Bobke's Tour De Millersburg

Millersburg is a very cool little town set on the east side of the susquehanna river north of Harrisburg. If you know PA well, then you know that Rt 11 goes north along the west side of the river and so to get to Millersburg, you have to go very far north or south and then backtrack or take a ferry across the river. It's not easy to get to, which is bad for motorists, good for cyclists. Before the race, we were cruising around town and came across a waterfront park off the beaten path on the river just 1 block away from the main street of town. As Terry was soaking in the beauty, he just about ran straight into a blue haired lady driving a 1975 plymouth. The lady was all smiles and waving, little did we know that she was thinking 'if you take one step closer I'm pulling out my baseball bat'. Between races, we ate at the Wooden Nickel for lunch which seemed to be the only option, but a good one at that! The service was excellent and the food was great. I even had a beer between races to 'carb up' and recover from the TT - maybe that's why I was riding a bit sketchy in the crit? The town was VERY supportive. Entire streets where people normally park their cars in front of their homes were cleared for the event.

Bobke was at the race doing pre race recognition and coordinating the stages. Below is a video of Bobke calling up the women's elite riders.

After the call ups, he was pretty much hanging out, so it was a great time to meander over and catch up with my old buddy, Bob Roll. Nusbaum and I stopped by and got to spend about 5 minutes chatting with him. Pretty cool to be able to small talk with Bob Roll in this setting. We talked about his tour experience, frustration about travel and airlines and I thought it would be entertaining to run my race strategy by him for the crit (just try to hold on to the back - what do you think?) Bobke laughed and said, well - you might want to get up to the front at some point. Then he thought about it and said being at the back wouldn't be the worst thing on a course like this one, but you'll want to start working up on the last 2 laps. Anyway, very cool to have Bob Roll at the event and kudos to race coordinator for getting him out. I asked him what brought him to the event and he said, well, the race coordinator just called him up and Bobke accepted.

This was the first TT for Terry and I, so we didn't know what to expect. We did our best to get aero and all...I had an old TT bar that I managed to mount onto my road bike, but that was it. We did OK, but we didn't break any records that's for sure. When I got passed halfway thru the course, I was trying to tell myself that the guy must be in contention for the stage win or something, then 2 other guys passed me, I realized that I suck (relative to the competition). My average speed on the 20k TT was 25 mph (12.43 miles / (29.27 minutes / 60 minutes)) Now I am in a dilemma...to buy a TT bike and aero equipment for thousands of dollars to use it only twice a year...or not! I am thinking that my ego isn't that fragile. But I did enjoy the race against the clock and perhaps I can find something cheap somewhere.

I underperformed in both the crit and the road race. I had the legs, and in the road race, I would have been ready to go but miscounted the laps. I had it in my head that we were doing 4 12 mile loops, not 3 18 mile loops, so I ignored everything else and when the pace picked up on lap 3 it was too late. That was my day for a good finish and I missed it. No matter, it was worth the trip.