Megan and Rorie our G2 Longdistance heroes!

Here is a little report of our ride to Palm Bay.
It all started because I am training for a 1000K ride in Sept in Tennessee. I met Megan about a month ago and mentioned this ride I was going to do to Palm Bay where my daughter lives> She was new to road cycling but wanted to try. I said I think you need to do a 100 mile ride before you try a 300 mile 2 day ride. But then she did a 12 day trip down the California coast(camping with her daughter) on a 50 pound bike so I knew she could handle this.
We left my house at 4:50 on Sat morning, met up with a fellow named George who used to race so he paced us from West Palm up to Port Salerno. I had a cue sheet from RUSA , the org. I belong to so most of the trip was on A1A .We had lunch on Hutchinson island , then the road got rough (Ft. Pierce)and it got hot. Megan was a real trouper, not one "when are we going to get there". There were some beautiful areas around Sebaston then the last 30 miles on US 1 in the late afternoon sun were very tough. We got to my daughters house around 5:20, 152 miles later. She welcomed us with plates of cold watermelon.
The next day we left at 5:15 feeling a little tired. The cool darkness helped us breeze up US 1 so we were in Sebaston by daylight. Then by the time we got to the rough roads it started pouring , we were driven to the side walk at one point for safety. We crossed many bridges in the rain and Megan did well especially considering she had never ridden in the rain. It took us 12 hours to get home.We celebrated at the Outback, the best meal after such a ride.
We are looking forward to the g-2 trip around the lake O.
Rorie

around the world in 80 days (well, almost)

hey everyone, I hope your enjoying your midweek - whatever that may have brought. some of you may have read the email from megan mccracken. megan is a relatively new G2 member, but has not been around as she has been out west. her daughter, bryn, has just completed a 5000 mile coast-to-coast self-supported bike tour! megan flew out to oregon to meet up with her and ride the final leg down to san francisco. I know you'll all join me in wishing them both well and congratulating bryn on an incredible journey! here, here!

bryn in oregon. happy to be able to lift a bike

without 100 pounds of gear on it

megan and the oregon coast

from megan, "This is a Thorne Nomad touring bike from England. Kind of cool that a guy on my daughter's tour brought it here and loaned it to me when they got to Oregon, to be returned to him 2 weeks later in San Francisco. Turns out it fit pretty well. Lucky for me huh?"

addendum, or news from the pack

oh, the myopia of one's own perspective! I just received news from Ed, who was in the main field of Mike's Ride yesterday. it seems that which appeared to be our own power and good luck, also owes a debt of gratitude to at least Ed and anyone else who blocked for the breakaway. my sincerest gratitude and apologies! at the very least I hope the end justified the means.

the weekend for one, twos

image for entertainment purposes only. 

G2 is not represented at the tour of denmark

well, along with matti breschel and jakob fuglsang, matt goss and mark renshaw, G2 had it's own 1-2 finish on Mike's Ride™ this morning. your humble author and Willy van Gent™ (team captain and chief counsellor) managed to time a breakaway to perfection today and roll in 10-15 seconds ahead of the main field of mike's ride. the winning move (if you can call it that in a non-race race) came just after hillsboro avenue. I rolled off the front and was quickly joined by a Bike America rider (well, a rider in BA kit). we got a small lead, but I was fairly convinced that we were just seconds away from getting caught and sat up. no sooner had I committed to being caught and willy came up from the main field and together we closed the gap back up to the BA rider. the trio worked together and managed to get a gap that seemed like it might stick. the only real mar came when we decided to blow the light at palmetto park. while we very seldom run lights (and indeed slowed quite a bit for this one), the thought of a breakaway victory was too strong. the BA rider decided to stop and willy and I rode the golf course section on our own. thanks to willy's calming influence ("dude, don't blow up"), I did not blow up on the long uphill to spanish river. I was concerned that we were just about to get caught, but we kept it steady and powered up the last incline before the long straight to the finish. the spanish river hill is always a deciding factor. unless there are very strong riders in the main group, you can pretty much count on no one being willing to pull hard up the hill. because of this and our steady pace, willy and I were in a perfect position. willy led over the top and we powered along the long straight. I took over the pacing at the mid way point and we held on to cross the line a bit ahead of the lone BA rider and a good distance ahead of the field. it was the kind of finish that just sort of happened. there were no hard attacks, but we just sort of got things right.

in other news, it was very good to see norm out again - the links having only briefly lost their allure. look for more appearances by norm and mo nearer to fall when the greens fees increase. it will be best since we could use their horsepower - and their company -at the front. also making a return was clements venderwerf. straight off of the boat still with hints of sea salt on him... although that might have been sweat, come to think of it... anyhow, he traded his sea legs for cycling legs... which may need another ride or two to return. another shout-out goes to helen mckenzie who, like the helena before her, came out to give mike's ride a go. other than some misunderstandings about where and when the group stopped, she survived quite well. and, for all who are interested but haven't yet come out, riding mike's isn't like being chained to an oar. you can always slow down and finish the ride at your own pace. riding with faster riders, however, is the key to becoming faster yourself. if those are your aspirations, come on out, it is always good to see large numbers of G2s on the ride - front, back, or middle...

although, I daresay we are often in the front!

lord have mercy!

after mike's the reassembled group rode north to lake worth with everyone riding well and taking turns with pacemaking. kevin, rené, kyle, danny, norm, clemens, and jim dusek all did a great job getting us home against a headwind. kevin rode especially strongly today - well done!

 a special thanks to clemens for giving me a ride from atlantic. the thought of riding the rest of the way home had lost it's appeal about 3 blocks north.

another weekend, another triathlon

happy monday folks! and you know what monday means... monday means that it's time for the weekend report! saturday's ride was an easy spin for most of G2 owing to sunday's Huntington's Triathlon in miami. I caught up with the group on their southbound leg just a bit north of spanish river. and, as usual, because of my, as usual, tardiness, I received a mild comeuppance. the easy spin portion of the ride lasted until somewhere just south of hillsboro ave. when someone decided the time was right to wind things up. not sure who it was, but I, for one, am getting tired of our easy rides being spoiled by riders who seem to only have two speeds...

wait a minute...

I think that was me. well, sorry about the disruption of the easy spin. I'll be better next time... I promise.


Huntington's Triathlon

helen, helena, and christine looking good after stomping the competition

sunday came very early for several of us. G2 entered two relay teams: christine manna, helen mckenzie, and helena redshaw comprised the women's team while willy, swimming sensation john acton, and 5'10" of deadweight filled out the men's relay. kevin peranio competed as an individual and vi-an showed up for a good deal of moral support and embarrassing photographic documentation. I'm not sure how athletes on TV manage to continue to look good even when they look bad, but that is sadly not the case with all of us...

john and christine hit the water for their respective teams. john is a very, very good swimmer (and runner, and...) and regularly competes in more extreme events around the country and internationally. we were lucky and grateful to have his volunteer support sunday. despite very warm water temps, both john and christine posted very good times (all individual time available here just follow the link to the "relay teams long course" results). helena and willy took over from there and completed the bike portion. willy managed to better his last 40K average speed. it felt as though there was a bit less wind than our earlier olympic distance back in the spring, but the bridge is always a challenge. helena rode strongly despite not having aero bars. this may not seem like much, but over a course like this one - in both character and distance - aero bars can make a significant difference.

the run portion was left to helen mckenzie and myself. because of john and willy's efforts, I was given a very good head start over the next relay... unfortunately, a combination of my own overdoing and under preparation caused me blow the run - losing almost 4 minutes to my last 10K time. making matters worse was that those 4 minutes would have been the difference between first and second place. my apologies to my teammates. it should be noted, however, that I would have needed every bit of those 4 minutes a the guy chasing me down was running 5:30 miles... uh, yeah. helen, on the other hand, ran strongly and gave the women's team an outstanding finish time. while there were no other women's teams registered, their time put them into 4th place overall with the men's team 2nd overall out of 14 relay teams.

kevin peranio, once again being our resident true triathlete, competed in all events and significantly bettered his times from last year. kevin is doing exceptionally well and we're glad to have him (yo) representing. this race's field, while a little smaller than the publix one we competed in earlier in the year, was far more competitive. in both the relays and the individual races there were some very, very fast people. hats off to all G2s and volunteer G2s who made the weekend fun and competed well! a special thanks to vi-an le for coming out to cheer everyone on and to take the pictures.

I'm hiring an aesthetician and some professional handlers to make sure my next appearances are more... pleasing.

the whole bunch of us