DONUT RIDE PHOTO ESSAY

Tensions heat up on Red River Road.

Rolling toward Ferndale.

Relaxed pace through Area 51.
  

Regroup at the top of Vista Drive in Ferndale.

Red River Road.

Starbucks.

INCROYABLE SATURDAY DONUT RIDE

Cold, yes, but oh-so-sunny, hardly any wind, and oh, so fun! Here's a vid:

AREA MAN WEARS HELMET CAM ON DONUT RIDE TO BIRCH BAY

Rusty Dodge laughs at the prospect of myclimbing efforts on the upcoming Vista Drive hill.

Farmland outside Fernburg.

The Vista Drive rotary. I believe that is Ironman age group world champion Kelly Molaski in blue on the right.

Leaving B'ham on the way to Ferndale, Birch Bay, Red River Rd., etc. Lots of Fanatik dudes on the Donut Ride.

The streets of Ferndale.

Fun ride despite the rain. Forty-something miles. Day before was the first true epic mountain bike ride with the Titanium Cowboys in ages. Both Chuckanut and Galbraith mountains--38 miles with 4,600 feet of climbing, more than 4-1/2 hours of ride time. Terrifically fun, dirty and muddy. As all of life should be, really.  

AREA MAN'S PARIS-ROUBAIX PREDICTION: THOR

Yes, I know the above shot is of last year's winner Fabian Cancellara haulin' arse through Roubaix just before entering the velodrome, but for whatever reason I think it's going to be Thor Hushovd's year. (Or maybe Flecha finally gets one?) Above pic is from last year's race; below shot is a video capture my son took at pretty much the exact same moment:

He got the better shot.

Rode the Donut Ride today for the first time in about a year-and-a-half. (Titanium Clark and Titanium Cancellara rode it too.) Man it was fast, especially the tailwind-aided ride out to Birch Bay which we made in an hour and three minutes. (It's 21.5 miles.) The Donut starts early, 7 a.m., and so by 9:45 you're back in town and you've already got 45 miles in. Nice.

I took the above pics at the end of Walnut Street where the peloton passes coming from downtown. I thought I'd have no trouble latching onto the back after taking my last shot. But with the tailwind (or my dubious time-trialing skills), it took me 10 minutes of pedaling about all-out to finally get on a wheel. I'm not sure I ever recovered the entire ride. Still a lot of fun though. Below is the Birch Bay stop.

DONUT RIDE - CHRIS CARMICHAEL CALL

Rode the Donut Ride on Saturday, the venerable early Saturday a.m. rain-or-shine ride that's been going on since the mid-80s. No phone calls or e-mails, just show up at 7:00 at Kulshan Cycles or a little after 7 pretty much anywhere along Eldridge Avenue/Marine Drive and hook on. Head up to Fernburg, across to Birch Bay, down along Red River Road and back to Bellingham. I don't ride it as much as I'd like (Bake's soccer games, chess tournaments, etc.) but most Saturdays I've ridden it, I hook up with some great people and am pleasantly surprised to have ridden 45 miles by about 9:30.
Above is Steve VanderStay, English professor at WWU, and Columbia neighborhood homey. Below is what was left of the group by the time we hit the Paris-Roubaix section, that kind of rough road behind the Cherry Point Refinery. There're only seven riders left at this point (riders peel off at various points); odd that it was such a small group. A dry, not-freezing-cold Saturday a.m. in February is rare and I thought there'd be many more taking advantage of it. Looking back is Marty Reimer, terrific triathlete and winner of the Baker's Breakfast Cookie triathlon a few years ago. Kinda cool--I just got off the phone with Chris Carmichael, Lance's long-time coach. He's presentih' and representih' at the Seattle Bike Expo in a couple weeks and I'm writing a little thing about it for the Seattle Times. He says Lance will run the Boston and New York marathons with year, with goal times of low 2:40s and mid 2:30s respectively. Also, Lance plans to ride some ultra endurance mountain bike race this year but he doesn't know which one. I asked him if this is all leading up to an Ironman triathlon but he said no, he didn't think so. (I bet he does.)