Blue Mountain 300K - River lessons.

April 21, 2013

The Delaware River, inky black under the pre-dawn sky, flows on our left. It speaks in a thousand whispered voices. It sings forgotten songs that play at the shores of remembrance. It echoes the vibrato of unstoppable, ancient power. It reverberates with the timeless sound of patience and persistence.

Fleche 2013 - A just 'cause.

At 4:45 on Sunday morning, the temperature in Frenchtown, NJ, a small town on the banks of the Delaware River, hovers around 30 degrees. I lay on a sidewalk bench outside of a closed restaurant and a closed cafe, closing my eyes for ten minutes, willing myself to rest for just a little bit before the cold seeps into my body. My three teammates, Cap'n Chris, Janice and Chris are nearby, sharing fig bars and snack food while seated at a metal table. Our next official stop is 12 miles away and won't open until 6:00 am. We've been riding together, basically non-stop, since 9:00 am on Saturday.

Another team, Bill, Guy and Paul, arrive. They are riding fixed gear bikes. They cat napped in the bathroom of a State Park just a few miles away. It was 70 degrees in the bathroom. They are also headed for the restaurant that is 12 miles away and opens at 6:00 a.m.They've been riding together, basically non-stop, since 9:00 am on Saturday. After a brief conversation, they go their way and we go ours. We will meet again. That is the way of the fleche.

#30daysofbiking - A monthly cycle.

"30 Days of Biking, whose fourth year begins April 1, has one rule: Bike somewhere every day for 30 days—around the block, 20 miles to work, whatever suits you—then share your adventures  online."

I'll be sharing my rides here by updating this blog entry with something from or about my 30 days of biking.

Hard Nox

We rode the Nockamixon 200k Permanent. After starting in New Jersey, it crosses the Delaware River into Pennsylvania. The land is a series of ridges and valleys that run parallel to the river in row after row of geographic wrinkles. The route crosses the undulations. The climbs are short but steep. They come in groups, like waves on a rough sea, spaced by brief stretches of flats and false flats. We climb and climb again.

Three Questions for the writers of RIDE 2

The editor, publisher and contributor of Ride 2, Keith Snyder, described it as "The second collection of short fiction about bicycles." And it is that. It is also a varied, diverse entertaining assortment of stories which include bicycles but may not be about bicycles.

The website for Ride 2 also offers readers and potential readers a chance to look behind the curtain and hear from the writers who contributed to the collection. It's called the The RIDE 2 “Three Questions” Game (click for a link) and it goes like this:

First Friday Writings for Randos - Character

{First* Friday Writings for Randos - A monthly post that features pieces from other writers that touch some facet of the Randonneuring experience, even if that was not the author's intent. It's stuff that's best read out loud - slowly.} This month it's an excerpt from:

The Rider

by Tim Krabbe

If only I'd come down with a puncture. How often, fighting away in a long beaten peloton that nonetheless lay down a hellish tempo I could barely follow, have I longed for a flat tire? A puncture, permission from beyond to stop the dying.

Birds in flight - February 200K

Many hours into a 140 mile ride, we pass hundreds of acres of open land, a winter farm field, laid bare until Spring. It is the last weekend of February. The wind blows strong, cold and constant. We have many miles and hours yet to go.
 

Len, my riding partner for the day, tells me a story of another time, another ride, on the same course at the same field.