Aug
11
Submitted by XL-Network on Thu, 2011-08-11 04:46
The past three days I've been riding with my iPod on. That way time passes more quickly when your riding on those long stretched roads. I want to look for some new earbuds because these are not very comfortable and they don't keep the sound out very well. One of the German riders has some kind of ear muffs to lower the wind noise.
On the way I had to make a stop for a nr. 1 and nr. 2 and I told Harry (whom I was riding with) to just keep moving and I would catch up with him (I was riding with the velomobile hood). When I was done I put the pedal to the metal. In the distance I could see some bikes. But no, it turned out to be Miles and Lee. A bit later I overtook Steve, Bert and Nick, but Harry was nowhere to be found. At the gas station in Bodle, where we had our coffee break, I waited for Harry whilst enjoying a big glass of cola. Turns out he took the wrong turn and went south.
Because a part of the road was washed away from the rain we had to take a little detour… some 40 kilometers. The first part was doable, but there was a bit about 4 kilometers that was very much unpaved. I came down the hill around 35 - 40 km/h and saw to late that the surface of the road changed. A hard brake and then cycle on with around 27 - 28 km/h. It made a hell of a noise but that way I would be quicker on the other side.
At the Subway in Ipswich, where we had our lunch break, all the bikes were lined up real nice. There could easily fit three bikes in one parking spot for a car. Talk about efficiency. Besides that the natives from the village gathered to take a look. Meanwhile Frans his feet were on ice and Miles his ankle was also on a ice pack (he had trouble with his achilles.
.jpg)
On arrival on the camp site we ate, and Mark (part of the SAG team) took my bike for a spin and I took Lee's Carbon Quest for a few laps.
Officially we have no reached half way of our trip (from a kilometer point of view). The total count is 2688 kilometers. If the second half will go just as well? I would think so. Thus far I've had no problems with knees, achilles or muscles.
- ‹ previous
- 81 of 209
- next ›
Nederlands
English
3 comments
Enjoying your blog. Had to leave Portland before ROAM rolled, so missed the send off. One of my OHPV buds, Lonnie, was helping with SAG and kept up to ROAM from his posts.
Please extend my simple well wishes for a continued successful ride to your ROAM velo buds. Sorry about the large rumble strips. When they first started to appear my thought was: "What are they thinking!!" A simple small strip would be as effective.
If you have time, what are you using for your blog updates? iPad? Notebook? Smartphone? etc.
What GPS are you using?
For the route, did someone create gpx files before ROAM?
My stolen phrase from the guy with pointy ears: Ride Long and Prosper
Slo Joe
Lonnie is a real great guy and helped out a lot (even if it was only motivating us when things got tough). As for the blogging / GPS / GPX questions, I'll try to answer that in a next post.
Wilfred:
The title says it all. I am greatly enjoying reading your blog. I think that the toughest part of the journey is over for you and the other velomobilers. You will hit some more mountains in the east as you get closer to the coast, but nothing like the giants that you had to cross earlier in the west. Good job and happy travels.