I just completed the Seattle to Portland 2020(STP), though this years STP was virtual in a certain manner of speaking. There was no real event with thousands of people forming a ribbon of bikes between Seattle and Portland, but people, many people, took up the challenge to ride real bicycle miles in an organized virtual STP challenge. The challenge was to ride over 200 miles, the equivalent mileage to Portland, within a 2 week calendar window. I think that…Continue Reading
Rides
Sixty Three
That’s the mileage for my virtual tour of the Tour de Whatcom(TDW) routes that I am riding this summer due to the covid-19 induced cancellation of the TDW reality ride. It was 63 miles and after about the first 40 miles I was feeling every one of those miles. I recently rode the 20 & 40 routes and then last week rode another 50 mile loop out in the county so I was feeling pretty good about 63 miles. So…Continue Reading
Old Issues
This post should be about my second and now truly annual Stumpjumper Day ride; but it isn’t and it is. It is about Stumpjumper Day ride, but it’s more about the old issues that came up on the ride. Issues, old issues that really set in as I coasted down the exit road on my limping Stumpjumper and came across this, before unknown to me, trail aptly named “Old Issues.” I was looking forward to this ride, just like every…Continue Reading
Forty Four
Forty Four miles this morning for my second ride in my personal version of the 2020 Tour de Whatcom, the plan where I ride each of the routes, 20, 40,60 & 100 mile routes over the course of the summer. It was pretty easy to connect the Raleigh Twenty to the 20 mile loop, but I had to think a bit longer on a connection to this route. Save for one hill, I was pretty happy with my choice of…Continue Reading
Twenty
I was impressed with the ride-ability of the Raleigh Twenty after I rode the Twenty on a recent Bike to Work day and now am utterly impressed with the Twenty after taking it on the first of my non-sanctioned 2020 Tour de Whatcom (TDW) rides. Yesterday I left super early to do the 20 mile out and back route between downtown Bellingham and what would have been the last checkpoint in Ferndale, had this been the real TDW. I figured that if…Continue Reading
Tour de Sad News 2020
Earlier today, I received an email, “Regrettably, we must inform you that the 2020 Tour de Whatcom scheduled for July 18th is officially canceled as of today due to the COVID19 pandemic.” And a bit later today I received another email, “Regrettably, we announce that the Mt. Baker Hill Climb scheduled for September 13th is officially canceled due to the COVID19 pandemic.” It’s a weird year, this 2020. It’s not like I didn’t expect either of these cancellations. In truth,…Continue Reading