MAP MY RIDE TOUR DE FRANCE CHALLENGE 2014 Greetings To ALL Cyclists! With the Tour de France set to kick off in less than 30 days I have been quite busy the past week trying to speak to someone … ANYONE… over at MapMyRide. I have wanted to know if they were going to issue another Tour de France challenge, like the one I took part in in 2011. Long story short… They shut me up by finally telling me that there would be a 2014 TdF Challenge, but they are waiting until the last week of June to make the announcement to the general public (“So don’t look for the details on our page just yet” is the impression I am getting). Anyway, back in 2011 some of you may recall I tried unsuccessfully to recruit local cyclists from this area to put together a team to take part in this challenge (all you needed to do was have a GPS and upload to MapMyRide any day that both you and the TdF competitors rode on the same day). If you rode once a week, well that was fine… If you rode more, even better. I took on the challenge of matching mile for mile with the tour riders and upon saying that some of my cycling acquaintances misunderstood how it was to work. Do know this: You DO NOT have to ride 100 miles for each stage OR match the distance the pros are completing. You DO NOT have to go elevation crazy (Ha, well here in Florida we can’t really). You just have to ride and post. In 2011 I rode the event representing former 7-11 pro team member Ron Kiefel’s bike shop, Wheatridge Cyclery in Colorado. Of the few thousand teams that were competing, we finished 12th and of the over 26,600 people taking part in the challenge, I managed to finish #255, logging over 2200 miles in 18 bike rides and garnishing 17 team points. Now it is 2014 and the challenge is back. So I am looking to recruit a team to participate in this great event. NOTE: You don’t have to be from Florida. i.e. - Your Cycling BFF rides in Portland, Maine or Portland Oregon… Recruit them! Forward this to them! Cut and paste it! Whatever! Let’s build a Monster team! If you have ANY question please ask them a.s.a.p. A special thanks to a pair of local cyclists: John Sinibaldi, who was labeled by local writer Jeff Klinkenberg as - a ferocious cyclist, he already wants in on this one... and no less a cycling hero, RAAM recumbent phenom Kent Polk, who I noted posted 505 miles at Sebring one year while I was deployed (Yes you can ride whatever kind of bike you want in this challenge). Kent says hed be interested in trying this out. While these two seriously considered the creation of a team last week, John went as far as toss out the concept of doing a - free of charge - no frills - century during the TdF… or as John noted “maybe a couple of them.” Of course you are all free to ride whatever distance you are comfortable with as frequently as you wish. All you need is passion for the sport, a GPS, the want to never grow up, and enough cycling fuel so that you live to see August without being radically under-weight (I lost 20 lbs the last time I did this in 18 rides… I only gained back 8 since then). Drop me a message or a comment here DO NOTE: If for some reason the team creation recruits only a few riders I will be prepared to merge our squad with another team if need be.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Jun 2014 22:26:53 +0000
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