Two pages and no photos yet?

hmm.. short recap, I guess...

Decided a few days ago to do the ride on the fixed gear. Went to the Carcass reunion show the night before and didn't get home until after 2am. Fell asleep at 2:30 or so and over slept, woke up at 4:45. Got out of the house at 5:10, didn't have any breakfast, and hauled ass to the Brooklyn Bridge to meet up with nycphotography, after which we both hammered our way to 100th street and actually made it before 6.

Once we got rolling, we kept up the fast pace until the Canarsie pier, where we met up with a friend and most of his team who we rode with up into the parks of Queens until finally getting dropped. After that we pretty much took it easy and enjoyed the ride.

Notes and highlights: There wasn't much of a wait at all to get the bib and get going, except for the huge starting line. Found myself kind of disappointed by the rest area food... I guess I got spoiled last year by Glenn's thing. Otherwise, the organization of the ride was more or less top notch, though somehow, I was expecting larger crowds of riders.

Some really beautiful park roads in Queens. The Triborough bridge sucked big time. Nothing like being dumped into a construction zone, with gravel and dirt to ride on, as a welcoming mat into the Bronx.

Did see a rollerblader doing what looked like the 75. The guy carrying a 10 gallon vacuum cleaner in the Bronx was cute. Having a cop van almost take out one of our fellow board members wasn't, neither was the cop's attitude after getting yelled at.

Overall, a great ride though. Got about 130 miles for the day. After a burger and some beer, I think I set a personal record for quickest time ever between walking into the apartment and being in bed, passed out cold.

Will have some pics up later today...

anyone else see the dude on the HUGE unicycle?

He wasn't officially doing the century but was following the arrows - I chatted with him just before the Astoria Park rest stop on Vernon Blvd.

I also thought the bicycle-powered PA at the CP finish was pretty cool...only stuck around for one song, but nice to see two legged power sources.

OOooohhhhh!!! I heard the girl singing ask if anyone wanted to take over but there were too many people between where I was and her, thought she meant if anyone wanted to come up and sing or play something :lol:

Yeah...I really needed sleep at that point!

I would have liked to have powered a song or two but I still needed to pedal over the QBB to go home...and that last pedestrian bridge from Randall's Island had kinda sapped the last of my ooomph!:o

That was fun. It was my first non-commute ride since mid-early May (oboebaby being born has cut-out weekend rides for the time being). I promised myself I'd ride conservatively until mile 50, but at around mile 40 felt good enough to pick-up the riding a bit. It was nice to be in the saddle more than an hour at a time.

I rode the event with three of my erstwhile riding buddies. Two of them had never done this ride, but are strong riders. I had one of them take my t-shirt tag to the finish so I could go straight home to Washington Heights after da Bronx. I was home at something less than eight hours for the day so I figure if I'd gone to the finish line it would have been around or just under eight hours. The hurricane debris was a real drag, both metaphorically and in practice. One of my pals said he had a hard time enjoying the scenery b/c his eyes were glued to the ground. No flats for any of us, though. I suppose our ride would have been a good deal faster if we'd had clean bike paths (and less wind would have helped though the west-blowing tailwind on the Greenway in Brooklyn was sweeeeeeet).

I met Scoer75 at the Astoria Park rest stop. No other BFers AFAIK. Between Kissena and and Astoria Park I apparently dropped my pals at a light and rode with some cool, fast guys for quite a while. I was disappointed to not have KK donuts at the 2nd rest stop but having them at the Riverdale stop made-up for it. The usual dose of three donuts at each stop still felt perfect. :D Oh one funny thing is that at the Kissena stop there were a couple of cases of Accelerade powder which it appears the staff didn't know how to use or forgot about their presence. Heh.

I didn't notice until now that the ride didn't go by the giant sphere at Shea Stadium. New stadium construction, no doubt, was the cause. It's usually a good spot for pics. Oh well. Speaking of pics... I didn't bother to take more than a couple lousy ones on my cellphone as I was on a schedule to get home by 2pm (which those good at arithmetic can tell I accomplished).

I miss riding regularly. I'll have to work on that. Besides, I gained a few that I have to work off.

Hope to see you soon, Air!

You too! When are you around?

Despite having to do it alone (I missed hooking up with BF'ers at the park on Lenox due to heading out from Jersey a half hour too late) I had a great time! My original plan was to do all 100 miles, but I ran out of fuel and time so I made an executive decision and went 75. Not bad for my first long ride.

Air, I rode along side you for a little bit in Queens. I tried remembering what you said you were wearing/riding but when I saw Nishiki on your bike, I figured it had to be you. I came close to asking for confirmation, but for some reason didn't. And you pretty much left me in the dust. You can move!

I took pictures. You can view them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/frank.ur...yBikeTour2008#

I saw him first at the Prospect Park rest stop and thought to myself "NO WAY". I then saw him walking his UNI on the triborough so he at least went that far. Pretty impressive and weird, in a way.

Great ride, the weather was nice. Did the 100, some of those roads are super messed up. I'm really glad to have the left the carbon at home and ride my old Aluminum bike. I saw a few really nice carbon bikers out there, including a guy with zipp 404's who didn't look to happy with some of the jacked up roads and curb jumping routes. I'm assuming they've never done this ride before or ever spoken to anyone who has.

Great weather, met great people, and volunteers where super awesome!

yeah...he said his ass was killing him

I never thought about it before regarding unicycles, but no handlebars = 90% of your body weight (I'm thinking 10% > pedals) going straight onto a 90 degree ST angle = OUCH!:eek:

Nice job! Thanks for sharing.

Glad you caught the scene down at Coney Island....it was sad to see Astroland on its deathbed.

I shared some chips with a friend at the Astoria rest stop.
http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...1&d=1220902039

He made out better than the chipmunk that got run over in Queens...

The weather could not have been better and I thought the ride was perfectly organized.
The Marshalls were also very noticeable and working their butts off.
I'm sorry I didn't marshall cause my friend and I were helping injured people and fixing flats all morning.

Then I get taken out by someone who turned into me and hung onto me to keep himself from falling. :mad:
I dragged him and his bike about 20 ft. before he finally dragged me down.
Road rash on my ankle, knee, thigh, and forearm. Two big contusions on my thigh.

Near the end of the ride I was helping some guy with a shredded tire he had no business riding on.
A very helpful Marshall that I recognized as Air, showed up and took over for me.
It was nice to finally meet him face to face.

You too!

Yeah, that bike was in special shape :) I gave him my bike map and called the nearest shop so he could get a new tire if he wanted to but he was going to walk towards the airport to find a cab instead.

Sorry about the accident - you looked in good shape when I saw you though. Then again I think I was partially hallucinating so take that with a grain of salt :D

i came down with a nasty cold on Friday... left work early and spent the next 32 hours sleeping, only getting up for meals occasionally.

i woke up at 9pm on saturday night and became convinced that i could still do the ride. but due to the rain i figured i should bolt some fenders onto my bike to keep my feet clean. halfway through that process i was totally exhausted and had to admit to myself that if i couldn't do that small task there was no way i could handle the ride. :notamused:

i'm really, really bummed to have missed this one but i didn't have a choice. i guess i'll see you guys on the next ride...

We can always redo it at some point, wouldn't mind skipping the hoards of people at the beginning that really slowed down the works.

heck yeah! i'd be totally down for that. i have no doubts about my ability to do the full century when in good health.

i figure we have until late-october to redo the ride before it gets too cold. should we start a thread about this to gauge interest?

I'd be into it.

I'll do it.

BTW, anyone post this to motionbased or have the course?

I will - though it will only be the 75. I am thinking about doing the last part of the Bronx sometime soon when the paint's still fresh and have the complete route.

Non Finisher
 

Maybe someone saw me out there on the course. I was riding a grayish/brownish Lightspeed mountain bike. Originally, had planned to finish the 100 miler (a challenge for me). Had a late addition to my riding group and decided to do the 75 miler because of the new inexperienced rider. At Canarsie, decided to do the 55 miler. Did not get to finish the 50 miler because our guide lost us. I decided to come home and give it a go on my own at some other time. This is unfinished business for me.