A big reason
that I was able to give up mass-start races is that there are so many other
types of cycling that I enjoy so much.
One of those types is tandem riding.
The main time that Robert and I ride our tandem is at the Georgia Tandem
Rally (GTR), which is a total blast!
Today we completed GTR 2013.
GTR is three
days of riding with nothing but tandem teams plus fun social events. This year there were 130 teams from 16
states. There was even a team from
British Columbia, who got the award for traveling the farthest! The host town changes each year, and this
time it was in Covington, only about 25 miles from home. In three of the last four GTR’s, we’ve been
close enough to stay at home. It’s nice
not to have to deal with dog care, but there’s also something to be said for
staying at the hotel with everyone else.
Robert and I
really do love the riding. Each day
offers several route lengths. We always
choose the longest one. It’s not a race,
but we do have fun riding hard, especially with whichever other teams join us. We’ve ridden with teams in their 20s through
their 60s (maybe 70s – it can be hard to tell).
By the way, the front person on a tandem is called the captain, and the
back person is called the stoker.
Usually, the stronger rider is on the front (Robert in our case). You don’t switch positions anyway because the
tandem is set up to fit the geometry of each rider. And in case you’re wondering, both riders
always have to pedal or coast together.
I wish I had a dollar for every time an onlooker has joked to Robert
that I wasn’t pedaling.
Getting to
know the other tandem teams has been such a treat. We look forward to seeing the Adamses, the
Burketts, the Coughlins, and others each year, but we always enjoy meeting the
new teams, too. All of this is possible
thanks to Eve and Roger, the wonderful GTR organizers! Even though we never see some of the teams on
the road, we get a chance to get to know some of them at one of several group activities:
the Thursday evening get together, the Friday evening ice cream social, the catered
lunch at the end of Saturday’s ride, and the gala banquet on Saturday evening.
A few
highlights from GTR 2013:
- At the end of Friday’s ride we had lunch at the Blue Willow Inn. This is a regionally famous Southern buffet that became particularly well known after the late columnist and humorist Lewis Grizzard wrote about it. It has enough fried green tomatoes, macaroni and cheese, and pecan pie for Sherman’s entire army, which marched nearby during the Civil War. Robert and I rarely eat at buffets, but this is trough dining at its finest.
- On Saturday’s ride Robert and I and three other teams found ourselves out front on the long route option. It wasn’t really intentional, but of course it turned into somewhat of a hammer-fest. After a while one of the teams called out, “Mechanical!” Immediately, the rest of us slowed down to see what was wrong and whether they needed help. It turns out that they actually cried, “Uncle!”
- At another point during Saturday’s ride, we four teams saw a single rider ahead of us. When we caught up to him, I said to him, “Hey, you lost your stoker!”
- The weather looked very iffy at the start of Saturday’s ride. In fact, Robert and I drove through substantial rain from our house to the ride starting point. However, it quit raining right before we got there, and we didn’t get rained on during our entire ride. The teams who decided not to ride on Saturday sure did miss out.
- We weren’t quite as fortunate weather-wise on Sunday, though. It was absolutely storming. Robert and I went to the ride starting point but realized it was too dangerous to ride there. We turned around and went home. It was only overcast there. The tandem was ready, and we were ready, and so we went for a ride from our house.
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