Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Spokes: Phil Wood (custom)
Tires: Schwalbe, Marathon 700 x 32
Tubes: Q-Tubes 700 x 32
Rim strips: Velox 17 mm
Saddle: Terry
3
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I don't want anyone to think I'm apologizing here or coming clean for borrowing from Ford without attribu-
tion twenty years ago. But what goes around comes around. Many years ago, when I was a high school English
teacher, I told Ford, who is still a friend, a story about one of my students who, in a paper, referred to the com-
petitive environment of a high-level prep school as “a doggy-dog world.” That phrase subsequently showed up
in a Ford short story, and when I confronted him about it—this was mock indignation, you understand—Ford
looked off vaguely into the atmosphere, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “Well, we find fiction everywhere.”
4
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Several months later, I wrote to Erik and asked him if he was surprised that I'd made it. I thought I'd come
across to him like a novice—it's certainly how I felt—and I could only imagine that he and Julie were shaking
their heads at my folly when they left me. He wrote back that he wasn't in the least surprised: “I didn't think
of you as a novice, either. Life experience can carry the day. Even if I had, I would've admired the courage it
takes to do something new. When I teach bike riders the sport of cyclocross, for example, I'm always impressed
by their bravery. Yes, some part of that bravery is misinformed by ignorance, but who cares? I'm there to help.
I often wonder if I'd be so brave if the roles were reversed.”
5
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Kopchovsky, who was also known as Annie Londonderry, made her crossing in two parts. In fact, she
claimed to have ridden around the world, and though she did circumnavigate the globe, evidently a good deal
of her overseas journey involved alternative transportation. However, she did cycle from Boston to Chicago
and back east to New York City, and later from San Francisco to Los Angeles, El Paso, Denver and finally to
Chicago, where her arrival was reported in
The New York Times
. A full account of her adventure is available in
Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride
(2007) by Peter Zheutlin.
6
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A thirty-four-year-old Australian, Cadel Evans, won the 2011 Tour de France, which ended on July 24; that
day I rode from 8:00 a.m. until nearly sunset, covering 53.2 miles up the Columbia River gorge to Hood River,
Oregon.
