This Tuesday was a fairly routine one on the road, but we had some fun after ride activities and a new type of location for a stayover. Tailwinds propelled us at the end of the ride into Columbus which was a great way to kick off a period of rest!
Ride Overview
Mileage: 67.8 miles
Elevation: 2,591 ft.
Tales of the Trail
In Zanesville, Ohio for the morning, we had a pretty normal schedule: wake up at 5:30 am, breakfast at 5:45 am, morning circle (the organizing meeting before the ride everyday) at 6:45 am, roll out at 7:00 am. Everything was on time and we had some very good breakfast at the Bethel Community Center. Even a fresh package of donuts was dropped off at our door right when we woke up! This was another morning of having some of the ride groups meet up by virtue of hitting or missing traffic lights and variable speed through different sections. Always fun, but we did break up as always to not create such a huge conglomerate of riders on the road.
Anthony followed by Vedang on one of the winding bike trails of the day.
Our first rest stop outside of a Dollar General was lighthearted and easy going. It felt like everyone was in pretty good spirits after having survived the challenge of the day before and looking forward to the rest day tomorrow. Also, we had a large contingent of us, possibly everyone but the van driver if I am remembering correctly back on the road. More riders always equals more fun for the whole team. As the day kept rolling, we were seeing more of Ohio and also more bike trails! One of them rode right past what must have been the world's largest basket:
View of the basket building in the distance.
We found out from a local on the trail that this was a landmark building and actually under review for what is next since the original company has left its premises. This bike trail brought us all the way to our second rest stop of the day where we found out Tada, our valiant van driver for the last couple of days would likely be leaving us that evening to go pick up a bike that will be his ride for the rest of the Summer.
Tada has had a tough time over this first week and a half with his, frankly beautiful, vintage Klein bicycle from the 80s being a speed machine on the flats, but tough to get up hills with only 6 gears working at the rear and 2 on the front. Unbelievably, he made it to the stayover in Pittsburgh! That just shows how physically and mentally strong he is. Anyways, with these troubles and a bit of a nagging injury, he has spent some time driving the van for us which has been a tremendous help to the team. Tonight though, he left with his mother from Columbus to go reset and adjust his setup. The team has since seen a picture of what will be coming back and we truly cannot wait to have Tada with us on the ride again. Our first day out of Columbus will be different without him.
The end of the ride brought us through Westerville which is where we found a bike shop to do some repairs for us on our day off and then to Vertical Adventures where we would be staying. Before I get to that, I must talk about our dinner. We had food donated by a local Mexican restaurant, Dos Sabores, which was really neat. They hosted us at their restaurant with fajitas and enchiladas and all the chips and queso we could ask for. Just when we thought we were leaving, churros came to the table and we didn’t know what to do with ourselves again. The generosity of others is truly incredible.
Now, for the stayover. The church we had stayed at in Columbus years prior is undergoing renovations this year so we needed to find somewhere new. A full team effort went into finding where might host this team of 13 riders and a climbing gym called Vertical Adventures agreed. I am writing this from their building right now and it is so fun to be sitting under the rock climbing walls and bouldering facilities. Even though we were tired from riding, it didn’t stop us from getting a little bit of vertical action in.
Sam conquering a boulder problem!
We’ll see you tomorrow on our rest day! (Don’t worry, the next Cyclists’ Corner will come then too!)
