… look for notes from the April Meeting including a recap of Janet Edgerton's story of her transition from roadie to USCF racer. Also, my account of the 2005 Flèche Vélocio. I'd like to publicly thank the Lawrence family of Lexington NC for graciously serving up breakfast and napping accommodations to all participants.
Are you a bike commuter? Are you interested in becoming a bike commuter? Are you interested in helping others learn to commute by bicycle in the Triangle? If so, you need to know about a new group that has formed with support from NCBC and the Carolina Tarwheels - the Triangle Bike Commuter Mentor program. Patterned after the Charlotte program, which was in turn patterned after Seattle's, the program seeking experienced commuters who are willing to help budding commuters with advice and ideas on routing, clothing, gear, etc... Please contact the group at http://triangle.bikementor.org/.
If you're looking for shorter rides with a friendly group that averages a nice relaxed cruising pace, get in touch with Zonda and the NCBC "Slow Spokes" at http://forum.ncbikeclub.info/index.php?board=9 or http://groups-beta.google.com/group/Slow-Spokes/about
The Reedy Creek Greenway is officially open now including the beautiful bridge over I-440 and a nice paved trail from the North Carolina Museum of Art through some gorgeous woodlands and across the edge of Meredith College Campus. Great place to take children who are too young to handle traffic, but watch them on the downhills and the wooden bridges may become slick when wet.
The first Saturday in May brings the sharp contrast of perhaps the flattest and one of the hilliest organized centuries in the area. If you like climbing, there's the Chattanooga Bike Club's 3-State 3-Mountain Challenge. If you prefer flats, coastal NC has the Tarwheel Century in the Elizabeth City / Edenton area. Pick one!
There's plenty more climbing later in the month with Virginia's "Mountains of Misery" (Yeesh! What a name!) and the legendary "Assault on Mt. Mitchell" - profiled by BICYCLING magazine a couple years ago as one their "Top Ten Rides that will kick your...", uh, back-side. Another a great way to get out there, join in the fun and see the mountains is to ride the "Assault on Marion" - the first 75 miles of the Mitchell ride with some good "lumpy bits" en route (notably "Bill's Hill"). (It's a sight to see all the wanna-bes begging for Mitchell tickets on Friday night.) You can have a good time, cheer on the Mitchell crowd, swap boastful lies, and if you stay the night, you can try out the climb on Sunday after the crowds have gone.
Al Johnson will launch the 400km brevet at 6:00am (Note: 1 hour earlier!) on Saturday the 14th. At about two-hundred and fifty miles, this is a twenty-four to twenty-seven hour event for me, though I have heard that some have managed to complete the whole course before dark! The rules allow that (the final control officially opens at 6pm on Saturday), but, to me, that's not right - you should push yourself around the clock to take on the full mental challenge of riding through the night and well into the next dawn. You see other folks coming out for their Sunday morning spin and wonder if they're wondering why you look so beat. But that's just me. The turnaround point is in the Uwharries (near Albemarle) - I plan to use a triple on this one!
Memorial Day Racing events include the Habitat Wake Criteriums (Friday and Sunday - downtown Raleigh) and the Road Race (Saturday - Harris Lake). See http://capcycling.org/habitat/
Cycling Spoken Here of Apex closes out the month for us with a FREE Memorial Weekend Metric.
Speaking of the Art Museum, the award-winning (and Tour-de-France) related animated feature film "The Triplets of Belleville" will be screened on the museum lawn on Saturday June 25th after some live 1920's dance tunes performed by a great Parisian dance-hall band - "Les Primitifs du Futur". It's a superb venue for bicycling to the show!
We've got a few NCBC cyclists preparing for the inaugural run of the Cascade 1200km next month ( See http://www.cascade1200.com/ ) - Good luck and bring back photos and stories!