Full Team Training ride

Matt filed this report after completing the ride today.

Good ride, Colin was feeling sore most of the ride. He just returned from soccer camp, and was tired out. Had to wait a little for him. Ryan was ready to sprint the whole ride, had to reign him in a little. Bill rode very steady, no problem for him untill the very end. 30 miles 17.3 Average. The last three miles, I opened it up a little, passed Ryan on the last 1/2 mile in a dead sprint. Great evening for a ride.

Ryan, Collin and I are riding saturday morning at 6:00 a.m.

Matt

River Road

I love/hate River Road along the Susquehanna in Lancaster County. It is impossible for me to get into any kind of rhythm while riding it. The climbs do not have any consistent grade as they pitch up and flatten out, the road must have been cow path in a previous life. When descending, your bike skitters across the frost heaved pavement creating a white knuckle descent. The flip side to this is that every ride is an adventure and sharing the experience to the newbie is priceless.

Tonight Matt and I introduced Ryan McBride to River Road. Our training ride started from Matt's house in Gordanville and we rode west to Safe Harbor park and then South on River Road. Ryan had quite the ride. An early spill off the bike knocked Ryan's rear derailleur out of whack and that took away his two easiest gears. He really missed those gears when we hit the 15% grades later in the ride. Ryan commented that this ride was full of lessons. High on this list was the importance of not using the rear brake during a high speed stop. He found out the hard way what happens when you lock up the rear wheel.... Lots of scary noises and an immediate sense of your own mortality.

Matt and I where impressed with Ryan's lack of complaining. I know those hills hurt. We rode 48 miles at an average speed just a bit under 15 mph.

Collin Nafziger

Collin at 13 years old is the youngest rider on the team. He is new to road bikes but has been riding his mountian bike for a couple of years. Even though he is new to road cycling he is picking it up quickly. He is fitting cycling in after just finishing a volley ball camp and is currently attending a 4 day soccer camp.

The photo above was taken after completing an easier ride (for Collin) with his father on Wednesday evening. 18 miles at 14 mph.

What is the 200 mile Nightmare Challenge?

I love (1) riding my bike really long distances and (2) eating pizza.

The year 2007 was excellent for desire #1, but in 2008 I have found it much easier to focus on perfecting #2. Since I'm goal oriented I've been looking for a fun way to motivate myself and share my love of cycling with others. With that in mind I've challenged some friends from Maple Grove Mennonite, my church, to compete with/against me in the Nightmare ride in Lancaster County on August 16th.

Here is the challenge. I will ride the 200 mile bike ride solo with a 15 minute head start while the Maple Grove 4 person cycling team rides relay style. One team rider will ride 30 minutes at a time while the team car shuttles the resting teammates ahead on the course. The question is, will my experience count for anything? Can Team Maple Grove work together to finish the Nightmare 15 minutes faster than my solo ride?

We are riding to raise funds and awareness for Bridge of Hope, an organization that specializes in motivation and personal turnarounds. Our challenges in participating in the very difficult 200 mile Nightmare ride pale in comparison to the obstacles that single mothers face in Bridge of Hope.

Here comes the speed

We rode our 2nd training ride as a team on Monday Night.

Our team of Matt, Ryan, Bill, and Collin were joined by myself (coach George) Ivan and Jerry Umble (Bill's brothers) We made excellent progress as a team as we worked on an efficient single paceline. We finished a relatively flat 30 miles at an average speed of 16.8 mph.

July 19th Training Ride

As a team we completed our first training ride together on Saturday July 19. We focused on getting comfortable riding with each other and mixed it up a bit on a tough little climb close to the half-way point of the climb. Ryan took the climbing honors for the day.

Stats

24 mile loop

16 mile per hour average