Just talked with the team. Friday started out with walking out of the Hotel in Seville and seeing the rain clouds.. Rain stopped about 10:00 AM and it is turning into a nice day to be on the bike!
See Ken racing across the wet Ohio roads.
1:00 PM EST. Looks pretty wet in north Ohio. Another day in the saddle.
Panoramic view of Ohio
Day 7 Poland, OH to Seville, OH
Thursday 28 July 2011 End of week 1
We are a week into our tour and out of the major hills for a while. Our bodies have accepted the fact that they need to deliver us a full day of cycling without complaining. The tender hands feet and the all important rump pains are subsiding.
We are a week into our tour and out of the major hills for a while. Our bodies have accepted the fact that they need to deliver us a full day of cycling without complaining. The tender hands feet and the all important rump pains are subsiding.
Our mileage is always determined by where we can find a place to sleep that night.
A cheerleading competition in Ohio this week has sucked up many of the hotel rooms along our route. We had to schedule a couple of shorter mileage days followed by a 125 miler to make things work. Nobody is complaining about the two short days. The longet day, well lets just call it "training".
Tim who was having some morning fueling problems at first has been able to eat more during the day. You have to keep the engine fueled to get in the miles. He is powering up to his normal strong pace. It will take us 10 days to get into the groove.
The morning forecast really looked terrible for us. Radar showed bands of heavy rain moving west to east along our route. We left the motel with all our rain gear in place. The skies were dark and it was already sprinkling. It really sucks to spend the day on a bike with rain falling on you.
Just a few miles down the road the rain stopped. All morning the sky looked like it could open up at any moment but the roads stayed dry. By midday the sun came out and the temperature peaked at 96 degrees. We were happy not to have rain in our face and our butts wet.
A software crash has taken Ken’s GPS out for the last couple days. A call to Garmin was made and the decision that a reload of the mapping software will be needed. The large file took nearly two hours to download over the internet. It appears that his GPS is back in business.
Nice room tonight
Lotsa of good Food!
84 Miles
4056 Feet of Climbing
Temperature 75-96 degrees
Day 6 Brookville, PA to Poland, OH
27 July Wednesday Week 1
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| Tooling through Western PA |
We all woke with tender contact points. The palms being the worst for Ken and Tim. Our experience has told us day 4 and 5 are the worst. You need to get your body in the rhythm of turning out 100 miles a day. By day 10 normally you are in that rhythm. That makes days one through 9 just a bit tough..
Around 11AM while slowly climbing a hill (as opposed to climbing it FAST..) Ken’s cycling shoe pushed his fender into the front wheel. (wobbling..?) The fender folded, hitting the barely rotating front tire causing it to stop rotate entirely! Guess what happened next?
The front wheel stopped and over goes the bicycle. crash. It was a slow speed event but any fall stinks.
Tim and Joe came to his aid and quickly and assessed his bike was ok without any damage. After they were both sure the bike was intact they asked Ken if he was all right. He said he was OK. Does it seem a little odd they were more concerned with the bike then Ken. Well it is not odd. Any rider will tell you, “you can ride a bike with some road rash but not with a broken wheel”.
To ad insult to injury a little while later climbing another hill a bee stung Ken in the leg.
The crew was still feeling the disappointment of not having a good dinner on Tuesday night. We do not mind giving up the energy to push those overstuffed bikes up and down the mountains but at least feed us when the day is over. Feeding time is a significant part of the reward for putting in the miles and to get cheated of it hurt. The missed meal was made up for tonight though. We had a delicious pasta dinner at a local restaurant followed by some homemade ice cream. Yummy. Food is important!
The climbing should start to slow down as we work our way through Ohio on our way to Michigan.
104 Miles
7808 Feet of Climbing
Temperature 75-85 degrees
Day 5 Lamar PA to Brookville PA
26 July Tuesday Week 1
We have made contact. Team Eliminator is up and on the road. Distinct in the background was the sound of the wind already blowing at 8:30 AM. Team Eliminator reported Tuesday was another tough day in the saddle.
Body contact spots are tender for all. To be expected on day 5.
8146 climbing
109 miles
75-85 temperature and the road was climbing all day. No downhill, what an odd road :-)
We have made contact. Team Eliminator is up and on the road. Distinct in the background was the sound of the wind already blowing at 8:30 AM. Team Eliminator reported Tuesday was another tough day in the saddle.
The Pennsylvania hills are living up to their reputation. Hill after hill with one notable climb that was over an hour. Good exercise. Difficult to do on twigs and berries..After a few hours with twigs and berries as fuel the gage starts dropping to 0. Then Boink..Good food on the road is always a challenge. Even in a car it is tough and at 8:30 PM in the evening in the middle of rural PA on a bicycle the choices narrow quickly. The team was stuck with a Burger King last night. Always A last choice.
Good temperatures on Tuesday, 75-85 but the treat was the WIND!! I suspect it (the WIND) will be a recurring topic of discussion as the days and weeks go by. Team has had almost everything now:
heat and rain and now the wind. We can add the last weather variable, snow to the list later in the ride..All in all it was another day in PA.
Body contact spots are tender for all. To be expected on day 5.
8146 climbing
109 miles
75-85 temperature and the road was climbing all day. No downhill, what an odd road :-)
Day 4 Hazelton, PA to Lamar, PA
25 July Monday Week 1
The weather for the fourth day in a row proved to be a problem for us. For the first three days it was heat and humidity beating on us, today it was rain and plenty of it. A string of large thunderstorms passed through Pennsylvania around the I-80 corridor which happens to be the area of our route. The heavy downpours turned both sides of the road into raging rivers at times. Just as it appeared that the sun was going to reappear another thunderstorm would roll through.
The weather for the fourth day in a row proved to be a problem for us. For the first three days it was heat and humidity beating on us, today it was rain and plenty of it. A string of large thunderstorms passed through Pennsylvania around the I-80 corridor which happens to be the area of our route. The heavy downpours turned both sides of the road into raging rivers at times. Just as it appeared that the sun was going to reappear another thunderstorm would roll through.
Our cycling shoes fill up with water giving each of us a pair of personal wading pools for our feet. Even though the rain was bad it was actually better than the torturous unrelenting heat and humidity we had the first 3 days.
Our rolling route took us past perfectly manicured Amish farms with very little traffic. The excellent cycling roads made the rain much easier to handle.
One of the riders says he thinks he saw Sasquatch running in a field and snapped a photo. Could it have been the mysterious creature?
102 Moist Miles
5287 Feet of Climbing
Temperature 75-85 degrees
Day 3 Mt. Olive, NJ to Hazelton, PA
24 July Sunday Week 1
Today was overcast but still hot with most of the day lingering around 90 degrees with oppressive humidity. Whenever we stopped our bikes it felt like our bodies were melting with sweat. At least when we are moving you get some air conditioning. The air was so thick it almost would not fit in our nostrils.
Today was overcast but still hot with most of the day lingering around 90 degrees with oppressive humidity. Whenever we stopped our bikes it felt like our bodies were melting with sweat. At least when we are moving you get some air conditioning. The air was so thick it almost would not fit in our nostrils.
Joe managed to snag a piece of metal that was on the road and we experienced the first flat of the trip just as it started to sprinkle. For the next couple of hours we dodged the rain drops.
As we got deeper into Pennsylvania the hills started coming on. PA is a hilly state and we are expecting more of the same tomorrow. Our biggest climb of the day was up Jonas Mountain. With the heavy bikes it took 40 minutes to make the 3 mile climb to the top.
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| WET |
Normally we have found day 4 is when you start finding body parts that are not as enthused with the bicycle as you are. Tim is complaining of sore feet and a slight case of diaper rash. Kens ripped up rump has improved greatly and that was replaced with sore blistered palms. By day 7or 8 we should all feel fine as we get into the routine of riding.
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| Wet in PA |
7646’ of Climbing
Temperature 85-90 HUMID (the perfect HHH day)
Day 2 Danbury, CT to Mt Olive NJ
23 July Saturday week 1
The alarm seemed to come earlier than the 5:30 AM it was set for after getting to bed after midnight. A late arrival at our motel and the need to change our route took gobs of time.
The alarm seemed to come earlier than the 5:30 AM it was set for after getting to bed after midnight. A late arrival at our motel and the need to change our route took gobs of time.
We hit the road after a not so tasty motel continental breakfast and crossed into NY State.
First order of business after we hit the road was to find a pharmacy for Ken. He needed some diaper rash ointments badly. Playing in the Fire Departments water spray then riding with wet shorts yesterday was a bad idea. Lose your rumpus on a bike and you are finished.
The approach to Bear Mountain bridge over the Hudson was loaded with summer traffic. Crazy New York and Jersey drivers made for a little white knuckle riding. Once over the bridge the traffic eased. 
The temperature was already in the low 90’s by 11AM. A layer of clouds blocked the sun making the high temperature much more bearable thane yesterdays roasting.
We crossed into New Jersey just as the air started heating up a little more. Everyone took in plenty of salt today and the cramping from the day before was gone. Our day ended at Mt Olive New Jersey,
100.2 Miles
6903 Feet of Climbing
Mix of Clouds and sun 95 degrees
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