roadskater.net

Location

Mileage options: 20, 40 or 60 miles. 60 milers leave at 9am (wow that sounds wonderful after a whole summer of getting up at 5.30am for training rides!), 20 & 40 milers leave at 10am. This is a cycling event but the GVC folks usually let us join in on skates! Not sure how late the course is open, but there are rest stops and a SAG, as well as 'food and drink' at the finish.

Here is the .pdf flyer:

Our 9th official skating of the 87-mile Athens to Atlanta Roadskate (not including two unofficial traverses in 2005) was on a warm and sunny day one might have expected a month or so earlier. I knew I'd be feeling the muscle cramps in my quads eventually but that didn't stop me from being overly excited at some points early on.

Locations

Come join us for the grandskatey of them all, the Athens to Atlanta Roadskate from Athens Georgia to Atlanta GA. I'm a bit late putting this one on the schedule, ha, so I'll keep it short! We'll miss you if you're not there and be glad to see you if you are!

Hi to all. With A2A fast approaching procrastinators want to know:

What's up with Hyper wheels in general, 100mm in particular, and Hyperformance +G and Mach 2, more specifically? eebee and I are scouting around for at least 12 100mm and 4 84mm and we found one spot that seems to have them, but only one we ever heard of. Now I'm not against low-fame websites, ha, but seriously where have all the Hypers gone?

Anybody have a great source?

What have you been using and are they worth the money?

A2A is over, the leg-swelling is gone, the let-down has set in and I'm itching for another excuse to spend a long day skating. I am happy to find that the Claxton, GA, Chamber of Commerce is putting on another 'Cruisin' in the Country' (cycling) event this year. Blake and I, plus Keno, Mark Day and some other APRR skaters took part in this great event back in 2003 (on skates).

We had a nice dry day and homegrownmatt showed up briefly to say hi-bye before streaking off on his knobbies to chase down some roadies. It was great to see him, and even better to have some Mexican food later on with him at the best Mexibuffet I have ever seen at Cuco's in King, NC. The next time you're up on US-52 looking for some great tasting food, check it out.

Check out the photos from the Ken's Bike Shop T2T TR here:

During a weekend full of fun and necessary preparations for the Tour to Tanglewood next week, plus with some birthday cake and 28 miles of skating loops at Greensboro Country Park on Saturday, we ended up back out at the park on Sunday afternoon for the Pro/1/2, Women's Open and the start of the Senior Cat 3 bicycle races. We walked the 1.65 mile loop in the opposite direction of the racers and took photos as we ambled along.

This past Saturday's Tour to Tanglewood training ride was hosted by Clemmons Bicycle. As in previous years, the route was beautiful, hilly with great pavement, limited congestion and a couple of fun, long downhills (Darwick Road and Fraternity Church Road).

We had a great time at Bikestock 2007 in Mt. Airy, at least once we were finished! Actually even though it was tough and required some careful navigation, and there were spots in there where it was almost impossible to skate up some rough road, as a whole, Bikestock was a blast. When we finished, we knew we had accomplished something, especially on a moderately hot and moderately hazy yellow AQI day. Please check out my photos below or at this link:

With the State Games of North Carolina bike events (mountain biking and road cycling criterium) being held in Greensboro Country Park in 2007, I was looking forward to a weekend of less training, just walking around the park watching cyclists of all sorts and ages reach their limits in search of some North Carolina glory. However, it didn't work out that way as I decided to spend all day Saturday skating on the American Tobacco Trail, which led me to sleep in on Sunday, not even hearing my alarm.

What another satisfying, smooth and sufficiently challenging Tour de Lions event! We arrived for registration at 7.30am, grabbed some bananas and other carbs, plus coffee, all provided by the event and its volunteers. The weather was sunny but brisk at about 50 deg F.

 I've been knocking these rather trivial, large-scale thoughts around my head for some years now and wanted to write something about them. Last night, whilst watching 20/20, was the final straw! This post might complement KJG's questions in Monotony of Training.

I have just published 785 edited photos from the Philly Freedom Skate, June 16-18 to this address:

http://roadskater.net/phl2006

If you have any comments, please use "add new comment" below to place them here. I hope you enjoy the photos. Once again, there are lots of tourist shots because I'm a tourist, and I hope you like the shots of buildings, art objects and, of course, people!

I have just published 420 edited photos from the SkateDC Weekend, May 6-7 2006 to this address:

http://roadskater.net/wdc2006/

If you have any comments, please use "add new comment" below to place them here. I hope you enjoy the photos. There are lots of tourist shots because I'm a tourist, and I hope you like the shots of buildings, birds and people!

I have just published my photos from the September 2, 2006 Tour to Tanglewood Training Ride at Paul's Cycling & Fitness (Paul's Schwinn) in Winston-Salem NC. Please take a look, and if you have any comments, please click "add new comment" below. Here's the link for the photos:

I have just published my photos from the July 22, 2006 Tour to Tanglewood Training Ride at Cycles do Oro in Greensboro NC. Please take a look, and if you have any comments, please click "add new comment" below. Here's the link for the photos:

1999 was the 18th Anniversary Edition of the Athens to Atlanta Roadskate.

Please add your 1999 A2A story to this chapter of the Athens to Atlanta History Project! After you've written and posted your story, use the Outline tab to select "1999 A2A Journals" as the parent of your article. If your story is for another year, contact me or leave it be and I will add a Chapter for that year.

2000 was the 19th Anniversary Edition of the Athens to Atlanta Roadskate.

Please add your 2000 A2A story to this chapter of the Athens to Atlanta History Project! After you've written and posted your story, use the Outline tab to select "2000 A2A Journals" as the parent of your article. If your story is for another year, contact me or leave it be and I will add a Chapter for that year.

2001 was the 20th Anniversary Edition of the Athens to Atlanta Roadskate.

Please add your 2001 A2A story to this chapter of the Athens to Atlanta History Project! After you've written and posted your story, use the Outline tab to select "2001 A2A Journals" as the parent of your article. If your story is for another year, contact me or leave it be and I will add a Chapter for that year.

2002 was the 21st Anniversary Edition of the Athens to Atlanta Roadskate.

Please add your 2002 A2A story to this chapter of the Athens to Atlanta History Project! After you've written and posted your story, use the Outline tab to select "2002 A2A Journals" as the parent of your article. If your story is for another year, contact me or leave it be and I will add a Chapter for that year.

2003 was the 22nd Anniversary Edition of the Athens to Atlanta Roadskate.

Please add your 2003 A2A story to this chapter of the Athens to Atlanta History Project! After you've written and posted your story, use the Outline tab to select "2003 A2A Journals" as the parent of your article. If your story is for another year, contact me or leave it be and I will add a Chapter for that year.

2004 was the 23rd Anniversary Edition of the Athens to Atlanta Roadskate.

Please add your 2004 A2A story to this chapter of the Athens to Atlanta History Project! After you've written and posted your story, use the Outline tab to select "2004 A2A Journals" as the parent of your article. If your story is for another year, contact me or leave it be and I will add a Chapter for that year.

In 2005, several iterations of the A2A took place. The club version was the Outlaw, and three Roadskater.net skaters did the course on the originally planned day, calling that the Sidekick. Another Roadskater.net member provided support. The effort was to make sure that there was a 24th Anniversary Edition, and the two groups each tried to ensure that by skating the course for 2005. Other successful attempts followed the Outlaw and the Sidekick.

I have just published my photos from the August 26, 2006 Tour to Tanglewood Training Ride at Bicycle Toy & Hobby in High Point NC. Please take a look, and if you have any comments, reply by clicking "add new comment" below. Here's the link for the photos:

I have just published my photos from the July 29, 2006 Tour to Tanglewood Training Ride at The Bicycle Shop in Clemmons NC. Please take a look, and if you have any comments, reply by clicking "add new comment" below. Here's the link for the photos:

Silver Hill to the End of A2A 2006

We made it to Silver Hill and many of us were together again for moments, but at mile 69, the crest of the first climb on Silver Hill, we knew everything would blow apart. Yong and some others were off the front again by this point, I believe, and we got a great note from him later explaining he had a flight to catch to his new home in San Francisco, I believe it is. He was stronger all day anyway!

After the Pack Crash to Silver Hill Road

Back on the road just the two of us for awhile, we knew we had been part of a sweet couple of hours of roadskating life. We picked up Michael somehow, somewhere before the downhill to a small two-lane doubletree-lined bridge. Michael seemed pleased to stick with us and we were companions for many miles on this day, with much fun and a warm feeling of new friendship by the end. What a nice guy!

Sunday Morning Prep, the Start, the Crash 

My biggest freak early on Sunday morning was deciding sleeves or no sleeves, so that's a good low freak level. Oatmeal was good. I drank more Electromix and as much water as I could (we had bought 24 half litres from Walgreens and it seemed good stuff). We also had the Anna filter pitcher (for the water filters I sell) and I think we used some of that for our packs the night before.

Saturday A2A Preparations in Athens 

Saturday we slept until we woke unalarmed, then slowly stoked the fires until we had some Pilon espresso in a slightly rich mixture even for my tastes (or at least I did). We started looking at wheels and bearings and decided to go with what we had for bearings, with me opting for new wheels due to the totally dry forecast and for whatever that might help me with regarding changes in my boots.