Cycling in Kentucky

Horsey Hundred

The 29th annual Horsey Hundred is fast approaching. The Horsey is an annual ride on Memorial Day weekend each year. This year the ride is May 26-28th.

The headquarters for the ride is the beautiful Georgetown College campus. Registration is open now. Last year's Horsey Hundred was well organized ride with great weather on both days.

If you plan to ride the Horsey and you need any area information, let us know.

Two Kentuckians Ride Africa

Two Kentucky cyclists ride through Africa. Mike Heitz and his son Cory, both from Lexington, are well into their almost 7,500 mile bike ride from Cairo, Egypt to Cape Town, South Africa.

Go to www.tourdafrique.com to follow their progress.

Wow! What a bike ride! Mark and I first met Mike on the opening day of the GABRAKY (Grand Autumn Bike Ride Across Kentucky) on September 30, 2005. At 7 feet tall Mike was the tallest person I had ever met. Both Mark and I commented on his custom built bike.  It was the largest road bike we had ever seen. During the three day ride across Kentucky I had the opportunity to get to know Mike and discovered we had both ridden the RAIN ride (Ride Across Indiana) when we showed up for chow wearing RAIN tee shirts. He told me about his planned trip across Africa with his son. That was special because Nick, my son, was riding the Kentucky ride with me. 

We wish Mike and Cory all the best. This is surely a special time in both their lives.

Phil

Kentucky Cyclists Have Two Full Calendar Years Before PBP in 2007

I just received my copy of the February 2006 American Randonneur in the mail. I also received the January – February issue of the Bluegrass Cycling Clubs (BCC) newsletter. The BCC is sponsoring the Kentucky 2006 and 2007 Brevet Series this year beginning with a challenging 200k on April 1 and ending with the 600k on June 24^th.

Here are the links for both the American Randonneur and the BCC. As of posting time the BCC links have not been updated with the current information.

http://www.rusa.org

http://www.bgcycling.org/brevets.php

http://www.bgcycling.org/newsletter.php

Even though Kentucky has had a relatively mild winter and I have gotten more riding time in than most winters I do not feel ready or fit for the 200k Brevet on April 1. I have not ridden a Brevet since April of 2004.  It was my first and I always look back on that ride as the decision point that would define my focus on endurance cycling. One of my goals is to ride a complete brevet series. I don’t know if that will be this year or next in preparation for the 2007 PBP. Completing a full brevet series includes the 200, 300, 400 and 600 k events. Each ride must be completed in that order and will qualify you for a 1200 k such as the Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) within the same calendar year. 

Phil

My GABRAKY Experience

Just another ride?  I don't think so. This past fall I experienced a very unique ride when my son and I tackled a ride across Kentucky. I had not heard of the GABRAKY until this past summer and rightfully so.  This was only the second year of this growing ride. GABRAKY stands for "Grand Autumn Bike Ride Across Kentucky". On September 30, 2005 34 riders set out from the south shore of the Ohio River and arrived on the banks of the Dale Hollow Lake three days and 230 miles later.

Phil

My Ride Account: http://GABRAKY2005.crazyguyonabike.com

The Truth About Two Kinds of Cyclist

Mark, if I were telling the story I would have never told that I wrecked by body (since my bike wasn't actually hurt) in my own driveway.  What kind of dork would do that? The real story would have lots more drama and suspense.

Second ride of the year and the anticipation of riding in 70 degree weather was exhilarating. It was Monday, January 2, and we were both off work. First we were going to start at 9:30am but the weather was still pretty wet and unstable.  Finally we decided that we would meet on the road sometime between 11:30 and noon.  With great anticipation I readied my trusty bike, mounted a couple water bottles and off I went towards northern Woodford County as I had done thousands of times before. I was to connect up with Mark about 5 miles into the ride.  And so I did, but not until after I had laid my bike down, for the very first time in over 6 years of riding, in pay for one of the greatest riding experience ever.

Here is the way I remember this happening.  And since I was closest to the action and had a first hand account I would believe ….. Well you just have to decide that on your own.  The road was wet from a big thunderstorm that had moved through the area earlier that morning, just before daylight. I was running late so I was hammering hard towards Mark and my meeting point.  All of a sudden a cyclist pulled beside me with, what looked to be, a brand new bike.  I didn’t see him coming all dressed in his team kit.  He must have really been moving in order to catch me on that piece of road.  I knew ever bump and every turn and no one had ever passed me there. It took just one brief glance at the bike and rider and I knew this situation would turn into a challenge.  You know the bike. The kind that is all decked out with top of the line components, low spoke aero wheels, a zippy color all wrapped around a sleek carbon frame.  And the rider looked to be straight off the Tour with calves the size of footballs. He passed me immediately before I could react.  Then it happened. He turned and gave me “the look”.  I was furious and determined to meet the challenge.  My legs came alive and for just a moment I felt 20 years younger and I could just hear Phil Liget calling the play by play through every turn. In less than a mile I was in control. The rider looked spent. Just before the rail road crossing I overcame his mighty pace and, at that point, couldn’t help myself.  I looked back. I had to.  I don’t think any rider could have resisted. Wet rails have a way to just reach up and grab a cyclist. I was looking back and never saw it coming.  I went down sliding along the slick pavement thinking I might never stop. After coming to a halt I quickly looked around hoping, somehow, my challenger didn’t see the embarrassment on my face. He was no where in sight.  He had evidently negotiated over the track and cleared the next hill while I was donating some rear end to the county road cause. Or was this the famed ghost rider we all dream about? I sat there for a minute before making sure the bike was ok and realizing no one else had seen me either. So I am back on the bike with little or no harm done.

I was too embarrassed to tell Mark about the cyclist and how this all played out so I just let him believe I laid my bike down, for the very first time, at the end of my driveway. No one will ever believe me if I tell the truth but I will always have that memory of “looking back”.

Phil

Kicking Off a New Year!

The holiday season is over and winter has finally settled in for what appears to be a long slow nap for Kentucky cyclist.  Surprisingly, the New Year rolls in with 50 degree weather, sunny skies and a mild wind which is just perfect for a New Years day bike ride.  The sun is shinning and feeling real nice as Mark and I pedal out to set a New Year record of 50 or so miles.

To begin with the wind was more than mild and seemed to follow our every turn.  We didn’t try to avoid or escape we just accepted the fact that our friend was going to be riding with us today. You see we have some what of a history with the wind and have learned not to upset him early in the season. That is a whole other story that requires some intense focus and has been a point of contention between myself and certain other cycling friends. Nevertheless, we now accept the wind as our friend knowing a good strong headwind will only make use stronger.

The first miles were eventless just us trying to get our legs going again.  We had not ridden much in the past 2 months. Our goal was to get in 50 miles today to start off the New Year right.  Last year I only rode 3 times in the entire month of January. That is a pretty bad start for a guy wanting to ride 6,000 miles last year. So we point our bikes towards Versailles the long way meaning we rode south then east of Versailles before finally turning back towards the west.  Our first destination was the McDonalds in Versailles to refill our water bottles. Before we arrived we connected with some fellow riders from Versailles and took the opportunity to share the road with them for a while. There was a husband and wife team riding a tandem recumbent and another rider on a new recumbent.  Mark rides a recumbent so there was a lot of good conversation and ideas shared as we road. BS I call it but somewhat entertaining never the less.

Before leaving Versailles the sun had disappeared, the wind had picked up and we were sure we would get wet before we made it back home.  After a short deliberation we decided to take a more direct route back to Frankfort just to be sure we would be somewhat close in the case of rain. As we got closer to home the clouds broke and the sun returned for the last few miles of our ride.

As a side note and a testimony as to our real concern about getting wet we took a short detour through a sub division in Versailles where Mark had just learned, from the husband and wife tandem team, of a house that was for sale that had peaked Mark’s interest. We found the house and after a cursory visual inspection I could tell Mark was pretty interested because he lost most of his riding focus from that point forward. In other words I pulled us home.

You really never know what you will see on a bike ride. There are hundreds if not thousands of threads posted on WEB forums about what one saw on their ride today. Some things are expected or anticipated such as abundant wildlife, bad and obnoxious drivers and camaraderie of other riders.  But there is always the possibility of a bonus around the next bend. The silence of a bike always makes for a truly candid situation. I’ll just leave it at that for now.

It is late afternoon and the boys are all in and safely accounted for. A great ride when you consider the weather was good, we had our friend the wind along with us and got to meet some fellow cyclist. What more could you ask for? As I look back on this ride I have to say it was the best all year.

Phil

Two Kinds of Cyclists

I always tell people that there are two kinds of cyclists:

• Those who have fallen off their bike
• And those who will fall off their bike

Well, Phil joined the "club". Our second ride on the year was on a warm, but wet day. His driveway was especially slick.  I'm sure he will tell us more, but as he told me this morning "I'm not in a good mood".

The upside is that his bike escaped any damage. I'm betting he gets even more sore before he starts feeling better.

New Year's Day Ride

Phil and I were able to get out for a good 45ish mile ride on the 1st. We met several other riders on the road and had some good conversations. Phil will be posting a more detailed report later.

It was a warm day for winter in Kentucky. Towards the end of the ride, we noticed a young couple parked on the side of Old Frankfort Pike enjoying themselves too :)

Ride Across Indiana ( RAIN ) Registration is Open

The annual RAIN bicycle ride registration opened today. RAIN is 160 miles of cycling across Indiana. The ride starts in Terre Haute and ends in Richmond. Phil and I have done it the past couple of years.

The ride is challenging, but fun. Last year, it was cooler and overcast. That made for an easier ride.

World Human Powered Speed Challenge

Bryan Ball from BentRiderOnline has published an article about the  2005 World Human Powered Speed Challenge at Wired.com . Wow, those guys are FAST.