. (Exodus 12:14 NRSV)
But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison. (Act 8:3 NRSV)
Team Chain Reaction’s 2014 Flèche will go down in the history books as having more drama than a middle school lunch room. The riders planned and prepared in ways that would make Boy Scouts envious. In the end, the team did not officially finish the ride.
The drama:
- Team member Fran broke his pelvis in a fall one month away from the ride. The doctors didn’t give him permission to sit on a bike for 24 hours, and so his ride was done. Now there were 4 riders.
- Your’s truly discovered a fatally cracked bike frame several weeks from the Flèche. While the warrantied replacement frame traveled across the country other alternative bikes were sought out. The frame arrived 4 days late, 4 days before the ride. Bike Doctor put it together 3 days before the ride. That gave me two days to “dial it in”.
- Mike suddenly had bottom bracket issues. His bike was in for another service one week before the ride.
- Jack had sudden last minute shifter issues, and decided to install downtube shifters as his most reliable and quick solution to this mechanical problem.
- In the very wee hours of Thursday morning, your’s truly started emptying my GI tract from both ends in violent spasms lasting 4 hours. The vomiting stopped at daybreak. The diarrhea was intermittent through Friday night. It resurfaced within 5 minutes of any food going into my belly Thursday and Friday. Imodium was an attempt to mitigate this additional challenge. Needless to say, the bike didn’t get “dialed in” during two days of flu.
- Four riders were up early and ready to go Saturday morning. Five minutes before departing his house, Mike received a work call. He was required to solve some computer problems that ran the backbone of his business. He would not be able to solve the issues soon enough that he could ride. That meant we were starting with 3 riders and had to finish with 3 to be official. I was still quite questionable.
- We pushed off on time and with great optimism. About 40 miles into the ride, I was still adjusting my saddle height when my seatpost clamp snapped. That was a ride-ending mechanical if it couldn’t be replaced. We found a bike shop 2.5 miles behind us, called them, and got a clamp on the bike with only about 45 minutes and 5 bonus miles used.
- At about mile 80, my poor nutrition and dehydration the previous couple of days caught up with me. I was slowing down, heating up, and fading fast. I took a rest break to cool down and hydrate, then just as we pushed on, I noted that not only were we leaving urban conveniences for very rural Virginia but also that I couldn’t even garner enough saliva to spit. I would be unable to “catch up” eating and drinking on the bike. After a conference among the team, I decided to withdraw and the remaining two riders would continue knowing there was no “credit” other than personal accomplishment. I rode solo back to a Starbucks, called for a ride, and Mike picked me up a little more than 2 hours later.
- After I abandoned the team, about 4o miles later, Jack crashed, tearing open a lot of skin, jarring his shoulder, and cracking his helmet. He and Mike C decided to continue on for another 10 miles and reassess. Jack got patched up at a CVS and they decided to continue riding. They burned their control cards in a ceremony of defiance.
Jack and Mike C finished the ride in good form. Mike C put up with a lot of drama, none of it his!
It was fun while it lasted!
A series of events are happening fast.
My replacement bike frame arrived from Kona yesterday and I wasted no time in getting it over to Bike Doctor for assembly. They promise it will be completed sometime today. That means I will have Thursday and Friday to “dial it in” and make sure I’m comfortable on it. That is a narrow break-in window!
I also ordered a new rear bag, and will be testing it out this week and writing about it after the Flèche. The bag should arrive today.
I’ll definitely be breaking the “never test new equipment on a long ride” rule.
This morning’s ride was quite enjoyable. It was a couple of degrees cooler than yesterday morning. I noted that there was a glow in the sky just as I pushed away from the house at about 5:25 am. I really do enjoy both the isolation in the trip to the Rusty Bridge and the company along the main part of our route. We are clearly into kamikaze bunny days now. The bunnies dash across the trail as close to a cyclists wheel as they can get. I think they score one another on whether or not they can cause the cyclists to hit the brakes. Yesterday one nearly caused a pile up. This morning’s bunny didn’t score any points.
All talk is now about the Flèche. Riders are attaching the bags and other gear to their bikes in preparation for the ride. We’ve dissected the weather forecasts and are making clothing choices. Everyone wants to bring just enough gear … but not too much. It is always a balancing act because more stuff means more weight to haul around for 235 miles.
I dreamed about the Flèche last night also. In fact, at 2 am when I woke up from the dream, I had to figure out what day it was so that I knew whether or not I had to get ready to ride it! So it goes with one of the most enjoyable rides of the year.
Daily Bible Verses:
“And they did so; Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff and struck the dust of the earth, and gnats came on humans and animals alike; all the dust of the earth turned into gnats throughout the whole land of Egypt.” (Exodus 8:17 NRSV)
“Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” (Act 3:4 NRSV)
We had a nice Coffee Ride this morning featuring a free cup of coffee at The Big Bean (organ donor special). Our pace was easy (for half of us) as we just keep the legs spinning without tiring them out before the Flèche. I still don’t have my bike frame. UPS never delivered to the bike shop yesterday. Tracking says it will be here today.
A friend of mine (before he shut down his blog) was recounting world history based on miles he rode, so if he had 300 miles in on the year, he would write about what happened in the year 300. He inspired me to try something just a little different in keeping with my being a pastor. I’ll be rolling it out in stages.
For the first stage, I’ll cite the Bible verse corresponding to the miles I’ve ridden for the year. Those out of context verses should prove to be interesting.
So, with 1,708 miles ridden this year, I give you the 1,708th verse in the Bible.
“and the fish in the river died. The river stank so that the Egyptians could not drink its water, and there was blood throughout the whole land of Egypt.” (Exodus 7:21 NRSV)
With 28,248 miles on the bike, I give you the 28,248th verse in the Bible (Stage 2).
“Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” (Acts 2:29 NRSV)
This week is a highlight of the year with the upcoming Flèche on Saturday. Of course it is the topic of conversation on our morning ride. Everyone riding this morning is on a Flèche team. But this year is not without it’s challenges.
Team Chain Reaction (our team): One team member pulled out due to a broken pelvis. Three others have had some late occurring bike problems, including me. I hope the replacement frame arrives today, so the bike can be built up and tweaked before the big ride.
Team 4 Guys and Where is the other Guy?: Is another team down to 4 riders. They appear to be in pretty good shape.
Team True Grit: Some bike problems and a steep ramp up in fitness. They’ve done a fair amount of riding together the past several weeks, but one member typically doesn’t bring enough warm clothing. Another member may have a medical condition that eliminates that rider.
The Big Bean has put an announcement on its Facebook page about opening at 6 am on Saturday for our send-off party.
Tonight, we have an all Flèche Happy Hour.
And for the rest of the week we will watch the weather forecasts, plan clothing and on bike nutrition/hydration and review the route at least a dozen times.
I’m looking forward to my 3rd Flèche.
After the obligatory grumbling about the cold, 7 riders pushed off this morning from the Rusty Bridge just as orange color showed in the sky. It was 3° warmer than yesterday. Every rider this morning will be riding the Flèche in 9 days. That meant we talked Flèche among other topics. It was a gentle ride, no one really pushing hard content with the camaraderie and simply being out in that pretty early morning light.
I again rode the Fixie. At one point it felt as though the rear of the bike was loose. I could find nothing wrong when I stopped, although I suspect the bearings in my rear wheel need work and there may be a little play. I recently had work done on the front hub where a piece had broken. I’ll need to get this checked out. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that the rear hub is doing what the front hub did. Great. I could be without a bike at all.
I’ve been looking at the possibility of purchasing a new bike. If that moves forward, I’ll chronicle the process here, because it will be interesting.
Updating the Malaria Campaign numbers:
For the month, 324 miles.
Total distance since June 1, 2013 = 5,871
Total funds raised for the Malaria Campaign = $7,191
In 24 hours, the temperature dropped 30°. Yesterday at 5:30 am 62°. Today at 5:30 am 32°.
I pulled out all my cold weather riding gear again, including balaclava, shoe covers, winter shoes, gloves, jacket, etc. I jumped on the Fixie determined to ride. One other rider joined me at the Rusty Bridge. The ride was an effort, not the smooth fast ride of yesterday. In the end, I even decided to head home the shorter way. But I’m glad I got out there and rode. Later in the day was just not going to happen.
The email thread after the ride had comments about how long and cold the winter has been and that people are tired of riding in the cold. I’ll admit, I considered staying in a warm bed this morning too.
But come on! Ya gotta ride!
While I was away on vacation last week, I had the Kona in the shop prepping it for the Fléche. I got a call on Friday informing me that a “fatal” crack had been discovered in the seat tube near the bottom bracket. The bike could not be ridden again.
This bike had taken me 21,441 miles over the past 51 months. Not a bad run for a $900 bike.
On Monday, I took the frame to the bike shop from where it had been purchased and submitted it for warranty replacement. I was assured that it was under warranty.
Today I learned that it would be replaced by a 2012 Kona Zing frame (the last year this frame was made), and that I might even get the replacement before the Fléche. The color will be different. It will not match the fork from the old Zing.
All of this leads me to consider purchasing a new bike. I’ll have the cobbled together replacement Zing and my fixie. Is it time for another, better fitting bike, one well-suited for how I ride? Maybe. Stay tuned.
With thunderstorms threatening to disrupt our ride this morning, six hearty souls (4 of us on fixies) made our way to the Rusty Bridge where we gathered and without any instruction decided to go fast. First it was Scott. Dan went after him, and soon the rest of us were speeding along for what turned out to be the fastest ride of the year so far. It was a lot of fun.
We made our usual Tuesday Coffee stop at the Big Bean in Severna Park and were met by two others who had driven in. The rain held off until shortly after I arrived home, when it cut loose with a vengeance. What a great morning to be out.
For the month, 283 miles.
Total distance since June 1, 2013 = 5,829
Total funds raised for the Malaria Campaign = $7,170
Rev Rider 