54 miles ridden - 4600 feet climbed Today was another hot day with lots of small climbs rather than the long drags we had yesterday. The day began with a coach transfer from our hotel in Pistoia to the centre of Florence in order to avoid the extensive navigation...
67 miles ridden - 5500 feet climbed. Another glorious day - at least that's what I think - through picturesque countryside and attractive little villages and towns. The temperature was better - around 28C - and the breeze wasn't to bad especially when it was behind us...
82 miles ridden - 1800 feet climbed Today was Sue's longest ride ever and she was on great form: It's a bit blurred because I took it over my shoulder while moving but you can see it's a fist-pump! Again it was hot but for the first 75 miles very, very flat. With flat...
53 miles ridden - 1200 feet climbed Another beautiful yet very hot day began with a ferry ride on Lake Garda from Riva Del Garda to Garda itself as the roads round the lake are extremely busy with lots of curving 'blind corner' tunnels which are to be avoided on a...
76 miles ridden - 4100 feet climbed Today was hot. According to my Garmin the highest temperature was 42C, I saw a town display showing 34C, either way it was hot. Our climbing was covered in 4 sections, 2 of which were after a delicious yet physically limited bowl of...
62 miles cycled - 491m climbed The day turned out to be hotter and harder than expected. Essentially we cycled downhill dropping from about 5000 feet to about 2000 feet but still managed to climb around 1500 feet in the process. Interesting dynamic that! After...
On Saturday morning we fly out to Munich to meet up with the other members of our Group. You can view a detailed summary of our trip via the link below. Italy Tour Summary May 2017 We have all the detailed daily sheets so now know that we will be cycling 725 miles. We...
Sue and I are at Club La Santa in Lanzarote for our annual exercise punishment and to do a bit of cycle training for our Italian trip. Some of you may remember from last year that we come here every May to punish ourselves - run, cycle, swim, Fitball class, core...
It is 275 days since I posted part 1 and at least once per day ever since I have spent time wondering exactly what to say. I lived a 25 year old dream. It was every euphoric and every dull moment crammed into an 8 week journey although as many of you will recall the...
It's Friday - 4 days after the ride finished. Monday was just excitement in all directions - seeing Sue, finishing the ride, introducing Sue, saying goodbye, kissing Sue, laughing, joking.... It was all a bit of a whirl. And then there were pauses. The pause when I...
56 miles ridden - 2100 feet climbed. I had mixed feelings eating plastic eggs at 6am this morning but it was the last time (at least for a long while). We were all excited and keen to finish the challenge so bag loading was quick and we were on our way. As before,...
78 miles ridden - 4318 feet climbed. I'm not sure if I have ever been equally excited and wistful in the same way as I have been today. Excited to complete the achievement and see Sue, family and friends again,but wistful that this amazing experience will reached a...
My blog posts don't contain many pictures of me - here are a few: Topping up water bottles at a SAG stop Just happy. Team Canada - L to R - Ron, Paul, me and Liz Darin and I hogging the soft, upholstered, rocking chairs while waiting for lunch at the Byron Tavern....
79 miles ridden - 4984 feet climbed. Unusually the weather forecast was bang on today and we deliberately walked out of a nice, dry hotel, climbed onto our bikes and rode off into the rain. Why? Because that's what we do - cycle. It only rained for about 20 minutes...
76 miles ridden - 2136 feet climbed. Another great day today with a subtle change of mood. We are all talking about how we feel about these last few days and almost all of us are actively trying to take in as much of what we see, how we feel, what people say, and...
80 miles ridden - 1627 feet climbed. I don't know where our luck has been coming from but today was another great day. Sunshine all the way, wind not an issue, temperature peaking around 30C/85F.... Road surface generally OK but weirdly a lot of glass on the shoulder...
93 miles ridden - 1480 feet climbed. Another great day's ride which started with 23 miles along the Erie Canal. Like everything else, canals are bigger in America - the Erie Canal is 363 miles long and was completed in 1825. These days there is not much traffic but it...
87 miles ridden - 1755 feet climbed. Today was a glorious ride. No clouds in the sky, gentle crosswind, roads surfaces OK, lovely temperature around 28C/82F, and lots of trees for shade. However, as we left Niagara we went through some neighbourhoods that showed the...
0 miles ridden - 0 feet climbed. Unfortunately even though I could have slept until 7am I was awake and ready to go at around 4am as, it turns out, were most others on the trip but I was able to lay in bed listening to the Archers omnibus so all was not lost. By 7:15...
77 miles ridden - 1276 feet climbed. The sun was peaking through the clouds when we left. Maybe we would escape the forecast rain? Or maybe not because within 5 miles we saw lightning and heard thunder and we were all pulled in to a coffee place to wait out the...
69 miles ridden - 1394 feet climbed. We were all excited about a leisurely 69 mile day taking in the sights and smells of the Ontario countryside until we looked out of the window Yes it really was raining and just for good measure we had a 20mph headwind virtually...
87 miles ridden - 1240 feet climbed The excitement of cycling over the bridge into Canada was palpable as we sat eating breakfast at 5:15 this morning. It's quite amazing how at that time of the day you don't really recognise what you are eating, just whether it is...
90 miles ridden - 958 feet climbed Despite the somewhat gloomy weather forecasts we did not see any rain today. The temperature peaked around 27C/80F which was great for distance cycling. However, we had a headwind for all but about 20 miles and the road surfaces were...
74 miles ridden - 430 feet climbed. Another wonderful day. Temperature was great until about noon when it seemed to suddenly shoot up to 32C. We had a gentle tailwind for about 40 miles and the area we were cycling through was absolutely flat - fabulous. After...
117 miles ridden - 2684 feet climbed. Our last century ride and it was a fabulous day although it was longer for me than it should have been. We have been constantly reminded as we have moved eastward that we have left behind the large empty spaces of Idaho, Wyoming...
10 miles ridden. Nice day today with only token cycling. The centrepiece of our day was the crossing from Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Ludington, Michigan on the SS Badger. Built in 1952 this ship is the last coal-fired steam ship built in America and is certainly more...
As we are on the ferry tomorrow for about 5 hours, lose an hour crossing into the Eastern time zone, and have a 5:20 start on Tuesday for our 112 mile ride from Ludington to Mount Pleasant I'm not sure how much time I will have to update my blog so I am doing a bit...
63 miles ridden - 1450 feet climbed Weather forecasts are absolute pants. Despite the thunderstorms during the night the forecast for today was clouds clearing by around 9am and then a sunny day with westerly (tail) winds. As we left the sky did appear to be...
97 miles ridden - 2064 feet climbed. It sounds incredulous that I can say that if felt noticeably cooler today when it was 'only' 32C/89F. I keep repeating it in my mind because I have never been able to tolerate heat the way I have been able to the last few days. It...
76 miles ridden - 1955 feet climbed Despite a number of points at which today could have flipped from pleasant to awful I am pleased to say that it was a very nice day. A very big thunderstorm blew through the area last night and although it certainly felt fresher it...
87 miles ridden - 2881 feet climbed What a nightmare of a day. The fact that at 6:30am when we left the hotel it was already nearly 27C/80F with 80% humidity was a pretty good indicator that we were in for quite a day. At its peak during the second half of the ride...
100 miles ridden - 2493 feet climbed Well first things first - I have done back to back centuries. 111 miles yesterday and 100 miles today. I must admit to feeling pretty pleased with myself although it was a really tough day. Early load was at 5:50 for a 6am...
111 miles ridden - 1378 feet climbed. What a day. We woke up to a dark, overcast sky. A selection of six different weather report sites gave us six different forecasts all of which included rain at some stage with the prevailing 'majority' suggesting a 20% chance of...
72 miles ridden - 1270 feet climbed Another day and another state. We crossed the state line 25 miles in to our day and immediately fell in love with Minnesota as the road surface improved dramatically the moment we crossed the line. We had enjoyed a beautiful...
0 miles ridden - 0 feet climbed. Great nights sleep and even though I woke at 5:30 I didn't need to quickly get up and pack my stuff up for early breakfast. I decided that I didn't want the usual hotel breakfast of raisin bran, gloopy yogurt and a semi-stale bagel so...
73 miles ridden - 1601 feet climbed. Today was a really hard ride. The wind was coming out of the south east and we were heading west with a couple of due south sections so one way or another it was in our faces the whole way. However the temperature was great, the...
72 miles ridden - 1129 feet climbed It was almost cool today. Many had long sleeve tops and jackets on but for me it was a bit like a cool spring day but without any sun. The sun started to show itself around 11:30 and it quickly warmed up to somewhere around 26C...
115 miles ridden - 2864 feet climbed Today was a very long day. Not just because we cycled 115 miles but we started late for such a long ride - 7am - and crossed time zones so lost an hour. Only 2 SAG stops at 42 and 86 miles challenged us all with regards to food and...
58 miles ridden - 2116 feet climbed. I'm not quite sure how to describe what we saw today. I will post some pictures but they cannot do justice to the majesty of the landscape in the Badlands National Park. We spent about 3 hours cycling the 27 miles through the park...
58 miles ridden - 1893 feet climbed. A very welcome shorter day today made all the better by the late start and thus fully digested breakfast. The ABB team had devised a route out of Rapids City that utilised cycle paths running through a park by the side of a stream....
74 miles ridden - 5515 feet climbed Today was a hard day's cycling but a fabulous day's ride. It was much cooler than the last couple of days - 85F/30C - and we were quite pleased that it was 'only' 74 miles. However, despite the first 38 miles being a more or less...
94 miles ridden - 2677 feet climbed. It was very hot again today so I was actually pleased that we had a slight sidewind most of the way - it was like having a fan blowing across my face. We had one big climb of about 4 miles and during that the breeze was blocked by...
Further to my earlier post, here are some pictures. First, tyre snakes: The wilderness: And a bit of Americana - a motel with parking by your bedroom door And the parade:
106 miles ridden - 2497 feet climbed. Today was hot - the sign at the hotel said 102F/39C when I arrived and it had been hotter out on the road. My Garmin reckons the hottest 'road' temperature was 52C. Whatever these mean I can conform it was hot. It was a later than...
It was relative luxury to eat breakfast at 7am this morning but it took a while to recognise some folk out of Lycra. Comfortable and lose clothes - what a treat. I also got to digest my bigger than usual breakfast without being on the bike which is a luxury I will not...
120 miles ridden - 2484 feet climbed. I can't say as I sat eating breakfast at 5:30 this morning that I was enthralled at the idea of cycling 120 miles. The sun wasn't even up, my backside was still asleep, and I really wanted to go back to bed. However it turned into...
79 miles ridden - 1555 feet climbed. Today was a day of two halves - two totally different rides. It started with a fabulous breakfast in the Cowboy Cafe - real American breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon which set me up really well. We had a momentary hiccup when...
86 miles ridden - 4660 feet climbed Today was a good day despite waking up with a headache - it turned out many of us did which is apparently to do with altitude. Instead of the usual breakfast buffet we had an option to go to a local restaurant where I had pancakes...
91 miles ridden - 5305 feet climbed Today is Independance Day so all riders wore their America By Bicycle jerseys and had US flags fixed somewhere on their bike. We didn't go through many towns but even at 6am in Idaho Falls folks were camped out on the street in...
66 miles ridden - 715 feet climbed. Today was another great day. A late start, a good tailwind, slightly lower temperature (32C/90F by 2PM), and, because there was no point arriving at the hotel early everyone rode at a much more leisurely pace meaning there was more...