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IT's NOT A RACE, BUT THESE RIDERS REALLY HAMMER Series: Bike Virginia

Posted on: Friday, 1 July 2005, 03:00 CDT

LEXINGTON -- Regina Losinger is riding in her first Bike Virginia and she's been a little surprised about one part of the experience.

Each day Losinger watches groups of speedy riders rip past her.

"I'm a solid bike tourer," said Losinger, who lives in Binghamton, N.Y. "And they're blowing my drawers off.

"I'm impressed, but I wouldn't have expected it at a bike tour."

While the ambitions of most of the nearly 2,000 riders lean toward the casual, a number of the riders put the hammer down each day.

Some use the tour as training for other races. Others can't help but compete with the other studs in their riding groups. Some are still just in it for fun, but are in such good shape they can't help but ride fast.

Bruce Miller and his friends have taken each day's longest ride option, including a 75-mile ride Tuesday that included a vicious climb from Vesuvius up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. In four days they've ridden just about 300 miles.

Miller, a 47-year-old from Dayton, sometimes finds himself in duels with Mike Mason, a 38-year-old from Onancock whom he met on a previous Bike Virginia tour.

"I want to drop him on the climbs," Miller said. "But that's because he hurts me so bad on the flats."

Miller and his buddies aren't overly competitive.

"We go fast," said another of the group, 50-year-old Rich Harris of Harrisonburg. "But that's only because we ride a lot."

They also stop at the rest stops, and don't mind slowing down to talk to friends they pass along the route.

Joyce Gearhart and husband Roger Masse of Bethesda, Md., have also been pushing it on each day's longest ride option.

"If you really suffer on a climb," said Gearhart, who is 44, "that will make the opposite feeling even stronger."

Masse, 43, agreed.

"It's an endorphin thing," he said. "The pain is like a drug. You kind of get addicted."

Masse has another motive. He races mountain bikes, and long, mountainous road rides are great training.

B.J. Samuel is another rider who is using Bike Virginia not only for a chance to ride with her husband and friends, but to help prepare for upcoming races.

A 54-year-old from Virginia Beach, she is competing in U.S. Cycling Federation races and is leading the Women's Category IV points classification in the federation's District 42. With important races coming up in Roanoke at the Commonwealth Games, Samuel wanted to gain an edge on her rivals.

"It's wonderful training," said Samuel, a Bike Virginia veteran. "The Mill Mountain time trial won't be easy, but I think I'll be more prepared than the other ladies."

Samuel has ridden each day's longest option along with her husband, Bob, and friends Jim and Barbara Dunham of Virginia Beach.

Jim Dunham's gone beyond that.

During Monday's 100-mile option, he got well ahead of the others in the group. Sixty miles into the ride the route returned to a rest stop at the 40-mile marker on the course. Dunham decided to re-ride the 20-mile loop he had just covered in the hopes of catching up with his wife and friends.

"I was feeling pretty good," said Dunham, a former competitive cyclist who still trains with racers. "I figured they were ahead of me on the loop and I'd catch them."

But the other three were still in the rest stop when Dunham took off after them. Not only did Dunham end up riding 120 miles, he still beat many of the other 100-miler riders to the finish, and even plenty of riders who had chosen shorter routes.

Tour participants will get one more chance to push it on the tour's final day, and the road to the finish won't be easy. Today's route from Lexington to Roanoke covers 61 miles, with nearly 4,500 feet of climbing.

Source: Roanoke Times & World News

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