Road Cycling - My longest, hilliest, windiest....

most awesome ride yet. Man today's ride was awesome. It was all around the Brandywine River Valley in Delaware and Pennsylvania. It has some long and nasty hills too. I consider myself a fairly strong climber, but today kicked my butt. Of course all I've done the last couple weeks is mostly trainer work if I've gotten on the bike at all. It was a 75 mile ride that I averaged 17.7 MPH. I've never done more than 65 miles on the road and I normally average 18+ so I was fairly pleased. I figure I would have averaged better if the winds were not so strong. It's bad enough climbing steep hills, but a head wind makes it worse. The gusts were so bad that a couple times I thought I was going to be knocked off, or I had to stop due to debris being blown around. Other than the wind, the weather was great. A little on the cool side but very sunny. A lot of the leaves were just staring to change so it was an awesome ride. The homes in the area are very old. A lot of stone farm houses and old Dupont Mansions. I think the best part was going down the hill and then across the resevoir at 35 MPH. It was such a great feeling especially the way the road is. The water is maybe a foot lower than the road surface so if you are not looking down, it almost seems like you are riding across the water.

I just gotta keep up the hard work so that come spring time I can get a lot of century's in. I really want to ride strong for the Annual EMS Bike Ride taking place during each EMS Week, every May. It is from Boston to Roanoke, and I want complete the whole ride. If anyone is interested in riding all or part, visit www.emsbikeride.org and help support the EMT's and Paramedics that serve this country.

Sounds awesome Sebring! Keep up the good rides and the reports. It's really motivating. We've got a ride coming up in 2 weeks that circles Mt. Fuji (100k) just about when the leaves should be turning. If the group is up for it, 2/3rds of the way around we may take about a 9 mile ascent to as high as you can go on a bike. Looking forward to it. Happy riding! :)

its always nice to hear accomplishments.. keep it up..

I live in the tropics, I could only imagine how wonderful it is to see leaves change.... :)

Last wed. we had a half day from school so my teamates and i decided to go on a long 100 mile decent pace ride. It was a pretty hilly ride that we were going on in the first place. The weather wasnt the greatest it was around 50 degrees and it rained once or twice while we were riding. But to get to the good part the winds were the worst part of the ride. We were all riding down a 2.5 mile hill that i usually average around 45-47 miles an hour down and that day i went down it pedaling as hard as i could i was going 25mph:lol: . it was the funniest thing one of my teamates stoped pedaling and almost came to a complete stop in the middle of the hill. but i guess thats North Eastern PA for ya.