Whos in the crash demographic?
But time on a bicycle is not what it is anywhere else.
Neither of us had a clue what we were getting into.
We planned to camp wherever we could pitch a leaky orange tent.
For food, we carried 3 pounds of dry-roasted soybeans.
I had $150 in cash and no credit card.
There were no cellphones, so no cellphone cameras we had no camera of any kind.
A whole summer passed without a selfie.
No route guidance from digital GPS gizmos.
We navigated with state maps picked up gratis at gas stations.
Customs officers waved us into Canada at Niagara Falls and back into the U.S. at Port Huron, Michigan.
Minnesotas lakes bustled in the speedboat hoopla of high summer.
Still ravenous, we went to the diner next door and ordered the same dinner again.
In Idaho, the road slashed through flows of cooled lava.
The Day 1 itinerary promised a relatively gentle warm-up over the alluvial plains of the Vaucluse department.
After a few hills however, the e-bikers sailed past me, smiling and chatting.
Even Marc and Blaine, who were making honest battery-free progress, were soon out of sight.
Both had sensibly prepared for the week with a regimen of hilly training rides.
When he thrust it at the camera during a group Zoom meeting before the trip, I had scoffed.
The weather seemed frightfully hot.
My hair under the helmet was drenched in sweat.
Id done a few training rides around Manhattan and the level terrain of eastern Long Island.
But Id mainly prepared by reading Ciceros famous essay about old age.
The hill crested at last in the blond sandstone walls and terra-cotta roofs of Crillon-le-Brave.
It took some effort to hoist my leg over the seat and dismount.
It could also have been the Viognier.
The following morning we rode up and around the 600-foot cliffs that form the gorge of the Nesque River.
The road climbed the side of the limestone canyon, sometimes boring through tunnels or edging around precipitous drops.
After a group dinner, I toppled into bed but woke at 2:30 a.m. pickled in dread.
So intimidated hed crafted special-interest legislation on his own behalf called SPARA.
It stands for the Self-Protection and Recovery Act, he said.
