First Day on the Road! - Waynesboro, PA (Day 1)

Our journey began today at 5:45, when the team met to load our personal gear into the vans. By “personal gear” I mean the 3500 cubed inches or less as Clare described...(like we were supposed to calculate the exact volume of our duffel bags?) After loading all the gear and filling the water jugs for our first water stop, we mounted our bikes and began the ride to the Inner Harbor. The ride was nice because it was pretty much all down hill. It didn't seem bad until we arrived and realized we had to go back up that hill. Once we were all downtown we had a few great speeches, and dipped our bikes into the Inner Harbor, before officially starting.

Somehow we all managed to make it out of the city without any flats, despite all the potholes downtown. We made it out of the city pretty quickly and were soon biking through beautiful wooded twisting roads. The hills gradually became more frequent and slightly larger, but we soon made it to our first water stop; a fire department 15 miles away. The station was selling snowballs as a fund raiser. Within seconds there was a line of 4k'ers waiting to have an ice cold and refreshing treat. After snowballs, a few stretches, and water refills we hopped on and began riding again.

We had another water stop at 30 miles, and stopped for lunch 48 miles into the trip. For lunch we started off with junk food and hard boiled eggs, until the van arrived with everything to make sandwiches. After eating and a little lounging around, we pressed on and shortly made it to the Pennsylvania border were we quickly snapped a few pictures and continued to look for the “mountain” of the day.

After more foothills we finally made it to the base of “the mountain,” which was about 2 miles of uphill at around 7-10% grade. Without hesitation we started to climb, pedaling hard in the lowest gear possible. When we made it to the top, a water stop waiting for us. After a quick refill we were happy to start the 2 mile descent, some of us nearing the speed limit (40mph) on the way down.

Once at the bottom we had a few very small hills in town and quickly made it to our hosts for the night. We all showered, stretched, and then devoured the salad, pizza, fried chicken, and ice cream our host had prepared for us. Afterward we spent time socializing in the gym, and after not too long the riders began to slowly pass out in their sleeping bags, resting for the two, large mountains in tomorrow's ride.

-Chris Beksinski

(Time-lapse video from the Inner Harbor to the first water stop - Courtesy of Taylor's CycleCam)