Winchester Wheelmen March 2003 Newsletter

Our July club meeting was held at Donato’s “Only for You!” Restaurant. To follow are the highlights of the last meeting:

Old Business:

· Vermont Cycling Trip – August 9-16, 2008

Robert Golightly reviewed the week’s itinerary and provided a tentative ride schedule to those who plan to attend. Couples will stay in one house, while singles will be in the other. Robert plans to leave at 8 a.m. on Saturday, August 9, if anyone is interested in traveling together.

· Cyclist News

Fellow club member Stan Reeves is now undergoing pool therapy, but continues to be unable to put any weight on his hip.

· FCPR Bike Tour

The FCPR Bike Tour has been cancelled due to a lack of participants.

· Executive Board Meeting

An executive board meeting was held on Sunday, June 29 at the residence of Mike and Rosalie Perry. Discussed was the creating of committees to encourage member participation.

New Business:

· Treasury Report

No report this month.

· Committees

Trail Maintenance:

Robert Golightly has offered to chair the committee to oversee the maintenance at Vance’s Cove. Steve and Cathy Breeden will co-chair the CWPT 3^rd Battle site maintenance.

Banquet Committee:

Erik Beatley and Shawn Carrico will co-chair the organization of the annual Christmas banquet.

Special Events Committee:

*A Banana Split Ride has been scheduled for August 24 at the residence of Mike and Rosalie Perry. The ride will begin at 4 p.m., a circuit route from the Perry home, followed by ice cream at 5:30 p.m.

*A summer picnic is being planned for later in September at Clearbrook Park. Shawn has volunteered to head a committee to organize this event.

Safety Committee:

This committee is on hold until the club has a safety/cycling education instructor.

· Race Team Updates

Erik Beatley won his first race 2 weeks ago. Congratulations Erik! Eric Dempster placed second in the Tour of Tucker County. Another accomplishment by the WWRT is Kenneth Morris’ advancement from a CAT 5 to a CAT 4 rider. Kenneth Morris addressed the club about the Page Valley Bicycle Club, who are looking for Wheelmen to help marshal courses, participate in races, and possibly coordinate joint activities with the Wheelmen. This discussion was initiated by Hawksbill Bike Shop, who is sponsoring races on August 3 and August 24. Erik Beatley presented Mike Perry of Blue Ridge Bicycles a framed mini WWRT jersey and team photo for the shop’s sponsorship of the team.

Physiology Corner

By Dave Albecker

(VO2max Revisited)

With the Tour de France running full blast, and a reference to VO2max included in the recent Lemond article from Men’s Journal, I thought it might be a good topic for the August newsletter. My intention is to be brief but informative in this description of VO2max. For this article, I again used the Exercise Physiology text by McArdle, Katch, and Katch as well as this article from the web http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/VO2max.html.

VO2max is maximal oxygen uptake. As the name implies, oxygen uptake occurs at the lungs where oxygen is taken up by the body. We breathe in air, which is 21% oxygen. Those oxygen molecules cross a very thin, watery membrane between tiny air sacs in the lungs and pulmonary capillary blood. Once in the bloodstream, they are loaded onto hemoglobin and travel to the exercising muscle.

In fact, oxygen uptake is a flow of oxygen into the body and it is measured by having the athlete cycle on an ergometer. Open-circuit spirometry, attached to the cyclist via a mouthpiece, measures the oxygen inhaled and the oxygen exhaled. Although it is a bit more complex, basically, the difference between inhaled and exhaled oxygen is the amount that has been taken up by the body.

The ergometer workload is progressively increased until a maximum is reached where the athlete cannot push any harder. The associated maximal oxygen uptake is VO2max. The units for oxygen uptake are mls of oxygen per minute, but most physiologists index this oxygen flow rate to body weight so it becomes ml oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min). The reason for this indexing is that if a 220 lb wrestler and a 135 lb cyclist both have the same VO2max in ml/min, when you divide that flow rate by the body weight of each, you find that the lighter cyclist has a higher oxygen uptake per unit of working muscle.

In some articles you read, VO2 will be referred to as oxygen consumption. This is also accurate, because where oxygen uptake occurs at the lungs, oxygen consumption occurs at the working muscles where that oxygen is consumed. The two are the same in quantity if everything is working normally. There seems to be a large genetic component for VO2max and according to the articles, the highest ever recorded was 94 ml/kg/min by a cross-country skier; Greg Lemond’s was 93 and Lance Armstrong’s was 82.

That may be true, because VO2max is only part of the picture. Lactate threshold, as a percentage of VO2max, is considered more important by many coaches. Lastly, VO2max decreases with age at approximately 10% per decade, and has gone down by as much as 43% in some retired elite athletes from about age 25 to age 50.

- Dave Albecker

Nancy’s B-day Ride Report

The ride started with seven riders on time with seven riders (Mark & Sarah Brewer, Robert Golightly, Melinda Morris (who was doing her first ride in excess of 30 miles), Charmaine, Nancy & Shawn Carrico). The weather was normal for late July, very hot, humid, and sunny. We departed the Stephens City Food Lion parking lot just after 10:30 and headed backwards on the Tuesday evening loop at a moderate pace, stopping to regroup frequently as some on the ride weren’t familiar with navigating their way thru the Stephens City subdivisions.

Fortunately, once we got into Clarke County, we were riding in the shade frequently; and, since we were generally headed in an easterly direction towards the river, we descending overall. The planned route called for one rest stop at the Shenandoah Farms Market at mile 24 on the Howellsville Road in Warren County. At about mile 20, we met Mike Perry who was riding the course in reverse to meet us, as he couldn’t make it to the start on time due to Jack – the Perry’s new Border Collie puppy – not feeling up to par. So, now we’re up to 8 Wheelmen riders.

At the rest stop, Mike tells us that he’d already turned around and latched on with another group of about 15 cyclists thinking that was our ride, only to discover that he didn’t know a single rider and that, more importantly, they weren’t having ice cream at the end of the ride. After a nice relaxing rest at the market, we shoved off for the fairly shaded ride along the river to the low water bridge on Morgan’s Ford road, the low point of the ride.

Once across the bridge, we encountered our first steep climb of the day, which also happens to be in the shade most of the way. From there, we wind our way up thru Bowling Green Country club to Rockland Road where we encounter three more riders, at the intersection of Ashby Station Road, reversing the route to meet up with us so they too can enjoy ice cream at the end. It was Jen Beatley, Tina Genay and Katie Steadman, the Winchester Wheelmen Women’s Triathlon Team; the three of them had driven to Warrenton at 4:30 to compete in the BRATS triathlon. Katie and Tina were 1^st and 2^nd overall and Jen, making her Tri racing debut, finished 2^nd in her age group. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! go out to the three of them.

After a few minutes of rest at that intersection we headed across Ashby Station Road towards our second and last big climb of the day, Double Church Road, which doesn’t provide for much shade. At this point I think everyone on the ride, all eleven of us could already taste the ice cream. With about two miles to go, Nancy & I caught up to Robert, Katie and Tina, who had gained quite a bit of ground on us climbing the hills at the beginning of Double Church Road. At this point, Nancy’s competitiveness from her days as a runner began to show as she started increasing our cadence to lead us by them from the stoker’s seat of Robert’s tandem that we ride.

Upon arriving back at the Food Lion about 3.5 hours after we’d left, we discover Rosalie Perry standing in front of her car, which happens to be parked diagonally across two parking spaces with a very colorful “HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCY” banner covering the entire windshield; she tells us it was Mike’s idea to do that.

Once we all regrouped in the parking lot, we ventured over to McCoy’s, the new dairy/snack bar which opened July 1^st next to the BB&T bank in the front of the parking lot. Everyone was quite pleased with the choices and portions they served.

- Shawn Carrico

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C&O Canal Ride Report – Saturday, 21 June 2008

This is a combined and edited report from Shawn Carrico, Ken Tenney, and Josh Lewis.

Here's a brief report of what it's like to ride the C&O Canal from Cumberland to Georgetown in a day. Participants: Josh Lewis, Ken Tenney, David Judkins, Nancy Morrison & Shawn Carrico (riding the tandem).

0430 - We shove off from the Holiday Inn in Cumberland in a heavy, dense fog - read as visibility nearly non-existent at times.

We were scheduled to meet our very excellent SAG team of Chris and Elizabeth Stubbs along with David’s parents at Little Orleans (44 miles into the ride) at 0730. We didn't actually start making decent time until we passed thru the
Paw Paw Tunnel. We arrive at the rest stop somewhere between 0800 and 0830 to find a spread of food better than any fully supported ride I've done.

Next we're off to ride to the lunch stop at Williamsport a mere 41 miles of high-frequeny vibrations with some big bumps thrown in for good measure. Somehow Nancy and I got split up from the rest when the only mechanical of the day occurred - Ken's flat tire. With about 16 miles to go we see a familiar jersey (WW retro jersey) up ahead in the distance; turns out to be Jon Hicks. Jon turns around and provides a rolling escort to clear other trail users out of our way, allowing us to roll along at a very respectful 16 to 18 mph. We arrive at the stop at about noon. Ten minutes later the others arrive. Once again Chris had an amazing spread set out on two picnic tables. After about 30 minutes of gorging on sandwiches, fruit, Gatorade and water, we shove off for our next leg of 35 miles, which includes a detour with climb, which would normally not seem to steep. But, after pedaling for nearly 100 miles off-road on a rigid bike, it seemed very steep. We meet up for a water stop Taylors Landing at MP 81, which is 105 miles into the ride due to the detour being about a mile longer than the distance it avoids on the canal. The water stop was reasonably quick - would have been much quicker had I not opted to change shorts.

We next ride 16 more bumpy miles to our second lunch stop of the day at Dargons Bend, a mere 121 miles into the day. Chris had an amazing spread set out once again that even included boiled red potatoes. Did I mention Chris is the best SAG person I've ever encountered? This turns out to be a very long stop as I was starting to show signs of heat exhaustion.

Our next section included passing by Harpers Ferry where there must have been hundreds of people floating in the river. Some 20 miles later we arrived at Noland's Ferry for a brief water stop. And shove off again for our dinner stop at Riley's Lock at MP 23. This was a very grueling 22 mile section, which took us nearly 2 hours to complete - by this time we were stopping briefly every 10 to 12 mile to give our butts a break and to stretch our backs.

We arrive to find Chris and Elizabeth and Mr. and Mrs. Judkins have everything spread out next to the cars for us. We eat, drink and retrieve our lights as we now realize there's no way we're going to make it to MP 0 in the daylight. As I didn't want to deal with the weight of my headlamp on my head, I rig my helmet with the light mount on our trunk bag which was mounted to the front rack.

We shove off for the final leg of our scheduled 185 mile journey. We then encountered the best section of trail we had seen in nearly 16 hours of riding from just passed Riley's Lock to Great Falls. Then it was back to the usual bumps and high frequency vibrations. This 23 mile section took us nearly 2 hours to complete. As we entered Georgetown, partiers were offering us beer - we passed as bike handling skills were becoming sketchy as we were all growing very tired. We finally arrive at Thompson's Boat Center (location of MP 0) only to find it posted with no trespassing signs and decided not to take any chances as there were plenty of police in the immediate area.

Bottom line. We completed our journey in 17 hous 58 minutes and 52 seconds.

Some highlights also included Josh nearly getting forced into the river just before the detour when he encountered on coming bikes with panniers on one of the rock walls. Ken whining that his a$$ hurt and he wanted to go home -
before we even traversed the short distance from the hotel to the beginning of the canal. Nancy's feet frequently getting jarred out of the pedals when yours truly pick too rough of lines. Ken apologizing to the frogs when he
hit one between Great Falls and MP 10. Me not being able to calculate distances to go to the rest stops when looking at MP numbers.

Overall a great time was had by all.
- Shawn Carrico, June 22, 2008

---

One little thing to add... At about MP 4, Josh almost made header into the Canal, as the towpath ended and we had to divert to bridge over a watery side cut, then back onto the towpath. Um, would have been totally obvious in daylight, but in the night time, even with very bright lights (luckily), it was pretty close! No harm done.

I have to say, I'm feeling pretty dang tired today, but not bad at all. No soreness or other body malady (knocks on wood). I wore the WWRT team kit and it worked out really well for comfort, though it's a shade darker right
now due to needing an urgent washing (my sore bum comment from below was a joke, really.) Shawn's rough patch on the bike from the heat lasted for some time, but fought through it toughly. Many people would have pulled the
plug, but he did a great job.

The ride was a great, successful event because of all the planning put into it and then the follow-on execution. Chris took his inability to ride due to injury in stride and became the Master SAG provider along with Elizabeth. I concur with Shawn about level of support for a ride; Chris and Elizabeth did the best job possible. To have the chow zones be utterly stress free made the rest of the ride easier. Another thanks to both of them is appropriate. (Dave Judkins from Maryland did the ride too, and his parents really helped us out when we had a bad stop at Noland's Ferry.)

Why did I do it? Because I always wanted to ride the Canal, but never wanted to do the 3 day version, and couldn't get coordinated for the 2 day version for the last several years. The 1 day version never entered my mind until Steve Breeden suggested it last Fall. Maybe it was a lark, but Chris picked up on it, and the wheels started rolling, figuratively and literally. As a celebration of the summer solstice, this was a great event. I might also add that the weather was just about made to order. Cool, long morning, fairly low humidity, bright sun. The chance of afternoon thunderstorms never cropped up. We had the briefest light rain at about MP 5, then just a bit of drizzle. We were concerned at Great Falls at MP14, when we could see a lot of lightning in the distance and fairly close, and the winds kicked up after a really windless day. Nothing came from that, which was good.

After the fact, I think it still stands that a very lightly built mountain bike or a cyclocross bike are best for this trek. We were all appropriately equipped, but the flat I had was unexpected, as I'd done a virtually microscopic inspection of tires the day before. But it was glass shard or equally sharp little rock. C'est la vie. The thing that would have stopped it would be a tire liner, which I'd discounted as using because I hadn't had any problem with the tires to date...

I think our moving avg. was somewhere around 14.0mph. We stopped a lot, but it was all okay. This was a great ride and a great day. The only thing I'd change was Shawn falling ill. Everyone got along well and rode together well, also. (Shawn said he wants to make this an annual event. Any takers?)
- Ken Tenney, June 22, 2008

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It was a great ride. A long day in the saddle, sure, but we got to see a lot of beautiful scenery and wildlife along the way. At one point we followed two deer that bounded along the path just in front of us for quite a ways--for a couple of minutes. Fox, kamikaze squirrels, birds, frogs, you name it, we saw it.

The near miss into the canal at MP4 was particularly funny because Ken had just 5 minutes before expressed fear of the path suddenly ending. I had given a chuckle, then found myself about to dive right in!

As for the best bike to do the Canal with, the cyclocross bikes worked well. Although there was a gentleman, Nigel, we met who schooled us on an older rigid hybrid with toe clips and straps. He started an hour after us and passed us by MP 100 (85 miles in)! We never saw him again, though our SAG team gave him water a time or two later on.

Again, thanks to Chris for putting this together and to the rest of the SAG team for their provision and support!

I'd be up for doing it again next year.
– Josh Lewis, June 23, 2008

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Chris & Elizabeth Stubbs at Little Orleans, along with the mother ship.

In Georgetown

Future/Out of Area Rides

Aug. 2, Mountain Mama, Monterey, VA - www.bikemountainmama.homestead.com/
Aug. 9, Cumberland Valley Century, Boonesboro, MD - www.bikecvcc.com/cvcc_century.html
Aug. 16, Cheat Mountain Challenge, Snowshoe, WV - www.wvcf.org/cmc/
Aug. 24, Blue Ridge Extreme Afton, VA - www.blueridgeextreme.com/
Sept. 6, Civil War Century, Baltimore, MD – http://www.baltobikeclub.org/index.pl/cwcpicsb
Sept. 14, Shenandoah Bicycle Club 100, Harrisonburg, VA - http://www.svbcoalition.org/

· Sept. 18-22, The Battle of North Valley's Hills, Strasburg, VA - www.forba.org

Sept. 20-21, Ride in the Heartland - www.bikeheartland.org
Sept. 21, PPTC Historic Backroads Century, Berryville, VA – www.pptcbike.org
Sept. 28, 11^th Cannonballball Century, Fredericksburg, VA - www.bikefred.com
Oct. 4, Seagull Century, Salisbury, MD - www.seagullcentury.org

Winchester Wheelmen August 2008 Ride Schedule

Weekday Rides

Monday. White Post Loop, starting at White Post Restorations. No ride leader. Meet at White Post Restorations at 6:00pm for an 18 mile loop. Here's a URL for the map for where White Post Restorations is located, for anyone who might not know: http://www.whitepost.com/about.html Here's the URL for loop map:
http://www.winchesterwheelmen.org/Maps/White%20Post-Rockland.pdf

Monday. Hill-climbing training ride. Easier paced climbing ride starting from Apple Pie Elementary School. This road ride will be led by Robert Golightly on Monday evenings at 6:30pm. Dist. is 18-20 miles. Robert may be reached at RobertGolightly@comcast.net or by telephone at 540-535-9986. (Monday the 11^th will be excluded.)

Tuesday. Stephens City Food Lion Plaza, 2 rides starting at 6:00pm and 6:05pm. First ride is fast with no stops or regrouping; second ride will be lead by either Ken Tenney or Chris Stubbs or a guest leader, and will move at about 18mph with stops to regroup at all stop sign intersections.

Wednesday. All Comers Road Ride, Ride starts at Orchard View Elementary School on Middle Road (about 3 ½ miles south of Valley Avenue); Richard Hartman and DJ Arnold are sharing the ride leader duties. Ride starts at 6:00pm. The pace of this ride will be 12-14 mph which is an easy to moderate pace over rolling terrain.

Wednesday, Wednesday Evening MTB Ride, Meet at the Millbrook H.S. entrance to the 3^rd Winchester Battlefield Trail at 5:30pm; no ride leader; helmets required; please check the WW listserv prior to heading out for this ride.

Thursday, The Retired/Day Off Ride. The Retired/Day Off Rides will continue in August, still leaderless. August 7th and 21st will start at Marker-Miller's Farm Market on Cedar Creek Grade (~50 miles over hilly terrain). August 14th and 28th will start at Macedonia Church and go to Millwood with a stop at Locke's Store (27 to 32 miles to be decided by the group present). Ride start is 8:30am to beat most of the heat of the day.

Thursday, Paceline Ride, Meet behind the Quarles gas station/convenience store at the intersection of Kimble Rd (SR 653) and VA 7 in Clarke County. The new loop is 27 miles. Ride starts at 6:00pm. Park anywhere behind the store in the grass, leaving the gravel driveway clear in case the truck needs to get to the septic tank. Parking straight in towards the trees will allow plenty of parking slots. Please do not park in the paved parking area since that is used by customers.

Winchester Wheelmen August 2008 Ride Schedule

Weekend Rides

Location change! Saturday road rides. Meet at James Wood Middle School. Start time is 8:00am, weather permitting. No ride if raining. Ride loop will vary depending upon riders present. There is no ride leader for this ride.

Saturday, August 2nd – Sky-Mass, Front Royal, VA. This road ride is approximately 84 miles. Meet at the old Warren Co HS in Front Royal at 7:20am. Ride will depart at 7:30am. Ride leader – Ken Tenney, ktenney@visuallink.com or 540-722-9224.

Sunday, August 3rd - Impromptu Ride, Orchard View Elem. School, Fred. County, VA. Meet at the school at 9:00am for a road ride to be determined by those riders present. The school is about 2.5 miles from the City limit sign on Middle Rd.

Sunday, August 10th - Belle Grove Ride, Winchester, VA. Meet at James Wood Middle School at 9:00am for this club classic. Ride pace is easy to moderate over rolling terrain, distance is 40 miles. DJ Arnold is leading, ti22c6@yahoo.com or 540 869-5663.

Sunday, August 17th - Rookie Ride, Frederick County, VA. Meet at Marker Miller Farm Market on Cedar Creek Grade at 4:00pm for a 10-12 mile ride. Ride pace will be easy with no one left behind. Ride leaders will ride with the last riders. The format is to help new road cyclists with riding techniques for being on the road and with a group. Or if you just want a short easy ride, come on out. Mike and Rosalie will lead. mperry@visuallink.com or (540) 877-1795.

Sunday, August 24th- Winchester Wheelmen's Banana Split Ride, Winchester, VA. Join us for an annual treat. This is a family-oriented road ride. Ride time is 4:00pm. Banana splits start at 5:30pm. From Mike and Rosalie Perry’s home on Wildflower Lane (off of Singhass Rd, west of Winchester, south of Round Hill (western version)). There will be 2 loop rides to chose from.
- Ride Option 1: Marker Miller and back (8 miles)

- Ride Option 2: Marlboro loop of 20 miles
NOTE: You do NOT have to ride at all to eat ice cream. (Non riding family members are welcome as well as non riding club members.) Please RSVP to Mike and Rosalie at (540) 877-1795 or mperry@visuallink.com. Traditionally, we’ve had nice, large turnouts for this event. Come on out and meet your fellow club members and share a good time.

Sunday, August 31st - Ride on the Western Maryland Trail, Hancock, MD. We will meet at JWMS at 8:00am or at Hancock at 9:00am at the Western Maryland Trail paved parking lot on Main Street. This will be an easy paced 22 mile family ride. Contact Ken at 540-722-9224 or ktenney@visuallink.com.

GENERAL CLUB RIDE NOTES
Approved helmets are required for all rides. If you are not a club member, you must sign a waiver prior to the ride. For all scheduled rides with a designated ride leader, please contact the leader for details (confirmation that the ride is a 'go', weather concerns, other). For rides without a leader, visit the Winchester Wheelmen Topica listserv for the latest information. The direct link to that web page is: http://lists.topica.com/lists/wwlist You can read all of the postings without joining the list.

Note: Impromptu rides are set up when no one has volunteered to lead a ride. Where they go and how far they go is determined by the cyclists who show up to ride. They are planned for those who can’t always make a commitment to a day or time. If you would like to see an impromptu set up at a different location or time, let your newsletter editor know (ktenney@visuallink.com). Better yet, volunteer as a ride leader. Rides can be short or long, morning or afternoon.

Winchester Wheelmen August 2008 Newsletter

Volume 25, Number 8

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