Le Tour Challenge Final

As the Tour de France comes to an end so does the Versus/MapMyRide Le Tour Challenge. I managed to meet my goal of riding every day that the tour riders did and finished 214th out of 4,752 riders that submitted a ride for at least one stage. Starting July 3rd I logged 21 rides (including the Prologue) covering 589.24 miles in 23 days.

All in all it was a great experience and it's helped me make some dramatic steps toward my goal of riding a century before the summer is over. Almost all of the Tour de France riders have my utmost admiration for completing what I believe is the most physically challenging sporting event in the world.

Ride Reports

As you may have noticed I haven't posted a ride report in a while. It's not that I'm not riding - quite the opposite in fact. I've been riding so much for the Le Tour Challenge that it made it too easy to be lazy and not post. In the future I'll still be writing ride reports just not as often. In the meantime here's a screenshot of my July ride calendar from MapMyRide.

Ride Report 7/17/2010

Went out with Addie to see if it was hot this afternoon. Found out it was.

Distance: 13.10 Miles
Bike: Windsor Cyclo
Riders: Me, Adrienne

Ride Report 7/17/2010

Dave and I headed out on the highways to Sprague today and it turned out to be quite an adventure. It seemed like Dave had just commented that we were about halfway through our 40 mile ride when my rear tire started hissing like a pissed off snake. I carry a spare tube, levers and a pump so I figured it was just a minor pain in the rear and we'd be back on the road in no time. That is until I noticed that the damn tire had a huge hole in it!

I didn't have anything to put in between the tire and the new tube and as I pumped it up the tube started creeping out of the tire. I thought there was a remote possibility that I could limp it at least to the bike shop but in about 2 miles I heard that familiar hiss again and we were done. After a couple calls I managed to get in touch with Adrienne and she headed out to pick me up while we started the long walk into town.

It all worked out in the end and it only cost a little pride. Big thanks to Adrienne for picking me up and Dave for walking with me and ending "our" ride on his own!

Distance: 27 Miles (Approximate)
Bike: Trek 5000 OCLV120
Riders: Me, Dave

Ride Report 7/15/2010

Headed out for a late evening ride with Adrienne tonight and ran into Dave and Michelle on the trail! Always nice to see them and Dave and I ended up setting up a ride for tomorrow. Weather was nice and it was a good, chill ride downtown on Boosalis-Rock Island-Antelope Valley then back out to 84th on the Mopac.

Distance: 20.53 Miles
Bike: Trek 5000 OCLV120
Riders: Me, Adrienne

Ride Report 7/14/2010

It was a hot one out there today, The Weather Channel showed we were in some kind of heat advisory and I read on another cycling blog that the heat index was over 120! Of course I'm way too bull headed to let something simple like that stop me from going for a ride so I headed out to Bennet and back on Highway 2 then decided I'd ride some of the trails too. I refilled my water bottles once at Holmes Lake and once at my parents' house and still ended up wishing I had some more at the end of my ride. It got pretty difficult at the end, I remember passing a jogger on a flat spot and thinking that he would probably pass me on the next hill. In the end I made it home and all is well. I think I'll take it easy tomorrow though...

Distance: 44.09 Miles
Bike: Trek 5000 OCLV120
Riders: Me

Ride Report 7/13/2010

Rode downtown with Adrienne tonight and then added a quick sprint out to Mahoney and back. The humidity, heat, bugs and a strong wind on 84th made the last 4 miles a real pain in the rear but other than that it was a pretty nice ride.

Distance: 21.05 Miles
Bike: Windsor Cyclo
Riders: Me, Adrienne