July 24, 2010

Tour d'Burg 2010

We participated in a 25 mile bike ride a few weekends ago up in the 'Burg. The interesting thing about the Tour d'Burg ride is that there's not much of it that's actually in the 'burg. It starts and ends in Miamisburg, but the majority of the ride is through some surrounding towns.
JJ had to preform some minor surgery (aka bike maintenance) on my Dolce before we got started. I was having some trouble shifting into the larger gears, which is not so great when you're gearing up for a road ride. But because JJ is a rock star and knows how to fix just about anything, he was able to get the Dolce back in good shape in no time.
JJ's Dad and his wife joined us for the second year. We all joked that we could just skip the 25 mile ride and instead ride down to a local greasy spoon for breakfast, but since we'd all already paid our registration fees, we pushed through the early morning fatigue and all loaded up on the bikes ready for a fun morning.
That's the best part about being out on the bike. Once you get started, it's like there's this energy that sets in and you're crusin' along, enjoying the miles as they're racking up. I felt really good out there on the Dolce this year. We enjoyed a leisurely pace for the first 12 miles, enjoying the scenery along the route. One fun part about the beginning of the ride is that one of my work buddies and his girlfriend came up to the 'Burg this year for the ride. It was really fun to start off riding with them and showing them that area that I call my hometown.
We hit the rest stop at the half way point and enjoyed some refreshingly cold water and gatorade. I remembered from last year's ride, that the rest stop also had some sweet trail mix, so I was happy to see that it was there this year too - it was tasty! We caught up some friends who were riding the 50 mile ride so it was great to see them and hear how their day was going.
After we re-fueled, we got back in the saddle and headed out for the remainder of the ride. Overall, it was an awesome day spent with family and friends. After the ride, we cruised the vendor area and chilled out at TJ Chumps restaurant for the afternoon. Chumps is fun place hang out after the ride because their patio sits right along the official race course for the professional riders. So, as we were enjoying some adult beverages, every few minutes a huge pack of cyclist would fly by as they were competing in the different races.

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