I forgot to mention the bee incident

Also on Sunday, a few miles prior to the broken shift cable incident, I had a bee (or yellowjacket) incident.

I was riding along on Aebischer Rd. when I saw this flying insect slam into my neck area and the next thing I feel is an intense pain in the same spot. Apparently I had collided into a bee or a yellowjacket, and he/she was not at all happy about the fact and let me know it. And let me tell you, I wasn't at all pleased about it either.

I almost called the ride quits then, but I suppose in hindsight, it was a good thing I continued on to have the broken shift cable incident, because otherwise I would have discovered the bad cable on my next ride. Two bad experiences in a single ride seems better than two bad experiences spread over two rides.

So today, I'm suffering from very itchy discomfort. It kept me awake last night, and I'm pretty sure it won't change tonight.

- Mark

Broken shift cable

Well, my intention for today was to go 55-60 miles, but it was cut short after a little over an hour when I suddenly discovered my rear derailleur wasn't working quite right. It was on long downhill, so for a few minutes I though something had just jammed and given a little fiddling things would straighten out. But after discovering nothing was working, I finally elected to roll into a field and stop.

Once stopped, I looked and to my dismay saw that the rear derailleur cable had simply broken where it attaches to the derailleur. A non-shifting rear is a bit impossible to continue on, since what happens is that the shifter ends up on the smallest cog, and it's just impossible to ride up any inclines in that gear.

So I hope to be able to find a few hours now in the middle of the week to do a longer ride. It's now less than a month to the LIVESTRONG ride.

Portland Bridge Pedal

Today was organized chaos at its best. There were an estimated 18,000 cyclists on the bridges of Portland today.

The first half was an incredibly frustrating ride due to "traffic jams" caused by funneling cyclists from wide roads onto narrow trails, from slow downs and stoppages at the top of bridges as people stopped to take in the sights, try to grab some refreshments, get pictures taken, etc.

Once the route hit highway 30, it was clear sailing, except for the occasional bunch of riders who don't quite seem to know to keep right if you're not passing someone... Then up the St. John's Bridge and onto a long downhill on Willamette Drive back to the center of Portland. This second half was much more enjoyable, as I finally got to maintain a nice, steady 20+ mph on the flats, and 35+ mph on the downhill.

I rode 33.33 miles (according to my bicycle computer, though the official route was supposed to be 35 miles) over ten bridges. The computer says the front wheel was rolling about 2 hours and 40 minutes, though I know I was on course for considerably longer than that.

For me, it's much more stressful to be plodding along and trying to pass bunches of riders than it is to ride alongside 55 mph highway traffic. I had a little nap after getting back home to recover from the morning stress.

-Mark

Easy weekend

I didn't ride at all this weekend as I'm taking a little break before resuming my training for the next six weeks.

Instead of riding, we had a neighborhood block party yesterday afternoon, and I volunteered at the finish line of the Oregon MS150 bicycle ride today. I rang cow bells, cheered in the finishers, and handed out medals. I think it's a good idea for cyclists to experience the other side of charity rides.

Next Sunday is the Bridge Pedal, so I need to get back on the bike and put in some miles over the rest of the week.

Mark