Etra Lake Park - Clarksburg : 20110529

Great Sunday morning ride from Etra Lake Park, in the general direction of Clarksburg. Gary let Eric insist we complete a hilly loop around Perrine Circus, a hundred foot climb with a sweeping descent. Doesn't sound much but it got the legs going at an early stage. Thanks Eric.

We swept into the rest stop in Clarksburg as a few riders from south Jersey left, but obviously, today it was the crossroads of the cycling world as dozens of other riders arrived from the four corners of the state, even as we left.

It was hot day. A day to avoid cramps. Drink lots. Even if it means delaying the group. It's better than going down with that horrible feeling in the legs.

DRINK LOTS!!!

Ride of Silence : 20110518

I will be supporting this year's Ride of Silence, an world-wide annual bike ride commemorating all cyclists killed and injured in the past year.

Riders who wish to take part in the Princeton/Skillman area should meet at Van Horne Park, Princeton - behind Princeton Fitness and Wellness Center - at 6.30pm for 7.00pm prompt, Wednesday, 18 May, 2011.

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*Event postponed due to rain. More information here ...

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Be prepared to ride 12miles @ 12mph. ie: 1 hour duration.

Other rides in the New Jersey area can be found here. Other US rides here.

Incidentally, it's quite hard to find bicycle accident statistics for New Jersey. The state's DOT Crash Records don't recognise cyclists as a demographic ... I found some really dated information which showed that NJ was one of the safer states for cyclists with 2.28 deaths per million over a period of five years in the 1990s.

However, this document shows fatalities aren't really falling nationally, although NJ rates are now around 1.49 deaths/million. Comparisons with Europe are difficult, since statistics there are compiled on the basis of accidents per 100million kilometres travelled.

SuperTuesday: NJ, USA

As Super Tuesday gets closer I said to myself that if any of the US Presidential front runners of any persuasion came close to here I would make a point of going out to see them in action.

As the race has gone on it seems that the field has whittled itself down to John McCain for the Republicans and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democrats.

As it happens, today, it was Barack Obama who was appearing at New Jersey's Meadowlands Center, so I scooted up the New Jersey Turnpike to have a look at someone who might yet become the President of the United States of America.

I lined up with thousands of others in the wintry sleet to get into the main arena. There was an intense amount of energy about, not really at the level you might expect if you've ever seen any of that old US political convention footage, but of people really looking for something new. What was really noticeable was the number of young people and people of colour - as they say here - who seemed totally committed to Obama's cause.

There were a fair few opening remarks as you'd expect at a gathering such as this, but, speaking as someone who is really an outsider and with no means of establishing the degree of integrity of these people, Mayor Cory Booker of Newark certainly knew how to make a speech and impressed me greatly.

However, the real proceedings were set off by Robert de Niro - yes, that Robert de Niro ... a big surprise for everyone in the hall - who introduced Senator Edward (Teddy) Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy - JFK's daughter.

Nobody can deny that Obama has a fair degree of charisma and had the audience eating out of his hand. What was surprising to me was the degree of liberalism - as they call it here - which wouldn't have been unusual at a British Labour Party conference before Blair.

The Democrats seem to have an embarrassment of riches, having already had a candidate, who could have undoubtedly taken on the reins of office at least as well as anybody in the last 40 years, drop out and are still left with a choice between two serious candidates, one black, one a woman ...

I'm sure Democrats will make the best choice. Will America?

What A Week To Give Up Smoking ...

So there we are ... Plymouth Argyle tootling along nicely in The Championship. A useful team. Engaging fans. A committed manager ...

Committed manager ... Oops!!! Oh well.

I'm not blaming Ian Holloway for taking a new job where he's probably being paid twice as much, but he should be really careful about swearing undying love with team and town just days before resigning.

Anyway, following the Argyle is a bit of a masochistic pursuit, as anyone in the Green Army will tell you, so we're pretty used to disappointment so I suppose this can go on the list of exes.

But in the course of following the soap-like twists and turns I've found a couple of Argyle fans who live in NJ, one not ten miles from where I live. Hopefully we'll meet up at Nevada Smith's in NYC next time Plymouth are on Setanta.