There are twenty-six riders this year; not all of them are going all the way across the country. Median age is 58. The oldest rider is 73 and the youngest is 19. They are coming from all over the
The slump in the economy may have affected the size of the group. Past numbers of riders have been in the 34-40 range; with a large group of 60 in the year 2000. Having said that, there are a couple of riders who have said they can go because they were laid off from their jobs!
Only seventeen days until we leave on our adventure!
The map above shows our route, from
I’ve ridden a bicycle for years without getting a professional “fitting.” Big mistake!
It’s pretty typical to buy a bike at the local bike store, where the salesman nominally sets the seat height and makes a few adjustments before releasing you out the door.
Since I’m going to be spending long hours in the saddle, day after day, on our trek across the country, I made arrangements to have a fitting at one of our largest, local bike dealers. I’m glad I did.
Steve, the owner of the store and a trained professional fitter, took a variety of measurements of both the bicycle and me before putting me on the bike and video-taping my pedal motion. It seems I’ve got high arches and have been throwing my left knee outward on each rotation of the crank. Steve put some gel pads inside my bike shoes to correct the problem. He adjusted the position of my cleats, saddle and handlebars. All in all, it took more than an hour and I feel much better about my positioning on the bike.
My conditioning in preparation for the ride continues. I’ll be off the bike for a week when we go to
