The 411 - 2WDs Riding Chronicles

the (somewhat epic) finale

2010-04-29T11:49:37Z

As I walked around Plainfield (Plainfield has to be one of the best places to live in VT) I kept hearing reports of big snow the next day so i changed my plans. I wasn't going to wait for good weather, but instead ride as far south as I could. I was ready for some epic pedaling.]]>

After Red Hen I pedaled up rt 100B in the cold rain, reminicent of the time I rode it with Allen. Except colder, it was below 40F. It turned to wet snow and my hands needed something better than the gloves I had (already using plastic bags in my booties). Waitsfield had nothing good. But then I found some heavy gore-tex gloves at the Warren general store for 40% off, score! And I needed them within 2 miles of when i bought them as the soaking wet snow cooled me off going over Granville notch and 40 more miles of snowfall to go. Brandon gap proved challenging to my drivetrain, icing up my cassette and derailleur. I missed my Rohloff at this point as i moved the derailleur by hand and was frozen out of some gears. Without the new shifting springs in my ergolever i would have not been able to shift at all with the ice, or in my new big gloves. At least the snow landing on the road was still melting.

There was a lull in the precipitation by west Rutland and i continued to charge south, now on the scenic route 133, that along with Brandon gap, was used for the Killington stage race. When I reached rt 30 in the center of Pawlet right there in front of me was a wood fired pizza shop!

I went in and immediately realized this was the real deal. Real pizza just like at pizza night here at OHill. Owner Deana Mach was standing there cranking out 450 prebake crusts for wholesale out of the most impressive pizza oven i have ever seen that her uncle made from 9000+ firebricks. Its solid, 100% firebrick, nothing else, with a fire chamber underneath and a groove in the back of the floor where the flames come up and out. When making prebake crusts she likes it at 1000F and just puts a fire in the back.

Watching Deanna bake reminded me of Noah. Precise and fast, hard to get a picture, especially with my camera lens fogged up after coming inside from the snow. I dried all my clothes at the oven and ate a ramp fiddlehead sausage pizza. Deanna suggested I camp out back so I set up my tent and came back in for another pizza, a masterpiece made from prosciutto, mushrooms and greens. Dare I say it, her pizza is a little bit better than ours. She also has one of those copper top dome mobile pizza ovens. She knows what she is doing.

And once again baker is a cyclist. Deanna told me about her bike tour of Argentina including Patigonia, the coolest place she's ever been. We talked for 3 hours about baking and cycling before I had to go to sleep.

Pawlet must be the other best place to live in VT, along with Plainfield where i left that morning, 115 miles apart. The pizza shop is attached to the general store which is built OVER the flower brook. It's post card perfict. I've been here once before and know that the surroundings are too, when you can see them.

But I didn't stay long, I woke up, ate leftover pizza and duck eggs, and took off into the snow. It was raining in Manchester where I stopped for a quick bite at a heath food store before climbing out of town. In walked a baker delivering his bread and it was Jed from Rupert rising. Jed had called Noah a few times for advice a couple years back so I introduced myself and we talked a while. He makes good bread, Noah approved (note to Jed: that doesn't happen often). Jed is a mountan biker. I cannot emphasize enough how imortant it is to ride bicycles if you want to produce good bread.

The climb out of Manchester proved challenging. A couple miles from the top the roads became slick, I let 40psi out of my tires. When i heard grinding pavement I would dart off the road into the snow and let the snowplows by. I had to take my glasses off because they were all froze up so I had stinging blurry eyes instead. On the descent I tried to stay below 12mph so i held the brakes. But then i heard grinding metal, my front pads were gone! That left me squeezing the icy rear brake the rest of the way at 20mph+ unable to stop. Fortunately the road turned wet before i expected, it had been a scetchy 5 miles.

I fueled up on a Northend Butcher sandwich in Brattleboro (best sandwich around) and gave Kevin a Mach crust sample because Deanna had mentioned she wanted to get in there. I'm Mach's new self-appointed eastern rep who tells potentail buyers that the crust is the best you can get, its just squished from being in my trailer.

But I forgot to fill my bottles, no problem, I'll just stop in westmoreland at my favorite water stop. No Jackie and Kelsey today, Dawn and Alyssa instead. I told them some travel stories.

Then I had a huge headwind to Walpole over the bumpy roads. 260 watts to go 10mph on the flat was zapping me fast so I stopped at Burdicks to recharged. A dark hot chocolate (no milk, all cream) and two rasperry tarts proved too much (or maybe Hannah gave me alcholic tarts to be funny) and I spent the next half hour feeling kinda drunk. I think, not sure because i've never been drunk before. Either way the powermeter said i was still rolling strong despite feeling tippy. By the time I reached orchard hill I felt normal again, but tired, and ready for some rest and some flying cloud milk. The northeast tour in April had been much better than I had hoped it would be.

day 21 115.1 miles in 8:08

day 22 94.6 miles in 6:59

tour was 1665 miles in 18 days plus 4 days off. i wish i had full powertap data, oh well.

finding E-rok

2010-04-26T16:11:52Z

Plainfield is a great little town in central VT. I just sat in a cemetery with three other people (erik, Heidi, someonelse) on a beautiful sunny morning and ate an apple pie for breakfast. Erik's new place is a quarter mile from the center of town where there is a natural food coop, a couple great restaraunts, book store, library, and a bunch of places that make a nice community setting. But when i was looking for Erik I was headed to Calais, I only found him in Plainfield by chance.]]> I rolled out of the Gilson's at noon and picked up some food in town on my way back to Canada. Even though the Milanaise mill was closed i still wanted to enter the New Hampshire from the Canadian border at the top of rt3. I made it within 20 miles of the border crossing before stopping to camp. I started to feel some head cold symptoms, probably Lyme moving around in my body as my ankle had cleared up allowing me to move cleats (and saddle) back to my usual position.

The next day I arrived at the great north woods but not after some tough climbing and the first flat tire of the ride, within sight of pavement after miles of dirt. And the climb up to the border was tough, 1k at 15%. I couldn't help but think of the granite state of mind video as i rode in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX7nQrCgALM

The great north woods had trees and lakes and nothing else for 15 miles, i liked it. Except for the cold; it was cold, I had a cold, and it turned out to be a tough day. My right ergo springs died leaving me with craptacular shifting. I got tired early and stopped for camp once I reached Maine on rt 26 to rest and fix the shifter. But I had the wrong wrench with me...ooops. But thats okay cuz later it would set me up for the essentail timing i needed.

The next day was spectacular. Clear skies as I rode grafton notch, evans notch, and the kancamagus highway. I took about 50 pictures of great scenery and camped 4 miles west of kancamagus pass. I rolled the rest of the way into Lincoln in the morning and spent an hour or so changing the ergo springs (if you ride campy always carry ergo Gsprings in your wallet :) The weather was great again, I finished off rt 112 and entered VT via woodsville on rt 302, the same road Allen and I toured 4 years ago.

But I had to turn off the 302 to find Erik. I had a description of his location in Calais and a phone number that had been diconnected. It turned out that timing would be critical although I had no idea of that. After I rolled off rt 232 I found myself in Marshfield VT getting water at a gas station. As I sat there eating apple and cheese a woman at the gas pumps started talking to me about touring and such. The conversation shifted to baking and Orchard Hill pizza nights when she mentioned she was going to make pizza in a clay oven. I said that I was going to visit the guy who inspired us to make a pizza oven at OHill and she asked who that was. Erik Guillard of course. The woman (Angela) said that's who she was going to make pizza's with and that Erik had moved from Calais (the location i was going to look for him) to Plainfield. 30 minutes later I was taking a shower at Earthwalk, Goddard college where Angela, Erik, and Erik's girlfriend Heidi work. Good thing i was an hour behind my usual progress after fixing my ergo lever because the timing for that encounter had a window of about 3 minutes!!!

That night I sat around a campfire talking with 10 or so people and eating a bunch of Erik's sourdough pizza topped with ramps and some roasted root vegetables. And then it was only a 2k ride in the dark, under the moonlight, to get to Eriks yurt. What a great day!

From here I plan on only three more rides of about 70 to 80 miles each. Tomorrow to Brandon gap via Red Hen (maybe I'll get my first factory tour!!), wednesday to Kelly Stand area, then home. The weather forecast is rain and cold, maybe even some snow showers again. But I can't complain after all the great weather I've had on this April ride.

day 16 62.2 miles in 4:37

day 17 93.2 miles in 7:08

day 18 101.3 miles in 7:36

day 19 70.7 miles in 5:01 at 164avwatts, kj

day 20 off

1028 miles to the Holiday Inn Montreal!

2010-04-22T13:55:02Z

I rolled in to Newport VT yesterday to stay a night with Scott Gilson who I haven't seen since he graduated highschool 18 years ago. So much to catch up on, 18 years is a long time. Scott was a senior when i was a freshman and he made sure i didn't get beat up by the upperclassmen. Which was challenging because i was a wise guy, pushing people's buttons even though i was small (only 90 pounds at the time)...easy target. Scott did a great job....thanks man!]]> these days Scott works for border patrol and he has lots of great exciting stories about rounding up large numbers of people sneaking across. Some crazy stuff too. It was great to finally see him and meet his family. His wife Jen had a hearty delicious meal ready when I arrived. Her strawberry spinach salad was so good that I ate salad, on a bike tour! And creme brulee for dessert, yum!

I took a rest day at Paul Smith and went to a couple classes with Addie. They made some good food in her chefs class but one dish in particular was exceptional, some sort of lamb with prunes and apricots. We chilled that evening and I ate a lot of free food from the caf, and Clare gave me some really good cookies from her baking class for my ride to Montreal.

The ride to Montreal featured sunny skies, flat roads, and some tailwind sections. At the border I stopped and waited at the window for a bit an no one seemed to be there. So I knocked on the window and within five seconds the guy was there, he must have been sleeping. Crossing the Saint Lawrence river to get into the city was a challenge. Instead of looking for a bridge that allowed bicycles (which it turned out would have taken a LONG time) I just went for it over the devided 4 lane highway bridge with no shoulder that i was at. Once i was up the bridge I was into some traffic and doing 30+mph with the aid of a tailwind and the draft from passing trucks. I got off it as fast as I could, what a rush!

Once I made it to downtown I found the Holiday inn that my highschool Jazz band stayed at for a competition back in 95 when i was a seinor. It was exactly 15 years ago to the week, during april vacation. It was of particular significance because I flushed a sea crab down the toilet which clogged it and ultimately got out highschool banned from that particular hotel. I had to stay for the night. My name was not listed as banned, they gave me a room, and even took my picture in the lobby with my bike.....sweet.

Keith (chef from Rochester) told me to eat at a restaraunt called the Au Pied de Cochon so the reception guy called them up and made a reservation for me. And it was great. I got the steak tare tare and sat at the bar where i could watch the cooks. They were flying, making so much food that i wanted to try but could not fit in me. The tare tare with fries left me stuffed.

The next morning the weather was great so i got the hotels breafast buffet, bought some groceries, and boogied. Eventually, it took a while to get out of the suburbs with my limited map of the area. Asking directions a few times got me onto a great bike path to Chambrey (i think) and then onto the flat roads to Newport VT. One guy even rode with me a while to show me the way out. It got a bit hilly as I approached Newport VT where there is a town called Bolton (in Quebec).

Data is coming in from the powertap again which is registering about 80% of the time. Good enough to get samples while riding and i'm able to calculate the missing kjs. here's the last two days

day 14 103 miles in 6:24

day 15 101 miles in 6:45 at 167avwatts, 4190kj

my plan for the rest of the trip is to ride to Milan QC to see the Milanaise flour mill who makes most of the flour we use at orchard hill. Edit: scratch that, just got a call from Sophie at Milanaise and they are in Montreal for a trade show (i was just there), mill closed this week, logistics! I missed cannondale factory too! So perhaps i'll go back into canada for a bit then head south to the white mountains and west into central and southern VT before returning home. I hope the weather is good, its been great most of the way!

mission accomplished

2010-04-19T10:57:55Z

Addie just went to class with her 7" Shun santuko, for the first time, and that means mission tupper lake was a success. And it was quite easy i must say, but for such ease everything had to time out perfect so here's my journey from Rochester.....]]> The weather was great in Rochester as Keith and i cruised around the suburbs doing stuff like going to a great sausage specialty shop and a yoga class with Carla, that was good for my ankle. After Yoga Keith whipped up a 5 star seafood extraviganza meal (no exaggeration, he is a top chef) as I enjoyed playing with his kids, who know how to have fun like they're supposed to (without TV/computer). There was salmon, mussles w/sausage, shrimp in some sort of asian stock, potatoes cooked in duck fat, veggies, wow.... It was amazing, I took pictures.

The next day I was charged up and ready to roll, especially after a killer breakfast of duck fat homefries, bacon and eggs. The weather was great that morning as i pedaled east along lake Ontario, often with a tailwind. One especially picturesque village on the lake is called Pultneyville. At noon the clouds rolled in and by 1 it was raining, but still warm. As the afternoon progressed it rained harder and got colder. When the rain eased for a bit i set up camp in some fir trees 10 miles east of Rome NY. Apparently the fly on my tent needs a new waterproof coating. It was 40F and i was wet. Wool clothes and synthetic sleeping bag kept me warm enough to sleep okay.

I woke up and it was still wet so i packed up fast and got breakfast in Rome. Riding warmed me up except my feet which i warmed in the diner and i dried my shoes and booties by filling them with newspapers. As I approached the adirondacks it started snowing and my powertap started dropping a lot of data which inspired me to stop at a bike shop to buy a cheap cyclocomputer.

The guy at the shop directed me to the local diner where I met Donna and Jim from Utica eating lunch. They had seen me riding a ways back and we talked for a while. They suggested a motel they were going to that was cheap at Racquette lake and called to make me a reservation. It wasn't quite as far as i wanted to get that day (sub 100 miles) but a chance to dry out my tent and sleeping bag would be ideal. It turned out to be the right thing to do, the next morning it was 32F and there were still wet snowflakes falling as i sat at the picnic table outside the motel making breakfast on my omnifuel. It would have been a cold cold night in a wet tent.

Early on my ride there was snow on the ground but the storm eased as i approached Tupper lake where I had a mission: retrieve the Shun santuko I bought for Addie last year that was stolen by some punk from tupper lake. Its an very high quality japaneese chef knife. As I rolled into town i asked a guy who was out for a walk with his wife where the locals eat on a sunday. I figured from there i could ask people where this guy might live and at least check in the phone book. Then I told him i was trying to find so and so, he said, "i work for the post office, he lives at ........." and gave me directions to his house. I was psyched, thanked the man, and charged up the road at 300+ watts which had me calmed down by the time i reached the house a couple miles later.

His dad answered the door, i explained that his son might have a knife that i bought my friend as a gift, they went and got him, he came downstairs and gave me the knife. I thanked him and left, it was that easy, I was pumped, riding thru the crappy weather payed off. It probably took me a total of 20 minutes between talking with the postman and talking at the house. Then I rode the rest of the way to Paul Smith (Addies college) and gave her her knife back, woo hoo!!!!

I must say routes 28 and 30 thru the middle of the Adirondacks disappointingly flat! And the hills that there were were quite easy. I think the mountains in this part (couldn't see them, clouds) are quite spread out and the roads weave thru and connect lakes. I bet the best place to ride out here is rt 73 and the Keene NY area that I drove with Chloe a couple months ago. That section looked amazing in the clouds it must be even better in the sun. We even found an "orchard hill" road in Keene (NY) that day! Someday I hope to see this place on a sunny day, the Adirondacks look spectacular from Vermont looking across lake Champlain. And perhaps tomorrow it will be nice when i ride to Montreal to find the Holiday inn. Okay, its time for me to go to Addies chef class and EAT :)

day 10 116.4 miles in 8:11 at 160avwatts, 4612kj

day 11 estimated 82 miles in 6:20 (powertap dropped data)

day 12 74.8 miles in 5:26

day 13 off

rollin'

2010-04-15T13:01:44Z

It took two rides to reach Rochester NY from state college PA. I had a few tailwinds and not much straight on headwind along the way but I really think its that I'm riding myself into shape. Plus the BOB is especially fast in certain conditions almost like its not even there.

Woke up to a frosty morning and some ice in my water. Powertap dropped data intermittently for a while, maybe there is some moisture in the hub, hope it continues to work most of the time because its a fun toy to have with me. My new fueling approach (especially after Becca's dog ate a pound of my pemmican) is hamburgers. They cook up fast, easy to digest, and burn a long time. Stopped twice for burgers on my way from PA to Rochester and didn't feel hungry once. The first one i got from Big Papa's in Canisteo NY was especially good. Yum.

The terrain became easy approaching Rochester and the miles were ticking by, i knew i would reach Keith's before dark. Except for the part when i got lost in the hood. There was a bit of a rough area after i missed my turn and after a while i asked how to get back on track. I went went west down a side street with the sun in my face to reconnect to my route. Ahead four big (black) guys, all taller than me, wandered out into the street right in front of me, and all i could do was sigh, i had been riding for eight hours. If it started to look bad i planned to try and bowling ball my way through with help from my BOB weight, there was nothing fancy I could do towing a trailer and it was too late to turn it around. But just as i reached them the closest two paused and I rolled thru in a straight line.

Today i'm enjoying a day with Keith Meyers and family. We plan to cook food, hang with the kids, and go to a yoga class. I hope it makes my ankle feel good. It's been significantly better than day two back in virginia but with a potential 4 week lyme flare up period coming early next week i know it could become irritated. Also there is some restriction in my hip and a hop in my pedal stroke at times. I'm aiming to reach Addie in three days of riding, rain and snow showers in the forecast as i get into the Adirondacks. Brrrr

Day 6 off

Day 7 106.4 miles in 8:17 at 169avwatts, 4971kj

Day 8 118.3 miles in 8:29 at 158avwatts, 4617kj

Day 9 off

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the 411, in 2010, CANCELLARA!

2010-04-12T11:02:11Z

first things first: Cancellara is a machine. I wonder how fast he could go across the cobbles with a full BOB in tow. probably faster than me without one

I arrived in State College PA on my birthday (4-11), one day faster than i expected due to tailwinds during at least a part of each day. I'm at Rebecca Donaghue's home, a runner friend from the highschool days who after a decade of injuries is healthy. And flying, she was 2nd at the Falmouth RR (only one Kenyan could beat her) and almost made the olympic team. She says that she will be able to compete during her thirties like she wanted to during her twenties. Excellent. I'm going to watch a hard track workout today before i take off and run a bit with her if my achillies tendon is okay with it

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My dad rode with me for the first hour as I rolled north out of Danville VA, halfway across North Carolina border. I felt good until it reached 90F late afternoon and I cracked climbing up rt 43 to the Blue Ridge parkway to find camp. The climb up Twin Otters is 4 miles long and 8-12%, a tough way to end my first hot ride of the year. I should have known the climb would suck when i noticed on the VA gazateer that the mountain before Twin Otters is called "Suck Mountain". But what really could have sucked that day is if the butter that liquified spilled in my trailer. A little butter got out of the bag and spread itself around some of my stuff but if three sticks of butter spilled it would have been a terrible mess.

Days two and three I progressed further than expected due to tailwinds and the route i chose being so direct, perhaps more direct than the highways would be. First stop was Natural Bridge where i attempted to see the bridge without paying the $14 and was stopped by some angry Virginian guy. I didn't realize you had to pay and had just bombed down the access road on my bike ignoring the do not enter sign. I chose not to see the bridge because $14 seemed too much.

But that was fine with me as I saw plenty of quality scenery riding thru the Shenendoah Valley looking at farms with great pastures and the Blue Ridge mtns. And the Natural chimneys were free to see. Ate lunch at a nice place in downtown Lexington called the "Southeners Inn" and found Joel Saliton's Polyface farm. Joel was really busy (probably too busy to talk to some random guy) so I just said hi and filled my bottles for camp a few more miles down the road. Didn't know what to talk to him about anyway.

Day four was a big day as I traversed the back roads and steep hills to cross from West Virginia to Bedford PA to see the Cannondale factory where my CAAD7 was born. Of course it wasn't open on a saturday, logistics, oops. Before leaving WV i had a $4 breakfast that fueled most of my 8 hour ride. 2 eggs, sausage, and 2 massive pancakes that took me until 3pm and a bit of a stomach ache to finish. Lesson: you only need to order one pancake in WV! The climbing was tough, up and down 10-17% grades most of the day. But the scenery and weather (and pancakes) were enough to keep me rolling and motivated. I really liked western Maryland. Finished the day with 4688kj on the powermeter (depending on my efficiency thats about a 5000 calorie ride, i think)

Day 5 was fairly easy, flatter and shorter. Started off with a 8 mile section of the Martinsberg stage of tour de toona. Lots of memories from that race, it doesn't seem like its been 7 years since i was here last. I think it was the first race i did on my CAAD7. Before reaching state college i took a nice indian cave tour.

It hasn't been hard to find places to camp. I was a little nervous as I rode into West Virginia where the road signs are full of bullet dents and there are no trespassing signs plastered in the trees but i found a great spot. The one night it rained i was set up in time. And the only ticks i've seen were just 3 on the first night outside my tent.

So far so good with the lyme. Energy levels have been good especially on the hard day. My right ankle/achillies started to get sore on day two so i moved my cleats back 1 cm and that worked for now. When I walk down stairs I feel the achillies clunk, no pain though and I'm looking forward to the next week of pedaling.

Powertap data

day1 83.8 miles in 6:40 at 154 avwatts, 3642kj

day2 78.2 miles in 6:18 at 149 avwatts, 3080kj

day3 96.0 miles in 6:44 at 155 avwatts, 3702kj

day4 99.2 miles in 8:05 at 164 avwatts, 4688kj

day5 68.8 miles in 4:59 at 139 avwatts, 2383kj

northeast tour starts tomorrow

2010-04-06T15:45:52Z

I just tested out my BOB ibex trailer for the first time today. It rides smooth no hands but shimmies my CAAD7 while out of the saddle at high(er) speeds. Started to smooth that out, i should get used to it.....
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My lyme disease seems to be going away. i had a rough December and January followed by a great February and March with one flare up at the end of March that left my right ankle/achillies a bit fragile. Hopefully it will be solid while I ride. This will be the first real test for my body since getting sick. Last year I went on a short tour with Eric Gullaird and others in Northern VT called the superhero bike tour. More than a dozen cyclists dressed up like superheros and rode around helping people for a week, good times. I will try to post some pictures of that in this entry when i get home.

This route starts at the VA/NC border where my parents bought a house. From here I will head north to Montreal to stay at the Holiday inn that i got my highschool banned from 15 years ago. On the way i have potential "business" to settle in Tupper Lake NY. After Montreal I will head home to SW NH, probably thru the white mountains. I have a short list of people to visit along the way and plan to blog a few times. I can't imagine there is as much to blog about as in Europe with Oracle Jen, but who knows.

I am using a lot of the same gear as in Europe. But not everything. I have a new primus omnifuel stove that i think will be great and i have some new 340g innov8 off-bike shoes that are hightop and waterproof. Jen told me to get a puffy jacket so i did, a stylin' lightweight down, from mountain hardwear of course. I rigged up some quick release SKS raceblade fenders that i hope will work good. I modified 2 pairs (4 sections) to give me full coverage and they mount under the trailer for better aerodynamics when its not wet. Swapped out my Putney jersey for Matt DeCanio's SU13 kit, he's racing in France, go Matt! (he says he quit maintaining the SU site last week) Also running a powewrtap SL, it looks bad ass with a BOB skewer and 30c tire. hopefully the data won't be wimpy, and hopefully the blog will be good, not boring like how much my stuff weighs.

the 411, in 2009

2009-04-11T00:44:35Z

I doubt there will be any touring for me this year. Even though my bike is ready with new mavic disc rims, narrower tires, and new sleek fenders, I am not. It appears that my breakdown in the pyranees was not me being a wimp, but actually the beginning of lyme disease.....

Lyme is all over the world, don't assume its just in the northeast U.S. Only half the cases of lyme show the bullseye rash so when you go bike touring be sure to check yourself for ticks! And it doesn't have to be a deer tick (although that is the usual "vector?"), it can be any tick. I might even carry antibiotics with me next time despite my strong anti doping stance. I sure am taking a lot of 'em now! Plus a bunch of herbs.

After I returned home my health continued to decline until I couldn't walk in February and I had to stop working. At that point my friend Eric Guillard suggested I might have lyme and after some thought it made sense. Even more sense after I read up on the disease. Due to late detection it has established a strong hold in me so its going to be a project to get it out. So far I have been improving, slowly. After six weeks I started to work again and even rode the trainer a few times for a half hour. That's to help fight the lyme by circulating blood (with antibiotics and herbs) into my otherwise stagnant leg. It still hurts, can't ride outside. But I can walk okay if I am careful.

Next year? Bike tour to Lyme Connecticut? Probably not. I would prefer a ride starting here and going around Nova Scotia, or a month in Iceland, or perhaps the big one (la vuelta a South America) if Nat Faulkner exhausts his ironman bug and puts that one together. Oracle Jen already went touring this year on the Iditarod trail with Kyle on Surlys with 4" wide tires. Yes, I am jealous. Not only did she get to go touring, her bike has 4" tires!

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statistics

2008-10-07T20:00:22Z

Just went and saw the palace and cathedral in Madrid and walked back to the youth hostel where some college age people start talking to me when they find out I'm from the states. They ask about the economy and I tell them I dunno, Ive been sleeping on the side of the road for three months but its fun to get to speak English........

]]> ......one girl says the US stock market crashed a couple weeks ago, not sure if that's true, but it did make me think about some things. A guy asked me if I have a job when I get back and I'm pretty sure I'm all set on that. Last winter I would joke with the guy who I work with/for, Noah at orchard hill breadworks, that its "time to ebay my racing stuff before the economy tanks".....um, maybe I was right. And its possible that I went to Europe just in time if its not affordable in the future. I think I swung this trip for around $40 per day plus airfare. Nat claims that we will be touring South America for less than $10 per day so looks like that's the next trip.

I remember one documentary that Noah and I watched once while shaping bread called "Money as Debt" that explained the history and basics of banking in a way that I really liked. But then it went on with some crazy ideas of an ideal economy that would work thru an honest system......rrriiiiiiight (think of Dr Evil saying right).

So heres the stats,which I may add to when I think of more

distance: 8106km (5033 miles)

duration: 12 weeks

nights in campgrounds: 6

nights in hotel or motel rooms: 10

youth hostel nights: 8

days off including Oracle Jen's walks: 9

tires used: 3

tubes used: 3

chains used: 2

dt spokes broken: 6

wheelsmith spokes broken: 0

cost per day including airfare: will figure that out when I get back

estimated calories per day: 6000

butter intake: 1kg per week

beef intake: way way less than ideal (I missed my Rosie)

starting body weight: 73kg

current weight: less than 70 I bet (69 when I got home)

Jen went right and I went left

2008-10-06T14:34:14Z

it was the plan we had made the evening before. Jen stays in Spain 11 days longer than me and has the opportunity to check out the north coast while I have a flight to catch from Madrid....and on the way it was my turn to struggle....

]]> After a great ride out of Valence I managed to catch Jen's cold. Kinda hard to quarenteen oneself from someone that you're sharing dishes with and no hot water....oh well. Not surprisingly Kyle had managed to get sick right away when he was with us. Only three days of suffering for me; sore throat then sinus pressure. I managed to still enjoy the cliffs, gorges, and canyons that we saw in France. And drafting Jen thru narrow French village streets was fun, reminded me of tour coverage on TV. I rode okay for two days, the third I cracked and we rested in a monistary rennovated into a hotel that we found in a quaint little village called Alet les Bains 100k from Spain. It had midevel ruins, a house that Naustradamus might have lived in, and, most importantly, steak taretare at the local casino.

Some things have become old on tour, like navigation. Especially in France signage is randomly terrible. More than once we went to the office of tourism to find our way out of town. And then there's my spoke problem. Even though I am not using the rear (disk) brake at all I managed to break three more spokes. Of course when they break at the nipple you have to take off the tire and rim strip. And for one outbound left spoke I had to take off the rotor which takes some time on a rohloff, with the shifter box and chainstay brace thingy in the way. I think (hope?) there is such a thing as downhill spokes that are 2.4mm at the nipple.

So I got better fast and we enjoyed an easy day into Spain. As we entered the Pyranees we met up and rode with Andy Gordon from England. He was bandit camping and traveling light (admittedly he was getting cold at night). At one time he raced for GT and was ranked 25th in the world on mountain bikes, but that was in the early 90's. "When you could still get results like that without dope" as he put it. When asked he said he thought the top guys at the time were on the sauce (our heros J.T. and N.O. I suppose) he said he thought so. When Andy was 22 he had to stop racing because he came down with chronic fatigue.....for TEN YEARS!!!! Oh man that's rough, I can sympathize with him cuz I had it for two years, not fun. That's how I got into the whole healthy eating, my kilo of butter a week and plenty of raw beef. I can't imagine 10 years of no cycling.

The gorges in the Pyranees are awesome. I took some pictures. Some places reminded me of the Rockies of Colorado and others of the Gila forest in New Mexico. Jen said one area was like Northern California. Definately quite arid and I used plenty of sunscreen to keep from drying out. One campsite was at the edge of a canyon....nice.

Then I had a second tough spell with a sore back. And during two days over two ports per day in the Spanish pyranees...ouch. But I toughed it out and saw more great scenery. Apparently we were only a week behind the Vuelta a Espana as we rode rt 260 west for three days. Many climbs had names like Contador, Sastre, and Valverde freshly painted on them. And for some reason Nick Noyens was painted all over one port, I thought he was Belgian.

And suddenly we were going our seperate ways the next day, I felt kinda sad. It had been quite an adventure with Oracle Jen over the past 12 weeks. I jotted down the directions to Madrid from her map and left her my dragonfly. The next mornoing we rode 35 k's before parting ways. It was a crisp sunny morning that featured a Llopis sighting in a remote village with a population of 40 (smaller than E Alstead) and then I rounded up four spanish horses that were loose in the road with my bike. I think I could have been a cowboy, if cowboys rode bikes.

The mornings are cold and the sun comes up after 8am here cuz the time zone didn't change since we entered Poland. I ride with all my warm stuff for a lot of the morning. After parting with Jen it was scenic for a bit then became quite descolate and remote. Dry ground, not many trees and plenty of wind. Ocassionaly very nasty wind. Then the Banesto ATM told me my debit card expired...ooops. I still had 21 euro and my credit card and made it to Madrid, checked into a youth hostel (I hope its quiet at night), and am resting before the flight home.

Thanks for reading my blog and thanks to Chris Li at the Bikeway Source (Bedford MA) for hosting it. Be sure to check back for photos in a week ot two and some gear review. Velocity rims and DT spokes sure will get some harsh comments from me :) But there will be lots of good review like rohloff, mountain hardwear, ibex, tout terrain, etc that may intrest you. And maybe Jen will write us an entry to tell us where she went. Maybe she met Big Mig and he towed her BOB for a day (I would be very jealous if I missed that). I'm sure he could have gotten some euros out of that Banesto machine for me! If anything exciting happens in Madrid I will let you know. But there will be no more biking cuz there is a shuttle to the airport.

And Go Nat! He's doing ironman on Jen's birthday this weekend. His goal: 9hrs. Go Nat go

Alps, alps; and more alps.....note: unedited

2008-09-23T15:38:05Z

Oracle Jen was kinda right when she would joke to people that we would "come to a screeching halt when we hit he Alps". Unforunately its because she got a sore throat. However, we have still progressed towards Madrid (over big terrain I might add) where I need to be for my flight on October 9th...

]]> We left Germany for the Austrian Alps and some big climbs. Lots of them, so many huge passes and descents that a lot of it is a blurr. The scenery on the clibs is awesome, when its nice out. They take some time to get over when your bike is 40kg. And they just kept getting bigger and more epic as we continued southwest thru Switzerland into France. Jen decided to add a bit of distance to our route and we took the long way to Neusweinstien (the famous German castle that I'm sure I spelled wrong). Upon reaching the castle we immediately did our laundry in the sink, in the castle. Funny that we both reacted independantly when we noticed the sinks and upon finishing realized the other had done the same. Great minds think alike, I hope.

We had some great weather and some bad weather. Great campsites with epic alpine scenery and some crappy sites where I was just waiting to get busted. A couple times were close, one time we watched a guy move brush with a tractor 50m from out tents and another time some kid showed up to milk goats, I'm sure he was trying to tell us we wern't supposed to camp there. Kyle (Jen's boyfriend) and Hansi (from Germany) joined us for a week making stealthing clumsy at times. But still up to now we continue to bandit camp most nights, saving money on lodging. Just 6 campgrounds, 8 motels, and 8 youth hostel nights thus far since July 13.

Sometimes we have been a bit sloppy. One good example is the time after eating a chicken from a roadside vendor I was pressurized to the max, I really had to pee. So as soon as I saw a half good spot I stopped to relieve myself and leaned my bike on a post at the top of a steep banking with a long drop below. While depressurizing I randomly looked towards my bike and notice it loose balance and start its way down the bank. I sprung for it and managed to grab the only part within reach, the rear rim and tire, with my right hand. Then I dug my heels into the bank and dragged its 40kg back up to the road preventing a lot of broken stuff I'm sure!

Speaking of broken stuff I am currently breaking spokes on my rear wheel. It started in Germany when I noticed my 600g "shit quality" Velocity rim was cracking along the brake track so I re laced it with a 450g Mavic. But I was stuck with DT spokes and even though they are 2.0's they are snapping off at the nipples. Not good when you need 238mm spokes which no one has, one of the few cons caused by using a Rohloff. With some effort I managed to track down a small local framebuilder who threaded and cut me seven more spokes in exchange for a postcard. Guy Reboulet is his name and his handmade steel frames and racks are showpieces. I sure hope cut threads are strong enough.

One night I caught Oracle Jen a nice frog after hiding in our tents during a thunderstorm. Upon presenting it to her she yelped, go figure. She doesn't like slugs either, which is a problem in the alps. There are huge alpine slugs that get on your stuff while camping and leave big slime trails. These things can handle the cold too, weird. Kyle likes slugs though and demonstrated slug agility to Hansi and I one morning, much to our delight. I questioned Jen's equal dislike for snails until I realized that a snail is just a slug in a pretty little shell, such wisdom.

So I mentioned at the start that Jen got sick. After some great alpine weather we were in for some nasty stuff as we journied west to meet Kyle and Hansi. The last ascent in Austria was foggy and cold and we encountered a road full of cows wearing flowers being led down the mountain. I wish we knew at the time that was the traditional ritual of taking the cows down from the mountains for winter. The next day it poured on us and there was a few inches of snow at the top of Oberalpass at 2000+ meters and the fog so thick in the next vally we had to stop and get a hotel in Andermatt Switzerland. In the morning it really felt like winter and snowed a few inches so they closed the passes out of the valley

I would have been content to wait for good weather to continue over Sustenpass (2200m) because I wanted to ride every inch of the way to Madrid but Kyle and Hansi were meeting us in Thun so Jen got us on the train. The sation was conviently located 200m from the motel. Ironically we went thru the same tunnel that Weston Price took to reach the Loetschental Valley when he wrote his book "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration". I wanted to see the valley but that will have to wait for another time.

The day after joining Kyle Jen came down with a sore throat, understandable after big days in bad weather. And the weather stayed cold, but dry. Apparently Kyle had read my blog cuz he showed up with my list of four things for Jen: handlebar bag, socks, BOB fender, and.......165mm crankarms! We installed the cranks and Jen looks great. No more side to side reaching for the pedals. And she said they felt great right away.

To make Jen's days easier I towed her BOB trailer over the col de la Fontaine and then super motivated (and strong) Hansi towed it over the col de la Madaline and the col du Glandon, two epic passes often used in the tour de France. I was motivated from the change to great weather and the famous names pained on the road and climbed the Glandon's 1500m ascent in just over 2 hours; glad Hansi had the BOB trailer for that one! The next day Hansi was free of the trailer and we did 5x4 minute threshold intevals (4 minute pulls) early in the morning to get him to the train back to Germany on time. I don't know if he made it, it must have been close. I sure hope so cuz we sure rode hard, hard enough to leave salt lines on my jersey.

One day that Jen was really suffering from her sore throat we had gone up a long dead end climb looking for a campground that was on our map. Of course it wasn't there but we managed to fill water at an elderly widow's house. Knowing Jen was not good to continue I managed to score us a home stay at her house with the help of a carpenter that was working there. I asked if we could put our tents on the cement cuz the grass had just been planted and we ended up with the empty downstairs apartment that had been vacated 4 days before. The electricity was off but there was hot water left in the tank for showers. We made dinner for our host, Jacqueline, on the msr dragonfly and shared stories thru Hansi translating via German. She even gave us two bottles of local wine. Great experience, kinda had to be there.

Now we're in Valence resting a bit (doing laundry and finding spokes) before Kyle leaves on a train to Munich tomorrow morning. I hope Oracle Jen is ready for the big push to Madrid. Kyle gave her his fast 32mm tires so that will help. I hope I'm up for it myself cuz sometimes I'm tired of logistics lately, mostly off the bike stuff like grocery shopping and camping. I hope the winds stay with us.

so theres some stuff thats happened, no time to edit and this French keyboard is really killing me. I plan to upload pictures when I get home next month, sorry I haven't managed while on the road. Other stuff...I chased a ferrari down an alp, kept catching it in the turns, saw the highest Alp: Mont Blonc, my polish toothpaste seems like bengay, Austrian alpine butter is the best in europe (maybe the best food overall is in Austria), got airborne in road construction pavement change and landed it....sweet, found the UCI, rode thru no bicycle allowed tunnels to get out of the cold rain, shaved my legs in a cold alpine brook, goosebumps = bleeding (oops) etc......

"we'll get there when we get there"

2008-09-08T19:55:25Z

"We'll get there when we get there" is what Oracle Jen says when I'm all anxiuos to hit the throttle as if we're late for something. Well, today we barely made it......

]]> ......to the the boat to the palace. "Here's your tickets, the boat leaves in one minute" is what the ticket lady said with a German accent and pointed to the end of the dock after we had scrambled to lock our bikes to a post. We had 20 seconds to spare after the 95k's it took to get there.

Why were we late? We had to go to Fucking Austria, the town of Fucking that is. Don't believe me? Look at a map north of Saltzburg, its just across the river from Tittmoning Germany. Seriously. But if you see the sign for the village called "Franking" you went past Fucking. It was okay that we went too far because there was 20 seconds to spare in the end, 60k later. Good thing we skipped the village of Petting (the German word for foreplay) cuz we just didn't have the time. For some reason I can't stop laughing when I think the word "Franking" to myself.

The palace was built by a Bavarian king, Ludwig II, who was obsessed with the sun king (Louis 14th?). Super fancy and we wern't allowed to take pictures. Huge 300-500kg chandallers and excessivly extravagant furniture paintings, woodwork, and eveything made it too expensive to finish but the guy died anyway after he spent only 10 days living there.

We left the island palace a bit behind scedule (sun was getting low) but that was okay 'cause when we need to bust 25 in an hour after riding 100k its no trouble for us. Now we're at Martin and Franziska's for the night just 200m from the place that the current Pope (Benidikt) lived as a child.

Franziska is Martin's girlfriend and works for Haltbare Bergbauern, a high quality dairy processor in Germany. They make the best butter in Germany she claim's and my taste buds confim it as ture. I was so excited when she started talking about CLA, wow! Imagine, butter actually being marketed as healthy! CLA is an acid found in butter from pastured animals and is probably the best food for your heart. That's why I eat a kilo of butter a week. "Ask your (american) doctor about" CLA and he won't have anything to say 'cause it ain't gonna make the chemist any money.

Dolimitenmann

2008-09-07T14:19:35Z

Our weekend in the Dolimites with two of the three Straßer brothers was great. Hansi and Martin competed in a pro-am televised relay, sortof like a huge Josh Billings event......]]> The Straßer's were in the first leg of the race, an 11k trail run that gained 1900m elevation. Next was a paraglide from the end of the run back down to the town, Jen and I witnessed some entertaining landings followed by some real suffering on the kayak leg. It finished up with a mountain bike loop that went over another mountain of course.

Kyle's long time friends the Straßer's have really set us up. A barbeque the evening we arrived, things to do, places to see, plenty of food, and great stories. I really like the one about Kyle taking them on a ski trip when he got his driver's licence. They are accomplished athletes sponsored by companies like Marmot and summited peaks in the Andes mountains by themselves before age 20. Funny that I still have yet to meet Kyle himself.

Sometimes its hard to remember all the things I could blog about, during the day I think to myself I'll mention such and such and then I forget. Like the story Wes told us about the guy who bought a tanker full of oil in the middle east and took his time going to port with it. By the time he got there the price of oil had gone sky high and he made a boat load of money, literally. I can't remember the details but it was another story of if you're filthy rich its easy to get richer. I've seen so many new places its hard to soak it all in. I'm sure there were ten other things I wanted to blog about, oh well. One thing is for sure, a bicycle is a great way to see the world. Tomorrow we go to a castle on an island that cost more to make than Nueschwanstein.

surfing the Austrian tailwind

2008-09-04T06:20:20Z

Yesterday we crossed into SE Germany for our first real rest of the tour. Our other "days off" were really spent sightseeing by foot in cities which can be quite tiring. So after 5300k's in 52 days including our "days off" we are ready to just chill out. Fortunately Jen's boy Kyle knows people in Germany and we are enjoying what racers refer to as "host housing"....

]]> Our hosts are great, three brothers that are all accomplished mountaineers as well as some endurance sports. Tomorrow we are going to watch two of them, Hanzie and Martin, compete in a relay in the Austrain dolomites. Mountain bike, handglide, uphill trail run, and white water kayak.....should be epic. I just got back from checking out another house member's workplace, a Lamborgini GT1 race garage. Wesley an Austrailian, and only 28, is an engeneer specializing in transmissions and he manages the race team mechanics. He cleaned up our bike chains in the parts bath for us.

We spent the first half of the week crossing Austria. It was great, lots of bike paths to seperate us from the cars that often took us winding thru a farmer's fields or some woods. And we had a tailwind a lot of the way letting us ease off the throttle. Sunday we rolled out of Vienna on a path along the Danube river. Just when it seemed like a hampster wheel of a river and bushes (flat & no view), we found ourselves in the beautiful Wachau valley with steep hillside vineyards, valley orchards, and the occasional castle ruin here and there. The roads up to the castles were steep so we enjoyed them from the distance.

On monday we journied into the lower Alps of Austria. I hate to use the same word over again but it seems like I always have to say "spectacular" to describe mountain scenery in Europe. Allen Kitscher would especially love this area with the lush green pastures being grazed on the steep mountainsides. Sometimes the bike route (there seems to be a whole network of them) would take us along back roads that we would not have found otherwise. On one such road we stopped at a cafe in a small town and met Harry and Hubert from Saltzburg. They were hiking for a week in the mountains and we exchanged stories. They paid our tab and warned us the clear sky would be changing to rain soon. Sure enough that evening we were setting up our tents in a downpour.

Tuesday started off grey but cleared by midday revealing even higher mountains. So amazing, and these are just the small ones. The climbing hasn't been too hard with an occasional steep couple k's here and there. I look forward to the high alps, or so I think. The scenery Wednesday was great as we transitioned back to hills. One section of lakes looked like the fjords of Norway and the tailwind was quite strong at times. Oracle Jen was especially motivated after reading her email about our host housing and took long pulls while I rested my knee which felt stiff and achy for a short time.

So far we have covered 5300k in 52 days. When we start again on Monday there will be a month left for me to reach Madrid. Jen stays another week or so. The map shows there is plenty of time to make it. And soon there will be four of us because in mid september Kyle and Hanzie plan to take a train to meet us somewhere west of here and ride with us for a week. Hopefully we can keep up the bandit camping because it is making Europe more affordable than I expected. We have paid for campsite/youth hostel/motel only one out of three nights thus far. The only time we used a lot of cash was to ride the Tallink across the Baltic sea. Oh, and our airplane tickets too.

a day in Vienna

2008-08-30T15:11:59Z

Just spent the day pedaling around the bike lanes of Vienna with none other than Oracle Jen. Definately a bike friendly city with lanes all over to seperate us from the traffic.

]]> There's an abundance of great architecture/buildings to see, kinda endless really. Lots of 19th century stuff I think. It's tough to capture it in pictures because everything is so big or there's a tree in the way or whatever. Even the postcards fail miserably to capture the look of the city so we don't feel so bad that we didn't take many pictures. Rolled past Mozart's pad, he lived next to a massive cathedral. The summer palace has some spectacular grounds but we didn't see them cuz they don't allow bikes and we didn't want to walk much. I feel so lazy if I don't get going on the bike in the morning, my body just goes automatically to a vegitative state of recovery. But I feel great while riding.

We seem to have reached our fill of cities now (Stokholm, Tallinn, and Krakow before here) and look forward to visiting people that Jen knows in southeast Germany. The route plan to get there will be one day on the Danube river (there's supposed to be a long bike path:), two days in the Austrian mountains and then one more day to roll across the border on the 3rd.