No Polar Bear Grand Tour This Weekend

With the holiday weekend the Polar Bear Grand Tour does not have a ride this weekend.  I plan to take advantage of the beautiful weather and ride the bicycle.

Cannoli to Conversation; Ballet to Bicycles

This week while working a particularly slow open house a one of our customers in southeastern New Jersey, the highlight was a giant canola that one of the reps from Long Island brought for all to enjoy.

Between customers I spent some time talking with a friend who shares the love of riding motorcycles. The conversation darted between motorcycles and family and John shared that his oldest son was racing bicycles for the University of Pennsylvania. John’s son Sean was a professional ballet dancer; in fact he left high school early to join a professional ballet company. Some years later Sean met back up with a high school sweetheart and they got married and now both attend Penn. Sean joined the bicycle team 2 years ago. John said there was a race this weekend close to where I live and he was going to go watch Sean race on Saturday.

Later that night I did a little searching on the internet for the ECCC and also checked Velo News; on Velo News I found Sean had written a race report of an earlier ECCC race. The weekend race consisted of three events an individual time trial (ITT), a criterium (crit) and a road race. The ITT was being held at Mercer County Park on Saturday morning and conflicted with my plans for my own bicycle ride; the road race was being held on Sunday in Skillman and conflicted with my Polar Bear motorcycle ride; but the Crit was being held at Caldwalder Park and fit nicely into my schedule.

Saturday morning was cold and windy, at least when compared to last weekend; but I was able to bet 35 miles on the bicycle out of Cranbury. My oldest son Matt, visiting with his girlfriend Elizabeth from Alexandria, and I headed over to Caldwalder Park to meet John.

When we arrived a woman’s race was in progress, we found John and he introduced us to Sean. Sean’s race, the men’s A was the last race scheduled for the day. We settled in to watch the other races. The course was around a mile and with the topography you could only see a small portion of the track at any one spot. We stood near the start/finish line. During the last lap of the men’s B race there was an accident just down the hill (there was a hill leading up to the finish line). It was taking forever to clear the course and we walked down to see what happened. A rider, jockeying for position, was forced off course and hit a curb head on. The picture below, pardon my lame photographic skills, doesn’t really show the giant indentation on his front rim. The rider was ejected over the bars and hit a metal post head on. Fortunately after much initial pain he seemed to be ok but was taken to the hospital to be checked out.

The men’s’ A race started and Sean was mid-pack as he passed us each lap. About lap 3-4 we didn’t see Sean go by and work spread of an accident at the bottom of a downhill section. John rushed over to check out what had happened and returned shortly with news that Sean had indeed run into two riders that had fallen in front of him; he had crashed and had a flat tire. Sean quickly replaced the front wheel and rejoined the field. Rules allow riders to do this outside of the final 5 laps. As Sean circulated each lap, the race is 40 minutes; he seemed to just be riding along and smiled at us each lap. With 3 laps to go a rider broke away and seemed to be able to stay about 3 seconds in front of the pack behind him. They rang the bell for one lap to go, the lead rider was still in front and Sean was buried mid-pack. As we watched the pack come up the hill for the finish, the group had caught the lead rider and passed him; Sean was sprinting at the front and finished first by a wheel. What a finish! A guess that explosive strength required for ballet translates to explosive power to sprint to the finish of a bicycle race.

Polar Bear Grand Tour - Pic-a-lilly Inn - Sunday, March 28th

Sunday a change in the Polar Bear Grand Tour schedule will take us to the Pic-a-lilly Inn in Shamong, NJ; a short ride down Route 541.  We'll meet at McDonald's on Lincoln Highway in Langhorne for a prompt 10:30 am departure.

Yesterday at Brian's HD there was a huge crowd!  The weather wasn't bad either.  A group of us took a nice ride I assembled utilizing many of my favorite motorcycling roads.  Of course one of those in the collection is Swamp Creek Road (below is a picture of the bridge you cross when entering Swamp Creek Road from the south), always a fun stretch of road.

The ride finished up on Route 519 in Hunterdon County, heading to Lambertville Trading Company.  I not sure what it is about 519 but I could ride up and down that road all day and not get bored.

Polar Bear Grand Tour - Brian's HD - Sunday, March 21

No stinking rain and wind kept us from riding to the Chatterbox.  It was a supreme test of rain gear for the first half of the ride up to the Chatterbox; but we actually saw the sun for a bit on the way back.  Next week the Polar Bear Grand Tour visits Brian's Harley Davidson, so there won't be a ride from McDonald's to Brian's.  Planning on a ride from Brian's and will post the departure time late this week.

UPDATE: I'll be leaving on a 100 and some mile ride around noonish.

Friggin Hurricane!

We were out running some errands and on the way home almost every road was blocked due to downed trees.  We passed one home on Carter Road that had 4 giant white pines that had all fallen on to the house.  Trees, limbs and debris were everywhere.  We were hoping maybe we escaped the rath of the wind but as we pulled into the driveway below is what we saw.  Hopefully the roads will be passable tomorrow.  Don't forget to spring ahead on your clocks tonight!

Polar Bear Grand Tour - The Chatterbox - Sunday, March 14

Sunday we visited Long Valley Pub and Brewery on a magnificent spring day; the sky was clear, the sun was bright and temperatures were in the low 50's.  A great day for a motorcycle ride but we were saddled with a slug waiter for lunch.  The food was good and came quickly once we were able to order; but getting the waiter to take our order and getting him to give us the check took forever.  But it was worth the wait as the roads back were nice and twisty!

Next Sunday we'll head to Augusta NJ and The Chatterbox.  A group will meet at McDonalds on Lincoln Highway in Langhorne for a prompt 9:30 am departure.

Polar Bear Grand Tour - Long Valley Pub and Brewery - Sunday, March 6th, 2010

I made it back to NJ yesterday and where did all that snow go?  Temperatures feel like spring is here and I'm ready to get back on the motorcycle.  Sunday the Polar Bear Grand Tour visits Long Valley Pub and Brewery; the pub has good food and the area has good roads.  A group will meet at the McDonalds on Lincoln Highway in Langhorne for a prompt 10 AM departure.  Hope to see you there.