Book Review - The Lost Cyclist

The Lost Cyclist - David V. Herlihy (2010)  - The sub-title here is "The Epic Tale Of An American Adventurer And His Mysterious Disappearance" which offers a nice little summation.

This is the story of Frank Lenz an early star in the world of bicycling.  Bicycles are such a common object that we forget that once there was a time when they were new.  In the late 1800's bicycles were the rage.  Starting with the challenging "ordinary"or "Pennyfarthing" then moving to the "safety", which is the origin of the bicycle most of us know today, bicycling was a craze in America and Europe.  Out of Pittsburgh, PA came several of the best of the early riders including Lenz.  His specialty was long distance riding or touring.  While he had great success on the ordinary Lenz was always running second to his rivals and he wanted more than that.  He found it in the innovative new safety bike with it's pneumatic tires (previously bike tires had been solid rubber.  The inflatable tire was a huge step up in comfort and ease of riding).  What he really needed was a momentous ride.

The ride he chose was to go around the world on his bike.  Beginning in the States he would travel west to Japan, then China and across Asia finally to Europe and home.  Others had done similar trips but never this direction and never with the intent to ride the entire way.  Previous riders had covered long sections of the trip by train which Lenz refused to do.  The Pittsburgh native would make it as far as Turkey and then never be heard from again.  To this day a mystery surrounds the end of the trip.

Herlihy covers the challenges and trials of the trip with a story teller's skill.  From Lenz's early days in racing and touring through the many challenges that would face him before he even made it to Turkey the author draws you into the tale.  The rider is often his own worst enemy while at the same time his courage and incredible physical determination take him past obstacles that would have balked any ordinary person.  The story follows right through the investigation launched into his death and the roadblocks that impede it.

And Lenz himself  is often the greatest challenge on the trip.  Like many of his time he assumes a natural superiority over anyone who isn't like him.  There is an ingrained racism in American culture that is right at the surface in those days.  Add in the strong element of cultural superiority that was at its height at this point in American history and Lenz is bound to create ill will among those with narrower world views and/or longer histories than our own.  It seems quite possible that he crossed the wrong person at the wrong time resulting in his death.

If you love well written history you should enjoy this.  If you're a cyclist (or wheel man as we were referred to back in the day) with a love of history this one should definitely be on your list.

Rating - **** Recommended

Loop the Lake 2010

Riding around Lake Chautauqua is something of a landmark for cyclists around here.  The ride is somewhere between 41 and 43 miles depending on just how you do it.  The terrain ranges from long hills to long flats with both urban and rural riding.  Most of the roads have decent paved berms, in some cases excellent riding.  My church, St. Lukes, has been doing the ride for 8 years (we think) and doing it as a fund raiser for Episcopal Community Services for most of that time.

I mentioned before that this year I set a new goal.  Not just to complete the ride but try for a new personal best.  The lake basically divides into four sections so I knew I had some basic mile markers to keep me going.  The first leg is fairly simple, especially since you do it fresh.  The southern side of the lower lake is mostly flat with one short steep section then some moderate hills.  I busted through that section over 20 minutes ahead of my internal estimate and completed the entire southern portion in a little over an hour which is well ahead of schedule. 

The "third" leg is my least favorite.  It is the home of the "Three Sisters" (side note - In local Native American culture the Three Sisters are corn, beans and squash.  Three vegetables that not only grow well together but in fact thrive together.  They are staples of the traditional local diet.  So I'm stealing this image from them and appropriating it for my own.  Which is fairly typical sadly), three long climbs that basically ARE the third leg.  You ride from Mayville to Point Chautauqua take a quick ride down into Dewittville then climb again to LCLC,  ride down into Maple Springs and begin the worst of the three climbs up to Long Point State Park.  This is the worst because it comes last when you're pretty well beat and it's a long winding climb that makes you think the peak is almost there only to fool you.  I'll take the traditional Three Sisters any day.  I was actually doing quite well through this bit and arrived at the end of leg 3 at the 2 hour mark.  Which was impressive.

With that in mind I took at short break for some water and a couple of orange wedges and pushed on.  I completed the fourth leg in another hour which put me in Jamestown at the south end of the lake at the 3 hour mark.  Now my previous best was 3:50 and I was aiming at 3:30 - 3:45 so I figured I was in great shape.  All I needed to do was make the turn around the end of the lake and travel a handful of miles back to the start finish line.  Piece of cake.

Two problems.  By then my legs were shot.  I pushed as hard as I could but needed to keep coasting to take a break.  The final insult was when I made the final turn up lake for a quick couple of final miles and turned right into a nasty headwind.  I wasn't sure just how bad it was till I saw some yard pinwheels trying to go supersonic.  It was too much.  I put my head down and just tried to stay on the near side of 3.5 hours.

And it worked.  I arrived back at my starting point in 3 hours 28 minutes and change.  22 minutes better than my previous mark and ahead of my goals.  And totally spent.

The ride would have been more fun if I'd been able to find my earphones so I could listen to the music I'd loaded on the iPod just for this run but they refused to cooperate.  Still can't find them.  And without that head wind I think I might have cracked 3:25.  Even so it was a great ride.  As always great to sit around after with the other riders, many of whom I'd never met, and talk about the ride and other things.

On the whole a pretty good day.

I'll go fall down now.

Peace

So here we go...

I promised to do some more blogging.  Some actual real blogging, not just posting the scripts to my radio show.

So as the title says...

It has been very warm here of late.  Temps up into the 90s are not common here in Great Lakes country.  But we've managed to muddle along.

Senior High Conference went very well.  Had a generally good teaching series (one session that wasn't up to snuff in my opinion but it wasn't awful.  Just dull)

Day after tomorrow I will take on one of the big physical challenges of the summer - the Loop the Lake ride


Somewhere around 42 miles, fair number of hills.  The steepest tend to be short but a couple of them are a mile or more long.  When I started doing this ride  (which St. Luke's Jamestown now sponsors as a fund raiser for Episcopal Community Services - the outreach arm of our Diocese) my goal was just to finish without dying.  This year my goal is to set a new personal best time.  Looking back for my benchmark turned out to be a bit murky.  A couple years ago I did it in 4 hours, and last year my time was 3 hours and 50 minutes start to finish but I took a long break (too long, I started to stiffen up).  I figure my total cycling time was around 3:24.  But to make it clear and fair I'm looking at total time from start to finish.  Breaks are part of the run.  So my goal is between 3:30 and 3:45 total cycling time.   Which would seem eminently doable.  I've been averaging over 12 MPH on my practice runs.  The question is can I hold about a 12.5 MPH average for the overall ride?  We'll see.

Other than that we have four tomato plants going.  Three are thriving and one isn't.  Which is better than usual.  Summer is busy time at our house.  My two ladies are working away steadily.  The younger lady of the house is starting to wrap her mind around the bizarre concept that school is now over.  Just like the song says "School's out for-ever!"

There a little bit of catching up done.  9 AM Eastern time Saturday keep me in your prayers as I set off on my ride.

Peace