Fordham/CitySquash Cross-Country Bicycle Ride Day 1
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 6, 2011
-First
Day Ride Across America. Actually not the first day, the night before
the first day. The last supper with Lauren Patrizio who started Squash
Drive In San Francisco and is the CEO of this programme, Gareth Webber
who is the new Director of Squash at the Olympic Club in San Francisco
and Jack O’Brien, rider and fundraiser extraordinaire. Pasta
seemed to be the order of the meal, with thoughts on how squash can
develop in the Bay Area, and how the urban programme can develop too.
Great banter. Then back to Preston Comey who kindly hosted the team for
Saturday and Sunday nights. Have known Preston for a long time, going
back to junior squash tourneys. We tried to get to bed early but to no
avail, and sharp 5am Jack woke us all up. Were we ready, can we do it,
who knows? We will see on July 9th.Off to our start point in Rockville, a suburb of San Fran, and at 6.50am we hit the road. Mind you it took us two goes as Jack sent us the wrong! Adding a couple of miles to our journey. So Felipe, Angel, the two CitySquashers, Jack and Raymond, the two Fordham students and the old man set off to see America, and get back to the Bronx.
It was not the greatest of days, windy and overcast and cold and we are in California where it should be warmer to say the least! We dragged each other on with Raymond definitely looking like a yellow jersey man. Andriy Kulak was our driver and back up man, and kept in constant touch meeting us at all various places along the way. Past Vacaville, onto Dixon, then Davis - what a terrific university campus which we cycled through as this was where our route took us.
A cycle path going against the traffic on a highway but with a barrier between us was interesting as we headed for Sacramanto and a good hour's lunch break. The topic of the meal was definitely our butts! We all had cycle pants, but still it was a long sit! We strung out the lunch break but knew that we had to get going to Placerville, our overnight stop on a KOA campground.
Into El Dorado hill country and man if this was a preamble to what was to come later in the ride, I’m not too sure that I wanted to go on. By this time Felipe was back in the saddle having taken a break, while Angel who trained by playing baseball was sleeping in the van, although he had done a fair amount of the route.
Hills are not my favourite cycling terrain, but we all kept pushing up this very long and extremely steep hill, and half way up we literally all got off together and pushed to the top. Mind you the hill down was great, taking us into Placerville, and a definite well deserved rest. Felipe and Angel were given the help with the cooking chore, noodles and add hot water – wow, meanwhile myself and Ray had to put up the tent – sorry Ray but not my forte!
So now I’m plugged into the electrical outlet next to our tent and sitting in the van with Andiy and Ray both on computers and Angel and Felipe trying to stay awake.
Goodnight!!
To Donate To The Fordham/CitySquash Cross-Country Charity Ride:
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