Ride with Phil Keoghan:Lima, Ohio to Columbus Ohio
110 Miles - April 28, 2009
I woke up at 5 a.m., too allow enough time to chow down some food, gather my wits, the bike, the bike ge
ar and drive up to the Polaris Mall GNC to meet my dad, Tim and Kurtis. We load up the bikes on my Thule hitch rack, throw the gear in the car, pile in and head up to Lima, Ohio at about 6:15 A.M. The plan was for all of us to meet there, get into my car and have my dad bring my car back to Columbus. That way - all of us at the finish of the ride could just get into our cars and go our separate ways.
ar and drive up to the Polaris Mall GNC to meet my dad, Tim and Kurtis. We load up the bikes on my Thule hitch rack, throw the gear in the car, pile in and head up to Lima, Ohio at about 6:15 A.M. The plan was for all of us to meet there, get into my car and have my dad bring my car back to Columbus. That way - all of us at the finish of the ride could just get into our cars and go our separate ways.We arrive in Lima, right on time, find the Convention Center and Hotel where Phil is staying. It's pouring rain. We park at the hotel and walk into the lobby and see Phil Keoghan of The Amazing Race TV Show sitting in the lobby, talking on the cell phone. We change clothes in the hotel bathroom and get over to the Convention Center (right next door) and get rea
dy to ride. Phil makes a short speech with the local MS chapter and the Mayor of Lima. Lots of photos, waiting around and then Phil comes over to where Tim, Kurtis and I are hanging out - he checks out my bike, makes a comment about the Tarmac being a great Crit bike. We have some tech talk about my Garmin and the crappy Garmin mount. He mentions all the technology that went into making the 705 and how they cheaped out somewhere along the line designing the mount. We discuss some other options for mounting the Garmin and our frustration with how it is designed. We chat about the SRM and the Power Tap.
dy to ride. Phil makes a short speech with the local MS chapter and the Mayor of Lima. Lots of photos, waiting around and then Phil comes over to where Tim, Kurtis and I are hanging out - he checks out my bike, makes a comment about the Tarmac being a great Crit bike. We have some tech talk about my Garmin and the crappy Garmin mount. He mentions all the technology that went into making the 705 and how they cheaped out somewhere along the line designing the mount. We discuss some other options for mounting the Garmin and our frustration with how it is designed. We chat about the SRM and the Power Tap.We go outside, into the rain, get ready to roll. Phil gets the small crowd to do a count down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 GO! We roll out through downtown Lima. I swear, we hit every red light out of town. It's still raining hard.
Phil has a chat along they way out of town, 'interviewing' one of the riders with us that had MS. He finishes interview and ramps it up to 22 mph. Tim, myself and Craig (a guy from Cleveland) are the only ones hanging on at this point. all the others were shelled hard out the back. About half mile from the Airstream plant, Jackson Center, Ohio. Phil hits the ground right in front of Tim and I on some very poorly designed RR tracks at 32 mph. Tim yelled out and I look up see Phil sliding down the road. I decide to 
dismount and walk across the tracks. The tracks were at a extreeme angle with the road, providing no safe way for a cyclist to ever cross these tracks. The wooden RR ties, were I think made of snot. They were even too slick to walk across in our bike shoes. No wonder Phil went down. Not pretty. Anyway- hours later, after some hobnobbing for Phil, Tim and I fix up Phil's bike [Tim mostly-I helped with the stand:) ], Tim gets on video with Phil fixing his bike in the Airstream parking lot. 
We all roll down the road for Phil to meet and greet some local school kids and head to a nice local restaurant. The executives at Airstream pick up the tab for our yummy lunch. We finally head outside and notice it has started raining again and the wind has picked up considerably. Crap.
Phil, Tim, Craig and I roll out with Phil's motorcycle driver.
We all roll down the road for Phil to meet and greet some local school kids and head to a nice local restaurant. The executives at Airstream pick up the tab for our yummy lunch. We finally head outside and notice it has started raining again and the wind has picked up considerably. Crap.Phil ramps it up to 20, sits there a few min....Tim and I are STRUGGLING to stay out of the wind and yelling at each other to swap out spots so we have some relief to sit out of the wind, rain and weather. Neither of us can find any relief behind Phil, not wanting to overlap wheels and take him out and not wanting to ride too close. Tim and I struggle and struggle and lose more and more road on the right side to sit behind the motorcycle and Phil. Tim and I look back and Craig is GONE! We manage to make it to the intersection and cross 33 heading towards Belfountain. A few miles, we go left, the road goes up, we are doing 24 mph - up hill into the wind, rain. At the crest, we see Phil and motorcycle disappear into the distance....there is a brief pause by him and his 'engine'...then poof.
GONE! - Tim and I look at each other and just laugh -
We only stopped twice after that...to eat and pee. 110 miles l- almost 8k calories.
we arrived at the GNC about 6:30 or so....about 40 min after Phil got to his Comfort Inn hotel we heard.
The next day (April 29) Kurtis, went up to meet with Phil to get him
a new Specialized Toupe Gel 143 saddle. This was to replace his damaged one, from the wreck. Kurtis took his newborn baby and got on the video. Pretty cool - and another plug and Thank You from Phil - in Day32 Video (number2) for BikeSource.
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