First Day on the Adoption Tour: 112 Miles

The day started early in Johnson City this morning. We had a plush night in the Carnegie Hotel, but that plush living was about to end. 6:45am we had a rider meeting, then started riding at 7am. It was still dark. And cold.



We rode the first few miles with a full police escort with full lights blazing in the darkness. Every 10-15 miles we had a rest stop. Of course I think I am a bad-ass traithlete, but I must admit I stopped at every one and I needed them.


Photo: My friend Steve. He is a triathlete, cyclist, adoptive parent, and serves on the board of an adoption organization.

We had a great lunch of tacos. I have no problem eating 3-4 huge tacos for lunch in the middle of a ride. It was really cold all morning, but after lunch it warmed up a little bit.


Photo: Adoption Tour Kits.



Photo: Every time we rode through a significant town, we had a full police escort with 8 Tennessee State Troopers to take care of us. It was awesome.

So here is my self-evaluation. 112 mile hurt. Granted it was a little different than different riding 6 hours, then go home, eat, and take a nap. We stretched out the ride to last the whole day because we are providing publicity and advocacy.

See a great TV news video and article here: http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/tennessee_adoption_tour_kicks_off_in_johnson_city/33668/ (The very first shot of the video is of my silver Cervelo P3...notice the PowerCranks, both cranks are down.)


Photo: Red, silver, and gold.

The good news according to Tour Coordinator Jesse O'Hatnick is that this year has already generated more publicity--in 1 1/2 days, than the entire tour in years past. Almost every major TV, newspaper, and radio in the area has covered the tour.

The other thing that is crazy is that I don't know if I can finish the tour---or even another half of a day of riding. If you know me you know that I am always interested in challenging myself. For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to do this ride on my PowerCranks. Part of my idea was to make this week extra-hard to help get me ready for Beach 2 Battleship iron distance triathlon. For one thing I don't think I am 100% recovered from the Vermont 50 (see below.) Then, during mid-day the right crank/chainring started working itself loose. I don't know if this contributed to my knee, or if it was just riding 112 miles on PowerCranks, but by the end of the day my knee hurt so bad that I wanted to cry out. I am finishing this blog post with a bag of ice on my knee. I am going to hit some Advil hard in the morning...I hope I can make it to Chattanooga tomorrow and to the end of the trip.