MS Bike Tour 2007 - Day 1
KM: 73.87; Ascend: 762; Descend: 762
Weather: Sunny and cool, low winds w/ intermitent gusts.
Full write-up and photos: unicyclist.com
Day 1 GPS: motionbased.com
The 2007 MS Bike Tour in Washington is a fully-supported, two day ride to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis. This year, we had 1,800 riders participate, of which I was the only unicyclist. The Day 1 course starts in La Conner, WA, and goes around Fidalgo Island before crossing the famous Deception Pass Bridge and then circling Whidbey Island. For me, there were two high points on this ride. The first was not ever being passed by a bike during a climb, and the second was the two crossings of the Bridge. This is a really high and narrow bridge with no bike lane, and perpetual high and changing winds. On a big wheel, the trip across is actually quite disorienting. It's fun, but you always have this sense that you're closer to a fall than usual. The cyclists queue up before the bridge, and then one of the Harley support crew pulls out and forms a shield between the bikes and the auto traffic. It's nice to have an escort across the bridge.
9/9/2007
177
MS Bike Tour 2007 - Day 2
KM: 80.92; Ascend: 312; Descend: 312; Strong Winds: 32KM
Weather: Sunny and temperate, with constant strong winds. Only counted the kilometers where the winds were either headwind or head/side combination. Didn't count the tailwind miles.
Day 2 GPS: motionbased.com
The Day 2 course heads inland, winding through the backroads of tulip-farm country, then eventually meeting the Sound again at Bellingham Bay. While the Day 2 course is considerably flatter than Day 1, it traditionally makes up for that with high winds. This year was no exception, and for roughly half the course it was either a direct headwind, or a painful mix of head and side. At one point--on a total flat--it was so strong that several bicyclists were standing up to pedal, as if climbing in the Alps. This was one of the few times I wished I was riding a bike, since I was up so high on my Coker I had no one to draft.
While there were fewer hills, I continued my record of not getting passed...right up until the final big climb, when a co-worker and her husband passed me on their tandem. Even with that small asterisk on my record, I was happy with my conditioning this year, and was in much stronger riding shape than a few months earlier at the Tahoe ride.
While the ride was a great time and I'm happy with my distance and conditioning, by far the best part of it was making a difference for people afflicted with MS. The event raised over $1.5 million, and I was able to raise over $6,000 to be the 20th highest fundraiser out of 1,800.