On the Road – Page 10

2015 Green Mountain Double Century

We had a number ~~lunatics~~ friends at the Green Mountain Double Century this weekend, including our own Jake Bridge, and close friends of Seven Matt Roy and John Bayley. This annual event is one of the great challenges on the New England ride calendar, the brainchild of Sandy Whittlesey. It’s the big brother of the hyper popular Deerfield Dirt Road Randonee, held each August on some of the same dirt roads.

Jake, Matt and John all finished this year, if only to prove they are better people than the rest of us.

Here is Jake’s report:

Jake's thoughts — Jake’s Rolling Self-Portrait

The most brutal day on the bike turned out to also be incredibly pleasant, laid back, at times even relaxing. The route was 210 miles, over 20,000 feet of climbing, and mostly dirt roads. Even starting at 4am, everyone knew there was no hope of meeting any reasonable deadline. We weren’t making it back for dinner. We weren’t making it back before dark. Maybe, we thought erroneously, we’d make it back by midnight. It would be foolhardy to crush any particular hill, with so many yet to come. With no deadlines, no KOM’s, no town line sprints, we settled in to enjoy the company, the roads, and a beautiful day in Vermont’s Green Mountains. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant, sipping tea and lemonade and swapping stories while waiting for sandwiches and french fries.

Don’t get me wrong: it was plenty brutal, full of long monstrous climbs. Shortly after dark, the cue sheet warned, “terrible climb”, and we climbed, terribly, 1000 feet in the next two miles. Headlights told us where the edge of the road was. Taillights up ahead told us where the top of the climb wasn’t. The early part of the day had been marked by expansive technicolor views and jovial conversation. By the end the views had shrunk to illuminated patches of gravel and the conversations were mostly internal.

And, then, somehow, it was flat again. A few easy miles along the green river, frogs hopping out of headlight beams, and we were back where we started.

You might have read, last week, about Matt Roy’s last attempt at the GMDC. Spoiler alert: it ended in the ER. This year went a bit better for Matt.

He says:

Turned out to be a good day after all. It was a last-minute decision to toe the line with the rest of the GMDC crew but I had been staring at the course profile above my desk for over a year now, pinpointing the exact spot where my hand came off the bars and I flew into the gutter. It meant that I would be tackling the course without a support car and without a team by my side but it also meant I could ride without pressure or expectations (my own, more than any one else’s). Happy with how the day went.

Here are some of Matt’s photos, which suggest, it was a good day (and night) for riding 210 miles.

Checking in with bRad Across America

Brad’s been on the road for ten days, and he’s made incredible progress, passing from Oregon, into Idaho, Montana, and now Wyoming. This is the wide open West, pine country, Yellowstone.

Part of us envies him this time, spending whole days on the bike, exploring, seeing beautiful things, thinking. And part of us still can’t comprehend the size of what he’s taken on. A ride like this promises all the good of an epic adventure, but it also promises hard work beyond much you’ve experienced before. There will be highs, and there will be lows.

While we’re not privy to Brad’s evolving thoughts about the race, he has sent a lot of great photos, more of which we share with you now:

On the Road – bRad Across America

Who knows what inspires/possesses a young person (or an older one) to race a bike across America? The sheer scale of a ride like that defies understanding. It’s more like an act of faith really, hurling yourself into the void of 4,000 plus miles and a month on the road, believing that the adventure will be worth that super-human effort.

Maybe we’ll find out when our own Brad Smith gets back from the Trans Am Bike Race, which started this weekend in Astoria, OR. The Trans Am follows the route of the 4,233 mile Trans America Trail between Astoria and Yorktown, VA. This is a self-supported event, so the right bike set-up is important.

Brad's Bike ready to go — Here is Brad’s Evergreen SL, ready for travel.

Summit McKenzie Pass Elev 5325 — McKenzie Pass, in central Oregon.

We’ll be following Brad as he rolls east. You can check his Instagram, too, for photo updates from his adventure.

A Month with the Lake

We recently received this story from our friends at Velosmith. Two Seven riders, whose bikes we built just last year, are headed out for a month-long trip round Lake Michigan. See the story below:

Ask Suzie LaBelle about her Seven and she will tell you about its geometry and handling. She understands how the weight of the bike and the material used affects her performance and feel of the ride. And she knows that it feels stable on climbs, descents, and around corners.

Sounds like a hardcore, performance-minded racer, right?

In this case, you’d be incorrect. You won’t find Suzie on the local race circuit. Rather, you’ll find her in the midst of a month-long, fully self-supported, 1,400-mile bike trip around Lake Michigan.

The Adventure

The trip around Lake Michigan began May 17 and will take 30 days in total: 25 days of riding and five rest days. Suzie and her riding partner Will – also a Seven rider – met through the Evanston Bicycle Club, a local group of cyclists who ride together several times a week.

They soon discovered they both had a taste for adventure, and started to plan this tour. It will be self-supported; both Sevens are equipped with racks and they will carry only what they need.

“Will is a stronger rider than I am so he gets to pull in the wind,” she says with a chuckle. In addition to their own personal items, they’ve compromised on who carries what on their bikes. “He gets to carry the tools and I carry the first aid kit.”

The Training

Suzie and Will are both in their 60s, but don’t let their age fool you. These are two strong and experienced riders, and preparing for the trip meant many hours in the saddle.

Their typical week consisted of a moderate ride of 40-50 miles on Tuesday, a hard 40 miles on Wednesday, a fast 50 miles on Friday, and about 60 miles on one or both days over the weekend.

“For me this is more than an athletic undertaking. This is a journey – a pilgrimage – and I want time to stop and see the sites around Lake Michigan.”

The Best (and Possible Worst)

Suzie did most of the route planning and is most looking forward to discovering what she calls the “reality under the maps.”

“I love making the routes, visualizing what it will be like. I look forward to being in that environment day after day. And when we get there, discovering hidden meadows, hills, and lakes that maps don’t always show. “

She’s most concerned about the weather, especially as they get up towards the Upper Peninsula – which can still include very cold temps and snow at this time of year.

“Through our club contacts, we’ve been able to line up emergency people along the way in case we encounter extreme weather or a mechanical issue we can’t resolve ourselves.”

For more, follow along on their Seven.

Matt’s Maneha 250 – In Photos

Last week we told the story of the inaugural Maneha 250. This week we bring you more from that event, because it was just that good.

If you were to call Matt O’Keefe, our erstwhile production manager and bike handling guru, a visual storyteller, he would likely guffaw in your face, because he’s modest, and at root, he just likes to take pictures. He’s also a hell of a bike rider, and so, when we received his trove of photos from the Maneha 250, we had to share them. Matt makes 250 miles of self-supported, off-road riding look as good as it gets. If these don’t make you want to ride your bike, then you don’t like to ride bikes.

Brad and Matt Thumbs up — Matt (right) with Seven bike builder Brad Smith.