Category: Bike Rides and Routes

Palm Beach Bike Tours regular rider, Scott Maulsby, completed the 2008 Tropical Triathlon in Lake Worth this weekend in 1:25:46. In August, he finished the Loggerhead Triathlon in 1:27:06, so he has improved 80 seconds in a month. Actually more and more on that later.

There was much controversy to this year’s Tropical Triathlon. The swim portion was almost canceled because of bad weather (aka Hurricane Ike). Even with the green light to swim, many were slowed by the choppy surf. The bike route, too, was an issue.

Bike: 11 Miles or 13 Miles?

Tropical’s bike portion was to be 11 miles. Several competitors rode the 11 miles then looked at their bike computers, got confused and stopped for clarification or simply cut back. As more and more participants turned early, others followed. Race officials stopped those who returned after 11 miles, put them back on the course and instructed them to ride 13 miles. By all accounts and dozens of odometers, the bike portion of the race was 13 miles not 11 miles.

Scott was one of the many who lost time by following the advertising and other riders instead of the course. So, while the clock shows just an 80 second improvement, had he not run into the 11/13 problem, he might have finished even quicker.

Lesson Learned: Follow the Course

Follow the course, not your odometer.

Full results for the Tropical Triathlon are available online.

—Matt

This is the time of year when folks in South Florida stay glued to the Weather Channel and the weather sites.

We got drenched by Fay, dodged Gustav and are keeping our eyes on Hanna until it makes a northward turn. As if that’s not enough, Ike is due east, moving quickly to the west and there are several other hot spots lining up.

So, what do you do?

You go for a bike ride, of course

Since it’s Labor Day, a holiday, I’m not sure if this qualifies as my first official ride of retirement after 49 years in the ink-slinging business. It probably won’t dawn on me that I’m unemployed until the alarm doesn’t go off in the morning.

Work, a cold and weather have kept me off the bike for about two months except for a couple of short rides. That’s not good, because I’m signed up for the Memphis MS-150 in two weeks.

I headed off to do my normal Lake Worth, FL, 12-mile neighborhood loop to see how the legs worked and to scout out new material for the blog.

With all the storms, I figured the beach would be a good place to stop.

Still repairing 2004-05 hurricane damage

Heavy equipment being used to repair damage to the pier from the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes is still in place. The red flag is standing straight out, indicating a 12-17 mph wind out of the northeast. The heat index was somewhere around 95 degrees because of high humidity.

That reminds me why I like to ride at night. Even if I do have days free, I may still favor evening and night rides.

Not everyone feels that one, of course. There were lots of bikes on the road today. Some of them were “serious” riders, some were casual riders and some were rusted beaters that showed the hard use of some folks who used them for daily transportation. I suspect that many of them ride more miles a month than the “serious” weekend warriors.

Politics on the beach

While shooting the pier picture, I started chatting with a couple of guys watching the waves. It was a free-wheeling political discussion with the one fellow telling me early on that he’s not comfortable voting for Barack Obama “because he’s black” and that he didn’t vote for him in the primary “because all the kids supported him.” Continue reading “Between Gustav and Hanna with Ike Coming”

Youngest son Adam and his co-worker, Scott Maulsby, have been talking up entering the Loggerhead Triathlon – 3/8-mile swim / 13-mile bike / 3.1-mile run – for weeks. Adam had been a runner for some time and had lived in our pool when he was a little kid. He started biking several months ago and stepped up to a better bike just recently.

I gotta be honest

His family, particularly his older brother, didn’t rate his chances all that high. We figured he could bike OK; he could run OK; he could swim sort of OK, we just weren’t sure he could do them all at once.

Swimming was the first leg. He thought it would take him 45 minutes to do the 3/8 mile. (We don’t know if that counted the time to recover the body.) In fact, he finished the swim portion in 11 minutes and 10 seconds.

His mother and I opted to skip the swimming part and catch him during the biking phase. Because he was way ahead of schedule, he was on his second turnaround when he and Scott buzzed by us.

We had enough time to drive up to where the running portion was making the turn off A1A onto the road leading to Dubois Park. We hit a police roadblock where a very friendly policeman told us we could pull our car into a parking lot right across from the watering station. It couldn’t have been any more convenient.

Right on schedule, Scott and Adam passed by looking only a little worse for the wear.

Here is where you can find all the results.
For more pictures, navigate here. They are mostly unedited.

This is the guy who really deserves recognition.

He’s got on a race number, but I don’t know if he pushed the kids the whole way. I’d loved to have seen him on the biking and swimming legs.

Several years ago I discovered that Florida’s Department of Transportation was making highway and traffic studies available on DVD for free. I gave them a call and talked with a guy who seemed really pleased that anyone was interested in their work, particularly to find good places to cycle.

Every June since then, like clockwork, a new and improved set of DVDs arrives. I usually spend a couple of hours poking around and still never discover all the cool things that are on them.

Green means low traffic

This screen shot is an example. The green roads in the map at right have an annual average traffic count of less than 15,000 vehicles per day.

Now, low traffic counts don’t always mean that the road is suitable for safe cycling, but it’s not a bad indicator.

You can turn on more or less detail, depending on how closely you’ve zoomed into an area and how cluttered it gets.

The map at left is showing the Tallahassee area where the 2008 TOSRV was held. I turned on place names, road markers and river and lake names.

Ever pass those black hoses stretched across the road and wonder what they were? Continue reading “Florida Maps Show Good Roads for Bike Touring”

(June 25, 2009: Update — Read about the Tour de Bar Palm Beach 2009 Bike Ride.)

Saturday June 21st 2008 is the West Palm Beach Tour de Bar (aka ‘Tour de Beer’). Previous years have had as many as 300 participants and ten pub stops.

If you would like to join the festivities, be at the Brass Ring Pub at 12:00pm. The address is:

200 US Highway 1, Lake Park, FL 33408

If you arrive late, head South on US 1 to connect with the group. If you are really late, head East on Blue Heron and cross the bridge towards the ocean.

Please be safe, wear your helmet and follow proper biking etiquette by signaling and obeying all traffic laws.

We will have reports throughout the day and will follow up with pictures as they are submitted. If you attended the event and have pictures or comments, please leave them in the comments section of this post.