MS 150 - Addendum

I figured I could get at least three posts out of this adventure. Maybe more, who knows? In my Day 1 post I mentioned a police report. Well here's that story:

As I was finishing up, coming down the final stretch. I could see the College entrance. A rider ahead of me was in the road making his left. The flagger was out waving him in. I moved to the left of the fog line(white line). Checked over my shoulder, didn't see anyone but the bikes behind me. Looking forward I signaled by dropping out my left hand when all of a sudden a red Chevy Impala comes whipping down the road (I could hear the car engine) blasts his horn at me. I'm thinking 'Fuck this guy" So I tried to keep position, I was turning left. His left car tires were over the yellow. As he forced his way pass me the rear view mirror hit my left forearm. I was PISSED! PISSED! ITALIAN PISSED! I started swearing like... unbelievable.
I didn't get knocked over. Thank God. I then took two or three good cranks to speed up and got the license plate number.

" I gut you, you muthahfuckah."

So I immediately went to an event organizer. Got the local sheriff involved and filled out a police report. One good thing is that I write a lot and I am observant and the leads to a superb written witness account. I found out there are two things this jackass can be summonsed for: reckless driving and driving within 3 feet of a cyclist. I have to get back in touch with the cop to remind him of that second offense, its a new law in Maine.

The car turned out to be a rental. Cops will have to do a little back tracking to get the driver. I wish bad karma on this guy. It was totally un-called for...He must have passed more then a dozen other cyclists along the stretch of road before me. Did he not see the big red MS signs? or the 20 other riders in the road? or the guy with the orange flag in the road with the yellow vest on? Ugh. I'm still racked with anger toward this guy. But now I'm just ranting....

Thanks for reading.

MS 150 - Day 2

On Sunday a similar routine of the day before occurred. Drive in at 06:30, prep bikes and selves, get ready to ride. However, the main difference was that today you could hear people in the parking lot as they were getting their selves ready with similar comments of pain. "Oh my legs, oh my butt etc. etc. " Yeah I was a little saddle sore but not too bad. I'm fine now.

Here is our group photo:
So we started again at 07:30. Again the speedy ground went ripping off. My friend and I told our wives " see ya at the finish" (They were doing the 50 miles option. We were doing the 75) and we rolled out. The second day the weather was MUCH cooler. Like about mid-60s in the morning, which is PERFECT!. This loop took us through Gorham, Scarborough, Hollis, Buxton and around. We rode through past the Scarborough Tidal Marsh, past an Elk Farm... really nice roads.

At mile 50 is the lunch stop. On our way out a guy who we had seen the day before asked if he could 'hook on' with us. This is a term used when you want to share the effort as a group rides down the road drafting each other. The trick is to stay less than 1/2 a wheel length off the guy in front of you. The #2 gets like a 25% word decrease, the #3 guys gets like 33% decrease. The bigger the group the easier it gets. Additionally, because the two drafting are working less they will come up front and break the wind for a while. Then just continue to rotate and before you know it everyone is moving along faster than if you were alone. Anyway, this guy started to ride with us. My friend got totaly gassed out and couldn't keep the pace. He told us to just go on. So we did.

Man we pounded out the last 25 miles in just over an hour (1hr 13 mins or there abouts). I was glad we did, because the temperature was so much lower I really had a fair amount of energy in me. I didn't have much when I finished, but that was the whole point.

Ride Stats: 4 hours 13 mins.
71.23 miles -apparently day 2 is slightly shorter
16.8 mph average speed.

Total Ride stats: 8 hours 30 mins, 145.5 miles, 17.1 mph avg speed.

We finished by 12:30 again.
By 1400 I had my free massage.
By 1700 were were home.
By 2100 we were passed out cold.

MS 150 - DAY 1

Saturday morning we arrived in the parking lot at St. Joe College in Windham, Maine at 06:30 sharp. After a brief check in and readying ourselves and our bikes we rolled up to the start line. The local weatherman (Joe Cupo) has been the 'official' famous guy promoting and riding in this event for somewhere around 20 years.

We started the ride at 07:30.

510 riders rolling down the road just absolutely glowing in all colors of the rainbow. As this was my first large event I was amazed by several things:

• the color explosion;

• the 510 people not concerned that they were wearing spandex shorts;

• the array of bikes from 3+thousand dollar sweet ass road machines to bikes that look more at home slowly creaking down a city street;
• the array of people (fit to fat, to put it bluntly)

As we got underway and going the peleton thinned out, riders getting into their own paces and whatnot, the riding was SUPER. The roads, while not closed, were monitored at intersections and with that many cyclists out the cars were mostly careful around us. Thou, there are always a couple of real assholes. One of which I filled out a police report on, but that is for another post.

I feel as if I'm beginning to lament. The ride was excellent. The roads through Standish, SteepFalls, Buxton and where else ever were well marked. With a rest stop every 15 miles or there abouts it made the 90 degree heat less of an issue.

Riding stats: 4 hours 17 minutes
74.24 miles. My computer popped out for about .75 miles before I caught it.
17.3 mph average speed.


I rolled through the misting tent at about 12:20 to the applause of volunteers and a few folks in wheelchairs with MS. Seeing them there made my pain and exhaustion seem minuscule.

Cops, Cyclists and Terrorists

This story I found through Digg.

Cops can be such dicks at times. Arrested for asking for a badge number? Its gotta be part of the war on terror mentality gone awry.

Do the cops think that all bicycle riders are terrorists? I mean really, the bike frame tubing could be just a pipe bomb in disguise. We can’t let the terrorists win.

Terror… Terror… Well I got just the thing for terrorists.