"Cheaper Than Living"

(See attached file: tour.jpg)
What's Cheaper than living you ask The Tour De Burg of course. What's The Tour De Burg you ask? It's a blast to put it simply but I'm going to bore you with some details. The Tour takes place in Harrisonburg VA which has some of the best riding I've ever ridden both road and off road. I've done a few stages before but this year I was planning on doing the entire tour. This year there was 7 stages in the tour 2 road, 2 time trials and 3 mountain stages in 6 days. Not sure how it started 13 years ago but it's has allot of crazy behavior and even more awesome riding. Just like all Great Tours it has some covenanted jerseys. The Yellow Leaders Jersey, the Red KOM jersey, the Blue Sprinters jersey, the Super D jersey, the White DFL Jersey and it also has some people sporting some awesome haircuts. The way it works is everyday the group meets up in the morning anywhere between 30 and 60 people showed up each day. Then we parade which is just group riding until we get to a timed section. At the timed section you get your list of instructions a then your off and racing. At the end of the timed sections we regroup and parade. Everyday seemed to have two timed sections.

The Tour started off with Prologue which was a 6 mile Mountain bike TT at Massanutten. If you ever did the HOO HA it's uses the same trails just a little bit shorter. It's about a 4 mile uphill that finishes with a 2 mile down hill that's blast. I did OK on the way up but not so good on the way down. The two sidenotes first "Ralph the Mouth" left with a broken arm and a bear sighting. Afterwards we stopped at the Little Grille Collective for some great food. Then it was off to Thomas's yard or tent village as it later became known as. Totals 6 miles 38 minutes

Stage 1 started in the George Washington Forest at Braley's Pond. After a short parade it was time for the first timed section. It started off with a long climb a fast downhill then another long climb and a fast but not as technical downhill. Kelly from Georgia got some major style points for the stage with his 6 foot drop sidewalk clearing finish. Then we did a long parade section before the next timed section. It was going good until started raining hard before the downhill. The rain was OK but after finishing and waiting of everyone else it got cold fast. Then is was time to parade until we got to the Deerfield sprint. This is when I learned it's very important to know where the sprint finish is. Totals for the day 55 miles and about 5 hours of riding .

Stage 2 was the first road stage which was cool because no driving was involved. There were some KOM points up for grabs early but I wasn't able to get any. But the first section was short but very fast which finished with some sprint points again I didn't get anything. After a quick regrouping and a short parade it was time to go again. It started off up a steep long gravel road climb, everything was going great but that changed quickly. That's when we started going down steep long gravel hills. I seen lots of people flatting and just flying down these hills and it didn't take long before the lead group was out of sight. It wasn't long before a I was riding in a small group of 4 people. This is when my luck changed for the better. I'm sure what happened next happens in all the big tours too. Carp said the route would be marked with orange paint on the road at each turn. But Carp was on the Motorcycle and was planning on marking the course and sent the White Whale on a shortcut to the next check point. There was only one little detail the Carp forgot about he left the paint in the whale. Why was I lucky? Because I was with a couple of Locals that listened and knew the correct route. To my big surprise my group which now only had three people in it got to the check point first. Then about 10 minutes later the lead group the I fell off of came in from a different direction. After waiting for a long time not many people were coming in because lots of people got lost. I decided to head back to town with some people that knew the way. I was worried because Ruth was on of the many that never made it to the stop. Carp reassured me that it was OK to go the he would find her. I went back got cleaned up and finally got a call that Ruth was spotted and on her way back. What's a tour with out a little controversy? After a long process the Tour Committee decided to throw the section. Totals 72 miles 4-1/2 hours

Stage 3 Rocktown TT at Hillendale park this was a fast fun little section that had some tight and rocky single track. I didn't have to good of a time because the rocks were a little to much for me. Total 3 miles and 20 minutes

Stage 4 we headed out to Stokesville near the start of the Shenandoah 100. Did a long parade up to Todd lake before the first timed section. It started up a long uphill then along a ridge for a while the it went down fast. At the bottom there was about to more miles to go that had several stream crossings. like all the other stages I did a little better on the uphills than on the downhills. At the end is when I see something new Jimmy had a nice set of alloy brake rotors and had melted one down on the final downhill. Then it was parade time again before the final section of the day. It started up a long hill and we rode along another ridge and then down a super steep descent and finished on the about a 3 mile road section. Total 40 miles 5 hours

Stage 5 was the longest of any stages and also another road stage. We road out of town to the GW Forest then started racing up through the forest. It was going OK until the assault turned into gravel and that's when I fell off the lead group. After a small group of us worked hard on the flat sections it was time to climb. Then a down a twisty descent up another climb then down to the check point. After a long parade it was time again it started up a long climb gravel road climb. Some Locals said this was a hard section and one said "this is where you to Hop to die" It also was the only section that had an uphill finish. I finally made it to the end and hope might not die there but it's going to be hurting. Then it was down a long hill and back to town. But I got an added bonus I waited up a the bottom of the hill for Ruth so we could ride back to town together. But as I started riding back up the hill she was already in the Whale. So I asked Carp to give me a little help to catch back up to the group. What happened next was fun, very cool, super hard and a little bit scary. I never had the chance to draft behind a car with the driver knowing it or for any length of time. But it was cool going around 40 for like five miles or so and dodging the dead squirrel that the whale kicked up was cool too. Finally after I caught back up to the group is time to relax and ride back to town. Total 101 miles 6-1/2 hours

Stage 6 finally the end was in sight back in the GW forest for another day of fun. At the beginning I was struggling to find some motivation because it was raining, foggy and a little chilly for July. But after things got going it wasn't to bad we paraded up the big hill we came down yesterday all 8 miles of it. After we regrouped it was off to the races. Nothing of interest happened just up another hill along a ridge then down the other side. After a long parade back to the top it was all down hill to the end, and time for the award ceremony. I finished 11th in the GC and had some KOM points and that was it. Time to pack up and get back to reality. Total 36 miles 5 hours
After thinking about it defiantly was "Cheaper than Living" 313 miles, 27 hours, lunch and snacks and diner everyday all for $150. www.svbcoalition.org


Justin