Photo Journal

Thanks for all of your support. The team of Collin Nafziger, Ryan McBride, Matt Ressler, Bill Umble and myself thank you for your generous contributions to Bridge of Hope. It was a challenging but fun day.

The Big Showdown

The Maple Grove Team of Ryan McBride, Collin Nafziger, Matt Ressler, and Bill Umble totally smoked me. My 15 minute head start was gobbled up by the team at mile 72.

The final results, the team rode 200 miles in 12 hours and 10 minutes and I rode 177 miles in 12 hours 7 minutes.

I hope to post photos and a complete ride report on Monday evening.

Thanks also for your many pledges to Bridge of Hope. It has truly been a rewarding experience for myself and the team.

Fund Raising Update

With two days to go before the 200 Mile Nightmare Challenge our team has collected $2,535 in pledges for Bridge of Hope. I am really excited about this effort and I hope that we can bump this number up higher in the remaining hours before and during the ride.

Bridge of Hope is an organization comitted to preventing homelessness one family at a time in our comunity. The organization works with single mother's who are about to lose their homes. Mentoring groups teach skills and provide accountablity to help mothers get their lives on solid footings. Any difficulties that we face on our 200 mile bicycle ride pale in comparison to obstacles that these women face everyday.

All of our team's expenses have been paid for by the team members so 100% of what you donate will go directly to Bridge of Hope. You can donate online by clicking on this Bridge of Hope donation link. Please mention our 200 mile Nightmare Challenge when placing your donation.

Relay team practice for first 70 miles of the Nightmare

Monday was our first actual "team" relay style ride. We had the full team present along with Mark Mcbride and Eric Nafziger who were driving two vehicles, as we rode. We started riding at 1:40 p.m. from the Riverveiw Elementary School in Marietta, and rode to George Metzler's house in Christiana at 6:15 p.m. We rode 70 miles with an average speed of 15.1 MPH over the hilliest section of the Nightmare course. For some of us it was our first taste of the treacherous hills riding by the river.
Colin drew the lucky straw to ride the toughest hill, riding south out of Pequea. We all started together, rode the hill up to Chickie's rock, and then we started alternating riders. Matt Ressler, Bill Umble, Ryan Mcbride, and Colin Nafizger was the order we rode in. We would each ride 7-10 mile stretches by ourselves, then switch off with the next rider. The two support vehicles would ferry the next rider to a safe switch point, and also help the riders so we wouldn't miss any turns.
For most of us the hardest thing to do was to stay loose while sitting in the car, waiting to ride. The only unplanned event any riders had was when Colin's chain came off. The fact that nobody fell is good, considering many of the corners were covered in gravel, dirt, and big stones, with all the thunderstorms we had on Sunday. Everyone is really looking forward to this saturday, when we can go at this for real. It is exciting to be a part of a ride that is bigger than just riding by yourself.
This report was filed by Matt Ressler, because George Metzler was lounging on the beach while the team was working hard training.

The Rabbit's Training

I guess I'm the rabbit. In the 200 mile Nightmare Challenge I (George Metzler) will get at least a 15 minute headstart on the team. I guess I should negotiate for more time. Anyway while I'm riding the full 200 miles the four person team will be splitting up the miles into 8-15 mile turns with each rider ending up with about 50 miles of actual riding.

This past weekend, August 1-3, the rabbit got some serious training in. I participated in an organized ride with 18 other cyclists called the Endless Mountians. We rode 625 miles with 36,000+ vertical feet of climbing in three days. On day one at mile 178 we rode into Carbondale PA and I was exhausted and thought I would not be able to finish the ride...then the course got harder. Sometimes when you have completly hit the wall you lose the ability to pedal smooth circles and we call pedaling in squares. I think I was pedalling rectangles. The last ten miles to the hotel where flat to downhill but it was all I could do to keep the bike up. At one point I was getting frustrated by the cyclists that caught up to me from behind. They kept turning their lights on an off playing games with me. It wasn't until I arrived at the hotel (mile 212) that I came to realize their was now one there. I finished day one at 9:45 p.m.

Day #2

I started at 3:50 a.m. by myself. I was caught by a large group of riders at 4:45 a.m. near Binghamton NY. The ride was flat and as the morning light started to appear along with it came rain. The rain made everything much cooler and more comfortable. We were lucky to have it for about two hours. My friend Bill Blank joined us at mile 59 and rode with me from Sayre to Lock Haven. The entire time Bill was with me I had very little energy and the ride was all about survival. I think I was not eating enough so I resolved to change that. My diet today consisted of breakfast sandwiches (eggs, bacon, cheese +extra salt) and ice cream. By the end of the day I felt much better and reached the hotel in Lewisburg (mile 217) at 10:07 p.m.

Day #3

We spent a lot of time on Rt 501 and 897 today as into Blue Ball and then ran paralell to Rt 23 into Morgantown and ultimately Quakertown (our finishing and starting location) Today was much warmer and we lost the dense tree cover of North central PA. This was the easiest day for me as I finished at 7:30 p.m. (mile 192)

The official ride report and additional photos for the event is located here.

You can read a Bill Beck's ride report here

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.