Don't be a dope!

Many of my dedicated readers know that I am an avid cyclist, and some of you have asked me what my thoughts are on the ongoing doping problems in professional cycling. Here are my thoughts.

Doping really came to the forefront in cycling during the 1998 Tour de France. The TDF that year was marred by doping scandals throughout, starting with the arrest of Willy Voet, a soigneur in the French Festina team. Voet was traveling into France when he was arrested and found with large quantities of doping products. As a result, repeated police raids found drugs in the rooms of the TVM team, and as a reaction the riders staged a sit-down protest of the treatment.

The years 1999 - 2005 were the Lance Armstrong years. He was constantly dogged by accusations of doping after his miraculous recovery from testicular cancer. Many of his rivals faced their own doping accusations during this time period, and some of those rivals failed doping tests during that time period.

2006 saw the rise and fall of Floyd Landis as well as the beginnings of Operación Puerto. The Operación Puerto doping case (meaning Operation Mountain Pass) is a Spanish doping case against doctor Eufemiano Fuentes and a number of accomplices, started in May 2006. He is accused of administering prohibited doping products to 200 professional athletes, to enhance their performance. Whilst the clients of Dr Fuentes include a number of high profile tennis and football stars, media attention has focused almost exclusively on the relatively small number of professional road cyclists that were named in the investigation. As of May 2007, fifteen have been acquitted and three have admitted doping or have had overwhelming evidence of blood doping placed before them.

Landis tested positive for extrogenous testosterone and is currently challenging the validity of the test in court.

The 2007 TDF saw the positive test of a number of high profile riders such as Alexander Vinokourov. It also saw the early withdrawl of race leader Michael Rasmussen due to his missing out of competition dope tests earlier in the year. The ultimate winner of this year's TDF, Alberto Contador, has links to the Operación Puerto case noted earlier, and has a cloud of suspicion hanging over his head.

So that's a lot of background information to digest for those who do not follow professional cycling. Here are my random thoughts on the matter.

• I think that doping is a big problem and that there are lots of cyclists in the peleton that are doping. That said, I think the sport is getting a bad wrap in the press. I can't think of any other sport in the world that has vigorous testing procedures and harsh penalties as cycling. No NFL team would be able to field a roster if every player that has taken steroids was banned from playing. Heck, I bet there are golfers that are taking performance enhancing drugs!



• Lance Armstrong - I believe that he was doping during the years he dominated the TDF. The fact that he never failed a test is meaningless. The cheaters are always one step ahead of the labs that are testing them. Micro-dosing of EPO and other performance enhancing drugs is a science that numerous cyclists have perfected. Look at all of the former riders that have recently come forward and have admitted to using these drugs. None of these people ever failed a dope test either. It's just too hard for me to believe that Lance Armstrong is clean and yet was able to whip the collective asses of his competitors, many of which have found to have been doping.



• Floyd Landis - I don't think Floyd doped and used extogenous testosterone. They presented a compelling case that the French lab that perfomed the work made serious procedural errors and suffered from sloppy work. Garbage in = garbage out. Unfortunately, Floyd lost the battle in the press and will always be assumed guilty by the public.



• I don't think there's any French conspiracy against the American winner. I do think a different (ie - neutral) lab should be used for dope testing. The current one in France has too many ties to L'Equipe (the French sports newspaper that always seems to be first to provide "breaking news" of the latest doping scandal) as well as to the organization that runs the TDF. There does seem to be a bit of a witch hunt by the race organizers when it comes to testing the riders, and I think there have been some innocent riders that have been caught in the net (Floyd Landis and Tyler Hamilton).



• I think it majorly sucks that most test results are leaked to the press before the alleged doper even knows the results. There are many riders out there that had their cases dismissed, but now have a cloud of suspicion hanging over their head because of leaks to the press.



• I think that the sport of cycling suffers from a symptom that most other sports suffer from - TOO MUCH MONEY. There are riders that are doing anything to win. There are other riders that are doping "just to keep up". They're not worried about winning. Their trying to keep up so they can keep their job! It's not just the riders. It's the race organizers too. There's lots of fighting between the UCI, the major tours, and other race organizers. This power struggle spills over into the doping arena and further complicates things.



• I think the riders need to unionize because I think their rights are getting trampled on. Yes, there's plenty of bad apples out there, but I believe that the doping net is being cast indiscriminately and they don't care who gets caught. There needs to be an independent organization that takes care of all the doping testing.



• It seems that the teams are starting to take positive actions to clean up the sport and are performing their own testing. They're also putting pressure on the doctors and trainers who are administering these drugs to the riders.



• I think the next few years will continue to be "rough" but I do think that the sport is on its way to cleaning itself up.
  

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War Stories - Tales From The Road

I was sharing the following story with my boss while shining his shoes earlier today (Inside joke - courtesy of Stockboy over on the Yada forum.) The following event happened while I was still in high school and near the prime of my cycling abilities.

It was the middle of summer and headed out for an afternoon bike ride like I did most days during that time of my life. I was heading south on Middle Road just outside of Oneida. For those that don't know, Middle Road is a lightly travelled county road that his little or no shoulder. I was riding my bike about a foot to the left of where the white line would be (if there was one). As I was cresting the top of the first hill, I heard a car approaching from the rear. As it passed me, a guy with half his body sticking out of the passenger window yelled, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE ROAD!!!" just as he passed me. Needless to say, it scared the living piss out of me. Being the teenaged kid I was, I promptly signaled with my middle finger that he was #1. That was mistake #1. The driver of the car must have seen me because she slammed on the brakes and put it in reverse to confront me. Now I'm thinking, "AWW SHIT!!!"

Now if I were smart, I should have turned around, but I didn't. In the past, other drivers would put on their brakes lights just to frighten me, but would proceed to drive off. But this guy was PISSED. He got out of his car and was waiting for me to ride past. Like I said, I probably should have turned around, but I continued to ride forward. Probably, I was thinking I needed to get to a populated area ASAP and continuing riding forward would get me back there quicker compared to turning around.

So we're at the top of the hill and the guy is getting out of his car. I figured that if I can get by him, I can pedal my ass down the hill and get myself to a populated area. I slowed down and put my bike in a low gear so I could quickly accelerate. The guy reached out and tried to grab me as I passed by. I swerved just in the nick of time and he missed me. Now I was going downhill and pedaled as fast as I could go. I looked back and the guy raced back to his car and drove to try and catch me. I was still going downhill when the car passed me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a plastic Mountain Dew bottle whiz past me and explode when it hit a tree.

I turned onto Chapel Street and then onto Kenwood Ave and continued to pedal as fast as I could to get into Sherrill. There were a bunch of cars parked in the driveway at the Oneida Mansion House. I pulled up into the driveway, got off my bike, and hid behind the parked cars. A woman standing in the driveway asked if I was OK. She must have seen the petrified look on my face. I was out of breath and it was hard to answer her. I eventually explained what happened. After catching my breath and checking to see that the coast was clear, I proceeded the rest of the way into Sherrill. I happened to see a Sherrill police patrol car and flagged him down. I explained what happened and gave my best description of the vehicle (80s Camero and gave a partial plate - I still remember it: 8MA 242). I also gave my contact information.

I headed home and was surprised to get a call from the police officer. He spotted the car (and the occupants) in the Oneida Limited parking lot and gave them an earful. The cop told me that because the incident occured in the Oneida police jurisdiction, he reported the incident to them. The cop said that I could go down to the police station and determine if I could press charges against them. I declined to do that figuring that everybody learned there lesson.

Post Script - Several weeks later, I was riding around southern Madison County with a cycling buddy of mine when the SAME CAR harassed the two of us. This time, he just yelled at us and continued driving on. But it was no mistaking the car and license plate. That's why to this day, I try to not let road rage get the best of me because who knows if that asshole that cut me off has a gun and isn't afraid to use it.

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Day 40 – Romney, WV to Purcellville, VA

Weather
Temperature: 40°F to 72°F
Conditions: Clear
Wind: SE 8 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 3,950 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 89,750 ft
Maximum Speed: 44.5 mph
Average Speed: 17.7 mph
Distance Trip: 70.1 miles
Distance Odometer: 3,062.5 miles
Elapsed Time: 3 hr 46 min 42 sec


It was another cold start this morning and had some early morning fog to contend with (but nothing like we faced back in Iowa). Today’s ride put me over 3,000 miles for the trip. It was another hilly ride, and I was still suffering from the effort I put in two days ago. I rode much of today by myself as I was in a reflective mood. On one hand, I was excited that I would soon be completing a great accomplishment in just a few days. On the other hand, I was bit melancholy as my trip would soon be coming to an end.

We passed through Winchester about midway through today’s ride. I rode around town looking for a bike shop to get a new cassette put on my bike. The town seemed like a ghost town. Where the hell was everyone? After a while, it sunk in – today was Sunday. You never really remembered what day it was on the trip. So I got back on the trail and moseyed my way into Purcellville. We stayed at a nice high school there. Tomorrow’s ride would take us right into Washington DC and we’d spend a majority of the day on a bike path. I talked to one of the mechanics, and he told me about a bike shop that was just off the path near Leesburg Highway. I was pretty nervous hoping that I wouldn’t get lost or something. I really needed to get a new cassette installed because my bike was shifting more and more like shit. Less than 200 miles to go…

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Day 39 – Red House, MD to Romney, WV

Weather
Temperature: 43°F to 70°F
Conditions: Clear
Wind: NE 9 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 4,110 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 85,800 ft
Maximum Speed: 42.5 mph
Average Speed: 16.7 mph
Distance Trip: 51.8 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,992.4 miles
Elapsed Time: 2 hr 55 min 00 sec

Today’s ride was almost as difficult as yesterday’s. No rain but it was mighty chilly out when we started out. It’s August! I shouldn’t be able to see my breath first thing in the morning! It also sucked that my shoes were still kind of soggy. There’s nothing worse than the squishing of soggy shoes.

We headed out of Maryland and back into West Virginia. My body was pretty beat from yesterday’s ride. I was completely spent. It was sore and it was hard to get any kind of rhythm going on the hills. Fortunately, it was a fairly short ride today – only 50 miles. Things eventually warmed up and overall had a decent ride. My bike wasn’t shifting well at all despite giving it a good cleaning after yesterday’s ride. Shifting wasn’t crisp and the chain would occasionally hop, especially in my 14T. I installed a new chain earlier this year so I suspected that the cog needed replacing. Problem was that the next town with a bike shop wouldn’t be until we reached Washington DC.

I’m pretty sure that Romney was the town where George and I went to this awesome Mexican restaurant for our second dinner of the day. Who would imagine you could find good Mexican food in West Virginia?!?!

Everyone’s getting excited that we’re entering our last week on the road. Only five more days to go! I could feel the Atlantic Ocean calling my name…

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Graham Watson

Graham Watson is one of my favorite photographers. Here are some examples of his work.

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Day 38 – Clarksburg, WV to Red House, MD

Weather
Temperature: 58°F
Conditions: Rain
Wind: NW 6 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 5,610 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 81,690 ft
Maximum Speed: 37.0 mph
Average Speed: 15.7 mph
Distance Trip: 58.7 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,940.6 miles
Elapsed Time: 3 hr 43 min 27 sec



Today was the day. The best word to describe today is EPIC! The rain didn’t let up at all from last night’s thunder storm. It just continued to rain cats and dogs. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts when it was raining, I don’t mind riding in the rain. It’s the accompanying cold temperatures that often come with the rain that I hate. There’s nothing worse than catching a chill because you’re shivering and you feel like you just can’t get warm. The thermometer probably didn’t even reach 60F today. Coach delayed the start time in hoped that the rain would let up, so we all hung out in the church. It became obvious that the rain would not let up, and we needed to get on the road. I was in high spirits and was looking forward to tackling what would be by far the hardest day of the entire trip.

I did learn from my previous rides in the rain and didn’t overdress this time. I just wore my rain jacket over my regular shorts and jersey. The only other things I wore were my wool arm warmers. Wool does a pretty good job keeping you warm even when wet. Everyone else seemed to be freaking out and seemed ill prepared for riding in inclement weather. It was quite dark and dreary out as you could imagine. I knew it was important to keep riding and to not stop. You create your own micro “environment” when riding in these conditions so if you keep moving, you tend to stay warm. I wanted to ride by myself today as I was full of bravado and wanted to slay this beast on my own. The rain was pelting down, and it wasn’t long before I was soaked from head to toe. There were some gently rolling hills as I headed out of town on Route 50, which served well to warm me up and prepare me for what was to come.

The roads ahead were some of the steepest climbs of the entire trip. Each climb was 3 – 5 miles long and contained numerous switchbacks. Fortunately, I was feel quite strong today. I had to give my maximum effort just to get to the top of each hill. The terrain was such that I couldn’t really see that far ahead. I would think in my head that the top of the hill MUST be around the next corner, but NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! The hill would continue on up, higher and higher. I’d go around the next corner, and I STILL wouldn’t be at the top. It got to a point that I bellowed, “FUCK YOU!” to the hill because I still hadn’t gotten to the top.


The descents were tricky as well due to the wet conditions and the numerous switchbacks. It was hard to keep warm on the descents due to the speeds and because I’d be coasting, trying to catch my breath. There were times when I was so cold that I was shaking.

There were numerous dump trucks (full of coal presumably) that were going up and down these same hills. The roads were well paved but narrow, so it was a little scary when the trucks passed me. The hills were really steep for the trucks as well. The trucks provided motivation because they served as a means to pace myself up the hills. I would also try and keep up with the trucks and draft behind them on the downhills. Unfortunately, the exhaust from the trucks would almost make you sick to your stomach.

There were about four “sets” of hills to go up and down before arriving at our destination. It was on the last downhill before the final uphill stretch into Red House that I got my one and only flat tire of the entire trip. I was going downhill around a curve when I hit a rock with my rear wheel. The tire immediately went flat, and I was very fortunate that I didn’t crash. There is nothing worse in the world than fixing a flat tire in the rain. I carry a spare tube and a patch kit along with some other tools. The rock actually left a ¼” cut in the sidewall of my tire. The cut was bad enough that the tube started to bulge out of the tire casing after I pumped the tire with air. But being the experienced cyclist that I am, I brought a “tire boot” with me for just this purpose. A tire boot is a 1” x 1” square of an old cut up tire. You put it on the inside of the tire to act as reinforcement so the tube won’t bulge out. I was a little worried the rest of the way to our final destination as it’s nearly impossible to patch a tube when it’s wet and raining. I was just finishing up fixing my tire when Jim passed by. He stopped to make sure that I was all set with my repair. The two of rode up the last hill and the final five or so miles to Red House.

Red House, Maryland is barely even a hamlet. More of a crossroads really. There’s a red house on one corner, a Ma & Pa convenience store on the other, and the church we were staying at on the other. Unfortunately, the church wasn’t open when we got there so we hung out in the convenience store to warm up. It’s hard to warm up though when you’re soaked from head to toe. It was almost an hour before any other riders showed up. Eventually, the church opened its doors and we hung out there. We had to suffer even longer while waiting for the truck with all of our gear to show up.

The rain had tapered off quite a bit after we got to the church. Once the truck showed up, I didn’t even bother helping to unload it. I figured I did more than my fair share unloading the truck earlier in the trip (nearly every day to this point). I just grabbed my bag and got my stuff set up. First order of business was to get out of my cycling clothes and into some nice dry and warm clothes. Good thing I brought my SU sweatshirt with me.

We had an awesome dinner that night. And boy did I need that food to recharge my batteries. Members of the church brought in home made meals for a sort of pot luck dinner. I wrote my letter to Laura and spent the rest of the evening trying to get my bike cleaned up and ready to go for tomorrow’s ride. I borrowed someone’s hair dryer and tried to speed up the drying process of my shoes. Riding in wet cycling shoes really sucks. The hair dryer helped but my shoes were majorly soaked. I got a hold of some newspaper and stuffed them in my shoes to help them dry out over night.

It took me under four hours to finish the day’s ride. It took many of the others nearly twice as long to finish. It was an epic day for everyone.

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Day 37 – Parkersburg, WV to Clarksburg, WV

Weather
Temperature: 89°F
Conditions: HHH
Wind: SW 7 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 4,220 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 76,080 ft
Maximum Speed: 38.0 mph
Average Speed: 35.5 mph
Distance Trip: 75.9 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,881.9 miles
Elapsed Time: 3 hr 59 min 11 sec


Today was a tough day. Lots of hills as you can imagine in West Virginia. Constant ups and downs with no flat sections to catch your breath. I actually spent most of the day riding by myself. The hills weren’t difficult but the constant ups and downs really hurt my average speed. The hot and humid weather made things difficult as well. None the less, I was in high spirits and enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery. We stayed on Rt 50 all the way into Clarksburg, which is another decent sized town (16,000 people).

Camp was a nice church right in downtown. Being that today’s ride only took four hours, we had the whole afternoon to do whatever we wanted. I was in desperate need of a hair cut so I walked around town and stopped in at the first beauty salon I found. I had more hair back then but I still kept it pretty short (#2 clippers in the back and on the sides and blended in on top). I ended up going to this one place that all the old biddies go to. The woman that cut my hair had to ask one of her coworkers how to use the clippers. She did a decent job. Walked around a bit more and then hung out at the church until dinner.

After dinner, I settled in to my normal evening routine of writing my daily letter to Laura. Late that night, a fierce thunderstorm blew in, and the weather forecast called for heavy rains all day tomorrow. I was actually looking forward to riding in the rain again. It was certainly going to be an epic day and what would turn out to be the hardest and most grueling day of the entire trip.

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Chillicothe, OH to Parkersburg, WV

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Day 36 –Chillicothe, OH to Parkersburg, WV

Weather
Temperature: 85°F
Conditions: HHH
Wind: SE 6 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 2,670 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 71,860 ft
Maximum Speed: 38.0 mph
Average Speed: 19.9 mph
Distance Trip: 96.1 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,806.0 miles
Elapsed Time: 4 hr 49 min 45 sec

Hope you brought your climbing legs with you because you’re gonna need’em the next few days. Another sign we were east of the Mississippi River is the hazy, hot, and humid weather we’ve been experiencing. Jim and I tried riding with Bart and Noud again, but they were hauling ass even more than Jim and I cared to do. They must have been eager to watch the soccer match on the television. We kept up with them for a while, but we didn’t want to try and keep up that crazy pace for too long. Even though we weren’t racing, it was cool how many of our rides played out that way. We wouldn’t just put our heads down and ride fast from start to finish. We would work together in an organized pace line, and then someone would want to stir things up a bit and attack up a big hill. Being the guys we are - we’d have to chase them down. Once everyone catches up, we’d settle back into our pace line at a more reasonable pace until it was time to attack again.

I felt good today, but I felt I expended a lot of energy. I was pretty dead by the time we finished. I was surprised at how hilly southern Ohio was (not that I thought it would be flat either). I remember riding on the outskirts of Athens, OH which is the home of Ohio University. I seem to remember a lot of road construction going on during a portion of the day’s ride which majorly sucked. I was able to get a picture of the “Welcome to Ohio” sign when we crossed over the Ohio River into Parkersburg, West Virginia. Parkersburg is a decent sized town (over 30,000 people) and is the third largest city in West Virginia.












We stayed at a YMCA in downtown Parkersburg. Very industrial looking town as you would imagine most towns in West Virginia would look. We all set up camp in the gym and took a nice long shower. There was a noisy fan running all night long, but it made for some great white noise and drowned out the noise of all the snorers.
















Tomorrow’s ride would be a little shorter at “only” 75 miles but would be much hillier. I was excited about all the climbing we’d be doing over the next several days. I know that others in the group were dreading the next few days.

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Day 35 – Vandalia, OH to Chillicothe, OH

Weather
Temperature: 86°F
Conditions: HHH
Wind: SE 7 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 1,470 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 69,190 ft
Maximum Speed: 42.5 mph
Average Speed: 18.8 mph
Distance Trip: 87.9 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,710.0 miles
Elapsed Time: 4 hr 29 min 28 sec


Most every evening, Coach reviews the next day’s route, describes some items of interest, and will hand out photo copies of maps to everyone. During today’s ride, the map came in VERY handy. More on that later. Vandalia is on the outskirts of Dayton, which of course if the home of Wright Patterson AFB. Traffic was pretty heavy heading out of the area. Not that we saw much, but it seemed to be a pretty big facility. I’ve noticed that the further east we travel, the more the roads and terrain remind my like home. Today’s ride was a smorgasbord of rolling hills, flat terrain, and windy roads.

It wasn’t too long into our ride before we felt hungry again so we stopped at a diner for some more breakfast. The food was really good, but something must have disagreed with my stomach because it wasn’t much longer before I had to take a major dump. So Jim and I stopped for a potty break at a McDonald’s in Washington Courthouse. After I did my business (and felt MUCH better by the way), I reached for some toilet paper, and there was NO TOILET PAPER!!! I certainly couldn’t just leave without wiping. I sneaked out of the stall to see if there were any paper towels. No luck! They had electric hand dryers. Desperate times call for desperate measures. So I took out my map (after all, Jim still had his), crumpled it up, and used my map to wipe my ass. For some reason, I felt the overwhelming urge to tell Jim about this when I met him outside. He cracked up laughing.

Most evenings are the same no matter where we stay so, for most of these journal entries, I feel there’s no sense repeating myself about what I did every night. But since I haven’t mentioned it in a while… Dinner was usually around 6:00. This gave enough time for all the stragglers to mosey on in, but it also gave time for our kitchen help to drive to the final destination, buy that day’s meal at the local grocery store, and prepare the meal in the mobile kitchen. I was almost always at the front of the chow line. Usually, Coach would lead the group in a prayer before dinner was served. That was something that made me a little uncomfortable but I tolerated. After dinner, I would call my parents and then write my daily letter to my girlfriend, Laura. Of course, people would hang out and BS with each other sharing stories of the day’s adventure.

Tomorrow’s ride would take us over the Ohio River and into yet another state – West Virginia. I was really psyched for West Virginia as I was eager to tackle some steep hills. To be honest, I was disappointed with the difficulty level of much of the Rockies. Besides that one day in South Dakota, I didn’t really bust a lung on any of the climbs.

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Day 34 – Upland, IN to Vandalia, OH

Weather
Temperature: 82°F
Conditions: Hazy
Wind: S 8 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 850 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 67,720 ft
Maximum Speed: 33.5 mph
Average Speed: 18.6 mph
Distance Trip: 100.0 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,622.1 miles
Elapsed Time: 5 hr 12 min 09 sec

There something wrong when you’re starting your bike ride at the same moment the sun is rising. A lot of times, it would be a little chilly that early in the morning. Sometimes I would wear my arm warmers since I could easy take them off and stash them in my jersey pockets when it warmed up. Other times I’d just be a man and suck it up.

Our group took it pretty easy for the first hour or so. Like I said, it was kind of chilly out that morning and I was pretty stiff from walking around the golf course the day before. You would think that the walking wouldn’t bother my legs given all of the riding I had done to this point. Must be walking uses muscles differently enough that I was pretty stiff in the morning.

Jim and I had some fun riding with Bart and Noud from the Netherlands. I don’t think I mentioned them much in previous posts, but they were a great bunch of guys. They always rode together similar to Jim and me. Bart and Noud could haul major ass too. Even though I hadn’t mentioned it previously, I rode quite a bit with the two of them over the course of the trip. Being that the World Cup was going on that year, they took longer stops so as to try and catch some of the matches on the television at a local bar or anyplace else they could hunt down a tv.

We crossed the Ohio border about halfway through our trip. I was bummed because there wasn’t a “Welcome to Ohio” sign. Fortunately, I got that picture a few days later when we crossed into West Virginia. On the way, we passed through a tiny village called Laura, so I made sure to stop and take a picture of it. I had ridden 99.5 miles when we got to the high school in Vandalia. I wanted to tally up yet another century ride so I did a couple laps around the school parking lot to get that extra half mile. I was looking forward to tomorrow’s ride as we would be camping at a local park. We hadn’t been camping in quite some time.

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Day 32 – Lafayette, IN to Upland, IN

Weather
Temperature: 81°F
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Wind: SE 8 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 880 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 66,870 ft
Maximum Speed: 31.5 mph
Average Speed: 19.5 mph
Distance Trip: 88.3 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,522.1 miles
Elapsed Time: 4 hr 31 min 42 sec

There was extra excitement in the air today as we were all heading “home” in a sense. Today’s trip brought us to Upland, IN, the headquarters of Wandering Wheels. Some people had made arrangements for friends and family to meet them at the finish. A lot of us were also excited because tomorrow would be a rest day.

One funny thing that happened actually unfolded over the course of two days (yesterday and today). For some reason, one of the riders (who was one of the slowest in the bunch) thought that our final destination was Kokomo instead of Lafayette. When he got to Kokomo, he knew that he’d gone too far. It was getting kind of late too. He didn’t know how (or wasn’t able) to get a hold of Wandering Wheels. So he walked up to a farmhouse, explained who he was and his predicament, and they let him sleep on their couch for the night. Fortunately, he knew that Wandering Wheels headquarters was our final destination today and was able to meet back up with us.

My ride wasn’t overly exciting. Roads were flat and the farmland was boring. Besides stopping in Kokomo for lunch, Jim and I rode pretty much straight on through to Upland. I’m pretty sure we had some big shin-dig that night for dinner. Many of us headed over Ivanhoe’s for more food a couple hours after eating dinner.

Day 33 – Rest Day

Today would be the last rest day of the trip. From here on out, we would be riding every day until we finished in Delaware. It sure was great to sleep in! Like I said, some people had friends and family come top visit so we had that extra excitement going on. Wandering Wheels is a prominent fixture in the community so it’s always a tradition for the local community to welcome us and hang out while we’re there. Despite all the “excitement”, I did manage to rest up some and get my bike all cleaned up. Another thing I did (which I almost totally forgot about) is I went golfing with a few other guys. Me and a three other guys went to the local golf course, rented some clubs, and played 9 holes of golf. Really wasn’t much else to do, so I figured, “Why not?!?!” It would be an early start again tomorrow, and we would enter another state – Ohio.

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Day 31 – Gibson City, IL to Lafayette, IN

Weather
Temperature: 76°F
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Wind: NE 9 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 750 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 65,990 ft
Maximum Speed: 34.5 mph
Average Speed: 18.2 mph
Distance Trip: 86.6 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,433.8 miles
Elapsed Time: 4 hr 21 min 54 sec


Chalk up another state in the “been there, done that” book. It was almost a straight shot from Gibson City, IL on into Lafayette, IN. All the miles I put in over the last several days combined with the aggressive pace must have caught up with me today as I averaged a rather pedestrian 18 mph. Besides a couple large cities, Illinois and Indiana didn’t have much to offer as far in the scenery department. One of the milestones was passing into the eastern time zone when we crossed the border from Illinois into Indiana.

Lafayette is the home of the Purdue University Boilermakers. After we set up camp at the church we were staying at, Paul (the guy whom I rode with on the very first day and is a thermodynamics professor at Purdue) took a bunch of us on a rolling tour of the campus. Being the middle of summer, the campus was fairly empty. Seeing such a large campus made me glad that I went to a small school like Clarkson University. We got to see the football stadium which was kind of neat. Headed back to the church and spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning my bike. After dinner, a bunch of us were still hungry so we loaded up the Wandering Wheels van to head into town. It felt strange to see all the traffic and bright city lights for some reason. As we were driving, the WW drivers exclaimed, “Look! There’s a henway!” Stupid me then asked, “What’s a henway?” “Oh, only three or four pounds.” My brain must have more tired than normal because I had to have them explain the joke to me. Tomorrow would bring us back to Upland, IN – the home of Wandering Wheels – back to where it all started about one month ago.

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Day 30 - Canton, IL to Gibson City, IL

Weather
Temperature: 80°F
Conditions: Partly Cloudy
Wind: N 10 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 1,460 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 65,240 ft
Maximum Speed: 29.5 mph
Average Speed: 19.6 mph
Distance Trip: 97.4 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,347.2 miles
Elapsed Time: 4 hr 57 min 53 sec

Yeah, we’re definitely east of the Mississippi River now. More and more traffic speeding down the road. Drivers were less courteous. Dealing with traffic conditions such as those don’t really phase me, but I’m sure some of the more novice people were pretty nervous. The terrain and the roads themselves also reminded me of home. No more long stretches of straight and flat highways. The roads were starting to be more varied in terrain and had more curves in them.

We actually went though some pretty decent sized cities today. The cities of Pekin and Bloomington (the home of Beer Nuts) are fairly large especially when compared to all of the other podunk towns we passed through. Another characteristic of these cities is they seemed more industrial looking. Bloomington seemed to be a nice “modern” city. Jim and I stopped at a nice place in Bloomington for lunch, and then we were back on the road. Got to our final destination midafternoon and chilled out for the rest of the day. On to yet another state tomorrow – Indiana.

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Day 30 –Canton, IL to Gibson City, IL

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Day 29 – Farmington, IA to Canton, IL

Weather
Temperature: 75°F
Conditions: Mostly Cloudy
Wind: NW 11 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 1,550 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 63,780 ft
Maximum Speed: 38.5 mph
Average Speed: 19.1 mph
Distance Trip: 98.1 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,249.8 miles
Elapsed Time: 5 hr 08 min 48 sec

I’m surprised (yet not surprised) about how well I have been able to crank out all this mileage, spending around 5 hours in the saddle, day after day. The body is amazingly adaptable. After an hour or so of riding across the last bit of Iowa, we entered Fort Madison, Iowa and began our crossing of the mighty Mississippi River. We could still see the effects of the Great Flood of 1993 on Fort Madison itself. Even though we were going in the opposite direction of the early pioneers, it’s hard to not to draw parallels between us. Seeing these major geographic landmarks is one of those. One of the cool things about crossing the Mississippi River was the Fort Madison Toll Bridge. It is a swing bridge and is widely considered the longest double-deck swing-span bridge in the world. Instead of a draw bridge, the bridge rotates 90 degrees on its axis to allow tall boat traffic through.


After we crossed the river and entered Illinois, you could feel something different. Traffic seemed heavier, faster, and less courteous. The shoulders of the road were narrower. We had to pay closer attention to our lines and ride single file so as to not impede traffic. Gone were the days of riding in the boonies were you could ride in the middle of the road, two or more abreast. Even though I had completed more than half the total distance of my trip, the Mississippi River felt like a midway point of sorts. It gave me renewed focus and energy because it felt more and more like I was riding “home”.

For whatever reason, Chip hasn’t been riding with Jim and me lately. Chip has been spreading the love with some of the other riders which was cool and all. So it was just Jim and I most of the day. Our final destination was the YMCA at Canton, IL. It’s always great to stay at a YMCA. Not only are there great showers and facilities, we could partake in many other activities. After enough people arrived at base camp, got showered, and rested up a bit, we partook in those activities. One of the best was playing foosball. The soccer World Cup was going on at the time so it was fun to yell out, “GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAL!!!” when we scored. Other people played some hoops while others were content to read a book or simply relax.

The states are smaller east of the Mississippi River so it would take only two or three days to cross them. That made these last couple weeks of my trip pass by quickly. Another 100 mile ride tomorrow and then the next day would bring us into Indiana.

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Day 28 –Corydon, IA to Farmington, IA

Weather
Temperature: 80°F
Conditions: Partly Sunny
Wind: NW 7 mph

Ride Info
Altimeter Trip: 1,760 ft
Altimeter Odometer: 62,230 ft
Maximum Speed: 45.0 mph
Average Speed: 20.1 mph
Distance Trip: 93.8 miles
Distance Odometer: 2,151.7 miles
Elapsed Time: 4 hr 17 min 59 sec

Yet another long day in the saddle today. Chip didn’t ride with Jim and me much today, so it was just the two of us most of the day. It was more of the rolling hills, but they weren’t quite as numerous or steep as yesterday. Both of us still felt fresh after yesterday’s effort, and the two of us put in another quality effort today. The roads we traveled had some interesting 90° turns for no apparent reason other than, perhaps, to follow the property lines of the farm land. Usually, there’s some geographic feature that prompts this. Farmington, Iowa is very close to the border to Missouri. Shortly before reaching the campground, Jim and I saw a sign for “Missouri State Line – 1 mile that-a-way”. The two of us took a little detour so we could say that we rode our bike through Missouri on our trip.
Tomorrow, our ride would take us across the mighty Mississippi River and into a new state – Illinois.

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Day 27 –Shenandoah, IA to Corydon, IA

It was an early start today (5:30 AM) as it would be a long ride today. Sleeping in a bed two nights in a row really did my body good. I felt refreshed, invigorated, and ready to hit the road. We had a little surprise waiting for us when we first started out – some of the thickest fog I’ve ever seen. It was kind of neat being able to feel the fog against your skin. It was thick enough that it made seeing the road difficult. Not that the roads in Iowa are bad, but one had to pay extra attention to not run over a pothole because visibility was so bad. We also had to be on the lookout for cars approaching from the rear. The fog eventually burned off after we were about an hour into our ride.

Chip, Jim, and I took it easy to start off with and upped the speed considerably once the fog burned off. We eventually caught up with Lauren (from NYC). She was in a hurry to get to Corydon because her boyfriend (a doctor) was making a special visit to see her there. Lauren was a pretty good rider and she had ridden with our group previously for short stretches. Being the gentlemen we were and knowing that Lauren was in a hurry to see her boyfriend, the three of us formed a paceline and towed her all the way into Corydon. We had Lauren always stay at the back of the paceline so as to not have to make her work at the front.

I mentioned this in a previous post but I was shocked at how hilly Iowa was. This ride was the third hilliest ride of the entire trip. Everyone was feeling fresh coming off the rest day, and we had a nice little breeze at our backs. The entire route was like one big sine wave – constant and even ups and downs. It was so cool because we were all able to maintain our momentum from the downhill portion and push on up the uphill portion without ever really needing to downshift. It was a magical ride. It was a day that you felt strong and invincible. Once we picked up Lauren, I think we just rode all the way, full-speed ahead to our final destination.
It was a real sense of accomplishment to have another century ride under my belt. Even more so given the fact that there was so much climbing involved, yet we still averaged over 20 mph. We would have another chance to complete that same feat tomorrow.

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The Floyd Landis Saga - Part II

An excerpt from Floyd Landis on his website:

"It is widely known that the test in question, given as a urine sample after my victorious ride on stage 17 of the Tour de France, returned an abnormal T/E ratio from the “A” sample. I want to be entirely clear about one point of the test that has not been fairly reported in the press or expressed in any statements made by international or national governing bodies; the T value returned has been determined to be in the normal range. The E value returned was LOW, thus causing the skewed ratio. This evidence supports my assertion that I did not use testosterone to improve my performance. I emphatically deny any claims that I used testosterone to improve my performance.

I still believe that Landis is not guilty of these doping charges. I do not have any "evidence" to support my conclusion, but there are too many things that just don't add up. One is that most doctors agree that a dose of testosterone wouldn't have such an immediate and strong effect on a rider's performance. And most notably is the fact that his testosterone level was actually low. It's becoming hard to make sense of anything in sports these days due to the specter of doping.

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Day 25 Photos

Photo 1: Welcome to Iowa!Photo 2: When visiting Iowa, make sure to fill 'er up at the Kum & Go

Photo 3: And don't forget to get some fresh night crawlers, chicken livers, leaches, and minnows! On sale for only $1.50.

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