Team Amici Veloci (and other TE'ers) do ALC 6

[Duck on Wheels]

IM from Trek this morning. She did all 47 miles yesterday. Her broken toe hurt a bit last night, but is ok this morning. She'll check with the med folks, then try riding as far as the toe will allow, taking it ez as she goes. She reports that UK has so far ridden every single mile, not even walking the worst hills!

[KnottedYet]

Trek sagged the last part of today, and has decided not to ride at all tomorrow. She's disappointed, but glad she decided to spare her foot from further injury.

She says other riders are hurt worse than she is.

She's also worried about Menace, because riding in the sag isn't the best thing for the bike.

When she gets home tomorrow, I will do my best to cure her foot and broken toe instantly. Really. Well, I might have other things I need to do first, but I will certainly work on her foot.

[Duck on Wheels]

And meanwhile, her bike will be on its way to Chris Sulllivan. I'm sure he will be attentive as well.

We'll be seeing Trek and UK this afternoon at ride-in. Trek gets hugs from all of us and (probably more important) a lift to the airport to fly up to Knott.

[RoadRaven]

Wow, Trek! UK!

Somehow I completely missed this thread and have only read it this morning - and its all over!

I am so impressed... multi-day tours... they are so beyond what I can achieve

Trek - it was great to read through your updates (Thanyou Duck for posting them)... I just wish I had been following this right through.

What a great achievement and very impressed with you for pulling out - a sensible decision but it must have been a very hard one to make.

Trust your foot heals quickly

[shadon]

Congrats to each of you on a good ride! For those of you doing it for the first time, I hope your first ALC was as amazing as mine was. It was a truely life changing experience for me.

Sleep well and have good trips home!

[Trek420]

I'm baaaaaack. More musings as I process all this stuff, impressions, sights, sounds, feelings and all. I'm bummed not to have ridden every mile this time.

But this is my 3rd ride and I did very well the previous ones, especially the year I tented with Bikegoddess, all but 10 miles .

3 cheers to UK who rode (and I mean rode, didn't even cross-train which I do a lot) every mile!! And hats off to all riders and crew. The ride raised a record 11 million dollars this year.

[Trek420]

Wow, Trek! UK!

What a great achievement and very impressed with you for pulling out - a sensible decision but it must have been a very hard one to make.

Trust your foot heals quickly

My bad. I broke the # 1 rule of ALC or any other multi day event for that matter:

Don't change anything 2 months before the ride.

Say you're training in Birkenstoks and Leiderhosen, and all around you folks are wearing Sidis and Scottish kilts. But the Birks and funny leather shorts are comfy training and worked fine on your previous rides.

I don't care how much you want to wear Sidis and how good you look in a kilt or how good they feel in the store, on training rides .... Don't change a thing. I knew better, my bad.

[KnottedYet]

Funny observation:
Y'know how when you drive you have a spatial sense of the car around you? If you drive a truck, you have a sense of how big your truck is, then you get in a little car and you still drive like it's a truck? And vice versa?

Well, Trek spent a week on a bike, and when she started driving her car she still had that spatial sense of a bike! It was funny, but there were occaisional ummm, *thrilling* moments.

(she's a very good driver, I just noticed the "driving the big Pontiac like it's a little Mondonico" syndrome.)

[Trek420]

and calling out "on your left" and pointing out "bump"

On a sad note, there have been two crashes caused by families rushing onto the bike route to cheer their rider. (other bikers crashed trying to avoid hitting the family members)

Those weren't crashes per se because of this just near misses. I noticed that Day 1-2 there were several riders whose families followed them. Those of you who do centuries and such know just how crowded and hectic rest stops can be. These same people would be;

parked near the entry of the rest stop causing congestion

walking in a group with their protective loving arms around afore mentioned loved one so that riders coming in, or trying to leave were navigating around what seemed to be a human wall of Mom, Dad, a rider and her bike.

Somewhere here we have debate on personal SAG vehicles. I don't think there's any place for it. Observe from a safe distance and let your rider ride.

There were at least two crashes I heard about that were the standard rider outa control going downhill too fast for his/her comfort or skill variety. One of those I think was Day 6. In terms of climbing Day 6 is the mildest. Less I think than even the short 47 mile day. We start with a 20 mile or so climb but it's the long gradual I could do this all day type.

But it has one very steep gnarly downhill.

I was already in the SAG but having done the ride before it's quite tough descent, and on a Hwy to boot. It's a bit of a canyon so you get the wind, plus gusts from trucks.

This is were I discovered on the last ride that I love my aero wheels but they act like a sail and can skip sideways

We picked up one rider, looked strong and experienced if muscles and gear and previous ride jersey are any indication and he'd stopped at the top, looked down, just not doing it.

A hard decision to make but a wise one given that he might have seen the crash.

[Veronica]

Really. Well, I might have other things I need to do first, but I will certainly work on her foot.

HEY!!!!! TMI! TMI!


Trek you done good.


V.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

YAY to all you awesome women who did that ride!!!!!

[Trek420]

YAY to all you awesome women who did that ride!!!!!

More thoughts as they come....there's a lot of women on the ride I don't know the exact percentage. And the women all doing really well.

Day 1 UK and I were in AV gear. A women called out to UK from one of the passing SAG trucks "hey, I know that jersey!!" Someone from here or BJ. Maybe BJ because she didn't say "Amici Veloci my as*"

Also Susan get ready for a run on the Hill Slug jersey. I wore mine on Day 5 (Red Dress Day). Anyway it was a hit, lot's of comments like
"I want that jersey! Where'd you get it?"
"www.teamestrogen.com"
Even got to have that conversation while passing someone on a hill

[SadieKate]

Trek, you done good, no matter how much or how little you got to ride. You were there for the others, both on the ride and not, and particularly your niece. You'll remember that forever.

[Bike Goddess]

Hey Trek- You rode for those of us who couldn't! I didn't know about a broken toe until I read this (when did that happen?). OMG that must have been quite painful.

You did your best and that's what counts! Even the local radio station up here (KCBS) had some news about the ride and the amount of money you all raised. They also had some interviews with the "positive pedalers"- and that in itself was pretty darned impressive.

CONGRATs on hanging in there. You are an inspiration!

Now get your foot healed!