FANY Ride, July 19-28, 2014

 

Once again, Jane and I participated in the FANY ride. FANY stands for Five hundred miles Across New York, but is pronounced fanny as in what hurts after FANY. This makes our twelfth time out of 14 possible. We missed 2003 and 2010 (although we visited the 2010 ride for the last few days). Links to our web pages of previous rides: 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, and 2001.


This year, there were about 130 riders with a few taking advantage of the hotel option and two  doing “Sore FANY” which is a ride to the half way point each day and then cycling the rest of the way.


New this year was Comfy Campers. You could get them to set up a tent for you each night, or provide you with an air mattress or provide you with morning coffee, or some combination. All for a fee of course.


I’ve updated my table of mileage and climb for each of the FANY rides.


Jane drives our van while I cycle. This has the advantage that we are not limited to two bags, so we can have a comfortable camp and other amenities! Also, we go out to dinner each night rather than use the meal plan. This is important because I’m so slow, that sometimes I don’t make it in time for the meal plan!


This year, I made it up every hill, including some of the same hills I walked last year! Partly I’m in better shape than last year (now 2-1/2 years since my knee replacement) but mostly, I changed the gearing on my bike. Last year my low gear was 26 (granny) x 32 (cog). I went to 22 x 36 this year. That’s a 25% lower low!


The rest of the story is in the albums linked below. Clicking on a picture sends you to the album. Within the album, clicking on a picture brings up a larger photo. You can also see a slide show. Sometimes the slide shows come up with small photos. Double clicking on “play slideshow” seems to help bring up the large photos.