Fordham/CitySquash Cross-Country Bicycle Ride
Day 3 Carson City, Nevada to Austin, Nevada
Fordham Coach Bryan Patterson and several players are cycling from San Francisco to New York to raise money for CitySquash, a not-for-profit after-school enrichment program based in the Bronx at Fordham University.
Coach Patterson is sending reports to DailySquashReport.com from the road.
June 8, 2011
Day 3 Or how we learnt to love Route 50 – the loneliest Highway in the States,
Woken up early by Commandeer Jack!! Everything down and packed and ready to go by 6am!!! Not nice! So out of Carson City and onto Route 50, our companion for much of this day. Not much talking at this point, just head down and ride.
We took some side routes through Fallon and around the Naval Air training base, which is huge, and saw a dozen planes take off. Once round the base we were back onto Route 50 and headed towards Austin. Pretty flat at this point, so a good pace. On the bikes were, me, (BP), Jack, Felipe and Raymond, with Andriy driving and Angel the co-driver.
Man this was a boring part of the Ride flat – which I like, but the scenery becoming more and more desert like with just scrub and sand and the occasional horse. The backdrop were mountains which were kind of foreboding as we were never sure if we would have to ride over them. We didn’t but we were now being treated to long inclines, which were tough.
Our first bike problem, Felipe lost the front nut that keeps the wheel intact, and although we went back to look for this, but unsuccessful. So his bike was out of action and Angel took over on his bike. At this point I have to say that both CitySquashers are riding Mountain bike and putting us all to shame, man they can ride.
Andriy set up his camcorder on the front of my bike, he showed me the start stop button and we were on our way. We were now ascending and coming into higher passes, the riding up was tough but man the riding down was terrific especially from two passes - Mt. Airy which is 6679 feet high – what a descent, I think that Andriy, who was now on a bike with Jack driving, achieved 35 mph going down.
At one of our frequent pitt stops, which were usually for no more than 5 minutes we saw the shoe tree! Yes a shoe tree with lots of shoes wrapped round the branches. Very unusual to say the least. At a gas stop which was in the middle of nowhere, a great bar and what looked like a café, with cowboys in their boots, cowboy hats, looking just like cowboys, We gassed up, and went on our way.
At another stop we met Bruce who was the driver for another X America Ride. We had overtaken his 4 riders earlier. They are raising money form a Catholic Church in Russia in an area where Stalin had whipped out the entire Christian population. We gave Bruce one of our CitySquash X America Ts and were on our way.
We had a terrific system going on with the van driving 10 miles and waiting for us to catch up. What was annoying was having Jack lounging in his folding chair, as we arrived, playing Regae music. Still this kept us going at a good pace.
One final long incline into Austin, that really was tough for me. Andriy eat it up and Raymond was kind enough to ride with me into Austin. We found our Camp site just East of Austin in the Tiomay Forest Park, and put up the tent, collected fire wood (Felipe and Angels job) and set about cooking pasta – and now to bed.
Another long Ride tomorrow, starting on – yes you’ve guess it – Route 50 our favourite Route.
Right now my reflections on Nevada, so far is why do people live here?
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