[Rod Smith]

2+ inch wide tires for commuting? No thanks, my usual route is fully paved. Unfortunately no sandy beaches or snow covered mountains between home and work.

I’m using 26 x 1.5 Schwalbe Marathons and 700 x 28 Continental Gatorskins on my commuters. 700 x 28 Schwalbe Duranos on my weekend ride. The Marathons and the Gatorskins have performed well for me. Not enough miles on the Duranos yet to pass judgement.

[Rod Smith]

Strava don’t play. Endomondo was so fred friendly, these are the big boys and girls! (A certain Laurie L is top woman on most of the sections on my commute). It seems a tired old man riding a 36lb box store MTB, hauling a 40lb trailer with 30lb of supplies on it plus groceries on the home run, has a good chance of ranking at or near the bottom on every segment. 120th out of 120 on the MBT segment.

I wasn’t going to Strava my work days until next week, and as few of them as needed to complete the remaining mileage, but I changed my strategy. The original goal, to do it in four rides fell apart Sunday when I couldn’t get up, or out early. I didn’t leave until after the Men’s Road Race ended, noon our time. Cool to see Duggan (and teammate Howes) up in the break for a long time, as he is one of the three rider’s who’s distance we’re trying to match. Unfortunately Tim DNFed. Should the challenge be shortened because of that?

So it took all weekend for me to ride as far as Gilbert rode in 6 hours. That helps to put pro road racing in perspective for me.

Everyone who finishes this challenge is a winner. We all win the same prize, a discount on Skratch Lab products. There is however a leaderboard. Congratulations to those who finished in the first four days of the challenge, but finishing in four days won’t necessarily get your name on the first page. To finish high on the leaderboard, the ride that takes you over 455 miles needs to be a long one. For example, the current leader is a guy in Greece who rode around 3000 miles on his eighth and final ride of the challenge. That’s gonna be hard to beat!

I’m going to try to be as close as possible to 455 by the end of Saturday’s ride and go for a long one Sunday.

[Rod Smith]

I guess it’s partly my fault you didn’t know where the ride really ended. You using the GPS and me following the cue sheet worked great as far as following the route. Your GPS and my cue sheet guided us to the official finish, but page eight of the cue sheet told of the T-shirts and where they were. I never turned the last page until maybe the next day. Sorry!

[Rod Smith]

Nice!

Sean “Bega” Blumenfeld, (Team Bega) in one of your pics.

[Rod Smith]

@jopamora 31959 wrote:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1736[/ATTACH]

Made it on WABA’s Facebook page. I am famous!

Cool shot. I recognize many of these riders from today. You must have been very close to us all day.

I didn’t take many pictures. The ones I took didn’t come out. We weren’t really hammering but the focus of the day seemed to be on dropping people, not taking pictures. Haha.

[Rod Smith]

I think when that girl asked my name, she wanted to hear me say, “I’m Bicycle Repair Man!”
[video=youtube_share;rxfzm9dfqBw]http://youtu.be/rxfzm9dfqBw[/video]

[Rod Smith]

I rode more responsibly and with greater compliance to the law than I ever have before. I was proud of that until I read the guy following me is racked with guilt over our reckless disregard for lawful conduct. I thought I was being boy scout. I even did a good deed. Not saying I never crossed the double yellow, but until recently I thought that was legal when passing slow moving vehicles. :p

[Rod Smith]

Oops, I’ve confused acc with acl. Apologies all around!

[Rod Smith]

@Certifried 31943 wrote:

yes, but mostly females. All the lovely ones too, I got overwhelmed and had to jump in. I used to wear disco clothes.

68 miles total today, Rod Smith pushed me too hard, my chest hurts. I smell. I’m too tired to shower and might collapse in my bed full kitted and unclean. I’ll deal with it tomorrow, just wake up next to myself and blame it on alcohol. No morning after pill needed.

Sorry about that. I know you were hurting but you kept catching people and dropping them…

[Rod Smith]

@acl 31938 wrote:

I did ride my bike to the 7-11 to buy some soda and beer. (for one thing, I had to try out my new/old/ebay panniers that arrived yesterday– verdict-not quite as much carrying capacity as my rear basket, but much less effect on riding balance, and can carry into the store with me. I think i will like.)…

Thats more like it! The 2×6 would require special equipment. I’d recommend a long trailer or a truck. Did you carry that in a car? I’m impressed!

[Rod Smith]

@acc 31930 wrote:

I lack the skill and balancing ability to carry two six-packs home on a bike. So I will keep my car for now. :p

Haha, yeah, that’s quite a load! You really should have an SUV for big stuff like that.

[Rod Smith]

I’ve been thinking, strategizing. I figured out that I don’t have to log every ride, just the long ones. If I want to do this in four days, they don’t have to be Saturday through Tuesday. I’m thinking two Saturdays and two Sundays.

Anyone doing two laps tomorrow? 100 State ride for the double metric!

[Rod Smith]

I can’t believe I joined Strava. Will everyone be able to see how slow I am?

[Rod Smith]

@vvill 31762 wrote:

However you like. I guess you could just hit pause and ride the whole 400+ in one ride.

Can you finish the ride in four days?

[Rod Smith]

@Certifried 31452 wrote:

http://app.strava.com/challenges/Skratch-Labs-World-Championship-Challenge

I actually signed up for this one, and think I can make decent progress. Probably not the whole “455 miles in 4 days”, but it’s open for 2 weeks so I’ll give that a shot. Especially since the 50 states ride is on day 1 of the challenge

Four days! Haha, you crazy.

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