I have in my possession two items from The Ride / OBX Experience:
1. Rain Jacket – black, New Balance, size L, too ghetto for TJ and Chirch 
2. Sunglasses – Red, 7-11 brand, still have decal on lens, there may be either Pinot Grigio or Apple Juice splashed on them along with a tinge of regret.
Does anyone else have items that aren’t theirs?
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Today marks the one week anniversary of our arrival in South Nags Head, NC. The road was long but rarely treacherous which always makes for an enjoyable experience. Everybody performed admirably and smiles were all around. We even had a cycling cameo by one of our favorite pace car drivers. He managed to ride an entire 20-mile leg in sneakers and sweat shorts and at a pretty good clip. Kudos to you, Faia.
The OBX experience may have somehow topped itself once again at least for some of us. The folks at Sam and Omie’s seemed to greet us each day more enthusiastically than they did the day prior. The hot tub maintained only a slight tinge of yellow. There were surprise live acts at the bars (The Wailers…) and Nick still has the football.
We hit the beach, hanglided, rode go-carts, surfed, fished. Some even played some putt putt. Needless to say we are all exhausted from so much activity on the bike as well as off.
Unfortunately, my only souvenir is a bloody bruised lip that appears to thankfully not be what I had originally presumed. This revelation dawned on me as I was pulling pieces of our makeshift volleyball court out of my lip just this morning. I also discovered one of the greatest blogs to grace the internet but this is by no means the forum to discuss it.
Until next year, please continue to support the Debbie Pieri Angel Foundation and all that it stands for. Each and every one of us lent a valuable hand in doing our part this past week.
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Since the cue sheets generated by MapMyRide are admittedly cumbersome and a little goofy, I’ve linked to some simpler cue sheets on each of the Route posts 1 2 3.
I’ll be printing these cue sheets for riders as well as pace cars. Pace cars will also have the MapMyRide version of each leg. I’ll also bring some binder clips to clip them to your shifter cable housing on your bars.
This really is not as difficult as it may sound. Cue sheets have been used by cyclists as long as there have been cyclists.
Note that I didn’t add a cue for the NC leg of Day 3 since we’ll only be traveling on one road – the road to glory!
For the last and final day of our trek to the Outer Banks, we begin with an off-the-beaten-path route down through Virginia’s Eastern Shore. This first leg of Day 3 takes us ~47 miles to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Since we regrettably can’t ride on the bridge, we’ll load up the cars and resume our ride after about an hour car ride to where we usually get off the ferry in Currituck, NC.
The second leg of day 3 is the same as in previous years since there’s really no alternative route. We’ll be following US-158 all the way down to the gateway to the Outerbanks. Once there, we’ll load up the pace cars one last time and head over the Currituck Sound to Kitty Hawk. There’s really no cue sheet required but I provided one anyway.
The final ceremonial ride down Virginia Dare Trail is sure to put a smile on every riders’ face no matter how much of a headwind we’re tackling. The 14.5 mile jaunt to Sangria Splash is rightfully everyone’s favorite stretch of road.
Day 3 – Onley, VA to Bridge-Tunnel – route
Day 3 – Onley, VA to Bridge-Tunnel - cue sheet (MapMyRide)
Day 3 – Onley, VA to Bridge-Tunnel - cue sheet (rider)
Day 3 – Currituck, NC to OBX Bridge – route
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Day 2 takes us off the busy highways we usually ride through Maryland and Virginia. This is the most varied day of this year’s ride.
We leave Rehoboth Beach in Delaware and head along the beach all the way through Ocean City, MD. After that, things get interesting. We start cruising on rarely traveled back roads that take us through farmland and small towns. There are plenty of turns but the route is marked with purple arrows to tell us where to go. It may actually be a pretty good idea for us to all ride together through this part of the route as at least one group will assuredly get lost. Both Ray and myself will be traveling with the route programmed into our bike mounted GPS so we know at least we won’t get lost
Also changing this year are the distance of the ride segments. We’ll be riding right around 20 mile segments between rest stops to help us get on with the day. The rest stops should be shorter in duration as well. The longer you stay at a rest stop off the bike, the more likely your legs are to tighten up when you get back on the bike. We should be rolling into rest stops, filling bottles, eating food and grabbing more food to take on the bike. This will help us to have more recovery time off the bike between days.
Day 2 – Rehoboth, DE to Onley, VA – route
Many of you are aware that much of the boring, tedious, and dangerous portion of the route from Conshohocken to Nags Head has changed this year. The focus was to make the route more fun, more varied, and – you guessed it – safer. Also taken into account is the fact that we’re condensing the ride from four days to three days. This of course means that we’ll be riding more on at least one of the days that we have to get down to North Carolina.
Day One of the ride is actually the least different than what we’ve ridden the last three years. The first leg from Conshohocken to the Broomall McDs has changed a bit though. The main focus here was to make this portion safer. We’re also throwing a nice long downhill into the mix to give us some reprieve from the first climbs out and through the Villanova campus. This downhill also provides us with a nice rest before we tackle the RT-320 “Wall.”
The second portion of Day One is the New Jersey portion from the Commodore Barry Bridge to the Cape May Ferry. New Jersey is basically flat. There might be a 2 or 3% grade thrown in there from time to time but nothing serious like the hills of the first leg.
I’ve been mapping out the routes at MapMyRide.com. Provided below are links to the actual route on the website and a link to a PDF cue sheet that also shows maps and <gulp> elevation profiles if pertinent.
Day 1 – Conshy to McD’s – route
Day 1 – Conshy to McD’s – cue sheet (MapMyRide)
Day 1 – Conshy to McD’s – cue sheet (rider)
One hour of a moderate paced bike ride will burn about 700 calories. At 15MPH, It will take us at least 6.25 hours of saddle time to complete 100+ miles each day of our three day ride. That equates to almost 4400 calories burned on the bike each day. This doesn’t take into account the typical caloric requirements of keeping our body temperatures at 98.6°F, chewing our food, drinking our water, screaming at Groeber for going too fast, or even blinking for that matter.
While these requirements and outputs can vary greatly depending on who you are, they serve as a pretty good guideline for how much we should take in to survive our ride through each of the Mid-Atlantic states. It is extremely difficult to consume the amount of food required to sustain such effort. This is why you’ll need to eat and eat and eat every time we stop, between stops, after stops, before stops. Not only will you be eating for the efforts of the day, but also the efforts of the following day. There will be plenty of granola bars, gels, Gatorade, trail mix and much more that escapes me right now. Don’t be shy about eating after each day’s ride either. Trust me, you’ll need it.
There is no doubt in my mind what the best food stop is on the trip. Unfortunately, it comes a little too late in our journey.
