Northeast - Tour de Bronx

There was food?

I know. A real dilemma.

On the one hand: being cool, not racing total strangers in a leisurely tour on a beautiful day.

On the other hand: blueberry muffin.

Excellent to ride with Mark and Charlie (Lucky07 and cparekh). A great trio, I think, but what happened to all that "Ah, I'm taking it easy today" (Mark) and "Man, I'm hungover" (Charlie)? About 10 miles in, it was all breakaway sprints.

WHAT?! YOU were off the front of the pack, every chance you got! Bklyn: Classic sandbagger.


Snagging the last blueberry muffin at the first rest stop. (That was me. Sorry.).
!!! There were blueberry muffins!?! And you got the last ONE?! I almost just cried.



Watching Charlie eat some homemade "powershot" of honey and molasses, which sounded good but looked like a colostomy snack.
He was really pushing the envelope there, wasn't he? A woman nearby was watching us, and she literally recoiled when Charlie starting waving that bag around as if it WAS a colostomy bag.



A great ride. We should actually get together and do the Bike Forums century that 40 Cent was talking about..

Yep. If this scary weather keeps up, we could have a September ride in November.



PS: Mark: Fantastic pictures. Caught the essence.

My pleasure. I did miss some of my favorite sights though:
The house sized prop at the Maritime Academy.
The blinged out cruiser with about 10 mirrors, a sound system, a dog carrier and about an acre of chrome.
Lots of cool old gravestones in Woodlawn.

I know. A real dilemma.

On the one hand: being cool, not racing total strangers in a leisurely tour on a beautiful day.

On the other hand: blueberry muffin.

And they say "it's not a race" Yeah - Not a race for people who don't like blueberry muffins!

I got to the first rest stop and there was plenty of everything. It hadn't occurred to me that they would run out.

The 40 Mile route as recorded by my 305 - Stat (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4283296), Map (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=4283296)

It was a fun slow ride. No complains besides the one incident that Jackie got hit with a rock thrown by a kid on the Grand Concourse. But then, that was not part of the ride. We were riding back to the court house after the party. Oh well, kids! The hills at the end were not that bad. I did repeats on them to wait for Jackie.

Were you wearing a lime green top and a Cannondale Bike ?

Were you wearing a lime green top and a Cannondale Bike ?

I was wearing the green TA "One Less Car" T-shirt and rode a black Pake SS commuter with drop bar.

I was wearing the green TA "One Less Car" T-shirt and rode a black Pake SS commuter with drop bar.

ahh - I met this guy on top of one of the hill waiting for his wife and I'm waiting for my friends - and happen t0 be next to him .. and we talked about this 305. thought that was you.

what happened to all that "Ah, I'm taking it easy today" (Mark) and "Man, I'm hungover" (Charlie)? About 10 miles in, it was all breakaway sprints

That's because I was trying to catch up to you and Mark. The way you cruised up any hill was most impressive. We're going along nicely 16-18 mph on the flats, and then Bill hits a hill--woosh--he is 30 meters ahead!

/cp

Ha.
That comes from riding singlespeed with too tall a gear. If you don't kick in right at the bottom with a 48x16, you find yourself creaking along in a losing battle against gravity. But also, it was so clogged at the bottom of every hill! I was sort of surprised to see all the high-end bikes with pilots who seemed to freak out at every slope, brutally jerking through their cassettes: CHUNK ch-ch-CHUNK k-k-k-k-THOK.


PS: No less impressive is your ability to think metrically.

I was sort of surprised to see all the high-end bikes with pilots who seemed to freak out at every slope, brutally jerking through their cassettes: CHUNK ch-ch-CHUNK k-k-k-k-THOK.

Well, it's not exactly Colorado around here, but yeah... It never ceases to amaze me that people don't even know how to ride the smallest of hills.

Take a look at the hill.
Pick a gear.
Ride it.

Don't constantly shift up and down in the middle of hill. You're putting maximum stress on your drivetrain at that point.

You don't have to shift at all on some 'hills' around here. Just stand up and crank to the top.

Hey!

Sorry I didn't come to this one. I had some family-related business and couldn't go to the Tour on last minute.

I hope it was good!

PS: No less impressive is your ability to think metrically.

Used to be a distance runner. I can only think of distance in metric. I, however, do not know the difference between joules and calories.