June 2005
Our tour schedule got off to a great start with close to 400 riders
at WOODSTOCK. The weather was super and I decided to do the
full route. With the possible exception of a couple of rough roads, the
tour was a great success. Bobbi Bedinghaus has already started plans for a great ride next year.
Weather the weekend following WOODSTOCK could not have been worse. Bruce & Barb Meyers had a well-planned SPOT ready only to find high winds with horizontal sheets of rain and a temperature in the 30s. Believe it or not, we did register five hearty souls who braved the conditions to get some mileage prior to TOSRV.
Conditions worsened the following day at MOC. We arrived in Delaware to freezing conditions and snow. Many thanks to our ride leader Woody Barry and Andys Burns for putting together a well planned tour. Team COBC, BreakAway Cycling and the city of Delaware went all out to assist Woody and to welcome us back to Delaware. Presenting a bicycle maintenance seminar to the Girl Scout troop who had volunteered to man one of the planned stops salvaged the morning and our spirits.
May 1st brought beautiful, but somewhat breezy, weather for the Top of Ohio Hundred. We had a solid line of registrants for two hours at the Hilliard Community Center. Thanks to Ron & Catherine Doran for a great day of riding on our last tune up prior to TOSRV.
Some exciting news for the summer; I have been working with The COTA bus company in support of providing free bus rides to bikers using the new bus bike racks. COTA has a grant from the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Improvement Program. A grant from Columbus Outdoor Pursuits along with the CMAQ grant will provide funding for this program. I have met with COTA, the Central Ohio Bicycle Advocacy Coalition, and The Mid Ohio Regional Planning Commission to help plan for this program from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Check out COTA's "All Aboard for Bike 'n Bus" www.cota.com/html/BnBTrifold3.pdf?pid=,1,63,32
COTA Bus's Mike McCann at fair. COP board member Pete Rogers at fair.
Photos by Jack Hornsby
Thanks to Pete Rogers, another COP board member for assisting me at a recent Environmental Fair at Upper Arlington High School. We were able to present COP programs and environmental concerns to the students and staff. I was pleased to learn in a conversation with the U.A. Swim Team coach that the entire 30 member swim team had rode WOODSTOCK as a cross training exercise. They are also interested in trying our climbing wall. Thanks also to Mike McCann and Ed Garger of COTA for spending their lunch hour demonstrating the bus bike racks at the fair.
E-mail me at bicycling@outdoor-pursuits or call 614/877-3085 with your comments or suggestions.