Team Bike Hugger

In summary

Hard to believe just last week we were still in Bermuda. Seems like eons ago. Probably due to the fact that the weather there vs the weather here are such contrasts.

I do know that a week in the world of Blogging is also an eon & thus pretty much old news but since I've finally had time to get the images loaded et al - might as well make a final post. First & foremost - link to the images - http://www.flickr.com/photos/14297025@N04/  Make sure to check out Jasper the dog in cat clothing.

Now for a quick summary of how we did in Bermuda....

Saturday was the Dockyard crit, way down in the opposite corner of Bermuda. It would be a 1.5 hour ride. But luckily there was a passenger ferry leaving from Hamilton going straight to Dockyard, only a 35 minute trip- and a 30 minute ride to Hamilton… each way.

Today would be a family outing- Michael, Judith, and little Clark all joined us on the ferry for the ride over, which we were very happy about- it’s always nice to have “fans” at the race, and they made for a great little cheering section. Our only regret was not bringing a tricycle for Clark, so he could contest the kiddies race. Based on how fast he barrels up and down the hallways of his house on his little 3 wheeled machine, I think he would have won his age group! Maybe next year.

Friday- Hill Climb Day!

Friday was the Lighthouse hill-climb time trial day. But the race didn’t start until 5:30-ish, so it seemed a good day to sleep in a little, drink coffee, hang out in the pool, blog, play with the pets, and just be sort of lazy, something we don’t seem to get much chance to do these days.

The race was >20 miles from the house, so we would again be getting an excellent warm-up, riding to the start. So, 20 miles of riding for a 1 km race. Maybe that’s why the races in the Bermuda Grand Prix are so short- if they were much longer, we would be spending most of the day on our bikes! So we rode on out to Lighthouse hill (in perfect weather, of course), socialized with the other teams for a bit, had more discussions on whether the big ring or the small ring would be best and finally started our race.

I decided on the small ring, and I think it was a good choice- I never spun out, but I should have started in a harder gear- had to shift several times before I could really get up to speed. But I was still 3 seconds faster than last year. Gina was ~12 seconds faster than last year! Leah had the fastest time of our team, 2:36 which was good enough for 5th place. My time, 2:42. Most of the women finished in under 3:05.

Thursday- Racing Begins!

Thursday was Hamilton crit day, time to get down to business. But since the race didn't start until 7 p.m., we had a whole day to kill. Going for a boat tour of Castle Harbour, looking at the rich & famous people's houses seemed a good way to spend the time and Michael, our host was kind enough to oblige. The tour of Castle Island was really cool, and not something that the average tourist has the opportunity to do, since the island is accessible only be private boat (or good swimmers)! We tromped around the uninhabited island (once Michael assured us there were no snakes!) and checked out the fortresses where the Bermudian Army protected Bermuda against foreign invaders in the 1800's. The views were incredible, and the surrounding waters a beautiful turquoise/ azure. Paradise! It was so great to get our minds off racing for awhile, and I can't think of a better way to do it. Thanks Michael!

But we were in Bermuda to race (right...?) and the Hamilton waterfront is a perfect location. A giant cruise ship was docked alongside the start-finish straight, and hundreds of passengers and crew members watched from the ship deck, or the sidelines of the course, as well as many hundreds of other tourists, race fans, and Bermudian residents.

A very LONG day

Saturday night we devised a plan that would allow us to finally get some serious beach time w/o having to ride to/fro the house for some monster mileage day. Our race was o-bright early at 9:15 (well sort of per the race bible could be 15 minutes plus or minus of this time) so that meant us on the road by 7:30a to Hamilton. We decided if we loaded up our bags with swimsuits, towel, shorts and snacks we could ride to Horseshoe Bay for some quality beach after we finished the road/circuit race and then take a Taxi home. Cool thing about Bermuda on this visit is that most of the taxi’s seemed bigger than last year so squeezing bikes in the back wasn’t turning out to be a problem. 

Saturday Finally

Sorry for the lag in posting there was a serious lack of time on Saturday & Sunday that allowed computer time. It was an insane weekend of racing, beaching & serious party time.
I also know you all want to see pics. We have dumploads but getting them loaded has been a lower priority than blogging. Soon - maybe by Wednesday I can post a link for everyone to follow. So on with the story......

Saturday was a bit more hectic of a morning/day. We didn’t even have time to take our pre-ride dip in the pool. The race was at Royal Dockyard which is the complete opposite of the chain of Bermuda Islands.  Easiest/fastest way for us to get there was via a Ferry out of Hamilton. So off we head for the 15 mile jaunt to Hamilton to get the noon ferry. Michael, Judith & Clarke would be meeting us on the ferry so they could watch the race. Pretty non-eventful ferry ride which knowing that less than a week before the ferry had run into the dock at ‘dockyard’ on the same run uneventful is a good thing. However it was pretty amusing to see all the handwritten signs on the boat telling us to remain seated and if we stood it was at our risk. 

Friday in Bermuda

Friday…..1 KM uphill TT at 5:30pm so we have the entire day to whittle away which amazingly enough went way faster than one could imagine.

First there was rolling out of bed to go sit on the back deck overlooking the water & the view of across the bay while drinking coffee, grazing on breakfast & quality reading time. Oh yea, did I mention the temperature is mid to High 70’s? Does not suck!

Of course all is not perfect in paradise when one has a dog disguised in cute kitten clothing. Lesson learned – when one is eating an apple while reading or working one must be prepared for anything. Did you know that cats like apples? I didn’t till Jasper the ‘dog in cats clothing’ began to eat my apple right in my hand between bites & pages. Now really who would have thought holding a half eaten apple in one hand would entice a cat to jump in your lap to only begin gnawing on part of your breakfast?

Day Two

The nice thing about arriving in a place like Bermuda 2 days before the racing starts is, we have a little extra time to get our bearings, settle in, buy some groceries and, oh yeah, HIT THE BEACH without worrying about stupid stuff like "will this make me too tired for the race" or "how am i going to ge this sand out of my chamois before race time?"
So with that in mind, on day two, Gina, Leah, and I (Nicky was still enroute) headed across the island to one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, Horsehoe Bay. But, becuase we ARE here to race, (right?) we figured we better combine business with pleasure, and first went to go check out the stage 2 time-trial course on Lighthouse Hill. Though Bermuda has plenty of rollers, Lighthouse Hill is the longest sustained climb in Bermuda, reaching the highest elevation. Yep a whopping 200 feet elevation (I think?), and 1 km. in length. Grueling, I know ;-) Most riders finish this hill climb TT in 2.5- 3 minutes, which makes for a pretty demanding day of racing, when you consider all the other activities that need attention, mostly involving sun, beaches, or possibly, Bacardi.

There's a race going on?

Yup we are in Bermuda to race our bikes. Somehow sitting around in the sun or taking a little voyage to the beach or on a boat during the day manages to push that detail into the background.

The first crit aka stage was last night in Downtown Hamilton. Which is about an hour away via bike and all of us had a few bike issues we wanted to have looked at prior to racing thus we meandered into ‘town’ a bit earlier as to get to the bike shop. The bonus to being early was a coffee break after the bike tweaking stop. Nothing like having a good jolt of java an hour before a fast & furious crit that starts at 7pm. Um yes somehow getting to sleep last night was a bit challenging.

Bermuda Critters

By now you have read (in Gina’s post) all about our adventures in getting here. Yes, I am the idiot who booked her flight for the wrong day (something about “we’re arriving Tuesday” got translated into “we’re LEAVING Tuesday”, forgetting of course that we were taking an overnight flight. Big thumbs up to the Alaska agents for waiving our bike fees and TRYING to work with Delta on getting me re-booked. Thumbs down to Delta for charging us $150 each for our bikes, and then telling us I would have to pay the difference in fares (which was significant) instead of just a change fee, even though the flight was only 40% full. But half-a-thumb up, I guess, for forgetting to charge me even a change fee when I got to the Delta counter (only because I showed them my bike fee receipt, and they thought it was for the change fee?)