Middle Georgia Cycling

Ty races Georgia Cup crit in Rome

2009-03-28T09:36:00.001-04:00

Ty competed in his first race of the 2009 season in Rome, Ga. two weeks ago. It was a cold, wet race with a few crashes taking out many of the riders. One crash resulted in a rider suffering a broken nose and several fingers. Ty finished in 8th place. We were just happy to see he was still in the race each time they came around. As the race wore on it became easier and easier to pick him out as the number of riders decreased.

Magner takes 3rd in Tour de Abitibi Prologue

2008-07-28T15:58:00.009-04:00

Ty Magner, right, placed 3rd in the Tour de Abitibi Prologue, a 400 meter sprint. His Florida Velo team mate AJ Meyer, left, took 2nd and a New Zealander occupied the center of the podium. AJ is also from Georgia.

In the 1st Stage the following day, Ty sprinted to what he thought was a fifth place in the field sprint only to discover there were a few more laps in the circuit. He ended up in the back of the field after he sprinted for nothing.

In the 2nd stage Sunday, Ty finished in 9th place. American Iggy Silva, on the U.S. Team, placed third. Ty was the second highest American finisher in that stage. His team mate AJ Meyer was 10th overall at this point. Ty's mistake in the first stage did not help him in the overall standings.

Monday's stage was a time trial in the morning and a criterium in the early evening. Time trials have not been Ty's strength but he has had some good luck in criteriums. He will finish in Canada on Tuesday and will travel with the Hincapie-Barkley team to Nationals in Los Angeles the first week of August. If you want to follow the Tour de Abitibi you can get there by using this website: http://www.tourabitibi.qc.ca/ You have to click around some to get to the English version and then to the PDF results. The News button also has good information.

"Bike to the Future"

2008-07-23T07:22:00.002-04:00

An Associated Press article in today's newspaper detailed the advantages of walking or biking to school. The healthy rewards that would come with this are obvious. The apprehension that parents have are also obvious. There are some places much better equipped to handle kids walking or biking to school. A network of sidewalks and bike paths certainly make the decision to walk or bike to school easier to make. Peachtree City, with its dedicated cart paths, has full bike racks at its elementary schools.

In Griffin there are NO bike lanes. There are sidewalks around most of the schools, sidewalks that connect to roads with no sidewalks. In the mornings and afternoons around every one of our elementary, middle schools and high schools there are lines of cars dropping off and picking up students. This despite the district offering bus service for all students.

The economics of $4 a gallon gas (and sure to go higher) will eventually lead to changes in our thinking about walking, biking, and mass transit. The cost of driving and idling in line to drop and pick our children up from school each day may increase ridership on our school buses this fall.

The AP article said some schools offer rewards to students who ride their bikes or walk to school. Nothing like some incentives to motivate students and parents in their decision making. Health benefits are great, but kids respond to incentives they can touch, feel and brag about. Simple things like t-shirts, money, food, homework passes.

So, where do we stand in Griffin-Spalding at the dawn of a new school year? The roads leading to every one our elementary, middle school and high schools have NO bikelanes. The sidewalks that surround our schools often lead to roads with no connecting sidewalks. Most of our schools are not equipped with bike racks, and for good reason - no one rides to school. As a parent, you will not want to send your child to walk to school or walk with your child to school on streets with no sidewalks. You would not want to ride with your child to school on streets with no bike paths.

So, that is where we stand now. Where are we going to be standing five years from now, 10 years from now? We have a very strong bicycling community in Griffin, a bicycling community that can make an impact and bring about some very positive changes in our city and county infrastructure with regards to biking and walking. It can happen. A vision for our community that is turned into reality: "Griffin, Georgia: America's best bike town."

Pine Mountain Fun Ride

2008-07-12T22:14:00.006-04:00

This bike riding thing really can be a lot of fun. That was proven again Saturday when the Middle Georgia cycling crew was hosted by Harold and Dale at Pine Mountain. The ride started at the Country Store at the intersection of Highway 27 and Highway 190. It began with a descent into Hamilton and then the long climb back to the town of Pine Mountain and then back up the mountain to Highway 190.

Chuck C., Harold, Dale, Steve, Rose, Jim, Michelle, Bruce and Manchester/Destin resident Martin made the Pine Mountain tour. The picture was made at Dowdell's Knob, one of Franklin Roosevelt's favorite picnic spots. Rose and Steve shortcut back to the Country Store after Dowdell while the rest of the crew swept into Shiloh and then tackled King's Gap before descending back to the campground where Harold cooked up some burgers and veggie hotdogs on the grill.

A good time was had by all. The dip in the Liberty Bell pool was just right to finish off the day.

Thanks Bruce and Liz

2008-06-21T11:06:00.004-04:00

Many thanks to Bruce and Liz Reid for their wonderful post-ride poolside get together. It definitely should be featured on the society pages of the GDN. Better yet, Scoop Magazine. The company, food and refresments were delightful and the garden setting tranquil. What a great ending to a hot summer Thursday ride.

Magner Wins Georgia Cat 2 RR Title

2008-06-02T17:54:00.004-04:00

Ty Magner, a member of the Hincapie/Barkley Junior Development team, was able to bridge up to the break during Sunday's state championship Georgia Cup road race in Union City and then got the jump in the sprint to win by .5 seconds. Ty was racing in the elite Cat 2,3 division. The race was 68 miles of rolling terrain.
Ty initiated his attack on a climb and brought only one rider with him. Together they were able to reach the break which set a blistering pace for the final 20 kilometers. Magner's support team during the race was his papa who handed him one bottle of water and did a superior job of lubing his chain prior to leaving for the race. He also blocked out the last two cogs on the rear cassette to bring the bicycle into compliance with USA Cycling junior rules. Ty normally rides a junior cassette but he left both of his on some borrowed wheels and forgot to remove them when he returned the wheels.
Another Griffin racer, Joe Waters, took third place in the Cat 4 road race. Joe is a student at West Georgia College.

Tuesday rides, commuters and Denmark

2008-05-28T21:56:00.005-04:00

The Tuesday rides are getting mighty swift. We need some newbies to slow us down and bring us back to our senses. (Written pre-TIS e-mail flurry.)

And on another note. . . the 14th Street bridge in Atlanta is being rebuilt at a cost of millions of dollars and it does not include bike lanes. What are the planners thinking? They obviously must be paying less for their gas than the rest of us. Perhaps they should visit Copenhagen and see what bicycling has done for that city. You can see it here:
http.//copenhagengirlsonbikes.blogspot.com/

And it rains and snows a lot in that city. The summers are short but the days are long.

And on another note... On my way to school today I passed two people on bikes who were obviously on their way to work. One was on the wrong side of the road and riding in the grass to avoid the oncoming traffic. I'm sure we will be seeing more people using bikes for basic transportation in Griffin. We need to be working to make our roadways more bike friendly.

And on another note...BRAG will be here in our city Sunday, June 8..Several thousand cyclists will be staying at Spalding High School and hanging around looking for something to do. Is the Sock Shoppe open on Sunday? Think they would be up for group ride?

Slim Jims, Milky Ways and Bluegrass

2008-03-23T09:40:00.008-04:00

Missed the Saturday group ride. Rode with Casey, Ty and Ann instead. Left the house headed for the Dauset Trails Bluebird and Bluegrass Day. It's been awhile since I rode with a destination in mind. Almost all of the riding I've done the last few years has been for the exercise. There is nothing wrong with that, but riding with a destination in mind is more like the riding I did as a kid. We rode our bikes everywhere. We would ride them into the village of Greenlawn (it was 5 miles round trip). For a little bit of pocket change we could get a Milky Way, a bottle of soda and a Slim Jim. Our "English racers" with their 3-speed Sturmey Archer hubs, were all we needed to make it up the "hill" that stood between our neighborhood and town.

Our bicycles took us from house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood. My favorite bike was the Dunelt English racer. Got it for Christmas. It had chrome fenders, a Brooks leather seat, and a seat bag. It was even stolen once. Got it back, though. Whoever took it just needed a ride to town and they left it on the side of the road once they got to where ever they were going. My next bike was a Raleigh English racer. Bought it new for $65 with money earned cutting grass. Swapped out the Brooks seat on it with the old Brooks seat from my Dunelt.

The ride destinations got a little farther as we got a little older. On occasion we would make a trip to the Dairy Queen, maybe 10 miles round trip. Sometimes we would ride to the McDonald's (15 cents for a burger, 25 cents for a shake and 10 cents for fries.) Our bikes were our means of escape from the neighborhood and gave us a real taste of independence.

A Schwinn Varsity 10-speed was my choice to upgrade from the 3-speed Raleigh. It was a cool green color, had a Huret cable-drive speedometer (which really worked well) and a generator-powered chrome light and taillight. Every kid in the neighborhood had a 10-speed. Did my first century on that, although didn't know it was century. We just kept riding around the neighborhood one summer day to put 100 miles on our speedometers.

There were several thousand miles logged on that Varsity before someone stole it from the garage. Still had the Raleigh with the Brooks seat and it served me well even after getting my driver's license. Unlike today, a teen-age driver's license didn't come with a car.

I was thinking about all of this on the ride to Dauset Trails. It was pure fun, being a kid again, out for a bike ride, going to town for a Milky Way, a soda and a Slim Jim and a little bit of bluegrass music.

shipBikes.com---Check it out.

2008-02-23T08:26:00.005-05:00

If you ship or travel by air with your bike you need to check out this website. The site, shipBikes.com has come up with a wedge-shaped box to ship bikes in. While on the site be sure to click on the button that gives you access to the rates airlines charge to take your bike as baggage. Most of the European airlines let you take along your bike for free. It's checked as a second bag. Most of the United States-based airlines charge $100 (each way).

Ouch!

2008-02-19T12:24:00.002-05:00

Riding out of the driveway has become quite dangerous. I was riding up and down the driveway waiting for Ty to start a ride. There were plenty of sticks and those pesky, prickly gumballs in the drive from the last rainstorm. While making a turn, the front wheel skidded out and left me lying on the concrete. Skinned the elbow, jammed a rib pretty good. My last fall was in a parking lot when I didn't push off with enough oomph and ended up tipping over. That time I fell to the right, jamming a rib. Yesterday's was to the left. I got off the couch. Now, if I can make it out of the driveway.....

Saturday Morning Ride

2008-02-18T15:41:00.004-05:00

Finally got back to the Saturday morning ride. Chuck, Jim, Lee Anne, Susan, Harvey, John and this writer made the ride to Meansville. All was good to just the other side of Meansville when a stealth dog took out Susan and Lee Anne. Some road rash and bruises but the ride went on. I was dragging big time the last 10 miles. Too much time on the couch the last two months. The week day rides are expected to start up again in about three weeks, when DST begins.

Time to get off the couch!

2008-02-02T08:02:00.000-05:00

But it's so cold. Forecast says cloudy, chance of rain. Back tire is flat. Five sections to read in the the Sunday paper. Papers to grade. Lesson plans to write. Garage needs sweeping. Front tire is flat. Out of bread, milk and what's for dinner. HD tv picture is so darn good. Couch is warm. Just one more nap. . . .

2007-08-28T21:22:00.000-04:00

Monday, August 27, 2007

Gezzo to Gezzo Ride - Saturday August 25

40 riders left the McDonough Gezzo's riding to the Peachtree City Gezzo store. Hot, yes it was. We stopped at the I'ts About Grind Coffee Shop just outside Peachtree City and had a smoothie, water and a Myogenesis "shot" to help continue the ride. We made it safely to the PTC Gezzo's in time for lunch (some passed on having a burrito) with the owner Howard picking up the tab.

On the return trip, someone said those words "let's pick up the pace on the way back" and .....you know what happened. The ride broke into several groups and the hammerheads won. All made it back safely. It was a great ride - thanks to Lisa for putting it on and the Gizzo folks for feeding us. Epic Bikes had an unofficial open house when we got back and welcomed all to cool drink. Thanks Tim etal.

Above are some photos from Lisa . I hope more can do this ride next time and the Griffin gang can join the Epic rides and vice versa.

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Blog Archive

▼ 2007 (1) ▼ August (1)

August Review

2007-08-20T10:50:00.000-04:00

We had a great ride saturday and even finished before the day got hot. Chuck won the sprint into Meansville with a vicious attack ffrom about one K out. Dave won the highly contested Milner sprint and I took the less contested downhill sprint into Orchard Hill. August has been a very hot month as all who have survived the heat know well. It is amazing how nice the low 90's can feel when one has ridden in the low 100's for a while. We all hope the that the hottest days are behind us. The days are getting shorter so hopefully late summer will bring lower temperatures.

Saturdays Ride

2007-08-01T15:31:00.000-04:00

Saturday we had a great ride doing the Meansville route backwards. We had two flats which was wierd but not unheard of. Chuck won the main contested sprint but I had just flatted so it was a tainted victory! Congrats to Rose who hung with the group the entire trip. Hope to see you next saturday at 8:30.

Rides in Somerset, Pa.

2007-07-24T21:58:00.000-04:00

If you ever get a chance to visit the Laurel Highlands region around Somerset, Pa., don't leave your bike at home. The rides around this area of Pennsylvania are incredible. We were there for the USA Cycling Nationals. Between the competitions there was plenty of time for sightseeing by bicycle. On one ride we just happened on the Flight 93 Memorial. On every ride we were amazed by the incredible scenery and slowed by some formidable climbs and refreshed by some awesome descents.

When Ty came back from one ride and said he had seen these giant windmills I thought he must have eaten one too many power gels. There is a constant breeze blowing and there are wind farms set up to harness this energy source. The blades on these windmills turn about 18 rpm. I was bored waiting for one of Ty's races to start and timed the turns of one of the windmills on the horizon.

Saturday Rides and Times

2007-07-20T09:10:00.000-04:00

The last two Saturday rides started at 7:30 as will this Saturday's ride (July 21). Two weeks ago we rode the long Meansville route and last Saturday we did Randy's route which runs along the south side of Griffin allowing for quick returns in case of rain or tiredness. Future ride times will be posted so come back.

Saturday Ride

2007-07-01T18:27:00.000-04:00

The saturday ride was fun and included tours of meansville and milner. Even the temperature was pleasant.....at least until the last hour of riding. There will be a ride the saturday after the 4th so come join us next week for another great ride.

Al

Meansville Ride

2007-06-30T12:49:00.000-04:00

At 8:30 am the peloton rolled out consisting of 10 riders. Heading towards Zebulon the group took it easy. Everyone but 2 turned on Brazier Road heading into Meansville. In Meansville the 2 that went straight met back up with the group and everyone enjoyed the back roads of Pike County. Eventually, everyone made their way back to Piedmont Road and Hwy. 18.

With hopes of seeing the buffalo the group headed south on Cannafax and then East on Brunette Road. Unfortunately, the buffalo was not out front grazing. I am starting to think we were hallucinating the day we saw the buffalo. Maybe next time. We cruised through the "Trojan Complex" (Lamar County School System) and started making our way back home.

The sprint into Milner was attempted by a handful of riders with Randy taking the win. A few stopped in Milner to fill up their water bottles one cap full at a time. After that I am not sure what happened because I headed home.

Until next time.

Post Ride Cookout

2007-06-29T21:20:00.000-04:00

Middle Georgia cyclists enjoyed a post ride cookout poolside at the Bruce Reid residence on Maple Street. The pool was refreshing after the hot Tuesday ride as were the adult beverages. We will now be able to recognize our fellow riders when we see them sans bike helmets and sunglasses. Thanks for your hospitality Bruce.

Silver Comet Trip

2007-06-26T09:34:00.000-04:00

Written by Chuck Hart

Michelle Cannon, Jim Smallwood and I tackled the Silver Comet - a 74+ mile ride. today. We had a great time, viewed lots of sites including a rabbit, lots of squirrels, nature controlled air conditioned tunnels and the Jennifer Ewing memorial (she was attacked and murdered a little more than a year ago on the trail).

We averaged 17.0 to Rockmart. Considering the beginning of the ride is packed with roller bladers, walkers, joggers, stroller and the "other" cyclists we felt good about the first leg to Rockmart. We ate at Frankie's where we were well fed, signed the "wall" , had our picture taked for the restaurant and re-filled the water bottles before returning to Smyrna. While full of Italian food and a balmy 96 degree temperature, our overall dropped to 16.5 mph but what a ride.

Several times we three said that it would be so much more fun to have 20-25 Middle Georgia cyclists with us. Maybe we can do this again in the fall and "cruise" to Rockmart and back.We missed you, but we had lots of fun (Jim saw lots of women).

Added Comments by Michelle,
Both Jim and Michelle broke new personal distance records. I hope we do it again cause it is a great ride and it will encourage me to keep putting those miles in.

Saturday ride to Hagen's Mountain

2007-06-16T20:46:00.000-04:00

The 8:30 a.m. start time was a good thing on the Saturday ride to Hagen's Mt. It warmed up fast and was already too hot by the time we arrived at the base of the climb. Harvey, Carrie, Robbie, Davey, Susan, Randy and Steve made the climb while Claire Ann, Michelle and Jim did the smart thing and stayed at the base in the shade. We all enjoyed some refreshments at the store at the base of the mountain before beginning the ride back to Griffin. Jim had some tire troubles on the ride back but nobody was complaining as we filled up on water under the shade trees by the side of the road. His rear tire was finished by Milner and Robbie made a quick ride home and came back with a spare tire. We covered 54 miles, shortcutting from Milner back to Griffin. This was a fun and scenic ride. After crossing Highway 19 out of Meansville, it felt more like the mountains than middle Georgia.