roadskater.net

Here's a book style collection of several polls that I put together for easy flip-through voting. I hope you enjoy the polls and if you have ideas for more, please use the create/feedback form to send me your thoughts! I'm republishing this so it will show up on the main page, rather than have each poll show up. Each time I add a poll I hope to remember to let you know through this message. The newest polls are:

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.

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.

We had a great time inline skating with the cyclists at the Tour to Tanglewood Beginner's Ride (the 3rd in a series, I think) at Spencer Love Tennis Center in Jaycee Park in Greensboro. We did about 10 miles up to Air Harbor Rd. and Bass Chapel Rd., making our way back on Lawndale, up the hill by the Food Lion (formerly the Winn Dixie) and back via Country Park.

Please register for my Multiple Sclerosis fundraiser...

Roadskater.net's Marcia Woodfield Inline Speed Skating Workshop, June 2, 2007 in Greensboro, NC.

We roadskaters have at times had social skates at Country Park and elsewhere (NYC Central Park in Manhattan, Philly, Miami, DC). These events are great fun but it is always hard for us to find a true sweep who doesn't mind being at the back. In Manhattan, I have fond memories of a man a bit older than even myself who rode his bike quite happily at the back of several hundred skaters. He was always smiling, wearing his Aqueduct tee, with his nice easy way.

RSN2 is not for everybody, obviously, and I just wanted to mention that wherever you are in the world, if you prefer the semi-private atmosphere of an email group, you might check out my InlineNC Yahoo! group. We're up to 266 members now, and while the level of posting varies throughout the year, it's almost always about skating (events, equipment, technique, travel, training, charity, more). Members get access to the archive, which is a glorious attic of treasures from our collective past, filled with tips and tricks and tales of woe and inspiration.

Hi to roadskaters, inline skaters, rollerbladers, all o'y'all, everywhere.

We here in North Carolina need your help with something that might be helpful to you as well.

We are scheduled to have Eddy Matzger here on Easter weekend, April 6-8. Most of you know how great a teacher Eddy is and that it is a great way to kick start (to the side, not back) your inline skating season in the beautiful south's warm springtime glow.

Roadskater.net (RSN1.net and RSN2.com) is free. You don't have to pay anything to use the site, to join, to view the articles without joining, or to be part of our inline skating, cycling and charity exercise team. You don't have to buy a jersey that says Roadskater.net or anything else.

However, often people have wanted to know how to help, so here are a few ways. All are voluntary and are totally free to you, unless you decide to make a donation....

The registration form is ready at http://skatecentral.com for the Greensboro Inline Speed Skating workshop now called the Eddy Matzger Roadshow, April 6-8, 2007.

Here's my report from the 2005 Tour to Tanglewood Awards Ceremony, which I hope will inspire us, now that the skating and cycling for 2006's Tour is done, to look at what we can do from now until our donations are due.

Please give to the people who help the people with Multiple Sclerosis. If not here, somewhere. To give to the 2006 Tour to Tanglewood Roadskater.net Team, please visit the pages below and pick someone, especially someone with under $200 in donations, but anyone on the team.

I gave the first hints of the secret color in..."Sunlight on Leaves to Go with Late Day Sky Through Thin Cloud"

http://roadskater.net/index.php?q=get-your-roadskater-net-2006-jersey#comment-355

Here are the revised distances as of Aug 28, 2006 for the Tour to Tanglewood: 

• Total Main Route Day 1: 48.1
• Century Route Day 1: 99.9
• Total Route Day 2: 41.5  

Cutoff times are 10a, 12p, 2p and start times are 7:30a (century) and 8a.

Short version: Skip 1 and 2, do 3 as repeats until it closes. It's up to you, though, and if you want an epic challenge, this is the century for you!

Thanks to Tom for hanging around after the High Point training ride at Bicycle Toy & Hobby to drive Loop 1 and discuss a rating system for the roads. Basically it's A (pristine) through F (unskateable) with B (nice but not perfect), C (a bit rough but not overly painful), D (rough and likely painful), and E (grass could grow there but you can skate it). Something like that.

The Roadskater.net Team Photo for Tour to Tanglewood 2006 will be at 7:15 am outside on the plaza outside registration at Volvo Trucks NA. Please be on time. Anyone planning on the Century will need to be ready to go immediately afterward to get as much head start as possible at 7:30 am.

For those interested in the geographic distribution of visitors to roadskater.net, here is some recent data, which is not complete, probably not entirely accurate as to visitor location in every case, and definitely does not typically include Midnight to 6 a.m. Eastern Time, thus under-reporting Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, perhaps. Nevertheless, it may be interesting and inspiring to potential writers who know something about these areas, or for other reasons. In any case, I thought I'd share where just over 50% of the hits have come during two time periods.