FLCC> Texas Hollow Ride Notes

Tue Jul 8 09:42:12 EDT 2008

John, Great reporting on the Sunday ride, as always.  You made me feel like I was there. However, I feel compelled to respond to your comments, in the second paragraph, about Gary and the Bike Rack.  Even though I'm sure you did not mean them as an attack, I feel that your remarks were overly harsh.  In my many dealings with The Bike Rack over the years, I have always found Gary to be enthusiastic and helpful, and not overy motivated by profit, as you imply. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.  I do think, though, that we all need to be thoughtful about what we post in a public forum, especially when writing about other people. Later, Don Smith (aka Mr. Manners) 

From: jvd at baka.comTo: flcc at icycle.orgDate: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 20:35:30 -0400Subject: FLCC> Texas Hollow Ride Notes

We had a great turn-out today and not a cloud in the sky.  
Andrejs Ozolin turned out as did Sam Kolins, Anna Sapozhinkova, Jim McGarry, Wayne Gottlieb, Scott Penner, Vanessa Ann McCaffery, Mark Sorrells, Louis McDonald, Kurt Lavetti, Eva Tarcsai, Jason Stilwell, Mike Richter, Ruth Sherman, Steve Bowman, Mark Sheehan, Jim Millar, David Sahn, Charles Dietrich, Kyra Stephanoff, Francis Steen, Jerry Licht, Randy Olsen, Richie Berg, and Amelia Habicht.   Apologies to anyone I may have missed!
We departed by 9:15am from the Professional Building.  As we were heading due west on Iradell Road, I was riding near the back with Mike Richter, Ruth Sherman, and –if I recall correctly—Steve Bowman when we spotted a rider walking east on the left hand shoulder.  Randy Olsen explained that he had had a flat and his house was “only about two miles away.”   Mike and I suggested fixing the flat and Randy admitted to being new to cycling and not having a clear idea of how this was done.  He also admitted to having recently bought his ancient Raleigh multi-speed—I’m guessing 14 speeds—on e-Bay for $100.  He had then shown the bike which came in the mail with flat tires--to Bike Rack Gary who reportedly exclaimed “All they need is air.”  It was apparently nearing the end of the work day, but I worry that BR Gary may be losing his famous entrepreneurial edge.  
Perhaps you can recall that old style tire that came with cream or tan-colored sidewalls made of gum arabica—or wait, am I thinking of Gutta Percha—that intrepid material that Egyptians allegedly used to fill cavities several thousand years ago?  In any case, the sidewalls of Randy’s two tires were in an advanced state of decay, resembling a crumbling papyrus manuscript just lifted from King Tut’s tomb.  What was BR Gary thinking we wondered?  The tread portion of Randy’s rear tire had balded down to the fabric in three or for places.  Randy mentioned wistfully that he’d never been on a 50-mile ride before, so we took leave of common sense and decided to give it the old college try.  Mike and I put a new tube into his back tire.  I had one tire liner in my pack, but it was one of those, “where would you start?” situations.  Soon after we resumed the ride, we met David Sahn who was heading east,  “returning to base.”  
As we were by then a good 10-15 minutes behind the lead group, Randy suggested that rather than follow the course route south to Mecklenberg and west on busy Rte 79, that we turn north and then head west on the less hilly and less traffic-laden CR 222.  This provided an enjoyable ride and soon after turning south onto Texas Hollow Road, we caught sight of Richie Berg and Andrejs not far ahead.  Tire marks in the dirt indicated that the thundering lead herd had already proceeded us.  The full canopy of this road makes it well worth the portions of dirt road.  And more of it was bitumened—lightly macadamed—than last year.  Goldfinches were frequent in the open field portions and life was good.  But then Randy complained of a soft front tire. So we stopped and pumped it up.  Alas, by the sharp downhill on the way into Odessa, Randy’s front tire had packed it in.  But it was nothing a fresh tube at the Odessa refueling stop—kindly donated by Mike R.--couldn’t handle. 
I did learn on this ride that Ruth and Steve are in training to participate in pactour’s 19-day Ridge of the Rockies ride which starts on July 28th in Kalispell, Montana and which ends 1,943 miles and 88,000 feet of climbing later in El Paso, Texas.  Ruth had ridden from home in West Danby today so as to get in about 85 miles today.  Quickly doing the math, that will be doing a century every day in mostly mountainous terrain for almost three weeks.  Wow!!  I hope they serve good chow in the evenings. 
Speaking of long rides, I happened to check today to see how (click here) Steve Bugbee, a guy that Dan Barbasch and I rode with in May—well, rode with in the dark along the Hudson River for 50-some miles before he went off the front during the Lake Placid 400km brevet---had done in this year’s Race Across America (RAAM).  I see that Steve got 1122 miles into the race before being disqualified for not keeping up with the “finish in less than 12 days” pace.  That pace is about 250 miles every day!  On the day we rode with him, he had not slept for 24 hours as he was doing his sleep deprivation training while riding a RAAM qualifier.  Browsing on this site, I see that poor Caroline van den Bulk got within 55 miles of Annapolis, Maryland—the finish—before she was disqualified for not staying the pace.  Maybe there is something to be said for just signing up with Pactours and letting them put you in a sag wagon if you start having problems keeping up on any given day. This year’s RAAM winner finished in 27 minutes short of 9 days!  So what is 9 into 3014?  A blistering 335 miles a day!  They now require a minimum of 20 hours of sleep, so the winner was averaging 14 mph before factoring in any sleep or refueling not to mention massage and the application of copious amounts of sun block and bag balm, though not in the same places.  
Back to today’s 47-mile ride, I was plugging along near the back when I overshot the right turn off  the Cayutaville Road.  Sam Kolins and Amelia Habicht called me back.  And it turned out that the lead group had done the same thing but hadn’t heard Ruth calling them back.  So a very strung out rear guard had a new chance to move up in the polls. Thanks to Mike, Ruth, Jim Millar, and Mark Sheehan (the middle group)—waiting near the top of Connecticut Hill, we regrouped for the speedy descent down into the Treman Park watershed.  Miraculously, the real lead group (among them Vanessa, Wayne, Gary, Jim McGarry, Mark Sorrells, and Louis McDonald caught back up to us on Van Dorn Road and most of us rode back as a large group, with Francis Steen (our youngest rider) and her mom, Kyra Stepanoff, finishing near or in the final lead pack as well. Well done, Francis!! 
Thanks to Eva Tarcsai, Jason Stilwell and Andrejs for helping to sweep the back of the ride. Speaking for myself, that’s enough to keep you on your feet. 
Ride safe,  John

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