Support A Worthy Cause: Nashoba Learning Group
Dear Friends,
On June 13, I'm riding in Nashoba Learning Group's annual 50 mile Bike-a-thon fundraiser, and I'd really appreciate your support. As some of you know, the school does extraordinary work with autistic and similarly developmentally-disabled children (here's a good Boston Globe article that ran last year), and it's become a model for other schools around the country in the process.
Here's a link to the donation page, and below is my account of the 2007 ride (reprinted at friends' requests):
Many Thanks!
Cesar
"Friends,
Thank you all for being so generous on such short notice!
Fresh off a flight from London that arrived in Boston at midnight on Friday, I wheeled myself onto the starting line Saturday morning a few minutes after eight . Herewith, a few journal entries from the ride:
Mile 2: The peloton drops me like a stone. Dopeurs! Never mind; this breakaway is but le petit setback. Where are my domestiques to bring me back to the pack?
Mile 3: Reality intrudes. No domestiques. Facing 47 miles' worth of solo quality time, I plot my comeback...
Mile 10: 1st major climb, L'Alpe de Bolton (MA), a steep, nasty little "beyond classification" grade. I curse at the crowds pressing in. 'Allez! Allez!' they call, like wolves. A farmer in a Superman cape runs alongside.
Mile 10.25: Mirages disappear in the 95-degree heat. (First time I've seen the Superman dude, though. Moral of this story: lay off the British Airways dessert wines the night before a big ride.)
Mile 10.5: Descending L'Alpe de Bolton, feeling airborne at 35 MPH
Mile 10.50125: Realizing after hitting bump that I am, in fact, airborne. AAAAARRH!!!
Mile 14: I smell sweet victory in the morning air!
Mile 15: Realize the smell is actually the Bolton dump
Mile 27: Col d'Harvard (MA). Mis-shift on steep climb, drop chain off granny ring. Barely click out of pedal to avoid keeling over, disappointing two buzzards circling overhead.
Mile 33: Whip out Blackberry, Googling 'Michael Rasmussen soigneur' to see if can score some surplus EPO
Mile 40: I see dead people
Mile 50: I am, ahem... outsprinted at the finish. Ride organizers generously grant me 'same time' when they realize no one noticed exactly when I got back."
View Tour de NLG in a larger map
Thank you all for being so generous on such short notice!
Fresh off a flight from London that arrived in Boston at midnight on Friday, I wheeled myself onto the starting line Saturday morning a few minutes after eight . Herewith, a few journal entries from the ride:
Mile 2: The peloton drops me like a stone. Dopeurs! Never mind; this breakaway is but le petit setback. Where are my domestiques to bring me back to the pack?
Mile 3: Reality intrudes. No domestiques. Facing 47 miles' worth of solo quality time, I plot my comeback...
Mile 10: 1st major climb, L'Alpe de Bolton (MA), a steep, nasty little "beyond classification" grade. I curse at the crowds pressing in. 'Allez! Allez!' they call, like wolves. A farmer in a Superman cape runs alongside.
Mile 10.25: Mirages disappear in the 95-degree heat. (First time I've seen the Superman dude, though. Moral of this story: lay off the British Airways dessert wines the night before a big ride.)
Mile 10.5: Descending L'Alpe de Bolton, feeling airborne at 35 MPH
Mile 10.50125: Realizing after hitting bump that I am, in fact, airborne. AAAAARRH!!!
Mile 14: I smell sweet victory in the morning air!
Mile 15: Realize the smell is actually the Bolton dump
Mile 27: Col d'Harvard (MA). Mis-shift on steep climb, drop chain off granny ring. Barely click out of pedal to avoid keeling over, disappointing two buzzards circling overhead.
Mile 33: Whip out Blackberry, Googling 'Michael Rasmussen soigneur' to see if can score some surplus EPO
Mile 40: I see dead people
Mile 50: I am, ahem... outsprinted at the finish. Ride organizers generously grant me 'same time' when they realize no one noticed exactly when I got back."
View Tour de NLG in a larger map
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