The Ride:
Course was hilly as poop! I looked at the elevation via MapMyRide and it looked quite flat with perhaps one smallish climb toward the end. I am calling “Shenanigans” because it was far from flat it was a barrage of one climb after another even one climb that had another climb on top of it. I am not complaining about the hills though because what fun would an easy ride be? I will complain however about the condition of these roads in “The Mitten” ….they suck. That’s no fault of the ADA though so I don’t blame them. You would honestly be hard pressed to find any route in this state with glassy smooth rollin surface. Essentially I suppose it’s not actually about the ride, or the course, or the shirts, or even the free swag you collect along the way through the event. It’s about the money and trying to fight a disease. This being my first, and certainly not my last, ride for a cause I was a little taken back by the vibe of the whole event. It seemed that all of the cyclists there put away their anti-waving and anti-speaking uber hardcore guy or gal persona for the day and actually socialized a wee little bit. I talked to a few people out on the course waved to a few and even threw out a fine knuckle bump with an exploding finish.
Pictures to Prove It:
Everyone, including me, is going to have to wait for pics from the event. My plan was to simply carry my camera phone in my jersey and crack a gaggle of pics before during and after the ride, however, unbeknownst to me phones do not fair too well when you carry them into a house fire with you….especially if the phone is in the outer pocket of your turnout gear….who knew right? Luckily some of my teammates had cameras and took some shots including some team shots. As soon as they put their doughnuts down I will get them up.
Meeting Awesome People:
Do you know why I like hanging around Charity events and participating in them….THE PEOPLE! The people that go to an event like the ADA Tour de Cure are generally 99.999% awesome genuine caring people the other .oo1% are terminal buttholes and will never be happy but I digress. Call it luck, fate, kismet, karma, dogma, pragmatic existentialism but it just so happens I met two of the most radtastic people after the ride. Jodi and Jon go to their sites and read the stories, they lost a crap load of weight and I mean an honest to God crap load. Nice people too you should check them out….if you don’t you suck.
Being on an Awesome Team:
We pretty much rocked everyone’s faces off of their skulls. We came in second only to the official “Red Riders Team” as far as money collected as a team. I am not going to throw stones or anything but there where 6 of us and we raised a ton o’ money only to be beat out by a team with about 25 people on it. We are claiming victory on a per capita basis.
100 Pounds Ago 