What is everyone’s first organized ride of the year?
 

Mine will be a metric century on March 16th. Relatively easy ride with one nasty climb at about the forty mile mark. Tour de Sewer they call it. Not as bad as the name implies.

I'll be heading down to do the Tour de Palm Springs the first weekend in February, a nice relatively flat (~3,300 ft) century to start the season.

Don't really have any plans yet. I wait to read more responses and then maybe plan a road trip!

maybe,
http://www.laf.org/Events/Ride_Weekend/

I was hoping to do the Mt Glorious ride in Brisbane in late January, but it looks like I'll be working again this year :cry: so I don't know when my first "organised" ride of the year will be.

The only organized ride I plan on doing is the NYC Century sponsored by Transportation Alternatives. http://www.transalt.org/calendar/century/index.html

I like what they do and will gladly pay to be a part of their ride. I plan on riding up to NYC and and doing the century and then riding back home again. I haven't mapped it out yet but I figure it will be possible if I take a 3 or 4 day weekend. Plus I'll be able to catch some live music in NYC and just hang out. If anyone would like to join me on my ride up to NYC drop me a line.

Well my father inlaw just did one today in valdosta,ga.He also did one the 1st week in jan in albany,ga.Our first will probably be one in march in dublin,georgia on st patricks day.From what i hear there will be a st pattys festival the same time.Also looking fwd to alabama(auburn) tandem rally i think in april.

Well, I'm really bummed. The spousal unit messed up my plans for RAGBRAI. She's planning an out of towner for us in mid-July.

Oh, well, would you rather be in beautiful Southern California without a bike or in the middle of Iowa on a bike?

Don't know yet. Plan to do Glasgow to Edinburgh for charity later in the year, maybe also London to Paris.

I'm really tempted by Lands End to John O Groats, as I intended to do it before I was 40 and didn't.

I plan on doing the metric at the Peach Blossom Ride.

I've never done a ride this early in the season and I'm trying hard to get in shape for it.

:sleep:
Hi I'm new to the board.. still hibernating behind the computer in parts, but also trying to remain fit and actually succeeding for the first time this winter.
Haven't decided yet on which ride to do first, but it's likely that I will attend a brevet in Viersen, Germany .. I don't even know where it is LOL .. just looked it up. It is a 200K ride, so a double century.
Another option is to go to Dülmen , also in Germany which already organizes a double century ride on Feb 16.. but I know that some friends will attend the other one..

Generally hell breaks loose on the first ride .. people haven't been able to ride on the road in an organised way and are rearing to go...

It should have been Saturday Feb 2.. the warmest February day in 100 years!
Instead I rode on my own and listened on the radio to the Royal Wedding of Alex and Máxima.

Cheers from a hibernator in the Netherlands

WELCOME! Ivana. Hope you'll keep us informed about your rides and any other information you'd care to share with us. Always appreciate a new voice. Glad you joined.

I noticed from your profile that you are a librarian. Every once in awhile a thread comes up from people looking for a good read. Do you know of any books on cycling, touring or general interest that might pique the imagination of other members?

Probably the Hastings 1066 in May. 106.6 km of rolling Sussex and Kent countryside passing 2 castles and more than 2 pubs.
There is usually a big international field for this randonee.

Oscar, for me there would be no question...I'd take a bike in Iowa anytime!! :D

Already participated in 3 club rides so far this year. I plan on doing just the first day of BRAN, then all of RAGBRAI, and hopefully 2 centuries after that. Looking forward to a fantastic summer!!

Well, not a librarian of the type you know.. I'm one of those behind the screens that make catalogues .. yawn, yawn, yawn..
Can I tell you a piece of heresey? I haven't finished reading a book in a long time! Yet, I read more than I ever did before...
The answer is the Internet my friend!

I can mention a few books in my possession or books that I'd like to have..

The last book I've bought is one I bought online last night from a Canadian.. Neil Anderson.. He cycled in Europe and North America with his wife. you can have a look at ttp://www.cyclelogicpress.com
I've become a bit wary of travelogues especially now you can read them for free (heresy again ;-) ) on the web so often. However, I really enjoyed his writing style and hope that the snippets I've read on the web will be as good as the book.

Ever since I've started cycling more, I've become desillusioned with Dutch bike paths.. and started hating the bike apartheid system which we have more and more... you automatically arrive at the vehicular cycling field of which John Forester is the best known advocate. I've bought his amazingly comprehensive book and while it's a little outdated by now as far as pure bike materials and other perishable knowledge is concerned, his advice is very well thought out and well written.. a vast volume of 600 pages minus 1 and 49 chapters.

On training I own a book by a Dutch writer called "Moderne training voor wielrenners" /Modern Training for Roadracers by Cees Vermunt. The advice is OK, but I'm not a road racer, hence the need for that other book... Truth is, that there's little known about REAL long-distance cycling.. So, I bought a book by Simon Doughty called, "The long distance cyclist' handbook" it's smaller than you'd think necessary for a handbook and covers more subjects than you would imagine necessary for the size... Perhaps I'm an oldie by now, since it contained little I didn't know already, but it was nice to see it written together and confirmed.
So, I guess I'm still looking for THE book written for people who actually don't like training but know they should train ;-)..
The answer is fairly easy : don't buy a car (which I followed) and go everywhere by bicycle unless it's unpractical.. I try to adhere to that advice, but considering the poor signposting for cyclists and the bad condition of a lot of bike paths.. it makes me ripe for the mental asylum.

To cure this condition.. I've got a number of travel books from cyclists.. one I particularly like is Dervla Murphy, who was daft enough to go riding a single-speed men's bike to India, starting in December from London... you really have gotta be daft to try..
I'm also waiting with impatience on a book I've received exactly 1 year ago, but because of the unkept promises of my host, still haven't received my copy of the complete unabridged version of the book on the first RTW bicycle ride by a Usonian journalist.. he rode on a penny-farthing.. can you imagine!!!

Other authors I like are Josie Dew and Anne Mustoe.. all women.. Sorry, I just enjoy female writers more than men.

Yet another type of book are the guide books... I have a German guide books, called Reise Know How: Fahrrad Weltfuhrer (a cyclists's Worldguide) and another one in Dutch which does the same but only for Europe.. it tells me what to expect cycling wise in every European country and which routes are popular.
And as of 2001, Lonely Planet also publishes books on particular countries for cyclists. I've bought Cycling in France but they also have copies for Britain, New Zealand and Australia.

And finally, I'm thinking of publishing routes myself after I've devised them.. In 2001 I completed a fairly prestigeous route , called Route des Cent Cols (itinerary of 100 mountain passes) : 4000K in 2 months over 110 French mountain passes. I liked it so much that I'm contemplating to design similar routes in other countries.. I had ordered the itinerary and it came with a booklet in which I had to collect route stamps from certain towns I passed. It would be fun to have similar options for other countries.. I was told that such a tough ride would not draw enough people interested, but I am convinced this is not true..

So, you know a lot from me already!


Ivana

Maybe Lance Armstrong's Ride for the Roses in Austin, April 20.

My shoulder has to heal first though!

I only do a few a year but the Easter ride in April is the big draw around here. About 65 miles and a good occasion to hook up with a bunch of people you haven't seen for a while (at least at the start ;) )

Nothing too exciting, I expect.

I've been meaning for a month to go on one of several weekly group rides that the Twin Cities Bicycle Club holds, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Several shops in the area have rides in the summer, but since it's not summer, I don't know what's up with that.

As for bigger rides like a century or a charity ride, I have no idea. I'm sure there are a few in my near future, but your guess is as good as mine as to when it will be.

Just got back from doing the Tour de Palm Springs century last Saturday in southern California. Originally, I was going to do it on my single bike since my wife Sam usually has a conference on that weekend, but this year she decided to skip that so we could do the ride on the tandem. It was cooler this year, with the temps in the afternoon getting to around 73F/23C, about 12F degrees less than last year (and 20 degrees warmer than our home base 300 miles north). It is a good century for a tandem, with a couple of long stretches in the desert where the road is straight, the pavement is good, the wind is at your back, and you're going downhill. We could tick along at 38mph for significant distances and pass all the folks who passed us on the uphill parts--the standard "tandem leapfrog." Of course, we did see them all again on the other side of the valley where the route went into the foothills and gravity was no longer our friend!

Here are thumbnails of two shots taken by the folks at PhotoCrazy.com [don't worry, PhotoCrazy, I have ordered the real ones from you]. The one on the left is from about mile 40/km 64; the other from mile 103.8 (but who's counting?)/km 167. We seem to be smiling in both.

And once again the photo gremlin strikes me. One more time:

Signed up for the Ride for the Roses in Austin.

Hey Scubagirl, where do you dive?
(assuming you do so) I'm looking for
local stuff (I'm in Dallas), although
I'd prefer the Indian Ocean, its warmer!

Marty

Locally Possum Kingdom, Lake Travis & Terrell. I perfer Cozumel to our mud diving around here too.

Have you done the Ride for the Roses before? How hilly (it is Austin compared to the hills/overpasses we call hills around Dallas) How many riders. Is it like the Hotter than Hell? That's a lot of people.

I haven't had the pleasure yet....I've been really spoiled by
living in South Africa for 5 years, once a month dives at the coast.
I haven't done HTH, but want to this year.
R4R last year, approx 4K - 5K entries.
The starts are staggered based on distance, expected
finish times etc. As I hadn't been back
on the bike for very long the whole thing seemed uphill.
In reality its not too bad, the worst parts the wind.

Oh yeah, the best part (other than the cause/benefit)
is being able to say you started a ride with Lance....

Marty