Ride - Rain - Rest - Repeat

Friday and Saturday were great for training rides. Friday after work I was able to squeeze in a 50 mile fast ride and Saturday was perfect for a century with 6,000 ft of gain.

Friday was a quick flat ride out the Columbia River to Vancouver Lake. and Saturday combined a good portion of "The Torture 10,000" route and the Vancouver loop.
The way my schedule is looking combined with the weather report I might only get 1 more good ride in until Ruby Jean (pictured above) will need to get her final cleaning and boxed for the trip south.

Above is Mt St Helens as seen from Vancouver Lake, It looks like the mountains will be getting another couple feet of snow this week (yes, it is spring) good news for skiers slopes will be remaining open for another month.

Lets get this party started.

Things could always be worse

I have been wining and complaining about my month long cold and our crappy wet & cold weather that has put a big dent in my needed training and now I realize that things could always be worse.

One of our team members "Alun from Wales" was out on a training ride today and got tangled with a dog. Alun ended up with his arm being broken in 2 places and he is now out of the tour.

I can't imagine the agony that this would bring. All the physical training, mental preparation and monetary enpense that has gone into this tour and then to have the rug pulled out from under him is a rotten shame. Alun was going to fly across the pond to join us in L.A in just a little over 2 weeks and now he finds himself out. Although we never met, we were still friends by our mutual goal. Get well fast my friend and I look forward to reading your blog about your 2012 ride.

3 weeks until I leave for L.A

We are getting closer to crunch time and I must admit that I'm getting a little nervous.
Training was going OK until a month ago when I caught what everyone else in the house had (the one month feel like crap virus) I think I have it shaken so now I have to play a little catch up.

We found out who the other riders will be, it looks like we will have 24 riders total. 14 riders are going the full route of L.A to Boston and the others will be doing segments of the route. It isn't uncommon for people to take a few years and do the ride in thirds, we have 2 riders finishing up their 3 stage this year in Boston.

The riders come from all around The U.S.A.  plus 2 from England, 1 from Great Britain and 1 from Wales.
Our youngest rider is 35 and the oldest is 75. When I'm 75 if I can ride across town, let alone across country, I will be happy...You are my hero George.

I'm really excited about meeting all these great people and spending 7 weeks with them sharing a common goal of riding across the country.

Are we there yet?