Tour Preparations Continue

The Cullman Cycling Club enjoyed a nice ride Sunday led by Billy Faulk. The riders did the Carolina loop and tracked some of the Tour route.

Training Boulder Style

Austin Oliver headed out to Boulder, Colorado for some training and one on one with his coach, Frank Overton. I got a file from one of the training rides and it was a brutal one and of course at elevation. So much for local training rides. Austin will be prepared for the Tour.

Nothing like a giant roast beef sandwich after a tough day in the saddle.

Tour Training Ride

We had a great crew this past Sunday doing a training ride for the 2008 Tour de Cullman. The ride started at the St. John farm with what was suppose to make the ride a little easier. We headed in a reverse direction of the actual tour but the idea was to ride the critical section of the course, "The Circle of Death". Of course the weather was hot and humid so conditions were perfect for a melt down.

Adam Goldweber set the tempo early but powered it down after the first climb, obviously not wanting to show too much. Austin Oliver, James Hall and St. John hammered on while the rest of us struggled or faked it over the next series of climbs.

Once on Joy Road aka "The Meat Grinder" the group was coming back together. One of the riders who showed up with New York plates on his car had a flat(was this one of our mystery bloggers...Eddy, glish, Nekid Cowboy? well his legs sure didn't look like Runonce!). Adam stopped to help and the rest of us including Mandy and Sonja pedaled on towards the four mile climb to the top of the mountain.

We all rode to the top of the mountain except the New Yorker. I was feeling like maybe we weren't being a good host, we did later make contact with him. He had missed a turn and ended up riding down highway 160 and thankfully surviving. The downside was he had to climb over SmokeRise to get back to Cullman, he probably got in a good 70 mile ride instead of our 50.

A New Triad!

I was fortunate enough to ride with these three svelt riders this past weekend. What I thought was going to be an easy ride through the country side turned into a little hammer session. To top it all off it rained on the way back. I got a little worried when they all commented on how they enjoyed riding in the rain. Reminded me of a couple of brothers that ride in town that are the toughest guys I have ever met.

The cycling scene is changing in Cullman. Not so many years ago we only had a few females that rode bikes, now we have quite a few. Sonya, Lisa and Mandy all are training for the Tour de Cullman and they aren't doing the short ride. Could get interesting on the slopes of Skyball. I doubt any brown envelopes will be passed, the Cullman division is getting more interesting. Which one makes it to the top first?

Preview

The Womens Division

I think these babes on bikes were way ahead of their time. Singlespeeds! They were more hip than they thought about 35 years ago. Looks like they were out for a little training ride in preparations for a tour around town. Be a good test if anyone can identify these girls?

Tour Preparations

With the 2008 Tour de Cullman approaching the training rides are picking up around the mountains of Cullman and Blount counties. The official date for this years ride will be October 11th. This past weekend a group of riders went out for a leisure ride up Skyball Mountain. It was plenty hot and with hurricane Gustov moving in the wind added to the fun.

This years Tour will feature several junior riders. I have a hard time calling them juniors because they are strong as most the seniors. Bicycle racing is having some growth with all the young racers.

The Oliver Brothers, Keaton and Austin.