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Tales from the road

ELK RAPIDS, Mich. -- I feel so much like a drama king when I do the League of Michigan Bicyclists' West Shoreline Tour.

When I first went on the ride 10 years ago, I didn't even make it 10 miles before a major mishap put me on the sidelines for a few days with stitches and bruises and knocked out my friend Vicky (Mohler) Dye from the ride with two broken ribs.

Three years ago, the drama wasn't so dramatic. I only had a flat tire to fix within the first 10 miles. No big deal.

This year's drama falls somewhere between that. About 10 miles into the start of Sunday's ride, my right crank and chainrings fell off my bike! Fortunately, I was in a flat portion of the course and could stop the bike without falling down. It turned out that I broke the right section of my bottom bracket in half. Fortunately, the ride's mechanic was only a few miles away, so a SAG driver took me over to him, and I was back on the road within 45 minutes.

Overcast skies much of the week obscured many of the great sights along the Lake Michigan shoreline, but those clouds help keep down the temperatures considerably. I truly feel for you in the St. Louis area this week, but that heat is a prime reason I try to do a ride in Michigan, Wisconsin or Canada whenever I can.

Despite the relatively cool temperatures here, I struggled with dehydrations issues yesterday and today. I managed to do all 63 miles from Frankfort to Traverse City on Wednesday, albeit at an excruciatingly slow pace. I opted to do only 20 miles today, and I'm still not feeling all the great. I wonder if I have a bug that's contributing to the problem.

Despite the setbacks, I'm still enjoying the time in one of my favorite places to visit and with some of the regular Bubba's Pampered Pedalers crowd.

Labels: cycling, Michigan, tours

Roger 0 comments 11:48 AM