Tour de Cure pics

[Catrin]

Only two pictures, but how many times do you see 1,000 cyclists at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway? Ok, once a year, but still :) We were all waiting for the green flag, and it came as I was taking one of these photos.

I was as far back as possible at the start - I am accustomed to riding solo so it is disconcerting to have all of those people around me suddenly! My 25 miles went great, and I pretty much stayed high on the banked turns to avoid the men and women hammering to ride 100 miles in 6 hours!

[bmccasland]

Did y'all just (yeah, right, "just") do laps, or were there road miles too? Sounds like insane fun!

[Catrin]

Did y'all just (yeah, right, "just") do laps, or were there road miles too? Sounds like insane fun!

There were lots of options, a 50k and 75k road ride that started/ended with 1 lap around the track, a 100-mile challenge limited to 100 riders, and then the "recreational" ride option for a personally chosen distance around the lap.

We had a 2-person team from work - the other person being my executive director and she was not comfortable with the idea of a road option - and the entire team has to register for the same option. So, I rode 25 miles around the track (10 laps) and she rode with me for 16 miles - she has been unable to ride in a long time and was very pleased with being able to do this. Hopefully she won't be sore tomorrow.

It was a blast, though the scenery doesn't change it was nice to be able to ride without having to worry about broken glass, pot-holes and gravel :D It had poured rain right before the start but then it stopped - the remainder of the morning was nice and cool. After my boss left I focused on doing intervals off and on for the remainder of my miles, and had a good time working on my speed and just watching those around me.

It was strange at first though, being around all of those people. The first time that this large pack of very fast riders passed me, and zoomed around me it was kind of scary - those were the "100 mile riders". That happened a couple of times and it always made me nervous - not only am I a new rider but I am accustomed to ride alone on country roads. This was a great experience for me!

It took us all a couple of laps to get it all worked out - for there was one pretty large group of very fast riders who were riding quite close to one another, and a second group of the same though not so many of them in that group - then there were a lot of us "recreational" riders, some of which were riding quite slowly. I just decided that it was safest/best to ride as far to the right and as high up the bank in the turns as I could and that worked out fine.

I had a blast, and only added one chain-bite to my growing collection :o Apparently I cannot start if the surface is sloping sideways, I tried :rolleyes: I THOUGHT that it was a mild enough slope that I would be ok, and now have a new chain-bite on my ankle to show for it - but such is the way of things. It was worth it :D

I wish I could have taken her picture, but there was a woman on a comfort bike with a Camelbak who had a stuffed COW fastened to the back of her 'bac facing backwards - it was a hilarious sight! She has a definite sense of humor, no doubt about that :)

1,000 riders registered from 16 different countries!

[OakLeaf]

Fun!

Did you use the road course at all, or just the oval?

[Catrin]

Fun!

Did you use the road course at all, or just the oval?

They had us on the oval only, I think the road course would have been fun! There were 4 tents set up in various pit locations, and the one sponsored by Trader Joe's was the most fun - they rang cow-bells, blew noise makers and jumped up and down when people passed their location. They did not seem to get tired of doing that :)