North Carolina has tons of beautiful locations. Apex NC has the culture, scenery, topography, and shopping/entertainment opportunities to make it the kind of place I have always wanted to live by.
The League of American Bicyclists courses I was teaching to all of the students at Olive Chapel Elementary may or may not have an impact to the area, but the infrastructure and culture already at that school will most definitely create a better town, once those kids start driving.
This is the terrible, but informative video we had to show to all of the kids:
There were several news spots telling the details of the way we were able to go down to NC and teach these classes. Katie Caggia, and Reed Huegerich need a ton of recognition because of their effort put into this Safe Routes to School program. I mean… this project is huge. The city purchased over 1000 helmets, and we were able to size, fit and distribute them all in four days.
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!
All next week I will be in North Carolina in the Apex/Raleigh districts. I may or not may post during this time, so just check back but don’t expect anything from 6/6 – 6/12
If you live in the Raleigh/Apex area, get a hold of me and maybe we’ll ride~
With this blog, one of my big goals is to grab and pick little sections of West Virginia’s cycling scenes and locations, and be able to convey them to others who may not live in this state, or may not get to travel to areas that posts are created.
This time, I have interviewed the Cycling Team President of West Virginia University. WVU has around 29,000 students and the main campus is located in Morgantown WV. if you’ve been in WV at all, or follow any sport – you know that WVU is a big deal.
I wasn’t able to make it up to motown this week to interview Ryan, but I was able to speak to him on the phone, and email him some questions. Lets get started!
Ryan started competitively cycling in 2005, starting with MTB. He is a USAC Official, and often promotes races, and still has time to race himself. I remember first meeting Ryan in Phillipi in 2008, during a criterium where he was logging times and data. I volunteered to use my car to block off an entrance/exit point in the crit loop. He became President of the WVU Cycling Team/Club in 2007, and became President of the WVU Sports Club Federation in 2008. Funny enough, in 2005-6, he logged over 300 miles on a unicycle! Talk about dedication!
20Q With Ryan Post
1.      What was it like racing with the WVU Team in the 2009 season? (more…)
WV Cycling 