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Tour de Habitat 50 mile Charity Ride

September 23, 2007

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52 Miles, Approximately 2000 ft of elevation gain and loss.

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Comments? Contact Steve at: steveyo - at - nycap - dot - rr - dot - com

Yesterday (Sunday, 9/23/07) I participated in a Habitat for Humanity charity fund raiser, the 1st Annual Tour de Habitat, in Albany NY. There was a choice of either the 50 mile or full 100 mile ride, and, since I’ve never ridden more than 30 miles at a stretch, I opted for the “easier” 50 miler.

The ride started and ended at the Albany Pump Station, an excellent local brew pub and restaurant. George de Piro, the brewmaster of the brew pub, is an avid biker who rode the century distance himself, and he devised some feindishly hilly routes through the hills south of Albany. The Pump Station also donated a meal and two free pints of freshly brewed ale to all the participants.

When I arrived and rolled my Radial 36” wheeled unicycle with 125 mm cranks up to the organizers’ table, I predictably attracted a lot of attention. This included the race organizers who’d never expected a unicycle participant, the bikers marveling at the biggest wheel they’d ever seen, and the local Channel 10 News team who walked over and interviewed me immediately. Afterward, I went into the bathroom, slathered the crotch of my bike shorts in Chamois Butt’r, slid the cold, slimy garment up snug, and went outside again to start riding.

I was expecting a group start, but the race directors at the table handed me a route-guide and said to start whenever I was ready. I’d been worried about being slow so I decided to take off earlier than the planned 11 AM start time to leave some room to be back by the 4 PM reception at the end of the ride. The news cameraman wanted to film me mounting up, which made feel a bit of pressure not to bungle my free-mount. After waiting for him to get ready, I managed to mount cleanly on the first try and I pedaled out of the parking lot.

Approaching the first turn at one mile, Jeff, a biker and fellow charity rider, passed me and wished me a good ride. On the first short climb, which passed by a Habitat for Humanity housing site, I caught up to him and we started chatting. After another turn and a long, flat stretch, he realized I could just about keep up with him. Jeff told me always rides alone that he’d been looking forward to a group ride, and asked if I minded if we rode together for a while. I was delighted but told him that, since he can coast down hills and I can’t, he should feel free to go ahead any time he wanted to.

The course wound through Albany, and after missing one turn and correcting our error (what’s one more mile, anyway?) we headed up a good sized hill up State Street and then passed through Washington Park. The weather was perfect, with a light breeze and cool 70 degree temps, a crisp, clear first day of autumn that made me think of pumpkins and apple-picking. Now riding with a couple more bikers, a young man named Evan and his mom, Cathy, we made several more turns, crossed a couple busy roads and approached a long, serious climb on route 32. I still felt fresh, now at around the 15 mile point, but before starting up the hill, I tore open and sucked down a Clif double-espresso gel pack, giving me a nice boost of sugar, salt and caffeine.

By the time we reached the top of the mile-long climb and our left turn onto Onesquethaw (pronounced O-nesk-we-thaw) Creek Rd. we had left Evan and his mom behind us and caught up to a couple of female bikers. I dismounted and the women asked some how-do-you-balance type questions as I waited a few seconds for Jeff to catch up. I re-mounted my big wheel and we rode off on Onesquethaw Creek road, a shade dappled country lane with no traffic and short, surprisingly steep hills. This was our first quiet, rural road on the course and a real cyclists’ paradise. Also, I could now ride on the flatter top of the road crown, instead of the right side where the constant leaning had started to bother my lower back.

This and several subsequent roads snaked through hilly farm country. Scarfing down a banana on a rare flat section, I leap-frogged with the bikers, passing them slowly on the ups, and they whizzing past me on the downs. Despite my telling him I didn’t want to slow him down, Jeff stayed with me, even braking on some of the descents to stay at my pace.

There were some very steep inclines at 25 to 28 miles into our ride and my legs were starting to feel the strain. I’d thought my worst pain would be in my seat area, but these steep hills had my thighs feeling signs of cramping. Punching up the last of these steep rollers, the dreaded brick-like cramp flickering on and off in both thighs, I took some deep breaths and concentrated on relaxing and we finally rolled in to the mid-ride checkpoint and rest stop at 28.5 miles.

We chatted with the checkpoint volunteers and 10 or 12 other bikers present, refilled our water, used the port-o-potty, and I sucked down another energy gel. After about a 15 minute rest we saddled back up and headed out onto Rt. 143 and the last long climb of the route. My legs felt better after our rest and this road climbed up into the hills and ran parallel to a reservoir, with the sun sparkling off the water and the trees around the shore wearing their fall cloaks of red and gold. It was a welcome distraction as Jeff and I climbed past a couple of bikers and rolled along the top plateau, passing the 30 mile point as noted on my GPS. We both gave a quick whoop as this was the farthest either of us had ever ridden on our respective machines.

Once done with the long ascent, Route 143 still had its ups and downs, but nothing so steep as the hills before the checkpoint, and I was only feeling hints of cramping. As we hooked a right onto Rt. 32 and started the 15 mile, mostly downhill home stretch I had still another double-espresso gel to battle the ever increasing fatigue I was now feeling. The couple we’d passed climbing the long hill shot past us on a long descent and were a mile in front of us in the blink of an eye, as I once again told Jeff he should enjoy coasting down instead of going at my plodding speed. He said he was enjoying the company, but a few times he did let it fly down the hill and then waited for me to catch up.

After we turned onto good old Onesquethaw Creek Rd. again, I had my first UPD (unplanned dismount) of the ride on a steep downhill. The wheel was straining to go faster than I could ride it and I lost contact with the pedals. At that point my only priority was hitting the ground with my feet rather than my face, but I managed to run out of the incident and still keep the unicycle from clattering to the ground. The only suffering was my toes shoving hard into the front of my shoes, and I took the downhills a bit more conservatively from then on.

Onesquethaw Creek Rd. rejoins Rt. 32 once again and I was back on my most familiar terrain, with around 10 miles left in the ride. I ate my fourth gel pack as my thighs were cramping fairly frequently and I was moderating my pace a little more. As Rt. 32 rounds a turn and becomes a highway with a wide shoulder, I spent my time trying to find the flattest part to minimize my having to lean.

Jeff, who had a helmet-mirror, kept me apprised of cars and fairly frequent bikers now passing us from behind. Once, however, when he was a bit ahead of me, I heard some bikes catching up fast and tried to move to the right to allow them easy left-side passage. One of the bikers, however, had decided to pass me on that side, without so much as an “On your right” call. I straightened out quickly and she flew by my right side as her two fellow riders passed me on the left, she yelling “COME ON!” in a quite annoyed tone. As etiquette states, the overtaking party must yield or at least make their intentions known, but all I could articulate at the time was “You’re impatient with me?!?” This was the only negative aspect for me from the whole day.

As my GPS showed our passing 45 miles we negotiated a scary merge onto Rt. 9W, and a quick right turn down a last, long hill to River Road. Jeff decided to enjoy gravity on this one and quickly coasted out of sight around a bend in the road. I’d begun to think I’d just see him at the end of the ride, but there he was at the bottom, once again waiting for me. River Road follows, you guessed it, the river, specifically, the Hudson, and these last few miles were blessedly flat. The pavement quality, however, isn’t the best, and, hitting a frost-heaved bump I had my second UPD. My unicycle slammed to the ground and I barely got my feet under me. As I ran to a wobbly stop my legs felt like they were about to give out, showing me just how tired I was.

Just a little bit farther and I yelled to Jeff we passed the 50 mile point, and a distance both of us considered a huge milestone, and we both cheered loudly. We were almost there and the thought of cold, excellent, free beer waiting at the end kept us going strong until we finally reached the brew pub, my GPS clicking just past 52 miles. Stopping pedaling never felt better.

Hopping down to the ground, I was approached by many folks who seemed rather impressed by my having ridden 50 miles on a unicycle. Nobody hummed the circus song, though a few people asked if I could juggle. I suppose that would bother me, but the truth is, I do juggle, though I almost never juggle on a unicycle and certainly wouldn’t try it for 50 miles.

The volunteers were fantastic all day and we felt like we’d contributed to one of the most meaningful causes around. The Albany Pump Station and M&T Bank, the event sponsors, were truly magnanimous. Cyclists were treated to a couple great pints of ale and a delicious buffet, and boy was I hungry. That was a special treat at the end of such an awesome ride, and really topped off the day. I’ll be back next year for sure.

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My cycle specs: Radial 360 Unicycle, 36" Radial tire, 125 mm cranks, KH Freeride Seat

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It make not look like it, but I'm REALLY tired in this photo.
Albany Pump Station Brew Pub and Restaurant is in the background.

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GPS-generated charts and maps

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GPS graph of elevation...ups and downs, anyone?!

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GPS graph of speed - despite the peaks on this graph, my max speed was 16.4 mph

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GPS map of the route

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Ride Stats:

Distance: 52.08 miles
Total Time: 5:04:35
Average Speed: 10.3 mph
Moving Time: 4:41:40
Average Moving Speed: 11.1 mph
Elevation Gain: Approx. 2000 ft.

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Homepage of the Tour de Habitat Charity Ride

Back to Steveyo's unicycle write-ups page.

Comments? Contact Steve at: steveyo - at - nycap - dot - rr - dot - com

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