Wednesday 31 July 2013

Stage 6 Niagara Falls to Portsmouth New Hampshire and the Atlantic Ocean. - Mission completed.

Last 7 days: 920 kms

The morning of the start of the last stage of this cross continent ride had me re focused and keen to get going. We have seven days of riding and the first two days to Rochester and on to Liverpool the longest days of this section. The distance is 300 kms spread over the two days, but the weather is fine and the winds are light south westerlies. 

We are now riding in the state of New York. I think it's the best riding of the whole trip, the roads are fantastic and although flat there are lots of bends and curves and there is something different around every corner. 

We have spent several days riding on roads along the Erie Canal, this is a man made canal that runs from New York City all the way up to Lake Erie. It's an amazing network that runs through much of this part of America and you can still boat up or down the canals through the old locks and through small villages and towns that were established to support the boats. 

Had a very close call today. We were just 3 miles from the hotel and one of our group did not call or signal a giant pothole. My bike almost fell into a bucket size hole and seemed to jack knife in the air, I didn't have time to think I just wrenched it back from almost crashing and a very strange angle and was very lucky not to fall. Damn got to keep concentrating. 




My favourite boat. 

An interesting thing in this part of NY is that there are quite a lot of Amish. These are the religious sect who shun technology. They are great news for cyclists. Why ?? because they dont drive cars and only use horse dawn vehicles. Why is this good  ?? It's because the road shoulder has to be wide enough for a horse drawn cart. It's fantastic 






 my room mate Mark at Fairport on the Erie Canal

The entire group is now riding thinking only of getting to the coast and we were shocked that Ohio Don was taken to hospital two nights go with fluid in his legs and also his lungs. He missed a day on the bike but is now back riding.  Your EFI status is a well treasured thing on these trips. ( Every Fucking Inch)

We rode through to Little Falls for our 3rd wet day of the trip. ( We had rain EFI that day too !! ) Little Falls is now a very empty sad town but was once a thriving city and was once home to the biggest bicycle factory in the world. One year they produced 2 million bicycles !! (before the war ) They also made the uniforms for the Union army back in the day 






Check the names of the IPA beers. 

We left New York and into Vermont State. 

 
The weather was as described, well the hot and sunny bit. 



What an amazing change to the countryside it is very hilly and very green. It's known as the Green Mountain State and it lives up to its name. We are only there for 2 riding days and we overnight in Brattlebro a great town with a vibrant alternative culture. Birkenstock sold everywhere and we could not get a milkshake in town without rice milk or whey WTF  ?? 

The ride to Brattlebro was great we climbed all morning. ( Had to find those climbing legs again ) then had a 20 km downhill into town. Some of it pretty steep with shitty road surfaces. 


How can it be artificially flavoured when its 100% arabica coffee  ?? 

Next day was in to New England, hilly hilly hilly. 

Our ride to Manchester was a roller coaster ride. It was 140 kms with a fair bit of steep climbing. We passed Phillipe (crazy Isralie ) 7 times during the day. We waited at the top of the climbs for one of our group then he rode past then we chased him down again. He was very frustrated in the end and stopped trying and sulked. Haha. At one stage we passed him and he had snot hanging down to his neck.  !!  


Graham flavoured ice cream WTF could that taste like


Yes be very careful cyclists. Walk down the gradual slope  !! 

Last day to the beach was glorious. Sunny with a decent tailwind. We just had 100 km to ride and we savoured every km. it felt a bit like the final day of the Tour de France when you see the riders chatting and in no hurry to reach the final circuits. ( but we had no final sprints) 

The beach was quite emotional ( no I didn't cry ) almost everyone had family and friends there, a crowd of about 400 turned up including press and TV, what a great laugh as we were given a police escort for the final 5 kms with flashing police lights etc etc. 

Phew, made it. 

( monkey is off my back James)







1 comment:

  1. Well done Brian ! I followed you last year on the Silk Road and I've enjoyed following you journey across the US (and a little of Canada). I'm off to do 1,100kms on a MTB in 7 days around Cambodia in 3 weeks - have a look at steveridefornokortep.tumblr.com

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