roadskater.net

I had a chance to hang out with eebee a bit while she was working on a project to promote skating a bit. We both took our cameras to see what we'd get, ill equipped as we were, without some of my fun lenses. We got to see some new folk and some fellow Athens to Atlanta and US10K veterans as well. I was mostly chilling and hoping to capture a photo of the day or two or more. Anyway, here's a sample that's not likely suitable for print but it sure is fun the ghostly way it turned out.

Oh. Buzz buzz buzz buzz, 4:30 a.m. came so quickly after taking so long to arrive.

We got our jolt of hot water and I pondered whether to do some coffee or not. I think I decided not to, and that it would perhaps upset my stomach.

Saturday broke late and fuzzy, thank goodness, and it was likely eleven a.m. before verticalizing. I went to the computer for some reason and eebee helped a great deal with finding a place to get the window fixed. We decided we'd be too nervous to leave the car unrepaired at the hotel and in the city garage, as we'd need to leave some little something most likely no matter how we tried to plan.

After Rolling in Randolph's 50 very hilly miles, I knew I had better get some last minute work in on my skate boots (more on this later). After some smoothing with stone grinding bits, I used marine epoxy and black silicone to do the best I could to put my old Verduccis back in shape...a reasonably smooth footbed shape, that is. Once I finshed that, or thought I had, I set my mind to another obsession...decorating my skate frames.

The Athens to Atlanta Roadskate took place on October 7, 2007, and it was a warm day especially for those not in the lead group. Temperatures in the upper 60s even an hour and a half into the event quickly rose from 70 at 9 am to 80 in ATL by 1 pm, five and a half hours along. For those finishing later, temps rose to 82 and stayed there until all finishers were through.

Check out my photos here:

This is a quick first hack at getting some 2007 photo links over to the new Roadskater.net from RSN Classic (rsn1.net). There will be much more later, and I won't even go into it all now. It's been "in the works" (meaning in my brain) for almost two years now. I don't want to do it until I can do it "right," and the way I want it to look.

The 2007 Tour to Tanglewood was my ninth, all on skates, all including both days. The Roadskater.net team was 36 members, 18 on skates, from NC, GA, MI, NJ and NJ (born in USA, Canada, Netherlands and UK). We were missing a few regulars because of the North Shore Inline Marathon in Duluth, MN and for other reasons. I hope you like the 420 photos that made it through editing!

The link for the photos is 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.

The Paceline Bicycles Tour to Tanglewood Training Ride was hot and beautiful, with Greensboro in bloom in shades of fuchsia and white and more. Most of the roads were great but some of north Greensboro's newer traffic seems to be in a very big hurry in their very big vehicles, even on Saturday morning. We did our best to share skateylove but it was difficult when cars were honking at cyclists near us who were making their way fine along the hilly two-lane roads. Most of the Triad seems to share the road well, but sadly, the north side of my town is a bit embarrassing sometimes.

The Bicycle Toy & Hobby training ride is usually the last one of the year, barring rain dates, and its a great time to pick up packets for the Tour to Tanglewood, so lots of riders show for this one. It's downhill out of town and uphill back into town along mostly five-lane and four-lane roads with mostly good natured motorists along the way. Out in the country, the route followed familiar Tour to Tanglewood roads in some places. A rougher surface loop proved a tough blend with the hottest temps of a T2T TR this year, but we made it fine.

The Elon T2T TR moved as the bike shop that hosted it is no more...at least for now?

I enjoyed the Spinz Ride a lot and had a chance to share a nice sunny morning with our newest local Roadskater in the hills around High Point and Archdale, NC. Sunflowers brightened the day significantly, and we made our way along well enough. Spinz did a great job of hosting and we appreciated their welcoming us. Hope you love the photos, and if you do, let us all know which ones! Here's a link to the RSN classic photo page:

Paceline Winston-Salem hosted another great Tour to Tanglewood Training Ride this year, and while I was late, my skatepals, Craig and Andrew, were kind enough to wait. Once we got started, they were still waiting some, as I think I blew my adrenaline just getting there! We had some great roads with moderate hills and some medium gatorback on one section, which also had leaves and limbs from a storm the night before it seems. It was great to have a three-pack of skaters and nice that Craig and Andy got to meet. Check out my photos here:

We came close to missing this one and we are so glad we got up and out. After 3 days of 100-degree sunbaked highs, Greensboro got a milder day of clouds and cooler temperatures. We skaters got a thrill as the Team Erika lead out group held back from passing until we were down the hill and into Latham Park. We had taken the lead only to keep out of the way in the parking lot, and were pleasantly surprised at this gesture from the entire group of riders to lead out parade style until into the park. There seemed to be no plan for this, but rather something Team Erica decided as we rolled.

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:

This is a test of using an IMG tag to include a photo in a post.

I have a fixed-gear bike that began as my younger sister's Raleigh Record, which she got in 1973 when she was 10 years old.

As many of you know, Tour de Lions is one of our favorites for a yearly visit with great people, exercising for a good cause, and getting to know a local community and its people as we work together on behalf of others and for the great feelings we get doing so. Sometimes we think we should save our money and skate where it's free, but then we go to Tour de Lions or Tour to Tanglewood and we know that even though the money means a lot to us, it can do even more for others in the right hands.

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.

Thanks to a little extra encouragement from the Tour de Kale organizers when I was skating at Tour de Lions, and to the great feedback we had from other who had done the event, we decided to go this year despite our excuses. We're glad we did.

Thanks to Dale at Cycles de Oro's welcoming ways, I showed up on skates for a couple of the Cirque du Cyclisme rides and had the pleasure of seeing lots of classic bikes and the people who love them. Timv was there on his classic bikes, and eebee joined in on Saturday for the leisurely tour of Greensboro.

Please check out my 290 photos from the Cirque du Cyclisme 2007:

On Monday, I went to see the finish of the 102-mile, 11,000-foot-elevation-gain road cycling challenge, the Assault on Mt. Mitchell. It was great fun to watch someone else suffer for a change, and I have to say it was impressive to know what these cyclists had been through just in the last 30 miles from Marion, NC to Mount Mitchell State Park. That's after completing the first 72 miles from Spartanburg, SC!

It looks like a blast and I wish I could have been there. I found some photos and think I see Artem in some of them, but wasn't sure as I didn't know if he was going to this event...

http://sports.webshots.com/photo/2578809320054477580GGhCtF

I saw pics of Brian and Andrea, too.

And I love this one of deep, meaningful tunes in front of the porta-potties:

Many have seen Graham Watson's great photographs of the Tour de France and other cycling events I'm sure. Sometimes he'll even be interviewed during the tour and often is an interesting guy. In the video attached to the story below, Watson talks about his switch from photographing royalty to giving cycling a go to realizing a new career in cycling photography. It's great to hear how people chose their path. Enjoy!

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:

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:

Hey everyone. My photos are up. I may put some comments here later. As usual there are few photos from the last half where it is more hilly more consistently and where it is not, it is more urban and congested. Of course if I want great photographs I'll probably have to not skate, and if i want to skate great, I'll probably have to not take my camera and batteries along to distract me! In any case, here are the photos and I hope you find some you love. Maybe soon we'll have photos integrated into the site, but I didn't want to hold up the photos for that. Here they are:

OK we are all safe I think, all of us Roadskater.net folk, and others we know. Nobody has posted here probably because we're all catching up on rest, reading other people's posts, or editing photos we took. Roadskater.net picked up some great publicity I think due to the fact that Erica listed us as her team. Whether or not this ever happens again, it was a joy to see a Tour to Tanglewood veteran take the big prize, or at least to hear of it. There are many stories to tell, and though I had my worst time ever it was one of the best times doing it. I can't recall an A2A I didn't love.