I love climbing, yessss I do!

Blacksburg, VA – So, is there a school in Blacksburg or something? I kid. Let’s just say the three Virginia Tech guys have really been building this place up for some time now. The ride has had some build up of its own as one of the most intense of the summer – a century plus with lots of climbing in Appalachian territory. The hype did not disappoint! My legs really started feeling it midway through the ride, coincidentally right around the Virginia state sign (which happened to be positioned on a pretty fast downhill). Realizing we had whizzed by the sign about a mile back, about half of my pace line wanted to cycle back to take a photo. Needless to say, I was not one of them. Similar to my old sport of wrestling, so much of the kind of cycling we do is mental and I was not in the best of states at that point in the day with 50 miles of hills in front of me. I wish I could have a recording of my internal monologue… it was all over the place! Despite some regrettable immaturity on my part, we thankfully ended up cycling back to our final state sign. As the day continued, we all became increasingly determined to avoid the day’s “rack point” for pulling bikes off the road. We wanted to finish what we started and found motivation from within and even through some good old fashioned singing (“I love climbing, yes I do! I love climbing how ‘bout you?”).

After what I would arguably rank as the second hardest ride of the summer, we arrived at Virginia Tech and had little time to spare before we were involved in a presentation at a festival in town. At the presentation, I bumped into Paul Schifano, a chapter brother at Elon who transferred to VT senior year to finish out his engineering degree. It was great to see a familiar face – it hadn’t dawned on me that he might be in town. We were treated to a tour of Tech’s beautiful campus by our teammate Matt Schmidt, which included a stop at the memorial for the April 16, 2007 shooting. That day’s ride was dedicated to the victims of 4/16, so it was fitting and powerful to see.

After some serious gluttony at an enormous campus dining hall, we went on the town to “Top of the Stairs,” a bar that Schmidt used to work at. Everyone sampled the bar’s supposed specialty, “The Rail,” and I took it upon myself to make some new friends. I bumped into a wedding party and actually had a very solid conversation with a female animal cop who gave me advice about the next five years of my life. It was way more legit than it sounds!

Roanoke, VA – The morning of the Roanoke ride, a strange thing happened. We slept in! Wheels didn’t start rolling until the unheard-of hour of 10:30. This was attributed to the short ride ahead (40 miles) and the check-in time with our hotel. The day was also somewhat of a ride along fest, with new appearances by crewmembers Terry and Moff (the latter of which did not adjust to the cycling world quite so well) and fellow Eloner Paul Schifano, who is most likely going to be a TransAmerica 2010 member. The three Elon boys had a nice, primarily downhill day on the bike, which was a welcome change of pace from the Blacksburg ride. We also played the backyard game “S-P-U-D” at one crew stop, which was as awesome as you’d expect.

Once in Roanoke, we were greeted by a very attractive **** Four Star **** hotel (see below)! I reported directly to my bed and woke up to head to a Friendship Visit for children with down syndrome at a facility that hosts moon bounce parties. We may or may not have had more fun than the kids at some points. My personal favorite was an obstacle course that I can somewhat proudly claim to remain undefeated on. I also enjoyed inconspicuously sneaking seconds and thirds of pizza at dinner with my partner-in-crime Trevor Brink. The following day we had off. It included a shopping trip to buy gifts for an end-of-trip “Secret Santa” exchange among the team. While the gifts we bought each other were basically jokes (more on those later), it really started dawning on me how seriously things were winding down.