Final Pre Ride Report

May 31, 2008
No miles
Burlingame, CA

Dear All,

Today we met our fellow “travelers”. They come from as far away as Australia, Ireland, Great Britain and The Netherlands and as close as right around here in CA and a lot of places in between. They seem like a very nice bunch who we will come to know quite well over the coming weeks.

Our bikes made it in reasonably good shape. John's front wheel was out of true, but the Performance bike shop here in SF was very helpful in fixing that. John's barrel adjuster for his front dérailleur is busted as a result of the transport, but the local bike shop in Burlingham fixed that. Other than that, both bikes seem “seaworthy”. The types of bicycles being used are really interesting. Most of the riders will be riding road bikes (for those of you who don't ride often that means narrow tires and dropped handlebars) but we did see a couple of “fat tire” bikes. We'll see how those folks do, but both of us are wondering how you could ride 80 to 100 miles a day on those.

The group that's handling the ride has four staff members including Gerard, a bike mechanic, who appears to be really good. At least he is good enough to spot the fact that John didn't properly set the headset on both bikes.

Tomorrow we begin. We received the “route sheet” and surprisingly it shows a bunch of pretty steep climbs. The weather forecast is pretty good. Chilly in the morning but warming up to the mid 50's by afternoon. It doesn't appear likely to rain (our fingers are crossed)

It'll be a long day on the bike but we'll try to give you a synopsis tomorrow night.

Send good vibes.
Amy and John