About a dozen intrepid Wheelmen made the trip to Lancaster for the annual challenge of CFC this year, a better showing than last year, but still a smaller group than in some years past. For the second straight year the weather was superb and for the most part so was the cycling. The change in route to Athens held some pleasant surprises for the first day, most notably in the form of some excellent road surfaces, a very welcome change from some of the infamously bad roads we have seen in past years. Not to fear however, the first 8 miles or so of rough roads and gravel on Sunday morning was enough to uphold a certain sense of tradition in that regard, as was the very tough climb out of Athens right after breakfast. The change also gave us a nice tour of the Hocking Hills region as we rode past all of the notable sites in this area: Cantwell Cliffs, Old Man’s Cave, Rock House, and Conkle’s Hollow. Unique this year was the ability of the organizers to plan an out and back route that managed to head east each morning into a blinding sunrise, a retina scorching experience I can’t say I’ve seen duplicated before.

Day one was 107 miles, but overall the number and intensity of hills was a little below average for this ride, not that there weren’t some memorable one mile plus climbs, but they were spread out and few. Scott Main and Karen McKee filled water bottles at the first stop and and then kept rolling until the third stop of the day at 85 miles. This left everyone speculating all day long as to whether they were ahead, behind, or lost, up until the moment of reunion at the finish in Athens. A group made up of Dave Komives, Mark Armstrong, Tony Gwinn and Mark Reiter made the acquaintance of a strong rider named Todd from Three Rivers Velo Sport in Fort Wayne (He was their club champion this year) and rode most of the day with him, sharing sprints to signs and hilltops alike. The rest trailed in in groups of twos and threes mostly with all feeling pretty good. Top honors though for Saturday went to a rider from the Columbus area (Grove City) who completed a double century. Jonathan Brinkman had just noticed there was one bag still at the baggage truck about 8:30 at night. We were speculating as to the whereabouts of its owner when he came riding up, lights, support vehicle and all. It turns out he had experience riding RAAM and seemed to be a very experienced ultra-distance rider. He certainly received many comments of amazement and admiration as he recounted his day (and night) of riding.

Some were apparently fooled by the relative softening of the terrain on Saturday and spent most of the evening making like college students pounding brewski in a college bar in Athens until midnight. Tony Gwinn especially was really paying for it the next day. He said he really didn’t feel good until the last stretch on Sunday. I wouldn’t doubt that he was probably the only rider who finished the ride better hydrated than when he started.

Sunday started strong and never really let up the whole day. There were many more long tough climbs than Saturday and the steepness and frequency of the "rollers" was definitely cranked up a notch from the day before. Besides the aforementioned wake-up call, the first stretch also featured a memorable self-sacrifice by Mark Armstrong as he upheld Wheelmen honor by outsprinting a rather outspoken rider from Kentucky ("Those flatland guys from Toledo can’t climb hills") for a city limit sign just a few yards before the road made a sharp right and headed up steeply for nearly a mile and a half. Everybody voiced their admiration and empathy for him all the rest of the way, but nobody slowed down for him either, thus upholding another long-standing tradition. ("Nice sprint buddy, see you at the next stop.") At least one nice compensation for the tough terrain was that Sunday's ride certainly had no lack of really nifty descents, another area where Armstrong seemed to ride with particular enthusiasm, as did Mark Reiter.

By the time we left the last stop in Logan on Sunday to cross the familiar terrain to Lancaster a rather large group of Wheelmen had reassembled. Jim Houston, Mike Faehnle, Jonathan Brinkman, Scott Main, Karen Mckee, Dave Komives, the two Marks, Armstrong and Reiter, myself, and Tony Gwinn all left the stop together along with our two constant companions of the day from Kentucky. When we hit Savage Hill at about mile 95 the group blew apart. Jim Houston got hit early with major leg cramps but was able to recover well. Tony and the Mark Reiter were the only ones strong enough to crest the top with our two Kentuckians. Komives and I were the next up and I remember seeing the group of four ahead disappear around the first bend in the road as I thought "Well, that’s the last we’ll see of them." Dave had other ideas however and slowly began accelerating until we were into a full blown chase. I decided I could muster enough oomph for one final go at it and threw all the effort I could into the chase as well. After about 3 miles we caught back on, but my legs were cooked. There were only a few minor hills left but it was agony for me stay with the group over these small rollers. When we arrived at the finish in Lancaster however there seemed to be some compensation for our efforts as we found our group of six were the first riders back to the school.

All Wheelmen arrived safe and in relatively sound condition. A very congenial dinner followed in a nice Italian restaurant in Worthington. CFC ’01 is now just a fond memory of good hills , great views, and even better cycling companions, the crazy guys and gals of MVW. For many there will be a full winter of cyclo-cross and breakfast rides, but for me CFC is often the last I see of many riders until April. It is always good to end the year with the appetite already whetted for more of the same come next season. I hope even more of you will be back for CFC next year, yes, even if it snows.

JDW