Chip Adams of the Severna Park Peloton is a man of many talents, one of them being the ability to ride his bike all night. It’s a handy skill when one is in the middle of a 600K brevet or has to ride a loaner bike, say, at PBP, but he chooses to employ it on the occasional 200K permanent as well.
Case in point: he and Bill Beck ignored forecasts of potential rain and rode a 200K on the night of the 2011 Winter Solstice last month. They chose the Woodbine-Dillsburg via Gettysburg permanent and enjoyed unseasonably warm temperatures and twinkling outdoor holiday lighting along the way.
Read Chip and Bill’s story on its own page, and see Bill’s photoset at Flickr.
You might also check out Chip’s overnight Massanutten At Midnight 200K story from 2008 — another overnighter out in Virginia he rode in November that year.
Here’s an excerpt from Chip’s story:
We got into Dillsburg at 11:45 pm and got dinner, or was it breakfast? Not sure, but we ate it outside in the low-50 degree weather. People were coming and going and looked at us like we were crazy. One guy couldn’t believe we riding that distance at night and were only half-way through.
Living it up, rando-style.
He said he didn’t like traveling that far in the daylight and in a car. It was starting to chill off a little but still very mild considering we were now officially in the 1st day of Winter. We added some layers where they were needed and got back on the road heading south. It was now 12:30 am – the exact time that some say the Solstice occurred. Exciting stuff, eh?
The only way this evening could get any better was for the wind to swing around from the north and push us back to Maryland. Well, believe it or not, that is what happened. It wasn’t entirely out of the north, but close enough. It had been downgraded quite a bit, but at least it was not in our faces.
Many of the Christmas lights had been turned off on our way back home and it was then that we realized we should have called ahead and requested they be left on. We’ll remember that for next year.
We got back into Gettysburg just after 2:00 am. The 7-11 had restocked their donuts since we had been gone and we both opted for the Apple Fritter for its fruit benefits. When we had come through earlier, we both took advantage of the glazed Twist for its donut benefits. I just love donuts and bike rides!
