RoadSkater.Net - Comments for "tandem cycling"

Another Story of Blocking the Bicentennial Greenway

In reply to Old Battleground Road at Guilford Battleground NMP: Easy to Fix Danger:

See if you can get someone to tell you about the time Guilford County had a paving crew at the north end of the parking area at the Guilford Battleground National Military Park (Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Greensboro, NC). The paving crew showed up ready to pave the gravel lot to improve the greenway and perhaps to provide more parking. This property was supposedly owned by the county according to my Guilford County source, but the crew were convinced by the acting park director in dramatic fashion that they could not pave that gravel area. According to my source some years ago in the Guilford County government, the paving was paid for, but never completed. Given the way the NPS has treated the Bicentennial Greenway I hope they never get their paws on the section of Old Battleground between New Garden Road and the south end of the park. It should be kept as a multiuse plaza even if it is closed off as is the plan. There's no need to destroy that asphalt unless all non-historic roads are to be treated the same. Just my opinion of course, but you knew that.

Reply to Why Use Old Battleground Road Instead of Rail Trail?

In reply to Old Battleground Road at Guilford Battleground NMP: Easy to Fix Danger:

This is a reply to something on a local list, and references the above article...

This has long been a problem, this section through the National Military Park at Guilford Battleground. They built a parking lot on top of the old rail trail greenway route, then set about a policy of discouraging through-use. I wrote about it in June 2006, and have talked with Greensboro, Guilford and Park Service people since 1999 or so, mostly giving up after it was clear they knew the problem or non-problem and were not going to do anything. My thoughts from 4 years ago are above.

In addition to those comments, here are some more...

I urge the City of Greensboro and County of Guilford to keep all rights of way they have rather than releasing them to the Department of Interior National Park Service. For a while there was a painted line tacitly acknowledging that this was in fact part of the historical rail line that existed BEFORE the national military park and even before the park was originally built by people from Greensboro, who rode the train up from Greensboro to enjoy the pleasureground, as I recall.

As I said, a few years back there was a clear strategy adopted to discourage and impede the flow of road cyclists and others on the greenway and to force all they could onto the city policed road through the use of gravel, mulch, fencing and in the case of skaters, threats of federal tickets, even for putting on skates in the parking lot just as a way to leave to use the greenway without entering the park loop. Even on organized bike rides I have been threatened with federal tickets as I skated through the parking lot on Old Battlegound Road with a hunderd or more cyclists.

Mary and others are right about the roots growing up on the pavement of the rail trail along the southern end of Old Battleground Ave. The city staff are aware of this and have been for at least 7 years. There's no evidence of any repair as of the last time I was there. It's much sexier to build new trail than to maintain current trail. And as you are responsible for your own safety, at some point you consider a place dangerous enough that you stop using it.

During one discussion seeking help with that pavement, a city parks employee suggested that rather than repairing the root problem they could put up signs disallowing certain uses for the multiuse path. This was a few years ago and the problems are still there.

But even with a perfect greenway, it's not up to one road user to decide how another road user will choose to travel any more than it is up to them to tell you not to choose Old Battleground to get home if you hate it so much. Separate but equal is fiction. The presence of one road (even one for bikes) doesn't force all road users to use that road. My parents often drive their car on roads other than the interstate as a matter of choice and prudence based on their experience and feeling of safety.

And if the city builds a multiuse path and the multiusers don't use it then they built the wrong path...they had a failure to communicate with the potential users of said path. Or they didn't build it wide enough for as many multiuses as they thought. Or they didn't count on the NPS splitting their rail trial in two. Or they didn't keep the multiuse path repaired. Or the trail starts nowhere and goes nowhere and connects to nowhere.

Surely you have not ridden from Strawberry Road to Lewis Recreation Center on your bike lately. I've skated much of it, and in addition to the roots near on the southern end, the path is getting worse with cracks in the direction of travel near "the culvert" at the beaver pond as well, not to mention that the culvert itself is practically a hazard, especially when it has collected gravel. And the connection at the old north end by the ponds near the barn to the newer section leading to Strawberry Rd is not the greatest. Double right angles around blind turns are not the best transportation management technique one would think.

If they want to discourage people from using their multiuse path, they're doing OK at that.

There's much to love about Greensboro and human transportation here, but there are certainly times we have to choose the safest, happiest route, and carefully. Hopefully someones in the city, county and National Park Service will read this and think it worthy of consideration.

I love Country Park! But can we get some soap in the bathrooms and some way of accessing a bathroom without a steep hill being involved? :o)

Quick Welcome and Suggestion

In reply to The Secret to Weight Loss and Maintaining Your Target Weight:

Hi and welcome, AziBlue, and thanks for thanking eebee and the rest of us. We look forward to meeting you soon. I am not around just now and have been heads down working on a project so I could not answer sooner.

One suggestion is a simple one, to enter Country Park from the northernmost Lawndale entrance, via Orman. Go to the end of that and turn left and veer left into the lot there. It's a flatter, gentler way to get started on loops at Country Park.

Here's a link to the Orman Street lot map.

You may want to go back and forth on the saddle to the left as you face the lake. Generally, traffic on wheels is supposed to go to the right (counterclockwise as viewed from above), but when starting out it's OK to go back and forth in that area, and even further to the left up to the flagpole or so. This will give you a chance to view the downhill there that descends from the parking lot where you practiced the other day.

Also there are some nice parking lots available for something a bit more flat. I've always wondered how the pavement would be on the north side of Target between the store and the huge former Sears warehouse...looks nice and I think the old through street is blocked back there. I also thought that the street behind Target might work too if they didn't kick you out. But Country Park is the best place we know for now, and we stay out of Battleground Park (unless taken through there on a charity ride) as they'll kick you out and there's no need for the negative vibes.

OK I must go but please do post as you go and comment on anything. Thanks a ton for joining. Sometimes we think we might be typing into the vacuum, but we have to believe and express anyway. So far we met Andy because of the site and you'll enjoy meeting him too. We hope you'll start dreaming of 2 days of 45 miles each by September! (No pressure, ha!)

Good Folks at Bicycle Toy & Hobby

In reply to The Secret to Weight Loss and Maintaining Your Target Weight:

That shop was the host of a training ride for the Tour to Tanglewood last August, the last one before the tour itself. You can read my report on skating it here. They did a great job hosting and have always been extremely friendly and welcoming to us skaters. I'm glad that you had a positive experience there.

Dunno about visors. I've never taken one off but I've never had a helmet that had one to take off!

Sadly the weather forecast looks pretty grim for the near term. Maybe things will turn around toward the end of the month, but over the next ten days or so it looks like we'll be lucky to see 50 degrees. And that's no fun except maybe for an impromptu New Year's Eve midnight skate, and we won't be having another one of those for a while.

But hang tight and we'll find a time to get out there. I'm looking forward to having a new member of the local skating crew.

Hey Tim! Thanks for the

In reply to The Secret to Weight Loss and Maintaining Your Target Weight:

Hey Tim! Thanks for the warm welcome. Gee, everyone's so nice, especially to someone just getting interested!

Let me know when you all go to the park and I'll try my best to show up. Sometimes I work late, sometimes I don't, so it's all depending on the day. I would LOVE to see what some experianced skaters look like in person, and take as much advice as possible. As for the parking lot up there.... my wheels just LOVED all those rocks! :) They need to be rotated anyways, so I figure not too much damage. :) But I probably will park by the natural science center, so I won't be afraid of the big hill next time. I get over 10 to 15mph, and all I can think is.. "Oh no, what do I do... and how do I not look like an idiot doing it."

Also, I helped a woman who owns the Bicycle Toy and Hobby shop in High Point with some labels at work, so I decided to stop in and see her about helmets. She was so wonderful, fitted me correctly with a helmet, and apparently skaters get a 10% discount. She told me not to mess with my helmet and readjust it, and if it became readjusted, to just come back and she'd help me fit it again. She was really wonderful to talk with, and... I did leave with a helmet of my very own. It's a Trek Vapor something or other. She said most skaters took off the visor. Any reason why? I think it looks awesome... but then again, I'm kind of a dork. :) Anyways, for a $35 (after discount!) helmet, it's not bad looking at all, though, I looked at it in the mirror, andI admit it's a bit goofy to see. I will go back for pads this weekend before I try anything crazy like... skating out of my driveway.

Enough rambling, thank you again for the invitation and I would love to go. My only request is that you laugh with me lots while I fall and trip and look stupid! Any help or advice you all want to give will definately be helpful. Thanks again for the warm welcome and everyone's help!

Welcome

In reply to The Secret to Weight Loss and Maintaining Your Target Weight:

Hi Mike, and thanks for joining us here. I'm one of those Country Park skaters that Elizabeth mentioned and it would be great if you'd join us.

The big parking lot at the tennis courts (Jaycee Park) unfortunately hasn't been paved in a while so it's fairly rough asphalt with a lot of stones poking through--especially bad if you're going slowly and feeling every little bump. The pavement on the 1.6-mile loop around the lakes is much better, but also more challenging with hills and turns and dogs and children on trikes. But it's not an insurmountable challenge if you have a bit of experience as you seem to. With some time and persistance and maybe an oopsie or two...

Regarding teachers/coaches: None of us gives lessons on a formal basis, but as Eebee says, it's hard to get us to shut up about technique. We've been doing this and talking about it for quite a while and have a number of formal clinics behind us with some very good teachers (Blake has most of those actually) and we'll be glad to help you along best we can. Practice and experience are the main components anyway IMHO.

I've heard very good things about skatey-mark's clinic and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

We don't have much of a schedule these days with the short daylight and cold temps, but I've been trying to get out on reasonably wam afternoons for an hour or so. I was out last Monday (1/7) and had a nice 10-mile skate. Give me a shout next time we have a forecast of 60s or higher and sunny and we can try to arrange something. From spring onward, we'll have one or two evenings per week when we plan to meet up, and other days when we just do.

Regarding helmets: I've crashed and smacked my head hard in a $100 Giro and in a $10 Bell from Wal-Mart. They both broke but they both worked. I wear the $10 ones now because I'll never think twice about replacing one if I even suspect that it might have gotten damaged. (No cycling/skating helmet is designed to take more than one impact.) They look a little shabby if you're a helmet snob, but I do this as a service to the kids who won't have to worry about having the dorkiest helmet at the park as long as I'm around. :-)

South Beach Diet Rocks!

In reply to The Secret to Weight Loss and Maintaining Your Target Weight:

That's so funny. I dropped my last stubborn 10lbs last year in September alone thanks to trying the South Beach Diet for the first time. Although I'll have to say, with the training we were doing, such as 30+ miler bike events (on skates), going without any power gels, gatorade or other starchy carbs would've been a hospital trip waiting to happen. I tried to eat bananas though instead of wheaty stuff on phase I if I had done over an hour of skating. Right now I'm reading Chris Carmichael's Food for Fitness, hoping for a free pass to eat more toast :-)

You could knock out two birds with one stone regarding top-notch quality instruction in the Eddy Matzger Roadshow, if you wanted to do that. Otherwise, I don't believe there is an abundance of inline skate instructors in the Greensboro area. I'd like to be proven wrong on that one. There are several local skaters, however, who have attended the Matzger workshop enough times to pass on tidbits of info to you at the park for free. If you ask, I think you will be inundated with useful gems. I will let others reply as to their Country Park schedules. Otherwise, a good thing to check in an instructor (someone you'd pay) would be whether they have either the old IISA certification, or the newer one from United Skate Schools Group . As far as I'm concerned, those are both good credentials.

Also obviously it makes sense to be taught by an Inline skate instructor, as opposed to a roller skater or somebody who skates on Landrollers, or even ice.

You should be able to get plenty of good pointers from some of the skaters on this site who skate at Country Park and that'll help you make huge progress, confidence-wise. Which parking lot were you at - did you mean the Tennis Center parking lot or the one in front of the Nature-Science Center? There's another T2T cyclist veteran in GSO who wanted to learn to skate, and I had this dream of helping him out to where he was ready to skate T2T instead of biking it, but he just got married so we probably won't see him again for a few years!

Now that I think about it, Skatey-Mark offers a T2T fundraiser speedskating workshop in the Summer. I hope he does that again this year! I feel very good recommending Mark.

As far as helmets go, Cycles de Oro has plenty. The owner, Dale Brown, has been good to us roadskaters! I think I used a plain old Bell helmet from WalMart, though, for many years. Main thing is it fits well and it cracks when you hit the pavement instead of your skull!

Good for you, getting a bonus, and spending it on skate stuff :-). I can't find any pics of your present skates, but if they got you rolling again, that's excellent!

There are probably things I've forgotten to mention. But posting is free so I'm sure I'll drone on some more soon. I'm honored to have been part of you reconnecting with your deep-rooted inner skater!

Welcome and Congrats!

In reply to The Secret to Weight Loss and Maintaining Your Target Weight:

Congratulations on losing 50lbs! Welcome to roadskater.net, thanks for signing up, and thanks for posting! Sounds like you're a skate-addict, so you've come to the right place :-)

I had completely forgotten about that post you commented on, which I wrote all of 6 months ago! It's great to hear about inspiring someone to skate more.

Before I say anything else...we are helmet-advocates here, so if you don't have one yet, get one for yourself so you can, as Blake says, 'protect your moneymaking asset'.

Nagging done.

There's a whole network out there of outdoor rec and speed skaters in various parts of the country. In New York, and Atlanta (where I am) there's some sort of group skate almost daily with email groups to give everyone a heads-up. We have skaters registered on this website from Greensboro, Raleigh, Asheboro, as well as other states like Michigan, Texas and Pennsylvania. There are other skating websites/forums, both nationally and worldwide.

There are indoor and outdoor speed teams to join and practice with, plus races to sign up for and scare yourself into a training deadline (which works for me each year!). If you'd prefer something more low-key there are several weekend skate festivals around, the bigger ones being the Great EsSkate in Miami (soon! Feb 8-10), the Philly Free Skate, the Athens-to-Atlanta Roadskate, the SkateBoston weekend, and the Big Apple Roll in New York. Depending on the location, you may need downhill skills including speed control and braking.

I don't know of any professional instructors in NC, but perhaps somebody else here does. I was a certified beginning inline skate instructor under the now defunct IISA. However, I am always happy to help beginners with braking, turning, basic stroke. If you're in Atlanta sometime it's well worth getting some instruction from Paul or Cindy of Bohemian Skate School. They were my first coaches, thank God! Skating behind others who didn't really get any instruction when they started skating, I see many bad habits I never had to unlearn because Paul and Cindy started us all off on the right footing in the first place. Well that sounds way too much like I'm bragging - I meant it as a compliment to Paul and Cindy! There's also the Eddy Matzger Roadshow, which is coming to Greensboro in April. This is an absolute blast, with more instruction than most can handle in one weekend.

If you're in NC, you may be interested to know that thanks to the hard work of Blake L and Craig M., inline and roller skaters are more than welcome to take part on skates in the local cycling Tour to Tanglewood Multiple Sclerosis fundraiser. This is a hilly, fun excuse to get out there every Saturday morning in July and August and get your rear in shape on the Training Rides (which are free).

Generally the outdoor speed and rec skaters love ridiculously long mileage. Many of us train for the 90 miles in 2 days Tour to Tanglewood, 87 miles in one day Athens to Atlanta, and Skatey-Mark did 274.3 miles over 24 hours at the Roller Montreal 24 hour race. With that many hours on skates, you can eat as many carbs as you want.

It's so great you posted! Welcome again. What diet did you follow? What type of skates do you have? Do you skate at your local park?

Thanks so much for the warm

In reply to The Secret to Weight Loss and Maintaining Your Target Weight:

Thanks so much for the warm welcome!

A new helmet and pads are already in my budget for next week. (For now I have an old clunky borrowed one.) Any recommendations for helmets or great places to get them? I was gonna check out local bike places. As for my diet, I lost all the weight on the South Beach Diet. Or as I call it, "Mike's Struggle to Like Veggies." Now I'm proud to say I don't flinch at trying new stuff and I do tolerate veggies VERY well. Some could even say I prefer them. I'm happier with where I spend my money on food, the choices I've been making for the last part of last year, and I can't see myself ever being who I was again. (Fast food addict with 2 million excuses.) I hope getting involved in some professional lessons and maybe a group will help me to continue this new lifestyle I've started.

You gotta promise not to laugh at my skates, because they are very old. In March I get a big bonus at work and plan to get new skates, and I'm already looking and excited. The ones I have now are called Bladerunners, and it's Pro 4700. I have no idea what level they are, or if they are any good For rekindling my interest and getting me outside, they are doing a good job. As far as skating at my local park goes, I've went to Country Park since I live close and thought that I would skate in the big parking lot there to get myself familiar with the process again. I was too nervous to go into the park. Those little voices saying how silly I look were talking to me. I was only out there for maybe 30 minutes today and retreated back to the safety of my neighborhood streets. I have to work on being comfortable on my skates in public around people and looking like a lunatic. Haha, hopefully once I find lessons I'll be better about that. Maybe tomorrow I'll actually go INTO the park. Wish me luck!

I plan to post and ask the group about lessons in the area, but when I find possible coaches, what are some good questions to ask to determine if they are any good? Thanks again for the wonderful warm welcome. I know the only way to get involved is to jump in and discuss it with people who know what they are doing, so it's nice to have a group like this, where I won't feel too dumb asking noob stuff. Haha

Hey Eebee, I'm new here

In reply to The Secret to Weight Loss and Maintaining Your Target Weight:

Hey Eebee, I'm new here and just catching up on different topics that seem interesting. I was reading about some other beginners and I have to let you know you inspire me to really get involved with my skating. Especially with this post. I did the same thing you were just talking about. I've been on a diet and lost about 50lbs, and when the time came to really add a habitual workout to my life, I decided that the gym is GREAT.... for rainy days when I want to sit and listen to music. But for normal everyday keeping myself fit, it needs to be fun and actually involve me. As a kid I would skate and feel so natural. It was like flying. My own personal freedom from everyone else. So, I broke out my old skates from high school. (Which still fit... incredibly!) Now I'm looking for good places to skate, and I promise myself each day.. to strap them on, and skate... even if it's just for 20 minutes. I'm in the process now of looking for a professional instructor! Anyways, I wanted to let you know that you and the entire Roadskater team here, so far have really inspired me to relive what I felt when I was younger. Thanks!

More on the Tour de Lions

In reply to Tour de Lions, Grays Chapel, NC 2007 Report:

The scenery was awesome, since I still have my map and live close I am thinking about heading down there once in a while on the weekends and skate a route. Only one stretch of pavement was rough on the 20 and that was better than what i am used to in Asheboro. So I was in heaven on the smooth roads.

The cyclists were great they warned us when passing almost all said hey. One even stopped to talk to us as we were eating after the race and told us we were doing 26 mph down this one hill. That was scary. We didn't even finish last in the 20 so that was a good thing, as we didn't want to be the ones to pull up the rear, so to speak.

My R4's are so comfortable, they are a higher boot than my last ones but they fit like a glove. I would highly recommend them for anyone looking for a comfortable boot, who is not looking for a low cut speed boot. Melinda skated so effortlessly in her R4's I couldn't wait to get mine.

I would love to attend more events if i could find out where and when. I would like to do Country park, let me know when you meet.

Melinda was truly selfless to skate with and she was a delight to talk to. She shared some great advise and I will be ready for my next event.

Serfas HLM-1 1-Watt Luxeon LED 35 Lumens Strap-On Headlamp

In reply to Helmet Lights for Inline Skating (Rollerblading) Cycling (Bicycling, Biking):

Thanks to the generosity of my Roadskater.net Team members, some of whom donated (at their suggestion) their Tour to Tanglewood prize certificates to me to get something from Cycles de Oro (who donates these to benefit Multiple Sclerosis), I picked up a strap-on style single LED headlamp. Their price was $39.99. I have used it more at my house and in my yard than on skates, but I have to say it is impressively bright. I hope to do a test soon and report back.

The lightweight unit has the battery compartment at the back and lamp at the front of course, and this balances the weight to get rid of the annoying downward tipping of the helmet that some lights cause. For the low end occasional use, this seems great, and I can tell you it is the BEST flashlight I have by FAR and has the advantage of being hands free.

I think it would be easy to rig this up in a more permanent or more usual way with just a few parts and some Velcro.

More on this later, as I have a dual-beam CygoLite which I love too, though it is somewhat worse for wear and relies on lead-acid batteries (which is fine if you consider the weight just part of good training for wearing a pack at T2T or A2A).

Melinda Gets Kudos as Skate Guide

In reply to Tour de Lions, Grays Chapel, NC 2007 Report:

Andrew, thanks, but I get no credit. I was wrapped up in getting myself ready for the road and getting the camera checked and set to go, then taking photos of the cyclists while they were still in sight!

Then, going down the first hill we rolled away without meaning to create a gap, but with lots of bikes around we thought we shouldn't do any braking if not absolutely necessary. We waited at the first turn so we could make sure you were doing ok, then we were looking forward to a long and somewhat hilly 30+ so we tried to catch some bikes to keep from being the caboose on the 30 route.

I think it was simply great of Melinda to have spent the day sharing the skate with you, and it's really impressive that you came out for 10 but ended up doing 20 with her company and advice.

Please do tell us more about the R4 skate boots when you have time, either on this thread or as a new create/blog entry or a create/forum posting...whatever...and come skate with us at Country Park sometime!

How was the pavement and scenery on the 20 route? Do you know if it was all within Randolph County? Did the cyclists talk to you much? Thanks again for joining RSN2 and for coming out to the Tour de Lions. I'm glad someone heard about the event because of the web site. That is very exciting. We need to post more events!

Tour de Lions

In reply to Tour de Lions, Grays Chapel, NC 2007 Report:

Just wanted to say thanks to Blake and Eebee for helping to make my first marathon skate so much fun. And a special thanks to Melinda who was a pleasure to skate with and helped a newbie to feel at home on the long course. Also Melinda I got my R4's today, great boots, I love them, they are every bit as comfortable as you said they were.

Fun Tour de Lions 2007 Bike Ride Inline Skate Skride

In reply to Tour de Lions, Grays Chapel, NC 2007 Report:

What a great report, eebee. Yes it was a wonderful day, if just a bit windy at times.

I noticed that the Chatham County roads did not seem as good as those of Randolph County, or even those of Alamance County, which were somewhere between the two in smoothness. Some places in Randolph were silkysweet. We need to remember this when attending or planning events!

The funny part was that in every town we saw some sign with Fred's last name, Lineberry, on it. I don't know (and don't care) if they're related to him; I just know this is a sweet homegrown charity ride in an area near Greensboro that is not trying (yet) to look like the ring of devastation outside the ring of highway around Atlanta.

I'll share more thoughts on the awesome Tour de Lions in Gray's Chapel if I have them and photos of lots of stuff but I'm working on other things that take precedence right now. More on that too, soon. Thanks to the church for providing facilities and to so many volunteers providing rest stops and a great lunch!

Skateylove, Blake

Snippet (with mileage options) from THIS year's skride email

In reply to Tanglewood Training Ride: The Bike Shop, Clemmons NC:

Dug through my GMail and found the skride announcement from last year... Of course, 10 minutes later, I got the skride announcement for this year! Here's the snippet:

Training Ride
This week's ride is at the Bicycle Shop in Clemmons. You can choose
from 17, 27, 36 or 50-mile route options. This ride covers some of the
same roads we use for the Tour. To find the shop take the Clemmons exit
off I-40. Follow Lewisville-Clemmons Road into downtown Clemmons. The
shop is in a shopping center on the left behind the Southern Community
Bank. Please no parking close to the store out of respect for other
shops in the center. If you'd like more details, the shop can help at
766-5564. Remember, registration starts at 7:30am, safety talk at 8:15,
and the ride starts at 8:30.

Almost the same mileage options as last year, with the exception that last year there was a 67-mile option, and this year it was replaced with a 50-mile option... The 50 miler sounds tempting... :) Hopefully the pavement is nice...

- SM -

Yadkin River Descent Nice and Easy

In reply to Tanglewood Training Ride: The Bike Shop, Clemmons NC:

Skart asked me privately about the descent on the road along the Yadkin River I mentioned. If you've done the tour, it's just the part from the last rest stop, that slow uphill climb, in reverse. Of course on the Saturday route there's one last quick downhill sweeping right before the railroad tracks and right turn along the tracks...we get to go up that if this is the route I'm thinking of. I think of all the routes we do, this one is usually my favorite. I have to say you don't see the river much if any on this route, but that's how others have described it so I took to doing that myself. Ha!

Clemmons Bike Shop Training Ride A Favorite Skate Route

In reply to Tanglewood Training Ride: The Bike Shop, Clemmons NC:

Hi to all. This is one of my favorite routes and Elizabeth concurs. As I recall we skate backward (skating for ward) on the course so we go up the big hill near the finish of the Saturday Tour to Tanglewood route, but we also get to enjoy the Yadkin River descent instead of ascent as well. I seem to recall an other-worldly fog photo or memory from one of these rides in Clemmons, down by the Angus farm and vineyard area. Check roadskater.net classic if you'd like to see some photos from years past. (Maybe some of these photos I recall have not made it to the site yet!) I think Tim and Craig biked this one year, and Erik skated it once at least I believe in a bright yellow shirt!

I am hoping we can get some more roadskaters out for this one, and I think we'll be doing one of the shorter distances, unless we decide mid-route to extend it a bit like last week. I think this route is less conducive to such a decision. If anyone has more info, or links to the route, please jump in and comment.

As with all training rides, I'd say shoot for averaging 10 mph or better including stops and you will be fine. Slower than that, you may at some point be asked to take a ride in to the finish, and I think skaters should do that if asked. It's best if we're not the last ones on the course. Usually there are some beginner cyclists on the course as well, and there's usually a route sweeper and these guys tend to be pro-skater and very encouraging, so we need to keep our skateylove on as much as possible.

You'll be fine even if going slower, as long as you have some road experience. If not, let's plan to get you out on the road some and go over pointers on peaceful coexistence with our friendly cyclists so we keep things safe and happy.