Lynne's gonna do "Cycle Oregon...road trip....average of 65 miles on paved roads. Here's the link: [url]http://www.cycleoregon.com/"

oooh, good choice, i wanna go. i wanna go. A friend of mine's done it (in his 70's, many AIDS rides under his belt.) I've heard it's a great ride and such a good cause.

"..... I want to be able to enjoy a beer in the beer tent at the end of the day, you know?"

Now this is just me and my humble oppinion but beer can dehydrate you, up to you but I'd save the beer for the end of the ride ;-)

"....I need a LOT more confidence on the unpaved trails"

last year I trained for the AIDS ride on my mountain bike thinking it would make me stronger and the increased resistance I think gave me more stength on hills. But as soon as I had a road bike I switched to that. If you're doing cycle Oregon, get a road bike, ride it, sleep with it, eat dinner with it....

"And, I'm worried about holding other people back if/when I bike with others. I know how it feels to have to hold back and wait, and it sucks."

I think you have to ride your own ride, it's an endurance event, don't blow yourself up on a hill just to catch a draft or a particular person, if you ride safely, hydrate and stay out of the medical tent you won't hold people or be a drain on the crew. Eat before your hungry and drink before your thirsty and pee every chance you get ;-) Remember a lot of the people passing you on rides like this do not ride every mile, or take the wagon after lunch each day.

Not that there's anything wrong with that... ;-)

Other than that you should build to be able to do back to back centuries on successive days. Plenty of time by Sept. Keep us posted and ...we want pictures!