Hurting
Three riders went down today--nothing serious, but all of them are hurting. Murray, the fastest rider (Dentist from Iowa) was run off the road by a pick-up truck and suffered massive bruises and contusions. He is wondering how he will be able to get home because he's hurting so much. Linda's paceline had another mishap. They were riding on an otherwise very nice bike path and the lead rider (Jim from Maryland) went over his handlebars after hitting a massive ridge in the path while cruising downhill. The rider behind him (Joe from VA) went over his rear wheel. Jim hurt his shoulder and is probably out. Joe plans to stick it out with the help of drugs.
I feel lucky to have gotten off with only a broken wheel. I didn't crash--the wheel just came apart. Remember--that is Velomax Orion II, the leader in cost per mile for cross-country rides (leader in the sense of highest, not best). I was riding with the young folks for the first 25 miles and feeling great, averaged 20 miles per hour over rolling hills with no winds, but I wasn't able to hold on beyond that. I figured it was age, but a while later, I noticed that my wheel was badly out of true. I assumed that I had broken another spoke, but all the spokes were intact. Then I noticed that the rim had a 5 mm fissure in it at one of the spokes. I waited for Mike to bring another wheel while talking to a friendly townsperson. He had a big friendly brown lab, who was very interested in me. When I finally got fixed up and rolled into the rest stop, I learned that many riders were worried that I had been attacked by another labrador retriever.
We were interviewed by Fox news Albany and by the Albany newspaper. I also spoke to someone from the Troy paper while having lunch at a great local cafe. Meanwhile, Paul is arranging future media gigs.
We're looking forward to our bike shop event tomorrow in Brattleboro. Three days to Portsmouth, and four days to home. I hope we make it.
Cheers,
Len
I feel lucky to have gotten off with only a broken wheel. I didn't crash--the wheel just came apart. Remember--that is Velomax Orion II, the leader in cost per mile for cross-country rides (leader in the sense of highest, not best). I was riding with the young folks for the first 25 miles and feeling great, averaged 20 miles per hour over rolling hills with no winds, but I wasn't able to hold on beyond that. I figured it was age, but a while later, I noticed that my wheel was badly out of true. I assumed that I had broken another spoke, but all the spokes were intact. Then I noticed that the rim had a 5 mm fissure in it at one of the spokes. I waited for Mike to bring another wheel while talking to a friendly townsperson. He had a big friendly brown lab, who was very interested in me. When I finally got fixed up and rolled into the rest stop, I learned that many riders were worried that I had been attacked by another labrador retriever.
We were interviewed by Fox news Albany and by the Albany newspaper. I also spoke to someone from the Troy paper while having lunch at a great local cafe. Meanwhile, Paul is arranging future media gigs.
We're looking forward to our bike shop event tomorrow in Brattleboro. Three days to Portsmouth, and four days to home. I hope we make it.
Cheers,
Len
posted by Len Burman at 12:44 PM
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