10/8/06 - Sunshine! Booya!
Today was, very literally, the perfect day to ride a bike. Can't even say enough...amazing sunshine (of course I didn't wear sunscreen...pshhh, this is low altitude, right? heh...) and cool enough to be comfortable. I left the long pants on, but only because anything you don't wear, you carry in these little pockets on your back, and I didn't want to stretch out the borrowed CSU kit I wore today...that's right, today was dueling CU-CSU jersey day, with Brent in his Boulder stuff and me in the Fort Collins stuff.

Brent actually was a hero rider today, hanging up front with the fast crowd, which reportedly went all kinds of ludicrouspeed and didn't know why...several in that group told me later that they were looking at each other and going, "what're we doin'? this is nuts!" but kept pushing anyway on what Brent said was the fastest ride he ever went on. I started with that group, but on the first couple hills they stomped me and I fell back and rode solo for a while. Joe and Jim, both with Hershey's and strong riders, caught me and let me tag along, and then the three of us caught Ted who had hung with the demons o' speed a while longer, and the four of us pulled into the rest stop together.

But enough with the jibber jabber and on to some pictures! I mentioned our moto support once before, and here's a shot of our BMW riding crew that literally stops traffic wherever they go. Scott, second from the right, kept me safe for a section today while I was solo, and this team is fantastic.

From one of the rest stops, I pedaled with Ryan and Kimber - also from Colorado! - and Tim, pictured below. He's out here with two other guys that are representing a bike and ski shop in Troy. Tim's a brand new father and in to any sort of cause that would protect or serve his daughter or his wife. Cool guy!

Other pics here are of our lunch rest stop today...a gaggle of riders breaking for lunch, and a rider getting a sports massage from...er, someone who does sports massage. I didn't see even one horse drawn buggy today (or painted, or sculpted...), though the fast group saw bunches of them. I did see several signs for "horse drawn buggies crossing," and loads of horse dookie in the road, but none of the real thing. I'm hoping there's somewhere important for the Amish to go tomorrow morning before we leave Amish country.

At right, some geeking out on the sidewalk outside the hotel while our rooms are getting readied. On the left is Michelle, a survivor with the YSC, and Virginia in the center is the YSC webmaster. YSC's website (that I put a linky in for yesterday) has tags over to all the individual rider blogs like mine. Tim (shown above) is even including his GPS data so you can check our route in excrutiating detail and monitor his heart rate as we all keel over on the hills-- check it out at http://fatmantraining.blogspot.com/! Featured in this picture is my ginormous left arm. Yes, it is that big...enjoy.

Tonight we met Sonia's family for dinner: parents & two sisters & family, plus Sophie, out at Isaac's, a cool little deli restaurant across the street from the hotel that, completely against the rest of the atmosphere, softly plays 80s hair band rock through the building. All the sandwiches are named after birds. I had a finch sandwich...it contained no actual finch, but was quite tasty nonetheless. Super rich chocolate pie dessert, too. A great visit!

Tomorrow is the last day of riding, and soon this tour will be over. That's going to be a sad time, but first there will be more chocolate in Hershey. Consume mass quantities!