Bonjour
Only 2 Days until the big ride - very cool here at our hotel is the Brazil contingent and we have met several russian riders also. I am very excited to begin the journey to becoming an anciennce
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Excited about Paris
Just thought I would share some photo's I took on my last trip to France in 2002. I think on that trip I rode about the same amount of miles I plan on riding on this trip but over a 2 week period not 90 hours.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Olympia 300 km Brevet
Getting my card signed at the second control of the day
Bob and Amy on the Road
We had a really good time riding this brevet on many familiar roads. I kept having strange feelings of dejavu - of course I've been here before which I had. One out and back that I hadn't ridden before was the route to Steamboat Island which gave us a chance to see many of the riders and figure out how many miles up on us they already had - sometimes its tough to be at the back of the pack but then we get to enjoy more of the brevet then they do and sometimes I think its just our control times that put us there. After Steamboat Island we enjoyed Omelette sandwiches at Subway which really hit the spot and kept us rolling for quite awhile. We caught up with Duane Wright at the next control and would ride with him and Ken Krichman who we found fixing a flat. We wished we would have had a camera along to take pictures of giving Ken shot blocks - he looked like a homeless man he had already had several flats and was a bit grimey and looking alittle wild.
Many of these rides roll through small towns with limited services (ie no nice grocery store) this ride the small grocery store that gets my "Nasty" award was in the small town of Rainier at mile 174 so not far from the finish we ate some yougart and filled our water bottles. The last few miles went quickly on some quiet side roads with a few steep descents that could have been a rude awakening if I hadn't been here before.
We finished the ride at around Midnight so were out for 17 hours - to complete 190 miles with about 7500 feet of climbing. The last 300 km ride we did took us the full 20 hours so you could say we are getting faster but I think this one was just a friendlier route without the Tahuya Hills.
Peg greeted us with some awesome local pizza - but then the Bob Brudvik came in to hang out and gave us the bad news about one of fellow Rando's - Steve Hameister was dead. All of us quickly went into a state of shock - Steve had helped Bob and I out on the 400 km this spring and had prerode the event with us. Just another reminder how short life can be sometimes. My thoughts are with Steve's family at this difficult time - his wry sense of humour will be missed he was a good road buddy. Here is a picture of us picnicking on the 400 km this spring. That's Steve in the orange looking a bit annoyed.
Photos from the 300 km courtesy of Greg Bleakney
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Fit Doesn't Have to mean Thin
Another interesting article from the NY Times (click the blog title to acess the article) - though I know as a cyclist less weight does make the hill climbing easier, the bigger riders take longer to get up the hill but always pass me on the way down. The article makes a point about there not being a "typical" body type for cyclists. I think this is true of the recreational cyclist but untrue of the racer set. For fun picture your cycling friends in a police style line up - could you pick them out as cyclists? Hint no looking for funny tan lines. One of my friends looks like he should be hanging with Babe the Blue Ox out chopping wood - not doing a 155 mile ride on his fixed gear bicycle.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
80 Years Young and Riding PBP
One of my co-workers has actually figured out what I'm up to and forwarded me an article in the NY Times today about LeRoy Varga who is also riding PBP this year. I'll be 40 and he will be 80. My Dad's comments on this was "Holy Moly" now thats what I call an Iron Man.
Here is the Text of the Article
Many years ago, LeRoy Varga took a bike ride.
Using an old, gray, single-gear bike given to him by a neighbor who had gone off to join the Army, he left his home here in northern New Jersey and headed off one morning for a summer place his aunt and uncle ran in the Catskills.
He left at dawn. He got there before sundown. It was about 125 miles away. He was 12 years old.
“I don’t know,” he says, thinking back. “It was just something like Mount Everest. It was there, and you felt you had to do it.”
In August, Mr. Varga will take another bike ride. It’s known as the Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur, and it begins outside Versailles, then winds through the French countryside to the port city of Brest and back to Paris. It covers 750 miles. It has to be completed in 90 hours. He’s 80 years old.
It’s hard to be sure what to make of Mr. Varga, a retired mechanical engineer with three children and five grandchildren, who lives in the same house, full of ceramic busts of family members made years ago by his mother, that he and his wife have lived in since 1963.
Uncanny bionic combination of good genes and epic willpower, or slightly scary example of a new breed of hyper-fit seniors you see frequenting health clubs with their ripped abs and weight-lifting belts?
As he sat in his un-air-conditioned home on Monday, seemingly oblivious to the killer heat, you thought it had to be some of both.
Mr. Varga has a full head of hair the color of steel wool, and a wiry frame seemingly devoid of body fat. He was wearing a white T-shirt, burgundy Bermuda shorts, black socks, black shoes.
He talked in a calm, reedy voice about his attempt to become the oldest man to complete the
Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur like someone who had taken an engineer’s slide rule to the whole thing and figured it was worth a shot.
He did, in fact, complete the event, held every four years, in 1987, 1991 and 1995. He tried in 2003 but didn’t make it, though he’s not sure how much was mechanical failure on the part of the bike and how much was the frailty of flesh.
“I don’t know if it’s stupidity or something else that’s driving me,” he said, sounding as if it didn’t much matter. “I give myself a 50-50 chance of completing it. But I’m going there with the idea I’ve done it before, and I can do it again, and that either way, this is my last hurrah. I wouldn’t consider it after this.”
Mr. Varga had long since stopped riding bicycles when he read Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper’s first book on aerobics about 40 years ago. Mr. Varga tends to do things whole-hog, be it his 25 years as a scoutmaster, or the marathon income-tax counseling he still does as a volunteer. So he decided to get serious about aerobics.
But running was tough on his knees, so he dusted off a three-gear bike that had belonged to one of his two sons and tried that. Soon, with better bicycles, he took to riding to work, taking longer and longer trips, joining the Morris Area Freewheelers bicycle club.
He and two friends biked across the country 15 years ago. Now, when he needs to stay in top condition in the winter (and when his wife is not home), he rigs up a stationary bike, turns off all the heat in the house and pedals for hours and hours on end. To stay in shape, he does a 125- or 150-mile-long ride twice a week, out Route 513 toward Frenchtown, and then north or south.
Julian Orleans, who cycled cross-country with Mr. Varga, said he’s not surprised that Mr. Varga has become the consummate two-wheeled marathon man.
“LeRoy was never one to do that much sightseeing,” he said. “Once I wanted to stop at an Indian reservation. He just kept going on. He’s the type who never wants to stop until you get there.”
Out in the garage is Mr. Varga’s 27-speed aluminum frame Trek 2300 bicycle. It has a black silicon foam covering he added for gripping the handlebars, a two-cushion seat, an electronic readout that measures altitude, distance, height, speed and temperature, and another that serves as a heart monitor.
He’s done it before; he knows the drill. So part of him looks forward to the rigors, and the hoopla, of the ride. And most of him is thinking about getting done what needs to be done.
“It’s like a jail sentence right now,” he said amiably. “I have to gauge what I do based on whether or not I’m doing what I think I have to do.”
I posted this to the RANDON List - and was told more about LeRoy here
"Last time PBP was held in 2003 there were 2 76 year olds that completed it
For those with a 2003 PBP Results plaquette at hand, or know an ancien/ancienne with one, Roger Martin, a long-time ACP member, describes his 2003 ride on pages 52-53— his 9th PBP. Nice article. Yes, he was 76 years old and did the ride in as many hours as he had years— but it turns out he was not the oldest, by a couple of months. The ACP lists Rene Gaillard (84+ hours) with a birthday of Sept. 24, 1927, while Mr. Martin was born on December 26, 1927. " - Bill Bryant
Here is the Text of the Article
Many years ago, LeRoy Varga took a bike ride.
Using an old, gray, single-gear bike given to him by a neighbor who had gone off to join the Army, he left his home here in northern New Jersey and headed off one morning for a summer place his aunt and uncle ran in the Catskills.
He left at dawn. He got there before sundown. It was about 125 miles away. He was 12 years old.
“I don’t know,” he says, thinking back. “It was just something like Mount Everest. It was there, and you felt you had to do it.”
In August, Mr. Varga will take another bike ride. It’s known as the Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur, and it begins outside Versailles, then winds through the French countryside to the port city of Brest and back to Paris. It covers 750 miles. It has to be completed in 90 hours. He’s 80 years old.
It’s hard to be sure what to make of Mr. Varga, a retired mechanical engineer with three children and five grandchildren, who lives in the same house, full of ceramic busts of family members made years ago by his mother, that he and his wife have lived in since 1963.
Uncanny bionic combination of good genes and epic willpower, or slightly scary example of a new breed of hyper-fit seniors you see frequenting health clubs with their ripped abs and weight-lifting belts?
As he sat in his un-air-conditioned home on Monday, seemingly oblivious to the killer heat, you thought it had to be some of both.
Mr. Varga has a full head of hair the color of steel wool, and a wiry frame seemingly devoid of body fat. He was wearing a white T-shirt, burgundy Bermuda shorts, black socks, black shoes.
He talked in a calm, reedy voice about his attempt to become the oldest man to complete the
Paris-Brest-Paris Randonneur like someone who had taken an engineer’s slide rule to the whole thing and figured it was worth a shot.
He did, in fact, complete the event, held every four years, in 1987, 1991 and 1995. He tried in 2003 but didn’t make it, though he’s not sure how much was mechanical failure on the part of the bike and how much was the frailty of flesh.
“I don’t know if it’s stupidity or something else that’s driving me,” he said, sounding as if it didn’t much matter. “I give myself a 50-50 chance of completing it. But I’m going there with the idea I’ve done it before, and I can do it again, and that either way, this is my last hurrah. I wouldn’t consider it after this.”
Mr. Varga had long since stopped riding bicycles when he read Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper’s first book on aerobics about 40 years ago. Mr. Varga tends to do things whole-hog, be it his 25 years as a scoutmaster, or the marathon income-tax counseling he still does as a volunteer. So he decided to get serious about aerobics.
But running was tough on his knees, so he dusted off a three-gear bike that had belonged to one of his two sons and tried that. Soon, with better bicycles, he took to riding to work, taking longer and longer trips, joining the Morris Area Freewheelers bicycle club.
He and two friends biked across the country 15 years ago. Now, when he needs to stay in top condition in the winter (and when his wife is not home), he rigs up a stationary bike, turns off all the heat in the house and pedals for hours and hours on end. To stay in shape, he does a 125- or 150-mile-long ride twice a week, out Route 513 toward Frenchtown, and then north or south.
Julian Orleans, who cycled cross-country with Mr. Varga, said he’s not surprised that Mr. Varga has become the consummate two-wheeled marathon man.
“LeRoy was never one to do that much sightseeing,” he said. “Once I wanted to stop at an Indian reservation. He just kept going on. He’s the type who never wants to stop until you get there.”
Out in the garage is Mr. Varga’s 27-speed aluminum frame Trek 2300 bicycle. It has a black silicon foam covering he added for gripping the handlebars, a two-cushion seat, an electronic readout that measures altitude, distance, height, speed and temperature, and another that serves as a heart monitor.
He’s done it before; he knows the drill. So part of him looks forward to the rigors, and the hoopla, of the ride. And most of him is thinking about getting done what needs to be done.
“It’s like a jail sentence right now,” he said amiably. “I have to gauge what I do based on whether or not I’m doing what I think I have to do.”
I posted this to the RANDON List - and was told more about LeRoy here
"Last time PBP was held in 2003 there were 2 76 year olds that completed it
For those with a 2003 PBP Results plaquette at hand, or know an ancien/ancienne with one, Roger Martin, a long-time ACP member, describes his 2003 ride on pages 52-53— his 9th PBP. Nice article. Yes, he was 76 years old and did the ride in as many hours as he had years— but it turns out he was not the oldest, by a couple of months. The ACP lists Rene Gaillard (84+ hours) with a birthday of Sept. 24, 1927, while Mr. Martin was born on December 26, 1927. " - Bill Bryant
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