My big–and only big-ride of the season is this Saturday. The Gran Fondo Niagara Falls. While I hope to ride on more than 3 hrs. sleep, I will be riding on very little training since Aug. 9 (the Salt Lake fractured wrist) but have been officially cleared to ride with said fractured wrist. There is one mondo hill about 75km into the 124km ride-Effingham it’s called and there is a KOM jersey at stake for the fastest up it. I’m just hoping I’ll last to see and try-er-conquer it. I suggested that they give the jersey to one of the 6+hrs. pack who actually ride up the entire hill without stopping or walking partway. We know one of the elite riders will get it, so why not something for us wannabes? At least it would be a carrot for us!

If those of you in the eastern States hear a loud wheezing and whimper coming from the north, don’t fret, it’s just me and I’m working my way up THE hill.

I bought my Roubaix (“it’s red so it’s fast”) for this ride so I just HAVE to ride-right?

BTW there is another book by those two dudes- “The Feed Zone Cookbook-Fast and Flavorful Food for Athletes”. Both have tasty stuff. Our drink of choice is by Skratch Labs…an Allen Lim company (http://www.skratchlabs.com/)

Here is my ride story from last Saturday’s Tour de Donut (Ohio version) that took place in and around Arcanum, Ohio. This was my second time, and I cajoled my wife, Yvonne, into participating as well. Race start was scheduled for 8:30, and we left the house after packing up at about 5:30 (well, I packed up. I woke Yvonne up at 5:05 with “what time did you set your alarm for?” Her response: “I didn’t.” My response: “Oh.”

For a 32-mile ride with donuts, I don’t need much in the way of food with the exception of a bar and a lot of water. Yvonne made me stop at McDonald’s on the way, and sausage McMuffins were enjoyed. Luckily, they didn’t “come back” to haunt us.

This ride has close to 1500 people in both the Donut and Mini-Donut (16 miles) races. There is a costume contest and a kid’s race prior to the start, with the local high school band playing the National Anthem, and I think there is a ceremonial “first donut” eaten, but I was too far away from the start to see it.

Start of the race. It took us 2 minutes to get to the start, but luckily we have timing chips, so no big deal. I ride a bit more than Yvonne, but she is one of those people who can just start a physical activity and be great at it. She refuses to wear cycling shoes, but has no trouble keeping up except on the hills. There is only one small “hill” on this ride that goes in and out of the first donut stop. We hit that donut stop pretty quickly while averaging around 18mph, which is very good for me.

Last year I ate 12 donuts and almost spewed during the last 5 miles. This year, I only ate 3 donuts total and felt a lot better. Yvonne ate one per stop. As we were heading south over the latter part of the course, the wind picked up a bit, but you can’t complain with blue skies and 65 degrees for most of the ride.

Not a lot of suspense with this ride – eat donuts and ride your bike. We obviously were not big donut eaters this year, but I did see that a tandem couple put down 26 of them. Yow. These are fairly large, yeasty, donuts with a lot of glaze. 26 seems almost impossible.

How did we finish? Not bad, but nothing special for me, but Yvonne, even with only eating 2 donuts, finished 38th with her “donut adjusted time,” and 43rd overall (32nd in her age group – 19 to 50). My finishes were 201 out of 608 overall, 63 out of 211 in my age group – 51 and over – and a donut adjusted finish of 85 out of 211. Our times were 2:06 overall, and we spent 18 minutes eating our donuts (so around 1:48 actually riding – 17.1 mph average). That proved to be our undoing as we actually lost time when eating instead of improving our positions. Next year, I’m going to up the donut total to 6 and hopefully only use 10 minutes to do it. That should move us up a few places. A little more “training” should be in order.

These Donut rides are great fun, as most of us have read with Fatty’s stories about the Utah version. I heartily recommend trying one if you are at least the bit curious. The URL for the Ohio race is http://thetourdedonut.com.

Also, great suspense! Your writing skills give you the potential to give the whole day job away, should you want to sleep in a bit more.