Athens to Savannah
Ego-Challenge Ride
by Rick Gordon
May 2000
The Athens to Savannah Ride has been renamed The Athens
to Savannah/Ego-Challenge Ride (no not Eco-Challenge). This years ride proved to be a real
challenge for the 9 of us. With moderate wind the first day and stronger wind the second
day it resembled climbing a moderate hill for 230 miles. After 5 years of riding, this is
the first time I developed a sore knee.
CBC participants for the ride were Dawn, Jeremy, David Grant, Jimmy
Kidd and myself . We joined 4 riders from Athens: Andy, Jeff, Eddie and Joe. Remember Joe
from my previous letters? He’s 63 and enjoys riding. He only rode 75 miles with us on
Friday since his wife would not be available to meet him in Millen. After 75 miles he
turned around and rode back to Athens by himself, so he got in his 150 miles for that day.
This was Jimmy, David, and Jeremy’s first trip with us. Jimmy made
sure he did his share of fast pulling but I think he forgot we were going 150 miles the
first day. During the afternoon he was feeling strong until he tried to play Nascar and
three of us exchanged a little paint. Jimmy went down hard and scared all of us but he did
entertain the traffic who stopped to look at him. After that crash most of the wind was
taken out of his sail. The next day his body told him not to ride.
David, Jeremy, and Jeff proved to be very strong engines for the
peleton. They did a tremendous amount of pulling as we fought those head winds for 2 days.
With the wind coming diagonally there was no place to hide for the rest of us. The aero
bars were not used as much this year. Everyone had to stay in their climbing position. At
times we were struggling to go 12-13 mph. Last year’s speeds were 19.3 and 21.3 for
the two days. This year’s speeds were 16.6 and 15.?
The second day I struggled toward the end of the ride to keep up with
the group. After 20-30 miles the second day Dawn and Jeremy stopped for a quick bathroom
break with the instructions to go ahead and they would catch up with us. That was the last
tine we heard from them till 3:30 when they called to be picked up 17 miles out of
Savannah. With an unforgiving sore bottom Dawn said she couldn’t go any farther.
Jimmy and Sandy did the rescue trip. (That’s the story I heard and I`m sticking to
it). We finished the trip with an evening meal at Shuckers and had some good fellowship
together. Now, isn`t that what the trips all about? Eddie is still trying to get to Tybee
Island via bike but the winds were too strong again this year. Thanks goes to Jimmy,
Sandy, and Jeff’s son for carrying our luggage those days and to Eddie and Andy for
helping coordinate the ride and for the maps. The most improved riders from last years
trip were Jeff (strength) and Eddie (no flats; he had 4 last year).
Recovering in Dalton, Rick Gordon
| 
