2007 TOSRV (Tour of Scioto River Vallery)

This was the second time that Bob, Mark, Mike and I rode TOSRV - the first was 2005. In 2006 the weather forecast looked nasty and some of us thought that our age, judgement was the better part of valor, while some of us (Mike) declared the rest of us prima-donna wussies.

So this year, we were committed to riding in flippers and snorkels if needed, and our party was joined by Rusty and Kevin. Rusty and Kevin were riding hybrids, so I rode my new Surly LHT -- I figured I'd ride with the hybrids, and the chance to put 200 miles on my new LHT on a supported ride was too good to pass up.

We left the PIT airport at 2:30 pm in two vans, and arrived in Columbus around 6:30pm.

Approaching Columbus we stopped for bagels and cream cheese (and Starbucks). At the hotel we checked into our rooms, unpacked our stuff, then wwnt to the packet pickup / trade show in the basement. It was well run, I bought a few extra T-shirts as gifts for my kids, and I bought a high-viz green windbreaker for $35 which I was very glad to have on Sunday morning.

We stayed at the Hyatt which was very accomodating of the cyclists, even handing out soft rags cut from old pillow cases at the check-in desk so we wouldn't ruin their towels cleaning our bikes. For dinner we walked a few blocks to an excellent restaurant, Due Amici, where Kevin's cousin Curt met us for dinner.

We spent a certain amount of time tweaking our bikes, doing things we should have done a week ago, obsessing over the weather channel, and eventually got to bed.

We learned in 2005 that breakfast is both hard to find and important, so we had a breakfast of our bagels and cream cheese we'd bought on the drive in, along with coffee from the hotel lobby Starbucks kiosk.

The forecast for the first day (southbound) was perfect - clear skies, mild temps, and a strong tailwind out of the north.

Bob had brought some crime-scene tape so we could mark our overnight bags as being in one group - the JayCee's had agreed to deliver our bags to the church where we were overnighting. We loaded our overnight bags into the JayCee's truck hoping that we would see them again, and the JayCees took very good care of us.

Conditions for Saturday's ride were perfect, except that the expected north tailwind didn't materialize. The route was safe and well-marked, the rest stops were upbeat and well-stocked, it was everything you could ask for.

At the lake rest stop, we enjoyed the break but we were all still marveling at what an ideal day it was.

At about the 90-mile mark our group had mostly mustered at a country convenience store, a bunch of bicyclists walking around in their funny shoes, strange costumes, and a wide variety of bicycles, when we heard a low roar in the distance and a motorcycle club on their weekend ride pulled in. To me, it was a really funny mix - two groups of bikers, all dressed funny; I wondered which seemed stranger to the store clerk. I asked one of them, which group do you think is dressed funnier? He seemed to get a kick out of that. Their motorcycle club grew out of Ohio's oldest bicycle club, so there's a common thread somewhere in there. They were very nice people.

Jennifer, a rider who'd joined our group, met a long-lost high school classmate among the motorcyclists. We enjoyed watching the reunion.

Entry into Portsmouth was uneventful, it was just a remarkable day - perfect conditions, good company, the bikes and equipment did well. We stopped at the church that was letting us flop for the evening, and remarkably our bags were there waiting for us - it was almost too good to be true.

We road to Tracy Park where the festival was underway, hot dogs and beer and massage tents - a nice place to end the day. Apparently, two bicyclists (who'd originally met at TOSRV) were married at the park (they finished a bit earlier than we had).

We went to the All You Can Eat Dinner at All Saints Church (excellent and friendly, just like in 2005) then we took to our lodgings.

Up early in the morning, we all performed our ablutions, loaded up our bikes for the day, then positioned our overnight bags for the Jaycees to pick up.

Went to the Pancake Breakfast at All Saints, another well-run event, featuring the world-famous pancake-throwing chef Chris Cakes.

Fortified with a good breakfast and running out of reasons to delay our departure, we pushed off at around 0700. It was a cold morning in the river valley, but fortunately there was no morning fog like we saw in 2005. It sure was a cold morning.

As we came out of Portsmouth and turned north onto our route, we found a strong headwind - the north wind which didn't materialize Saturday had arrived on Sunday, now presenting a 15-20 knot headwind. "This is going to be a day for teamwork", Kevin said, and he was exactly right.

Pacelines were the order of the day, and we saw a fantastic demonstration of the effectiveness of a good paceline in a strong headwind. It was just a tough, constant, energy-sapping headwind. Bob, Mike, and Mark (on the road bikes) joined a paceline of speed warriors, while Rusty, Kevin and I rode together, occasionally joined by similar riders.

It was still a wonderful day - it warmed up after 10am, no rain - but the wind was unrelenting. There was nothing to be done about it but ride and endure, and I was really impressed at the first-timers, who hadn't seen this distance before but really bore it well.

On Saturday when we pulled into the rest stops, we were fresh and still had plenty of energy, but on Sunday at the rest stops (and at my impromptu stops) I was drained and tired.

The second half of the day Sunday we were joined by Kevin, who's a network engineer working at a home-network startup. He was a nice guy and I enjoyed talking/riding with him, we had a very geeky discussion of Internet Protocols.

There were 2530 registered riders.

What we should have done was realigned the carpool, so the guys with road bikes could go home in one van, and the guys with the hybrids could go home later in the second van.

The ride was great. My LHT did well - I love the bike - and putting 200 miles into my new Brooks saddle was a good thing to do.