2009 Fernandez Brothers Bike Tour

 Packing a bike for a 10 day bike tour isn’t as simple as it sounds. Being exposed to the unpredictable for ten days incites a desire for all sorts of gear, but each pair of socks slows you down and there’s not much room to pack. After many hours of deliberation, only these few items made the cut:

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Toothpick Holder

You’ve been on the road for days. You’ve lost count of the miles between you and home. The only things in your world are your bike and the pavement it’s rolling over like a tank in Tiananmen Square. But wait, you’re loosing speed and the consistency of your ride has gone from roller skate to rolling banana. It can’t be so! Still you hardly notice that your water bottle is empty and your granola bar is already gone because you’re confident in the situation. You’ve got your tire patches and your bike pump and if you can’t find that leak you’ll just blow up your tube and stick a handy toothpick in the hole to mark it.

In the old days, this critical situation might hinge on a flimsy plastic wrapper to protect the little wooden tool, but not on this trip!

Today I encountered wind I could barely bike into. It even brought down a couple branches around me. Plus, I spent half my effort just maintaining lane position. I’m starting to think that wind is the cyclists top performance and safetly enemy, except if you’re a Fernandez brother during the next two weeks. In that case, your enemy is your brother. That is to say, with a short few weeks until the big event, it’s time to motivate training with a little friendly competition. We will be tracking miles ridden through May 11th. As a gesture of nondescrimination in training routines, running miles will be credit three times towards cycling. This post will be updated with progress. Let’s make the Provincetown tour look easy!

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Our original course was dictated by expected living arrangements. As these have changed, so have the course plans. Henceforth, the goal will be Londonderry, NH to Provincetown, MA, a jaunt that Google paces out at 316miles round-trip. While this cuts a few miles off the overall achievment, these can easily be replaced with auxilliary excursions as suits our mood. Advantages include anticipated smoother riding along the MA east coast, the option to ride through Boston, and the chance to prove that Provincetown is only a ride away from my front door.

New York is doing fine. I checked on her today. She is still there. I figured why do a intrastate ride when I could do a interstate ride. It was my first ride by myself. There was alot of hills toward the middle of my ride. I set out to do a 25 mile loop but after riding 15.5 miles out and not seeing my turnaround point I decided to turn back and thus no loop. Here are my riding states for the day.

Time: 2hours 38minutes
Distance: 31.1 miles
Top Speed: 35 mph
Elevation: 900ft total ascent

I felt pretty good the entire ride. I didnt stop or really feel a need to rest. There is a difference when you are not carrying any load. I will go out again this weekend.

I couldnt have recaped our weekend any better. I would add that my body is very sore especially my bottom. I rushed back to stamford on monday to make class and just as I was pulling into the parking garage a girl rolled through a stop sign and I got into my 5th accident with the celica. SWEET! However, despite the conclusion the weekend was great, and I believe devon and I are well prepared for our cape cod adventure. I will continue to put my winter sleeping bag to good use.

All Loaded Up For The First Time

This weekend we loaded up our bikes for the first time with the gear we plan to use on our cape trip and had a trial run. This was our chance to evaluate lightweight hammock shelters, bike packing techniques, and our ability to achieve the required distances.  It was a successful and enjoyable weekend, but not without challenges …

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