As I prepared to embark on this cross-country ride, I think back to how I got started in road bike riding. In late October 2019 Willie Hodges invited me to ride with him and a group of men who ride every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning. Up until this time I had been riding by myself on a hybrid bicycle which was not able to keep up with riders on road bikes. I was ready for this change, so I bought a road bike from Champion Cycling as suggested by Willie and the riding in earnest began!

The core riding group consists of Willie, Perrier Allaire, Stan Sanford and Mike McNamara.

Stan was the founder and previous owner of Champion Cycling, more to be said about Champion later.

Mike introduced me to long distance riding. We did the Bikes, Blues and Bayous Ride in Greenville, Mississippi and we also rode the GAP and C&O Trail from Pittsburg to Washington DC in June 2019.

Perrier has been super supportive as I have trained for this ride.

There have been many others in the riding community I have come to know who have added to the joy of riding. However, I wanted to give special thanks to this core group who have been so helpful in preparing me for this challenging ride!

Champion Cycling .....  Excellent Customer Service.  Experts in the knowledge of all things bicycle.  Wizards of bicycle mechanics.  It has turned out to be a great experience. The first person I met at Champion was Phil Foreman, one of the owners. Phil  proved to be knowledgeable, helpful and patient with someone who had never ridden a road bike! The staff has proven to follow the model set by Phil.  The staff:  Ed, Steve, Catherine and Chuck has been supportive, helpful, knowledgeable and friendly every time I have been in the Arlington shop!

If you are in to biking or just have an interest and want to learn, I highly recommend Champion Cycling!

It has been this new group of friends who I ride with and the shop behind the excellent equipment and service that has been the cornerstone behind this riding effort!