biking

I rode 81 miles on the McClinchy Mile bicycle ride Saturday. Gardner Cohen wrote up his experience on the 47 mile, in a much thorough and thoughtful way than I feel I could do.

This has been a cycling-obsessed weekend: I went to the Bike Expo Friday as a tourist, rode Seattle Randonneurs’ “Populaire” on Saturday, then went back to the Expo for a volunteer shift Sunday afternoon. The Seattle Bike Expo is a trade show for the cycling community. I volunteered last year in CBC’s rides booth answering

This year’s Chilly Hilly (Map, Tick sheet) had even better weather than last year’s (10°F warmer), and none of the forecast rain. I took the first, “bikes only” ferry at 7:45. I’d love to know how many people were there, but it certainly was in the high hundreds. The inside of the ferry was packed

Having rode over 300 miles in the rain this year, I offer one indisputable fact: you will eventually reach a point where you cannot get any wetter than you already are.

Just finished the two-day, Ride from Seattle to Vancouver & Party, a two-day, 183 mile bike ride to Vancouver, BC, that’s served as my “mini-vacation” away from work and family. It’s about 1/10 the size of the venerable Seattle to Portland, and generally attracts fewer amateurs because it’s more physically demanding.

Today’s event was Tour de Peaks, a local event held in association with Railroad Days celebration in Snoqualmie, WA. This is the second year I’ve used it as a warm-up to R.S.V.P., which I’ll be doing this Friday.

RSVP is less than three weeks away and although I’ve done a lot of riding, I haven’t done a lot of long rides, where long means > 50 miles.