I've never seen so much chaos.
The ride over the Washington bridge had all of us white knuckled.
Words cannot describe it. Even George, an Olympian racer and Italian groomed rider was shaken.
Based on this experience we quickly realized that tomorrow's (Sunday) grand finish route needed to be altered. At a minimum the ride over the bridge and along the river can not be a group ride. Anyone riding that portion needs to fend for him or herself.
We have modified the route on our webpage accordingly and now have the ride billed as the final mile starting at 56th street and 9th avenue. This seems much safer.
If you want a taste of what today's ride was like, check out this video recap (at 16X speed and slow motion for the endo I caught on tape
Ooops
as well as George clearing the bike lane and then later helping a woman straighten out her wheel after hitting a beam on the bridge... Total insanity..
If the video makes you nauseous, well you can imagine how we felt! However, if you play it back at half speed or less, (a YouTube option) it settles down a bit..,
I wish I could be there with you! It is nice to see what a day on the Bike Across America ride is like (although I'm sure each day is very different from the next!). Dad I see you're kept your face clean shaven as per Mom's request :P I think she was expecting you to roughly resemble a prehistoric caveman at this point in the ride.
ReplyDeleteWhen Don was into windsurfing, he and Bill (and other friends) had a concept called a wind "dummy". That is, you send one guy out first to check out the conditions, and then they report back to the others. I see that you (Dave), Dedi, and George were our bike "dummies"! Thanks for making the sacrifice so the rest of us were spared such awful riding conditions.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to "only" doing the last mile, and even that will probably be no picnic.
Congratulations on carrying on and finishing the ride -- Don would have been proud and I'm sure he's smiling on us!
Andrea
Thanks Andrea, I am sure Don would get a kick out of calling us the bike tour dummies!!
DeleteNice post Dave. NY helps keep your senses fresh and focused. Enjoy the finish and know that you have completed a grand adventure, with more to come too. Hugs to Diana. Bob
ReplyDeleteGreat video ... certainly a nerve-wracking route! I like Brenna's comment about the beard :)
ReplyDelete