Hats off to Apex/Caty NC Cyclists!

Man, I’m tired; I came to Apex, North Carolina thinking that these flatlands would be a breeze to do with tempo running perfectly with the lack of Appalachian ridges. I was awfully wrong. First day in town, I ended up meeting someone named Tom who invited me to a fairly popular group ride. My previous obligations had me running about ten minutes late and disappointingly missing the ride. Luckily my Garmin came in handy, and I had a few popular local routes installed as courses. Setting off alone in this new town was exciting and none the bit scary; it was so great to be riding in a place other than North Central WV for a change.

Several miles down the road, caught up to an older gentleman name Matt/Mark/Something… I can’t remember his name right of the bat… Asked him if we could take turns pacelining, and he agreed. This guy stated he was on a recovery ride today, and he was only planning on a 35 mile ride. That sounded perfect to me. About ten miles in, I was blowing up on every pull. The tempo was crazy. While Matt was cruising at this speed, I was pushing myself to near-anabolic to keep up and hold his wheel. Knowing when to secede from a hopeless battle, I asked which direction I should go to get to a road that I could recognize and get back to the hotel on. We parted ways, and I was solo again.

Passed four or five cyclists on the way back to Salem Road. It wouldn’t surprise me if I was doing some local popular ride backwards; I’m always guilty of starting off in the exact opposite direction that a ride loop is supposed to go…

I kept my pace up as well as I could to make the most of this unexpected hammerfest I volunteered for. I would have hated to seen what it would have been like riding with the A group or B group riders if I had made it there in time. It was just a different world to me.

Oddly enough riding that much on the flats also caused me to sit differently on the bike, and the pinched nerve in my shoulder started to give me issues. I also seemed to be riding in a way that was using my hips more. I guess I would need to modify my fit or adapt to this foreign area in order to optimise my position.

I have to hand it to this area though, there is an abundance of stores, suburbs, and interesting opportunities to be had, but go out five or six miles in some directions and the land is either residential with acreage, or farmers still making a living on crops or holding out on selling. It is nothing like the rural roads of WV, but it is a very welcoming atmosphere. Is nccycling.net registered? 😛

The bike shops in the area  are top-notch. The Bicycle Chain was a very sharp and modern store, but still felt welcoming with items and resources suitable for anyone! The store employees were witty, intelligent, and more than “this is just my job” type of friendly. I was glad they were willing to lend a hand to someone from out-of-state in learning the area and to true a wheel.

If you are ever staying in North Carolina near the Raleigh/Durham area, you have no choice but to check out this area!

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Dick’s = Blacklisted

Internet was out again, and it was 18*F outside, so I decided to take a road trip up to Dick’s Sporting Goods to see if they had any 100-gram butane tanks for my camping stove. Once there, I was stunned at the lack of variety for the things they carried. I tend to blame these kinds of issues on those little store inventory guns you see at Walmart, grocery stores, and other large stores. The automatic inventory and data of what is selling and what is not allows the store to “streamline” their products and only stock what seems to be selling. This usually screws the most people over by removing all variety from their selection.

This is reason #1 why I have blacklisted Dick’s Sporting Goods from my shopping list.

Out of curiosity, I ended up meandering through their bicycle section (I refuse to call it a cycling section). Surprisingly enough, they sell two or three brands of cycling clothes in a very limited supply. I guess it wouldn’t be bad if you were in dire need…

Their bicycle handling and selection was as much of a joke as Walmart’s though. Mostly children’s bikes, cruisers and overweight mountain bikes kept their selection too depressing to really delve into. Here are some photos:

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Sunday Post: Best Ride of January

Went out yesterday for the best ride of the month. It hit 54*F, and I swear… I must be of european descent, because once the weather gets warm all I want to ride is my road bike. No one else showed up at the bike shop with a road bike, so I led a pack of MTB’ers to the base of Stonecoal Wildlife Reserve, and spun around while they did a tempo run up Widowmaker.

Took a neat photo out on the road, too 🙂

Unfortunately all I had brought with me was my cell phone. It was disappointing. There was this awesome ice tower and the photo doesn’t do it justice. Justice…. just ice… haha.

I’ve also really been thankful for the days becoming longer once again. Sunlight was out ’til like 6:00pm or so today. I can’t wait for weekend rides lasting three or so hours.

I’ve also put a little banner declaring ad space for sale on the site. If you’re a LBS or small business wanting some of the best web publicity involving West Virginia cyclists, there is no better place to lay your money down at but here.

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Local Bike Shop Interview: Fat Tire Cycle

Today’s post is an interview with a LBS in Buckhannon, WV: Fat Tire Cycle with owner Gene Wells.

Gene Wells is well… a swell guy (see what I did there?) He is active in many aspects of his community as a business person should, but you can also tell he cares about everything he does. He can also kick most of the people in town’s butt in speed and distance on a bike, yet he chooses not to. (sometimes!)

(I’ll let you know before this interview gets through that he is my main mechanic, I was sponsored by him during my tenure as President of the Cycling Club/Team at West Virginia Wesleyan College with the standard collegiate store discount. I have also purchased a pretty sweet rig from him, my ’09 Gary Fisher Cobia. All in all, we have a pretty good relationship by means of business and also friendship.)

With that out-of-the-way, let’s get to the Q&A!

1.) First of all, tell us about your history, how did you get into cycling?

Well, I got into cycling in 1972. I was doing a lot of cross-country racing, and touring in the area around Pleasantville, Pennsylvania. I remember getting my first road bike in that town in 1973.

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