Cherokee Riders

Well, things are certainly exciting!

This is a picture from last week- it was the first time all of the 2012 riders were together in the same place!

Of course, with the beginning of the ride just about two weeks away we are all training like crazy. We still don’t have our trailer to haul gear in, but it should be here soon. When it gets here I have to build the racks to mount the bikes in for safe transport and gear storage. The Emergency Management office is lending us one of their new trailers, and it’s not here yet. I should not worry, right?

The first RTR Riders. Taken in Cherokee after the first Joint Council at Red Clay in 1984.

Maybe I should. I found out yesterday that the ride coordinator for the Cherokee Nation resigned Wednesday. It seems he had not yet ordered the team jerseys or made any motel reservations. Okay, now I’m worried. There is a silver lining though- the new ride manager is one of the first people to actually make the ride. In 1984 Taylor Alsenay was one of the fifteen or so people from OK who rode back to Tahlequah after the first Joint Council was held at Red Clay, TN. The did it on the road bikes of the time (yikes!) and camped out the whole way. That’s old school, baby! Taylor’s daughter CJ  Alsenay was one of the 2011 riders, and Taylor and his family supported the ride the last three days. He and the paramedic from last year, Justin Leatherwood, will be in Cherokee next week to go over plans for the ride.

I don’t know what we’re going to do about jerseys…. Probably we’ll get plain jerseys for the first two weeks while the actual jerseys are being printed. The company that has been doing them for the last three years is now out of business, so that’s another hurdle to overcome. It’s a good thing that Cherokees are “the Pheonix People”.

I’ll keep you posted.

The 2012 continues to prepare for the 2012

Tatsi, Carmen Jeremy Wilson and I riding back from Balsam.

RTR Ride. Many of us ride together Tuesday nights from Sylva, NC

to Balsam and back. This is a 26 mile round trip with 1,800 feet of climbing. It’s a good hard ride, and at less than two hours it’s pretty convenmient. I wish more of the riders could do it more often.

I had a death in the family which made me unavailable to some extent. Now, as things return to normal, I am taking a greater interest once again in the wellbeing of the team- my little lambs. I think they like me!

They have all worked so hard.

They like me, they really like me!!!!

Soon it will be time to travel to GA and start the ride. I am proud I will be able to travel with them for at least the first 9 days. I will be driving the SAG Wagon (Support and Gear) till we get to Cape Girardeau, MO. Everyone asks why I’m not riding this year and I tell them we want new people to have the opportunity to experience the ride. The truth is, of course I’d love to make the ride again!!!

I may be the only one updating this blogg, but I hope not. Some of my riders have chosen to disregard my request to post here in favor of FaceBook. It seems they think everyone uses FB. I’ll keep you posted.

!!

!

Well, alas- a disaster at work has ruined my weekly riding plans. The tribe’s email server crashed and I’ve been working on it ever since. I haven’t been able to ride since Tuesday, and it looks like I’m going to miss a big ride in Brevard today. I was really looking forward to riding with my coach Andy Applegate on a warmup ride for the Assault on the Carolinas race I was going to ride in on Saturday but can’t because it’s my mother-in-law’s birthday. Sheesh- now that’s a run-on sentence! You gotta read the Gettysburg Address for something like that!

Anyway, I found a pretty cool video from last year. It’s the whole team somewhere in TN. I think it’s day 4 and we just left Fall Creek Falls State Park. We really have our paceline technique working.Paceline

We had an excellent training

Coach Andy Applegate explains "Paceline" techniques to the 2012 RTR team....

camp in Brevard on Saturday!!!! We were all up early Saturday morning and met at my office before 7:30am. 90 minutes later we were at the Carmichael Training Systems office in Brevard, NC.

Carmichael Training Systems was founded by Chris Carmichael, the man who coached Lance Armstrong, and they have a facility in Brevard. Last year the tribe hired them to provide each of us (the 2011 RTR Riders from NC) with a personal trainer. We could not afford that this year, but we were able to afford a day-long training “camp”. Andy Applegate  was my coach, and I really believe I would have failed last year if it was not for him. I was so excited that he was going to be the one to coach “my guys” (gals too), and proud that our 2012 team could get world-class coaching.

We did a lot of drills- slow riding, pacelines (following in single file very close), climbing, descending, riding as a group, safety, nutrition and so much more. I was so proud of how we “my” team performed- they made me look good! I probably got more out of the lessons than they did. “Track Stands”-

Jeremy Hyatt, Coach Andy Applegate, Chi Sawyer, Jeremy Wilson, Judy Castorena, Skye Littledave, Tatsi Nelson and Coach Steve Brandes at Carmichael Training Systems- April 7, 2012.

being able to stop and stand still on a bike (like at a traffic light) without “unclipping” your feet from the pedals. It is a very difficult maneuver and I had never been able to demonstrate it very well….mostly because I could never do it right. Now I can do it right! Thanks Andy!!!

I guess the best thing about the weekend was the sense of confidence I now feel in “my riders”. They did everything they were asked to do, and they did it well and without complaint. Today I have to step up the training a notch, but I know they are ready. Today we are climbing the mountain- we will ride several miles up the Blue Ridge Parkway and down again, then we’ll do it again and again. We’re going to be fine.

Thanks for checking in. I’ll keep you posted.

I continue to coach the 2012 RTR riders.

Hugh, Jeremy Wilson and Skye at the top of "The Wall"....

Yesterday Casey and I rode 15 miles at lunch, and then I rode 21 miles with the team after work. On the trip back a dog ran in front of one of the riders bike and he hit the dog. This cause him to wreck and go over the handle bars just about 20 yards from where I broke my ribs wrecking last year. Fortunately he (Jeremy) was not seriously hurt, just bruised and scraped up. His helmet however was cracked (better that than his skull). It was a rather extreme way to drive home a point I had been trying to make for weeks- stay together.

This weekend I get to take the team to Brevard, NC to train with my old cycling coach Andy Applegate at Carmichael Training Systems. I am really looking forward to that! This week I’ll be eating a lot of plain yogurt so I can be in “fighting weight” for the weekend!

I’ll keep you posted.

Well, it was three weeks later than I had hoped,

Five of the seven 2012 RTR Riders.

but the team finally got their bikes issued and training has begun. I am humbled by the responsibility of being esentially the head coach of the 2012 RTR team. They are all great, and I am completely confident that each of them will have no problem completing “the ride.”

On Monday we had our first official training session. This was to coach the riders how to use clip-less pedals without falling down. It’s a lot like teaching people how to get out of their snow skies by willing the bindings to come loose. It involves a very unnatural rotation of the foot out and away from the pedal. You need to do that each time you stop. If you fail to do so you will fall down (as you know from my many videos of myself falling over). Now they can all do it and we are riding!

Next Monday we all get to go on our first team ride. I expect almost everyone to go on the ride except for the rider who lives on the other side of Asheville. Two of the riders went on a club ride last Thursday after work. They had not gotten their road bikes yes and had to ride mountain bikes. Mountain bikes are great for going up and down hills- slowly. It’s hard to get much over 12-15mph. They are just not geared that way, so our 20 mile ride took 1 hour and 40 minutes. Still, they toughed it out and made it the whole way. Next week will be better.

My wife Nadia is very supportive of me and that helps. I also think she’s a little relieved I am not riding a bike again to OK. Personally, I’d love to go again. My dream is to send 100 people a year, or as many as want to go. It’s kind of funny- one of the donors to the ride did not see “the ride” as a cultural event, they saw it as a health event. That’s an easy mistake to make I suppose, but it is so very wrong.

Keep the greasy side down! I’ll keep you posted.

Yesterday, the Cherokee Riders Cycling Club had

Everyone is getting ready to go...

it’s third club ride. While this was the first time attendance did not increase, there were still a number of new riders, and it was Super Bowl Sunday.

We had a number of last year’s RTR Riders, and one new RTR Rider (Totsie Nelson). Several children went along, including one in a trailer and one on a “trailer bike).  The ride laster for 90 minutes.

We're off!

Well, it’s done. Talk about an embarrassment of riches. Actually, to my mind, I was wishing that there had been applicants of lower quality, because everyone who applied was someone I’d have liked to see make the ride. I think I’d have been proud to work with each and every one of them, and I’d have wanted to be in Tahlequah

RTR Committee members conducting interviews....

when they rode across the line. Those names will be publicly announced soon. Before they are, I have a few words to say.

We had 22 people apply. 12 of those people made it to the interview process. The 10 who were not selected for interviews would have, I’m sure, been excellent riders. It was not easy to not select you. All 12 of those people selected seem exceptionally well qualified to represent the tribe on “the ride”. All of the applicants are exceptional, and the six finally selected are exemplary. I hope some day we can have the access to funding that would allow every person who applied to make this ride. You’ll never be the same.

Personally, I am grateful to everyone who applied and everyone who encouraged people to apply and to everyone who supports us on this ride. This ride is more important than anyone who hasn’t anticipated in it can know. I’m not even sure that those of us who have participated understand the power of the experience. So, on behalf of myself and my people- our people, I thank each and every applicant I had the privilege of considering.

Thank you,
Hugh

Today Casey Cooper and I spent our lunch hour riding

Casey meets me on "Holiday Inn Hill".

up to The Great Smoky Mountains National Park and back. We rode up to Smokemont Campground and back- a total of more than 16 miles! It wasn’t that cold and it wasn’t raining for once! We’ve done this ride literally dozens of times, and it’s easy to do in an hour if you keep a good pace.

The rain of the past few weeks has gone (for today at least) and it was a perfect blue sky. At 50 degrees fahrenheit, it wasn’t even too cold! Besides, I had the arm warmers and thermal tights my wife gave me and I was nice and warm inspite of the chilly wind. I don’t know what the weather will be like the rest of the week, but tomorrow we have RTR Rider interviews, so I was grateful

Road signs on 441 point the way to "The Park".

for a chance to ride.

It was nice to take a break in a pretty tense work day and just ride. There’s no substitue for “seat time”. It’s nice to have the training stand… that is to say it’s better than nothing! Still, it can’t compare with an actual ride. I’ve even tried watching cycling videos while “spinning”, and it’s not bad. It beats not being able to ride at all.

Still, out on the road you never know what may come and your senses are more alert. The wind is blowing and there are bird sounds, plus you’re aware of your surroundings (like oncoming traffic I hope!). It’s just great to be

Road rage with this guy would be bad news.... and that's no bull! Wait, that IS a bull!

able to ride, especially in one of the most beautiful places on the planet. The traffic was good, even in the park…. well, there was one guy who didn’t seem to want to give Casey the “right of way”, but he was in no mood for an argument- you can see from the pictures! I think the fellow did not know what to make of people on bikes!