Tour du Faso

October 2010, which according to UCI rules is part of the 2011 season and all UCI points amassed will be counted in 2011.

The Tour du Faso is an interesting race. Taking place over 10 days in the central African country of Burkina Faso, things didn't start great for the team. Some issues with flights had us spending an unexpected night in Paris without any luggage. We then flew out to Burkina Faso via Niger (a banned country for French people at the time due to kidnappings), getting to Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina Faso) just minutes before team presentation. We all got our bikes upon arrival, but some were missing luggage, which was not recovered until about 4 stages into the race.

We got there, put on some kit and went straight to Team Presentation, not even having time to lather up with any anti-mosquito spray to fight off the malaria mozzies...


Stage 1 started at 6am with a long bus trip to the start. With our legs still shot from the flight, we headed off on stage 1, where Guiguig finished 2nd just behind Dutch National Champ Peter Van Agtmaal. A good start to the Tour.

Stage 2 had us all devoted to Zibi going for the sprint.

We sat on the front for 40km controlling the field and breakaway until the order came to ramp it up. Dorian and I were the first to pop having done 80% of the work on the from for the past few hours... as we rolled in slowly and alone for the final 15 or 20k, the rest of the boys took over at the front and brought back the break just in time for Zibi (already wearing the Pink Points jersey) to win the stage. Another Great day!

Racing in Africa, I love it! There's something and special about it!

Stage 3 started a little less well for me. I passed out at Breakfast and was helped back to my room where I spent some solid time on the toilet as well as throwing up. Having not been able to eat anything, and feeling beyond rough I had to sit in a bus for over an hour to the stage start. This was one of the longest stages of the race at 160 something K. The team warned the Doctor that I wasn't well and told him to keep an eye on me. I held on for a while, yoyoing off the back of teh race seemingly constantly until I finally popped with 60k to go. I rode alone through the Sahel desert for 40k. It was 47 degrees in the shade (which is interesting because there is no shade out there) and I was alone... no water, no one around and sick. My only company where a few military guards with AK47s dotted along the course as protection following some Al Qaida threats on the race. My body started to shut down, and i eventually came across a French ride on the ride of the road, totally fried. We sat on the side of the road waiting for the ambulance. That was the end of our Tour. Julien finished 2nd on the stage and was looking pretty good for the GC.

A somewhat unclassy live TV interview, totally fried I tell the TV I've diarrhea... that's class...

I couldn't eat or drink a think for over 24hrs... by which time I was put on a plane home. Burkina Faso is an interesting and risky race. From day 1 guys were just falling down at the hotel and being taken to hospital and shipped home. You get sick very easilly over there, and just a bit sick... really REALLY sick.

The team went on to win the GC with Julien and everyone rode unbelievably. I was very very sad not to be there. Guigui finished 4th on GC and Zibi brought home the sprinter's jersey!

Thursday's Team TT champs

For some reason I feel like this picture sums up our Team Time Trial pretty well.

We were 1 rider short, it was pissing with rain, and the course was skkkketchyyyy to say the least.

Fitness catch-up

Getting there.

So, after a great week of training camp in Spain, where I finally got in some miles, I’m back home and seem to be getting somewhat near to something vaguely resembling fitness!

Spain was just great. A great resort with lots of great food. Fantastic views, and nothing to do all day but ride, eat, sleep and drink beer.

I really really needed this trip to spain. After day 3 I felt myeslef finally push through that barriers, and from then on I just seemed to feel better and better.

Race gone wrong.
On the way home from Spain we stopped off just over the border into France and did a little 1 day stage race.
I thought the morning TT had gone well (despite showing up to the start ramp with 30second to go, with my oversocks and other crap in my hands; I shuved my oversock and shit into my skinsuit, did it up and was gone for a few minutes of pain) but it didn’t got as well as I had thought. I was 28th in the morning TT, and wanted to be top 20 at least.

The afternoon road race was a bit of a shitter! It was actually a circuit race, or 20k loops. There was a massive hill after 7k of downhill. The field split on the first climb, and I was struggled but made it into the first half. That was positive but I had had to work pretty hard to make it into a group I would normally have walked into. Over the course of the next 20 or so km, I kept getting dropped up every climb, sitting in the team cars for ages and jumping back into the field. Until I finally bit the bullet, realized I was too whipped from training camp and was out and ready to go home after only 40k of racing! Oh well…

From the moment I got home however, I’ve been feeling stronger and stronger, finally getting in some solid training. Of course how this translates to racing is yet to be seem. I haven’t started including intervals into my training yet, and I’m about to enter my first big block of racing, which I’m a little nervous about.

In Prep for the main aims of my season at the end of May and early June, I’m going to be loading up the races. Hopefully this will get me into shape after the long and crappy US winter! My main worry is going to be 2 back to back 1 day stage races. That’s 4 races in 2 days! Not to mention the travel in between and the early starts and late finishes. For about 3 weeks I’m going to be hitting at least 3 races a week, sometimes more. It’s SOO gonna suck, but it should be fun, and I’ll either be ready for the real stage races in the Pyrenees, or I won’t.

this ride blew me away!

We’ve had a load of nice warm and sunny days recently, in the 20+ degrees (that 1 589 876F for your imperialists, actually it’s 70+), so I’ve been enjoying some time on the bike… I seem to be over whatever I had the last couple weeks and am healthy again, so that’s nice.

We raced Sunday, though Adrian got knocked in the final sprint for 2^nd place by Bbox’s Arnault Labbe, Adrien had a broken collar bone and is out for a while. They crashed in the final 1km, so Adrien still got his mountains jersey. I rode around in general anonymity once again. Killed myself getting Adrian back up to the front group when the peloton split into lots of little groups in the first 3^rd or so of the race, but that’s about all there is to say about that day on the bike.

Yesterday (Monday) I headed out for a recovery ride. Suddenly looked up to find a Helicopter hovering right infront of me above the road, low enough to make my hair blow! It hovered around, circled me numerous times. I was getting scared for a while, then remembered I wasn’t in the US and figured it was probably just some half drunk from lunchtime-Wine Frenchman looking for a place to have a coffee or a few Pastis! So I ignore him (as much as I could). He came back about 30mins later and did figure of 8s over me. So…. Maybe he found somewhere for some Pastis and had a few too many!

Today was fun. I headed out for a few intervals on the TT bike, got about 10mins up the road and it suddenly pissed down with rain. I thought I’d tough it out, like a true hardman-Belgian wannaby; cobbles-for-teeth northern cyclist… until I got blown off the road and into the ditch by the horrific wind… quick U turn and I was sitting on the trainer indoors, in the dry and warm in no time!!! Forget hardman Belgians, I’m French, skinny(ish) and about as close to a Belgian Hardman as an overcooked limp noodle in a 3 day old bucket of tepid water!

Late in posting and Late in fitness

OK... we're back. It's been a while. Life has been a little hectic recently.

Getting back home to France on Jan 10th was nice. Nice because the airport on out stop-over in Germany was under snow, and even home (south of France) was all-white when we landed. We weren't sure if anyone was going to be able to pick us up. The weather since has been touch and go. A few nice and warm days allowing some good training, chopped up by very cold and snowy days that have you stuck indoors loosing the tiny little bit of fitness you thought you'd got.

The good thing about being home was a few training camps. It was good to catch up with everyone, and interesting to see what everyone had been doing over the winter. Evidently I wasn't the only one to have travelled. Though I think I was the only one to be stupid enough to travel somewhere that wasn't warm. On our first training camp, everyone seemed to be pretty much getting off the plane: from Australia, north Africa, Portugal and the US for me.

The season has kicked off somewhat gingerly for me. I always like to do my first 4 or 5 races of the season just sitting in, with no aim at all, just to get in some race miles. The first race went as can be expected, the second went similarly too, but I was a little disappointed. That being said, it's been pretty cold here, and I think I caught something during the first race, because I was sick all week and was not in great shape for the second race. I'm therefore having a weekend off when I should have been doing the Trophee des Bastides in Dordogne I think. I'll rest up, hopefully get better and be able to get in a few rides before my next race. Things are going to be a very slow start this year. My total lack of riding over the winter in the US has set me back a bit, and I've done very little in the way of actual training over the past few weeks obviously... there's still time as I once again want to be fit in May and June, but there's a lot of work ahead of us sadly. I'm currently where I was in the first week of January last year. C'est la vie I guess.

the three stooges

The snow and ice has been plaguing us with it's presence here in Virginia for quite some time now. Riding has become very difficult, with temperatures in the -10C and ice covering the roads. I have been pretty much off the bike since December and am not enjoying that fact.

With a slightly warmer day on the radar a little while ago, a few of us jumped at the opportunity to get in a few miles. Chris Gould, John Parks, John Neusbaum and myself met up in Warrenton at 11am for a couple hours of riding and chatting. It was cold as heck. All was going well until we came across a stretch of road with some snow in the middle. We rode on either side of the little stretch of snow, until Chris Gould who was first in line hit some black ice as we headed up a slight incline. His rear wheel went one way, he went the other and hit the floor. I was right behind him and found myself sliding across the ice in now time, eventually turning onto my feet and hands and eventually coming to a stop just in time to see John Parks on his back sliding towards me and only coming to a stop once he got tangled up with my bike on the side of the road. John had some road rash on his butt and forw-arm, Chris cut his chin pretty deep and cut his jersey upon his chest. I got nothing. I think I was wearing so many layers (2 jerseys, 2 thick thermal jackets etc) that I was more like a michelin man bouncy-ball when I hit the ground. No one was seriously hurt, least of all John Neusbaum who didn't even see fit to hit the ground with us and join in the fun. The rest of the ride was fine, though we kept getting nervous every time we saw a shaded dark patch on the road. The crash scene was quite comedic. The three of us crashing looked like cards going down one after the other. The Three Stooges indeed!

Moral of the story is: don't ride in cold countries. I'm going to start a petition to ban cold weather. There are so many other rules and regulations in the US that I figure no one would even notice this one... and if anyone opposes my idea, I'll just sue them. :-)

I'll be back in France on Monday, where the temperatures are a little better.... but it is raining. :-(

Stay safe people, and stay out of the cold!

Darrel Parks' great CX photos

Pezcyclingnews photographer-extraordinaire Darrel Parks has some very nice photos of the Capitol Cup cyclocross race on Dec 6th... Check'em out.  Cold, mud and snow were the words of the day!

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrellparks/4180201758/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Snow sidetracks

So much for getting away to another country to get in loads of training miles.... hmmmm

After a rather longer period of inactivity than usual, I finally decided to get back on the bike and start training for the 2010 season. So on Monday I headed out for 3 hours up the mountains. Not exactly "easing" into it but I was keen, and also well aware that I don't have much longer to ride in these Appalachian mountains before heading home in early Jan. The ride up the first part of the mountain was good, however once I got near 1000m, I was surrounded by snow and even had to get off and walk across some very deep and big sections of ice. The descent back down the valley was rather cold. Needless to say I had the sniffles and sneezes a couple days later. But frankly none of that mattered... snow was on the horizon.

So, we've been stuck in the house for that last few days, with over 50cm of snow. It's been pretty cool (in all meanings of the word). Today we finally got out there and tried to get the car out of the snow. That took a few hours and felt like some serious cross-training. It was actually really good fun, and needless to say, after much shoveling and skidding with the car, the inevitable "play in the snow" ensued. Face plants, attempted slides down the hill on a trash bag... the slides didn't go too well, the snow was too deep and I ended up just getting stuck, totally covered with my face under the snow.

Fun, nothing like being a kid in the snow. And needless to say, the peacefulness is bliss out here in the hoods on Page Country!

15 hundreths of a second of fame on Pezcyclingnews

I made the pictures section of PEZ today. Thanks to Darrel Parks, Pez Photographer who was at Chip's Capitol Cross race and evidently sent a picture to PEZ of me in the lovely mismatched Castel' kit with PEz leg-warmers. I like this pic as it shows the essence of Cyclocross, running through the mud with a bike on your shoulder, and it also shows Lake Fairfax in the background and reminds me of the fun CX racing days of the late 1990s when I raced at the same venue... and of course the snow on the ground is truly epic. :-) Click the lick below to see the full-sized pic.

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/cgi/gallerypicget.asp?pic=http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/photos/races10/cross10/cap-sim.jpg

Battenkill Part 2 out now and SnowCross!

Here's the latest and the greatest hot off the press from the guys at Pezcyclingnews.com. Part 2 of my Battenkill article is out now.

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=7777&status=True&catname=Latest

Oddly enough, this was published on Dec 6th, my Birthday. Even odder still, I did a cyclocross race on Dec 6th and wouldn't you know that Pez Photographer Darrel Parks was there to snap some shots of me riding around in the mud and snow. So it was a Pez Cyclingnews day all around!

The cross race was really good fun. Thick snow and the worst mud I have seen in a very VERY long time graced us with their presence. The race turned out to be really good fun, a fantastic course and a solid hour of pain I was very happy to give myself as a birthday present.

Looks out for an article on Pez about the Capitol Cross race in Reston, put on by my old buddy Chip Sovek and Potomac Velo Club, coming soon! (Once I write it anyway... and then get is to the editor... and they publish it; so don't hold your breath.)

When things go wrong

I’m very careful, I always pin my number on upside down if I get number 13, I always say cheers before I drink, I always touch-wood after I say something that might “jinks” me, I look out for black cats crossing the road ahead of me, and yet, for the last few days, everything has been going strangely “wrong”.

After a great Thanksgiving lunch at Greg’s, with lots of great turkey and other traditional foods, Gaga and I jumped in the car and headed back down to Luray. As we got to about 5k from the house, the car started smoking and suddenly lost all power. We pulled off the road and smoke got thicker. We quickly got all our stuff out of the car and stepped back waiting for it to burst into flames. It never did thank god, and luckily there was someone nearby who offered to give us a lift home. The next day, with some helpful advice from some friend I rode my bike down to the car and actually got it started. It looks like it has a broken hose and that is all. Though for the moment it’s leaking coolant and getting through fluids like an overweight New-Yorker in Central Africa with no AC.

As if that wasn’t enough.
Having filled the car with coolant we went to Walmart to get some essential foods yesterday evening. As we were making our way gingerly home, polluting the wide Virginia roads with leaking coolant, I suddenly see flashing blue lights in the mirror. I pull over to let the guy past, put he pulls in behind me. Fair enough. Some cop doing some sort of routine check. I show him my driver’s license, and tell him I’m from overseas, and also show him my old VA driver’s license. He chooses to take the VA one. Fine, then asks for the Registration. I ask him what that might look like, we finally fine it and he says my tags are expired. I figured the car was frankly too old to still have a price tag, so “tag” must mean something else. He goes back to his car, and leave Gaga and I talking calmly talking about some of the food we had just bought, while gently leaking coolant all over the road. He eventually comes back with a fine and court date and fine for me. Still rather unsure of what he was actually talking about, and still leaking coolant, we carried on on our merry way back to the house for beer and dinner.

These things come in 3s?
That’s all very well. The hose can be fixed as soon as the garages reopen after the weekend and fine can be “pre-paid” (whatever that means) and I’ll be back home in France before you can even say Luray Police Department, but superstition says these things come in 3s… So… what next? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what the joys of international travel have in store for us next…

Battenkill Pro on Pez

Why what's this? Some idiot has written some load of gobbledygook and Pezcyclingnews.com has published it. :-)

Here's an article which came out today on the Battenkill pro race from April up in New York state which I did whist in the USA at the start of the season.

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=7699&status=True&catname=Latest

Part 2 should be out soon.

Urban Cross, USA CX race of fun

At some unearthly time in the morning, Gaelle, Chris Gould and myself piled into the car and left a very VERY misty Page country behind us as we headed to a rather misty Charlottesville for a cyclocross race called “Urban Cross”. It wasn’t actually “urban” but the park was in a town for once rather than out in the middle of nowhere as is often the case over here, so I guess that's why they called it "Urban Cross". We arrived early enough to watch Levi from the Warrenton Cycling Center do his first ever cross race, which was really cool, and I think he enjoyed it. Following Levi's race was Chris’ race. There are basically 2 ways of approaching cyclo-cross. 1) you can go all out and concentrate on the discipline, start some CX specific training in July and make CX the main aim of your year, or 2) you can take it all as a bit of fun, show up out of shape after your off season, have a blast and take it as a way of keeping active during the cold winter months. Chris and I are evidently in the latter of the 2 categories. Chris went out there, had some fun and had a pretty hard “workout” as he puts it, and that was his aim for the day. He did however find the course a little too technical for his liking...

The Course:
The organizers had actually made very good use of the space they had. Unlike last weeks "Taxidermy Cross", this course resembled more of a typical “cross” course. There were lots of corners on this “loop-di-loop” course, 3 to 4 run-ups/stairs and 1 set of barriers. The ground was sticky from the past 4 or so days of non-stop rain we’ve had, and the numerous off-camber sections and descents were treacherous to day the least. After Chris’ race we went to grab a little something to eat before my race at a more reasonable 2:30 in the afternoon. Whist scoffing a sandwitch I was watching the other category races on the day attack the course, and I can’t say I was overly looking forward to racing myself. The course looked really hard. I haven’t raced or even ridden off road for years and I don’t have the technical skills anymore for that kind of stuff. So with that in mind, as well as my month off the bike, I headed for the start line of the last race of the day, the Elite race, or A race or 1,2,3 race or whatever it is.

Turns out it was a lot of fun. After a while I kind of got into the course and had a blast. The run-ups really started to take it out of me after a while, but the constant corners and trying to get something of a “flow” on the course (and failing miserably may I add) was just really good fun. Once again I was reminded of why I wanted to do some CX racing in the US again. It really is just a lot more fun.

The whole day turned out to be a great day. The sun came out and it was actually warm for my race. I got to catch up with an old MTBing buddy from the good old days (8 or so years ago) who I hadn’t seen since I left the US back in the very early 2000s.

Mike Hosang did his race, then turned around and got on the mic for the first part of my race giving me a much appreciated “SHREWWWWS” as I past him at the end of my 1st or 2nd lap. Ahhh, the good old days. Thanks Mike, all those MTBing memories just came flooding back! The USA Cycling officials just seemed to get on with their job and weren’t “officious” as many of them seem to be for some reason. Maybe they too were feeding off the good vibes of the day’s event. Everyone out there seemed to be wearing big smiles and enjoying the day. A van was selling doughnuts and coffee all day, the sun was out, the racing was exciting, the course challenging… what more could you ask for from a cross race??? Well, except for maybe a few hundred Flems with stupid hats and bells lining the course… hmm, kind of like this guy?

The race itself saw Jared Nieters ride off to a more than commanding win over the rest of the field. Jared sadly did his “robot” once again as he crossed the line (even though I told him not to as I saw him on one of the switchbacks on the course), but aside from that minor marring of the race (sorry Jared) he was extremely impressive, and undisputably deserved to win! I rode around for a bit and finished in total anonymity as seems to be my place in cross at the moment with an 11th place on the day.

All in all, a TanFastic day.

Puzzlin' Cross Scenes

Some things I’ve seen at cross races. Some people… I don’t know.. sometimes you see stuff that just makes you frown and wonder…

Soooo… What’s with the socks? Are those compression socks… really? In a 30 or 40 min CX race? Hmmm…. I do like the look though. Gulp. Not that I can really talk with my ulgy miss-matched kit, but I don't really have a choice about that...
This is a cracker… looks like some kind of new integrated bib-seat. I like it! Might make getting on and off the bike a little hard though… so, I guess this chap just really wanted to spend the whole day in his cycling shorts… even when in normal clothes. Nice.

And then of course there’s this guy…. (Currently atop the gamjams.net website banner)

He has been popping up here and there at Cross races this year. Somebody once made a comment about him smiling.. or maybe it was about his lack of smile… well, I quite simply couldn’t resist the opportunity to post a photo of Greg in his get-up once again, just to give old Gregburt a hard time for the sake of giving him a hard time… if I keep this up he might not let me stay with him anymore and will kick me out of the house…. That’s ok, I’ll fill him with Espressos’

and bribe him with.. oh I don’t know, say THIS pic (again!) (from pezcyclingnews.com)

Sorry Greg… it’s stronger than me, I just can’t help being a jackass! And I am up at 3am for god knows what reason, I'll blame it on that!

Taxidermy Cross, Fetucini cross, Tacchino cross

A Sunday in November, and it’s actually fairly warm. In the 20s, sunny, blue skies, just a perfect day for Taxidermy cross, or was it Fettucini cross… no it was Taccini cross. The race was put on by a local, self named Italian-wanabee club called Squadra Coppi, but they are American, not Italian, hence the quasi Italian name to Sunday cool cross race. The drive up to the race had me driving on the beltway around Washington DC, it had been a few years since I’s driven on the Beltway, and it was actually quite exciting. The endless lanes of slow traffic and people hogging all lanes, was just like being in a movie. The true America, just like you see it on all those TV shows and movies about the FBI in DC.

The race course itself was a little flat. A raw power course, perfect for American crit riders. There was only 1 dismount which was a set of barriers, no run-up, and only one vague semblance of a hill which was easily rideable. Still the course was fun, the organizers had done the best with they could with the venue and there was quite a lot of twists and turns. For some reason, even on what could/should have been a dull venue, the course was once again good fun. The American’s just seem to be able to do really fun courses. There were some nice sections though the woods which reminded me of the good old MTBing days, when I had some of the best times of my life racing MTBs in the US.

The start was a little hectic with the guy in front of me struggling to get his foot in the pedal. I tried to pass him on the outside (the only place possible) and I think I scared the crap out of a photographer who ejected himself from the side of the course and threw himself into the grass. Sorry about that mate.

Frankly that was about the end of it. The start was just too fast for me, I can’t do fast starts and having been off the bike for a while the lack of fitness really showed. I ended up settling into place on the course, one guy passed me, I passed 3 or 4 later on in the race and that was about it. Joe Dombrowski won the race (as a Espoir rider!) commandingly. Levi from the Warrenton bike shop also came out to cheer me on. I think he got a bit bored after a couple laps of seeing me so far down the field.

Well, my cross season/plans are obviously out the window. The hope of carrying any end of season fitness from the road over to CX, though a good idea at the time, is clearly not working out. The fitness window has gone and I’m about as far from the sharp end of the race as is physically possible. I don’t think I have time to get any CX type fitness back before the end of the CX season over here, and although there are still a couple CX race in France in early 2010 when I get home, I don’t think it’s worth putting in the effort for just a couple races. So the plan for now is to simply keep getting my ass kicked and having fun in CX and start looking ahead onve again to the 2010 season.

I’m hoping the warm weather here will last as long as poss’. It’s was really nice out there on Sunday and this area is beautiful in the sunshine. And of course I hate the cold with a vengeance and can’t stand winter! Wednesday is Veteran’s day here in the US (well, c’est le 11 novembre en France aussi) and so we are running a ride out of Warrenton for some of the Whole Wheel Velo guys. So I’ll finally get to catch up with Scotty G once again. That should be a fun ride, be nice to see old friend and meet new people, (just so long as they ride steady and don’t attack each other all the time). Apart from that I’m also going Gaga hunting at the airport today, and have a morning “coffee ride” planned with Greg and Levi. Easy ride, followed by endless coffees…. Hmmmm, sounds a bit Australian, I love it!

Back2Ridin'

I’ve been getting back on the bike some. I’ve had a couple rides up the hill behind the house up to the top of the Appalchian mountains, with some stunning views and fantastically pleasant rides.

Over the past week I’ve had a bucket load of fun going back and forth between Warrenton and Luray riding in both areas and just slowly and pleasantly getting back into it!

So this past week, I've ridden with:

Levi in Warrenton,

Chris Gould up Skyline drive!
and John Parks in Luray...

Life is starting to take back some semblence of normality, ride, eat, sleep, drink coffee... And it isn't TOOOOO awefully cold here yet in the US of A.

Well, tomorrow is another cyclocross race, lets see if I can get past the first 100m this time. :-)

The wonders of travel

The wonders of travel, you get to see some pretty strange stuff. Half the time I don't actually have my camera with me, so a lot of the crazy stuff I see get forgotten, some of it in immortalized on my crappy phone camera however...

Well, at least this guy admits he's a redneck!

Love is a warm soft what?... Australia once again!

Get some nuts indeed!

Seen in Australia on Feb 14th. Enough said!

It really doesn't take much to amuse me!

Dim Sim?

A statement... an under-statement? Hmmm..... I could take this personally...

CX photos and some time back on the bike

I found a few photos from my cyclocross race the other day, which are pretty cool. Again, it was really great to get back out ther eon a CX bike and have some fun.

Apart form that I have actually slowly been getting back on the bike this week. With a little less caughing, I've started to feel better. I had a good time riding down the valley and up Rt211 (that's a road number) to Skyline Drive. Skyline Drive is a tourist road that follows the top of the Blue Ridge Mtn on the East coast of the US. Obviously seeing as in follows the top of the hills, it's something of a climb to get up there. Though these hills are not very high in altitude, that's actually not a bad thing for some winter SE rides. It shouldn't get TOO cold up there in winter, and the climb isn't real hard or long, which is perfect for not overdoing it in the off-season. I really enjoyed that ride (even though I felt pretty crappy by the time I got home), and there are some great views from up there.

Rt 211 is actually a 4 lane highway, so I had been a little worried about the traffic out there, but it was actually fine. With speed limits being so low here, even on a big road like that it never felt like you were really on a big road, and with that little extra space for hesitant US driver to pass, it was almost more enjoyable than riding on a small country road. Ironic.

Hopefully, I'll get out more and more and discover more of the local area. I can't wait!