Sunday, June 11, 2006

Tour de Wayne

This past weekend I was in Tennessee riding the Tour de Wayne. This wasn't a century, we only covered 72 miles. But this was a challenging ride anyway. For the first half of the ride, I was lulled into a sense of ease because of the roads that followed valleys with roller type hills. At the half-way mark I was thinking I'd get this done in record time. Then the second half came along. There were lots of tall climbs and the temperatures soared to the mid 90's. I heard lots of folks complaining about how high and far the ride went. But I had ridden Cheaha. That ride gave me a little different perspective from most of them. None of the hills were that tall. And 72 miles was a vacation compared to the 102 full bodied miles of Cheaha. I am getting into shape little by little. Just a few more long rides with climbs like these and I'll be in pretty good shape. Now there won't be a chance to ride another century till Fall. All my riding will be local. With summertime heat, that may not be such a bad thing.