Wallkill

200 miles, 13 hours, and three states. The ride to Wallkill NY was a success. It didn't start out so well. Jim and me got 2.5 miles up the road when I noticed I forgot my water bottles. So that made for an extra 5 miles. The weather was perfect! We had a slight tailwind the entire way. It was just enough to provide a nice cool breeze. We only were rained on once and it was for only about 10 minutes while we were in NY less than 30 miles from the finish. At that point I could not have cared less. I had ridden 170 miles and nothing was going to stop me.

The route we took was great. Very nice, rolling, and extremely fast. We averaged 18 mph for the first 160 miles. The final average was 17.6. Click here to see the route. It's not quite 200 miles but with our extra 5 from the morning all we needed was 2 more. We rode up and down Red Mills Rd. until our computers hit 200 even. We took pictures to prove it. I will have them soon.

This was by far the biggest test of the year so far. Even thought the route was flat to rolling with only a few big hills, it is still 200 miles. Flat miles can be really hard. There is no relief from pedaling, no hills to coast down. I still felt good at the end however - good enough to sprint for the finish line.

Next up is the Clark's Valley TT on July 20 and the Dreamride 100 on July 26! August is also shaping up to be a big month with the Carlise TT on the 10th and the Nightmare on the 16th.

Keep the rubber side down -
Captain Crunch

Blue Ridge Pictures

I have the first half of the Blue Ridge pictures. There are some great photos of the whole crew. Click here to see the entire album. Go through the archive if you want to read the posts about the ride.

Best!

Captain Crunch

CRASH!

I had my first crash of the season on the 11th (I know that was 10 days ago). I was passing the 8 year old kid who was riding down the road on his bike. The next thing I know he is coming right across my line and takes out my front wheel. I took an unscheduled flight via Endo Airlines and hit the deck with the right side of my body. Click here for pictures :-). What you can't see is the broken blood vessel in my right arm as well.

Also, the ride to Wallkill is back on for June 22 (aka tomorrow). I don't expect any pictures however. I did get the first half of pictures from the Blue Ridge and will be posting them later this week.

Keep the rubber side down
Captain Crunch

PCP part duex

I don't have the pictures yet. Considering I didn't take them I don't want to nag the people that have them too much :-). The ride back was quite uneventful. This is where 2/3 of the climbing was going to take place (5,000 out 10,000 back) The ride back started with a climb 10 miles up. It took about 1 hour 15 min. to climb. We knew about that one. After some descending we had the 7 miles up to Water Rock Knob.

The next climb we knew about but did not think it was going to be as long as it was. It was another 10 miles up to the highest point of the Parkway (Those three climbs accounted for nearly a 1/4 of the ride alone). At the top Jim and me engaged in friendly KOM sprint for the marker (which Jim won). After a quick break to refuel and have our picture taken it was just 22 more miles back to the Inn.

About a hour and half later we arrived back at the Pisgah Inn. The gnats along that stretch of 22 miles were horrible. Kathy took pictures of Jim to prove it. My arms and legs we black with gnats. At one point I actually thought it had started raining, but it turned out to be the gnats. You had to cover your mouth and nose so you could ride through without getting a mouthful of unwanted protein.

After a ride like that you gotta celebrate right. We all ate way too much at dinner. But, hey, we deserved it. We just rode our bikes 120 miles and climbed 15,000 vertical feet! So ends another Captain Crunch adventure. Next up, Wallkill NY. The date has been moved to the second weekend in July due to the fact that some other things have come up.

"Keep on Truckin, Peace: Ben Murphy"
(watch min. 5:50)
Captain Crunch

PCP Part 1

I decided to wait and post everything in two different post with the pics in Part 2. So last Tuesday I was down on the Blue Ridge Parkway again with Jim, Kathy, Brian, Jill, and Nehemiah. We actually left Monday and the ride went down on Tuesday.

When we got there Monday evening we ran into the same group that told us about this ride last year. They were doing the same ride we were attempting on Tuesday. That group was doing the yo-yo, Front Royal (start of the Skyline Drive) - Cherokee (end of the Parkway) and back to Front Royal (1100 miles in all) in only two weeks.

The ride started at the Pisgah Inn at milepost 408 on the parkway. We left at around 8:30 am. Our first rest stop was milepost 427.5 - the infamous Bear Pen Gap. That is the location where I abonded last years ride. Needless to say I got several pictures of me with that sign (see Part 2 later this week). After that it was all new territory. Going out to the end of the Parkway is mostly downhill (2 of the desecents make up a 1/3 of the outbound ride. 20 miles downhill, OH YEAH), however there is still some climbing. The biggest climb is about 7 miles long up to Water Rock Knob.

The ride out was pretty uneventful, expect for Jim crashing in the tunnel! The tunnels down there are not lit, but usually short enough you can see through them. However, one has a bad curve that you can't see around. Jim's night vision is horrible. So he goes in first and all I hear him say is "I can't see, I can't see" and I see him go crossing the opposite lane. Then I hear a loud crashing noise. The problem is I can't see him because of the darkness so I assume the worst. Fortunately he kept the bike upright and hit only a reflector on the wall. The only injuries sustained were some road rash and a bruised ego (haha). The ride down to the end of Parkway took four hours.

Now I can say I have ridden the entire Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive. Too bad I can't say I didn't in 5 days, but 5 days, plus one year, then 1 more day is still pretty good. Check back later in the week for the final installment of this epic ride and hopefully some pics from Kathy and Jill.

Captain Crunch