Car Free Challange Results

Well, it's two wins in a row. Last weekends Hare Scrambles and I won the bike division of the Car Free Challenge. Yes, I am still the Champion :-). There were 545 riders participating in the bike division of the challenge.

5 years ago Eric Rogers and a few others got together and started the Kansas City Commuter Challenge. This year they changed the rules and added car pooling with mixed results. One guy logged his trip to Wisconsin as a car pool. Looks like they have since removed his miles and posted a comment that out of town miles do not count. I only bring this up because I am seriously thinking of not participating in the challenge next year. I'm just kind of getting tired of hearing folks and groups complaining about this one and that one making up errands or "how did he do that many miles", etc. I will continue to commute like I always do, but this might be my last commuter challenge. They say it is best to go out on top....

Individual Results - Bicycle Miles

All commuters
1	Chris Locke	Cow Town Cycling Team	331.00
2	Tom Awe	The Wheel Cyclery Team	306.51
3	Steve Cosentino	DST ChainGang	258.20
4	Ray Craighead	RSG Rollers	256.15
5	Jeffrey Haug	Cow Town Cycling Team	249.50

Some statistics from this years Car Free Challenge:

• Total Miles: 41,011
• People Registered: 1093
• People who have logged trips: 798
• Teams: 61
• Solo Commuters: 163
• First-timers: 216
• Carbon Dioxide saved: 38,877 pounds
• Gasoline saved: 2,278 gallons and $8,362
  

Bike Week 2008: Day 5

Final day of the 2008 Bike Week. Hurray! I am getting tired of awaking so darn early...

Actually I have enjoyed keeping the vehicles in the driveway and riding my bike. I have done a poor job so far this year of commuting in, but now I am in the habit of riding in and plan to do so at least 3 times a week.

For having nearly 300 miles in my legs I actually felt very good this morning. I think yesterday's intervals did me good. Even though my legs felt good I kept the effort level very low and plan to do the same on the return trip home. Heck, my butt even feel good that's to a plentiful supply of Chamois Butt'r. That is some good stuff

I have noticed several sections of graffiti during my rides this week. Some of this "artwork" actually looks very cool.







Things are looking good for me. I just got an email declaring it Chris Locke Day.

Daily Drawing Winners:

May 10th: Janie Oldberg of the Prairie Village Yacht Club team
May 11th: Megan Kegley of the MoBikeFed Wheel Wizards team
May 12th: Ken Sonnenschein, organizer of the annual Bike 4 the Brain ride
May 13th: Matt Schafer of the Patti Banks Associates team
May 14th: Joseph Istas, a carpool commuter with the Garmin Bleeding Edge (305) team
May 15th: Chris Locke Day:
#1. a bicycle commuter with the Garmin Bleeding Edge (305) team
#2. a bicycle commuter with the Cow Town Cycling Team

Cliff Drive is now open to only bicycles on the weekends. The "Grand Opening" if you will was yesterday. I didn't get a chance to go to it, but Cliff Drive is part of my route to work. Earlier in the week it was a mess, but by today the city had done a great job of cleaning it up. I wish we had more routes like this in Kansas City. Did not see any cyclist on my ride, but I did see a gentleman in a wheelchair enjoying the beautiful day.

Bike Week 2008: Day 4

Another solo ride in this morning.....I need to start paying attention more. I nearly got hit this morning. My fault entirely. In the early morning hours I sometimes go for miles without seeing anyone and you kind of start day dreaming.....

Some pictures and a test video from this mornings commute in:

Test video taken on the levee along Front Street.

Ride home was a little windy which was good for my planned interval workout. Intervals are one key item that I have left out of my training in preparation for the longer distance events that I did such as the Cohutta 100. Fartlek intervals were on tap today. The beauty of fartlek training is that the intervals are completely random, done according to how you’re feeling on any given day. Today I was feeling good on the hills so that is where I opened it up.

As I approached Riverside I started my cool down. I noticed at the new shops at Hwy 9 and Briarcliff there was a sign for a weekly farmers market every Thursday, so I decided to stop by and eat a Cliff bar to aid in my recovery. I saw this guy with a Cow on his truck selling beef. I went over to say hi and take a picture. Funny thing is he recognized me from earlier in the week when I took a picture of the CowTown T-Shirts. Small world sometimes....

Since Carolynn is getting her hair 'done', Christopher and I are going to ride to get dinner. A easy ride will do me good and help loosen up the old legs. Subway here we come....

Bike Week 2008: Day 2

What a great ride in this morning. The wind was calm and the temperatures were very nice, especially since I under dressed yesterday and froze during the morning ride. My legs felt great and I was in a good mood.

I rode up Green Hills Road expecting Dave to come flying down at any moment. No site of Dave so after a few miles I headed back to 68th street thinking that he took another route. No such luck. After about 15 min I decided to head into work without him. It was already 5:30 am and I needed to be at work by 7:00 am. Before I clipped in to take off, an older guy comes by on a motorcycle and stops and asks me what I was doing. Apparently a bicyclist standing on the side of the road in the early morning hours in the Northland is an uncommon site. I assured him I was up to no harm and was just waiting on Dave.

As I got to AA Highway I got a funny feeling that I was being followed. I turn around and sure enough it is Dave pedalling for all his worth trying to catch up. We took it easy going through Riverside, but then picked up the pace as we worked our way to North Kansas City....

....As I waited for Dave (Do you see a theme here?) at the entrance to Harrah's Casino. He was still having some ill effects from his effort to bridge up to me earlier in the ride and my attack on Hwy 210 did not help this at all :-). I thought to myself who goes to these gambling places to risk all their hard earned money. Then it struck me that us riders gamble everyday. Not with our money, but with our lives when we ride on these crazy Kansas City streets. Some of the drivers out there just don't care.

I just had to stop and take a picture of CowTown T-Shirts.

Another good ride home this evening. We hit Cliff Drive and this time I rode some of the dirt mounds which only added to my mileage :-). Still don't know what they plan to use all the dirt for, but they are fun to ride none the less. ..started to rain a little once we got near The Wheel Cyclery. It was nice having some fenders to prevent the water spray.

Bike Week 2008: Day 1

4:45 am comes early when you have crazy cats fighting all night long. I swear I am going to kill those things one day....

I was out the door a little past 5:00 a.m. this morning. Soon after I got the call from Dave Wathen that he was just now leaving his house. I usually meet him at 68th Street and Green Hills Road in the Northland, but now we were to meet over at 210 Hwy and Chouteau. I had a lot longer distance to cover than Dave so he was already waiting when I got there.

After a quick photo, we continued on and took Gladstone Blvd to Kessler Park. For anyone else riding this route, be aware of all the construction that is going on. Several sections of the road along Cliff Drive are all torn up. I sure hope they are done by the time the Tour of KC arrives. The Cliff Drive Classic is what makes that event. With the road in their present condition you need to have a cyclo-cross bike. Poor Dave looked kind of worried on his Seven road bike riding across one of the many gravel sections, but my Kona Snake and 700 x 32 Ritchey tires handled it with ease. Even rode a couple of the dirt mounts along the way.

Got in 31 miles for the morning commute. Plan to return via the same route on the way home tonight. I will try and remember to take some pics of all the construction that is taking place on Cliff Drive.

I was suppose to meet Dave at Paseso and 7th street at 4:20pm. When I left my work at 4:05 I knew I had to hammer some to make it on time. Thankfully there was a nice South wind to aid me. I arrived at our meeting place at 4:21pm only to find no Dave. After 10 min he showed up. Darn work thing got in the way again.

We again took the safest route for us home. Cliff Drive offers traffic free roads and are usually in good condition. Currently Cliff Drive is in horrible condition with branches and debris all over the place. Even with the conditions the ride was good. With the tail wind we made quick time and before we knew it we were crossing the Missouri river heading into the Northland. We cut through Cerner instead of taking Hwy 210 because we thought there we be less traffic has we headed West. We would be wrong. I don't know what it was about today, but it was just crazy out there with just tons of cars. We only saw two other cyclist, everyone else was burning the fuel.

Bike Week 2008

Bike Week 2008 is here. Since Saturday I have parked my vehicles and plan to go everywhere via my bike or my feet.

This weekend was spent getting ready for the Car Free Challenge and doing some errands like getting that much needed hair cut (all via the bike). The ladies at J. Michael's were into the Challenge as I told them about it. I encouraged them to give it a try. Both have bicycles, but declined because they felt the roads to work were too dangerous. I agreed with them, but added that they are getting better and by following some simple rules of the road you can have a safe ride.


For my daily commute to work (31 miles one way) I will have all my safety gear on. Especially lights since I will be beginning my day at 4:45 a.m. It may be overkill, but I have the following: Dual MiNewt, Princeton Tec H2O headlamp, EXL-ITE Illuminator belt, PMS Safety Wear ankle straps, Micro R mini rear light, illuminNITE vest/leg warmers and a Cateye rear light. This year I will also use my cool U.S. Postal back pack that Roger Harrison gave me which has some reflective strips on it..

My rig for this week will be my Kona Snake. I have fenders on her and since I installed them, I have been bone dry for every ride. The weather this week is calling for a slight chance of rain. Not that I want it to rain, but I am one of the few fools that ride into work no matter what the conditions are during the Commuter Challenge. It is my only chance to defend my title :-). I have left the food preparation up to my wife, Carolynn. In preparation of tomorrow's commute she has chosen a high carbohydrate meal of pasta.