Cycling Fourth

Well, it's either going to stop raining soon or some clever person is going to invent an automatic self-replenishing chain-lube. Either one of those might be nifty, but right now I think I'd like to see a sunny day for one of our rides. The Fourth of July is coming up this weekend, which means another great ride in Sidney, led, as in year's past, by Jim Putnam. Hope you can make it, and if not, have a great holiday weekend!

Saturday, July 2nd, SIDNEY:
"Independence along the Middle Road" - a tour through the middle of Sidney & the middle of a prime farming district, in the middle of the Fourth of July weekend.
START: 9:00 AM at the James H. Bean Elementary School on Middle Road in Sidney.
Directions to the Bean School:
From south: I-95 North exit #120. Turn right at end of exit ramp onto Lyons Rd. Follow Lyons Rd. to stop sign. Turn left onto Middle Rd. Bean School is approximately one mile on the right.
From the north: I-95 South exit #120. Turn left at end of exit ramp onto Lyons Rd. Follow Lyons Rd. to stop sign. Turn left onto Middle Rd. Bean
School is approximately one mile on the right.

DISTANCE: 16 or 30 Miles.
TERRAIN: moderate with a few hills.
HIGHLIGHTS: some fine back roads and Kennebec River views, and some 4th of July paraphernalia, perhaps.
LEADER: Jim Putnam.

Capital Breakfast Ride Postponed

Due to impending weather conditions (rain and thunderstorms) tomorrow's KVBC ride in Augusta (Saturday, June 25 at 8 am) will be postponed to another date. Please forward this message to anyone you know who may be planning to ride who is not on our email list. Thanks, and we will reschedule the ride for another weekend.

A Capital Breakfast

We had a fine ride around Cobbossee Lake led by Cynthia Snow last June 11th. Despite another so-so forecast, eleven people showed up and were rewarded with a great ride. Many thanks to Cynthia!

I wasn't quite so lucky, as I was off in Vermont attempting two back-to-back centuries in the cold and rain. There was some great Vermont scenery, even wet as it was, but the Vermont roads have really taken a beating since the last time I was there. Their roads may even be worse than some of ours now, sorry to say, but still worth a trip.

Next Saturday's ride will be in Augusta, and it will include breakfast on the agenda! If you plan to come, please R.S.V.P. to Connie, the ride leader, ahead of time, so she can get an idea of the head count for breakfast after the ride. In year's past this event has been really well received, and you wouldn't want to miss it!

Saturday, June 25th - AUGUSTA

"Capital Breakfast Ride" - a tour through the streets and past the features of our capital city.

START: 8:00 AM at the parking lot of the Hussey Elementary School on Quimby Street in Augusta. Quimby is right off Rt. 100 at the traffic light across from Auclair's Cycle heading north; detailed directions here: http://www.augustaschools.org/schools/hussey_elementary_school/directions.htm

DISTANCE: 25 miles.

TERRAIN: moderate with some flat stretches riverside.

HIGHLIGHTS: breakfast, the capital, the Kennebec close up, new and intriguing routes - and did we mention breakfast?

LEADER: Connie Brown. Please R.S.V.P. if you plan to ride, so we can get a good head count for breakfast. Thanks!

The Cobbossee Odyssey

Finally some beautiful weekend weather! I hope you all were able to get out and enjoy it. Since I had to work at Colby for reunion weekend, I went out Saturday morning on an alumni ride with members of the Colby Cycling team. Not only was I the oldest one there (by far) I also had the oldest bike (by far). I dusted off my 1975 Raleigh, since I was representing the Class of '75. Both the bike and I held up OK. I brought it out again for the ride Sunday with the Central Maine Cycling Club, and again it rode really well. Would've been better if I hadn't gotten lost, but that's another story. It did get me back to the start where we had a great post-ride barbecue put together by Dave Richard and his crew, who have offered to do it again later this summer. My thanks to them all.

I hope we are in for a stretch of good weather, because Cynthia has a great ride set for this Saturday around Cobbossee Lake, followed by the Trek weekend, and Connie's breakfast ride in Augusta on June 25. Lots more to come!

JUNE 11th, Saturday: EAST WINTHROP

"A Cobbossee Odyssey": a tour around Cobbosseecontee Lake.

START: 9:00 A.M., at the parking lot of Tom's Bike Boutique, 2208 Rt.202 in East Winthrop, across from D.R Struck's Nursery.

DISTANCE: 30 miles.

TERRAIN: rolling with some challenging hills.

HIGHLIGHTS: views of Cobbossee Lake, back roads of Winthrop, Manchester, West Gardiner, Litchfield, and Monmouth.

LEADER: Cynthia Snow.

A Ride to a Barbecue

Dave Richard has graciously invited us to a joint ride this Sunday with the Central Maine Cycling Club and the Charlie's Big Wheels Trek Team in Vassalboro, followed by a post-ride barbecue/pot luck (see details under HIGHLIGHTS below). This ride is essentially a "re-do" of the joint ride we had planned last year that got washed out - a "re-do" of the RIDE, we should emphasize - NOT the "washed out" part! The weather looks like a great weekend, finally!

Sunday, June 5th - VASSALBORO

"CMCC/Charlie's Big Wheels Barbecue Ride" - a tour through the scenic back roads of Vassalboro with the Central Maine Cycling Club

START: 10:00 AM at the ride leader's house, 35 Katie Drive, off of Gray Road approx. 1/4 mile from the junction with Rt.32 in East Vassalboro (see map: http://www.mapquest.com/maps?address=35+Katie+Drive&city=Vassalboro&state=Maine&zipcode=04989)

DISTANCE: 3 or 4 route options up to 40 miles plus

TERRAIN: moderate to challenging

HIGHLIGHTS: a joint ride with the Central Maine Cycling Club/Charlie's Big Wheels Trek Team, featuring quiet back roads through a very scenic area and a post-ride barbecue; additional details at their website: http://www.irproshop.com/index.php?pr=BBQ_page

LEADER: Dave Richard.

A Single Chain Ring At-a-Time

An update on a potential KVBC ride this weekend: We have no ride scheduled for Saturday, June 4, but if the planets align properly we may have something in the works for Sunday. The tentatively scheduled ride to North Haven that was on the preliminary calendar is being reworked for a later date - the logistics are a bit more challenging than one of our normal rides, but we still hope to offer an island ride later this year. Sunday is the 10th Annual Womens Ride organized by BCM in Freeport - word is that it is a lot of fun, inspiring, and worth all the effort that goes into it. For those of us who are... what's the right word? Ineligible?... anyway, for those of us who aren't attending the ride in Freeport, we might have an alternative ride closer to home on Sunday, especially if someone jumps up and offers to lead one.

We had a fine ride last Saturday in Livermore. A bunch of us got together for breakfast before the ride at the Lunch Pad, a great little seasonal diner. Despite another dismal weather forecast, the ride came off really well. Well, at the beginning the mist was as thick as black flies (or maybe the black flies were as thick as the mist) but once we got rolling that took care of itself. There was some question as to why it was called a "single chainring tour" as there were (despite being significantly flat) a few significant hills en route. Actually it was meant to be called the "single-chainring-at-a-time tour" but I shortened it because I didn't want to be accused of being too verbose. Our thanks to Frank Rosen for another great ride. We'll see what we can drum up for this weekend. Stay tuned!