That was Easy

270 miles in three days!! Every year my brother and I talk about how we are not in biking shape. Well we are. The ride to the beach was easy and fun. Were there any hills?? If it were not for me losing my eye sight the last day, we would have finished this ride in record time. My cornea has repaired itself. Sorry I slowed us down, but I was going to finish this ride no matter how much my eye hurt or could not see. Heck, I had Jim behind me directing as I blindly rode the last 20 miles. It was a great ride to the beach with our new member Jim Vaughn. What a great addition to the team. It was very touching to have Karl and Fred ride with us the first day to get us started. Both Karl and Fred were injured but still wanted to ride the first half of the trip with us for support. Thanks guys, look forward to us all doing the whole ride together next year. I will go ahead and begin the sob story now, I don't think I will be in as good a shape next year. Look forward to doing more rides together in the future. Let's hope Fred recovers from surgery on his leg. We have many more challenges ahead. We have done 3 mountain madness, blood sweat and gears, several other different rides, and the beach trip this year. I have done 7 century rides this year including Blood Sweat and Gears and the beach trip. Wow, I am ready to ride to California and back, are you?

I had to upload my eye photo. The green dye shows where my cornea was missing. No wonder why I could not see. I have also posted the group starting out in Winston and a picture of me at Sunset. Good times.

Success!

As David noted, we made it! We got a great send-off from our wives and significant others and then had the surprise of Carl and Fred pulling us for the first 50 miles to Denton. What a great way to start a long ride! I'm glad to hear I'm a good story teller. Reading between the lines, I think it means I talk too much. In any event, Phillips Patron-inspired miraculous recovery was a real blessing. Having three along for the ride made it much more tolerable. Other than a sore rear end after day one, and fading legs on long climbs after about 70 miles each day, I felt better than I expected I would. We made great time on day 1, considering the amount of climbing we had. Day one was 107.23 miles in 5:36 for an average speed of 19.1 mph with 4,789 feet of climbing. Day two was 100.34 miles in 5:35 for an average speed of 18.0 with 2,083 feet of climbing. We had a nagging headwind all day on days 2 and 3. Day 3 was 61.72 miles in 3:19 for an average speed of 18.6 with 1,045 feet of climbing. So, the overall trip was 269.29 miles in 14.5 hours for an 18.6 overall average with 7,917 feet of climbing. Not too bad considering the headwinds and Phillips eye problem on day 3. I'm looking forward to the next challenge.

2011 Day 2 was windy

We did it!  This time door to door, covering 270 miles.  This year there were but 3 of us - Bothers David and Philip Welch and Jim Vaughan.  But Carl and Fred pulled us the first 50 miles and were picked up by car, which helped us jump start the trip. We covered 107 miles the first day.  Stayed in Ellerbe Springs.  I need to post a link to that website - it was a great treat for us.  Thanks to Donna at the Ellerbe Springs Inn for taking such great care of us!  The second and third day were very windy so it felt like a climb the last 170 miles.  We logged exactly 100 miles on day 2.  You can see the speedometer only shows 16 mph on this video- saw a lot of that and stayed in the small ring a lot as well.  We couldn't wait to jump in the pool after the second day but you can see on the front page of the blog what that looked like.  Philip will have to share his story of the injury, but other than that, things went well. 

Dumb, Dumber & Dumbest?

Well, here's my first post. I am honored and humbled to be accepted among the brethren of the Wheel Ride for Beer team. I will try to uphold it's traditions with proper dignity. I am ready for a scintillating ride through the Uhwarrie Mountains, on to Ellerbe, over to Elizabethtown and finally, to Sunset Beach. I am hopeful that the team of three brave souls has not been reduced to two as a result of Phillip's injury. If Phillip is unable to ride, I expect David to pull for the first 279 miles. I'll be happy to take over after that.

I told David that earlier this year, my regular group had planned back-to-back centuries on consecutive days and that we had begun to refer to the rides as Dumb and Dumber. Looking at our 3-day ride, I referred to it as Dumb, Dumber & Dumbest. After I heard about Phillip's injury, I changed the name to Stupid, Stupider and Stupidest. Heal quickly Phillip. I may be dumb, but I don't care to be called stupid.

10 days till takeoff!

We are getting close to beach ride. Leaving on July 15. Time to plan the final details. The bad news is that we have lost half the original team which was small to begin with. Carl and Fred are recovering from, or still dealing with injuries, leaving just the 2 Welch brothers to make the trek alone. But just today we had a 3rd person find out he can join us. Jim Vaughan is going to join us. Still trying to work on Carl, although he is being pretty stuborn.

Making a few changes this year. We are officially going door to door. 2 years ago we drove 18 miles to the starting point, but figured, why not leave from our house? That addition, along with the detour to our new hotel the first night, will add somewhere around 25 miles, so we are looking at close to 275 miles this year. Most of those will be added to the second night, possibly giving us 2 back to back century rides, or at least close to it.

Blood Sweat and Gears

We did it. One of the hardest rides on the East Coast. David and I believe it or not did not have a beer(s) the night before, but Karl and Jim did. Only a glass of wine with the pasta. Great job guys on the ride. Had a good time and of course the post ride at the cabin was fabulous. I was very pleased with my time and actually finishing the ride 2 to three hours quicker than I imagined. I had to play catch up for 50 miles for I was tired at the beginning and had a flat tire. My group left me. That is ok, it was a challenge to catch up and I managed to do it. I only made one more stop the for the rest of the 104 mile ride. Looking forward to the beach ride, however there will only be two of us. Everyone is hurt. Now I have to hang with my brother for 280 miles and three days alone....I guess I will have to pull him the whole way except the down hill. Suck on my tire bro.