Jacksonville Area Legal Aid Executive Director Michael Figgins recently completed the seven-day, 420-mile Bike Ride Across Georgia. The ride isn’t the Tour de France, but it’s a tough, fair test for long-distance riders. His wife and JALA Development Director Christa Figgins also went on the trip and followed Mike in her car. The Daily Record asked Mike to keep a journal of the event.
I’ve been a casual runner for years, but all that pounding the pavement takes its toll. I decided to look at cycling as a cross training alternative. While I have had a road bike for a long time and although I like to mountain bike, I had never seriously pursued cycling as a hobby. So I started to read up on equipment and talked to several people I know who cycle for advice. Professor Laura Boeckman from Florida Coastal and Giselle Carson from Marks Gray and her husband provided valuable advice and encouragement. I decided to give it a shot.
Since my road bike was over 20 years old and I figured there had been some technological advances since then, I started shopping for a new bike. I ultimately treated myself to a Giant TCR 2 road bike for my birthday this year. Never having ridden with clips before, but having been told they were the way to go, I had the pedals removed and clips attached. I got the gear I needed, and started to train with my new bike and to get used to the clips. The clips took some getting used to: Guess what happens when you can’t get your feet unclipped and your bike stops? I finally got used to the clips and the new bike. I was riding a lot locally, going from my house to St. Augustine and back, almost 70 miles round trip, but I wanted more of a challenge. Knowing I was in no way prepared to join the elite cycling groups in our area, I started to look around for local cycling events that would suit a novice like me. Then I read on the Internet about an annual event called the Bike Ride Across Georgia, or BRAG.
BRAG, now in its 28th year, began after a Georgian attended RAGBRAI, the Bike Ride Across Iowa, the grand daddy of all cross-state bike rides. Now run by Jerry Colley, BRAG attracted 1,600 riders this year. While the median age of riders is 42, children regularly attend with their parents, and many bikers are in their 70s. Many people also bring their pets along and tow them behind their bikes in carts. The ride is not a race, but is a daily ride over a seven day period that crosses the state averaging about 60 miles a day. Best of all, the ride is fully supported, with rest stops roughly every 15 miles, and support vehicles combing the daily route to provide assistance to the riders if needed. The ride sounded challenging, but had a safety net factor with all the support that appealed to a novice like me. It also looked to be mostly populated with “regular” riders like me, not the Lance Armstrong types. I now had a goal: To complete the 2007 BRAG.
I registered for the event, and then was faced with the decision of how to spend my nights along the trip. Accommodations for BRAG vary greatly. Most of the cyclists camp each night at the terminus spot for the day, usually a town high school or local college. BRAG provides breakfast, lunch and dinner along the way each day for a very low price, and movies are shown each night in camp for those who wish to watch. A shower truck is provided, and massages are available each night after the ride. The campers who are doing BRAG without logistical support from family or friends load their bags and gear onto a truck each morning and have it hauled to the next spot each afternoon, ready for them to pick up their gear and set up camp for the night. Other campers have family or friends transport their gear and set up camp each afternoon, so comfort is waiting when they finish their ride. There is even a service that you can hire to do that for you if you wish. Other participants have RVs moved from site to site each day, while another group opts to stay in hotels along the route each night.
I really enjoy camping, and thought that the camping option was the way to go. However, my wife Christa was coming along to provide my logistical support each day, and Christa doesn’t camp. So hotels it was for us. Truthfully, Christa had a good point: She figured I had never tried anything of this magnitude with biking, so perhaps I needed to give myself every advantage to succeed, including a comfortable bed each night. She booked the rooms, and we departed for Columbus, Ga., the starting point for BRAG 2007.
Sunday June 9
BRAG began today with a 72-mile ride from the Columbus Civic Center to Americus. We got up at 4:30 a.m. so that I could get a 6 a.m. start so as to ride as much as possible before it got really hot. We arrived at the Civic Center and I unloaded my bike, nervously looking around at the other bikers preparing to depart on the first leg and at the campers just stirring in their tents. I was very nervous, much like you are in school before taking an important exam. Driving in yesterday I was intimidated by the steep hills along the highway between Buena Vista and Columbus. I was hoping yesterday that that wouldn’t be the route for today. The first groups of bikers began leaving the parking lot before sunrise around 5:50 a.m. I joined them.
The first part of the ride was flat and scenic, following the Columbus River Walk built along the Chattahoochee River. Then the route went 15 miles through Fort Benning, then turned toward Buena Vista, and my fears were validated: Here came the hills. The entire morning all the way to Buena Vista was hill after hill after hill. In all, 25 miles of steep hills challenged the group today. By the time I got to the Buena Vista rest stop I was exhausted. I had tried to train for hills as best I could here in Florida by cycling the bridges along the Wonderwood Expressway, but I was unprepared for what I faced today. The nice part about Buena Vista is that the town turned out to greet us; they had banners, music, and were gathered singing at the rest stop to cheer us on.
I looked forward to meeting Christa at the lunch stop, but found out when I called her that she was hopelessly lost. BRAG asks that private support drivers follow special routes so as to minimize traffic along the bike routes. However, BRAG does not promise those directions are perfect. It turns out the directions were far from perfect. Christa told me that she finally got to the lunch stop an hour and a half after I left it, but she was at the finish in time to meet me. To top it off, she narrowly missed hitting a deer along the way. The finish today was Georgia Southwestern State University, alma mater of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. It is a beautiful campus, and the campers looked happy to have shade to pitch their tents in. We went back to our hotel where I rested for the remainder of the day, battling leg cramps, I’m sure from not drinking enough water. We later returned to the college and ate the barbecue dinner BRAG provided for the day and talked to fellow riders. Today was harder than I thought it would be. I learned at dinner that many riders had stopped in Buena Vista, wiped out from the hills. I’m glad today is done, and I have some trepidation about tomorrow.
Monday, June 10
Today our route was from Americus to Cordele, 62 miles. I again tried to start by 6 a.m., but was a little later than yesterday because I forgot my water bladder back pack at the hotel and had to go back for it. It was brutally hot again today, more than 90 degrees and very humid, and the hills were just as bad as yesterday. However, I felt strong today. I figured out how to work my gears to get me up the hills as efficiently as possible, and I made sure to drink as much as possible from my water pack and at the rest stops, which kept my energy up. The end of the road today was Crisp County High School in Cordele. The place looks pretty barren. The campers are grouped on a flat plain next to the school. Many are bunched at the bottom of a small hill next to the woods that border the property, I’m sure trying to get some shade from the trees. It was very hot today; apparently several people suffered heat exhaustion.
Tuesday, June 11
Woke up again this morning at 4:30 a.m. for today’s 73 mile ride, and heard an ominous sound: Thunder and lightning. I went outside to see driving rain. I got ready and went over to the start at the high school as usual at 6 a.m., but it didn’t look good. A few bikers, maybe five, headed out on their bikes into the storm, but the bulk of the riders were waiting out the rain. We went back to the hotel a mile away to check the weather on TV.
Back at the hotel a group of riders, about 40 people, sat in the breakfast room at the hotel watching the Weather Channel and keeping an eye on the radar. Many of them were worried for two reasons: First, they wanted to ride. Second, many of them were staying at hotels along the route but didn’t have their own cars; they were having their bags transported to each hotel every day by a service. If they couldn’t ride to Douglas, the stop for the day, they were going to have to try to catch a ride with someone, which is not an easy task because most people with cars don’t have room for extra people and all their gear and their bikes.
We started talking to some of the others present about how they thought the ride would go. People were optimistic, but as the morning progressed our hopes faded. The storms were right over the ride area, and the National Weather Service issued a serious thunderstorm warning for the area. Reports started coming in that I-75 was flooded. Not ready to concede that today’s ride wasn’t going to happen, I watched the weather for a while longer and started talking to a married couple at the next table. From Mayo, they have ridden in 20 cross-state rides, and also completed a 54 day ride across America. I figured they knew what they were doing. At that point one gentleman started asking if anyone could take him on to Douglas. When the newscaster announced there had been 32,000 lightning strikes in the area in the past 60 minutes and that two horses has been struck dead, the husband and wife team announced it was too dangerous to ride today and that they were calling a car service to take them on to Douglas. My decision now made, we checked out of the hotel in the rain and drove to Douglas. By the time we got to Douglas, the weather was beautiful. Figures.
We went to dinner tonight at the BRAG stop for the day, South Georgia College. At dinner we talked to some of the folks who were camped last night at Crisp County High in Cordele. The rain was so bad many of them were soaked right out of their tents. I look forward to tomorrow, which is a rest day.
Thursday, June 13
Today was an easy day, Douglas to Baxley, 45 miles. My water bladder stopped working today, which is a problem. I need to figure out how to stay hydrated, and I hate fooling with water bottles attached to my bike. It is easy to reach for a water bottle and grab a tire instead. The terrain today was flat, but a head wind started today which made the going a little slow. And the semi truckers get incensed that we bikers are on the road and they get right behind us and lean on their horns. Sharing the road has a long way to go.
Friday, June 14
Today we went from Baxley to Hinesville, 58 miles. I’m starting to get into a groove of rising early, riding until about noon, and then doing it all over again the next day. Today we rode through Fort Stewart for miles and miles. The head wind got worse today because we are getting closer to the coast. Only one more day to Savannah!
Saturday, June 15
Today we went from Hinesville to Savannah, 47 miles. Part of today’s route was over US 17, which was intimidating. Traffic was moving about 70 miles per hour, and there was no bike lane. You either had to ride right on the white line or in the debris field on the other side of the rumble strip. I figured risking a flat tire was better than risking getting hit by a car, so I rode with many others in the debris field, dodging glass and other junk as best as I could. I didn’t do well enough, though. With 7.3 miles to go to the finish I had a flat tire on my back wheel. Christa was already at Daffin Park, the finish site, so I started walking my bike in to the last rest stop. She started driving to find me, but I called her off because the rest area, like all BRAG rest stops, had a bike tech. I walked my bike a mile to the rest stop, and a bike tech fixed my flat for $10. It was worth every dime, because after all those miles I wanted to ride, not walk, across the finish line.
At about 11:30 a.m. I crossed the finish. Tired but happy to have finished the ride, we ate lunch at the celebratory party BRAG throws at the end of the ride. Although we had a room in Savannah for the night, we were tired and wanted to go home, so I crashed in the car and Christa drove us back.
BRAG was a challenging experience, but one I am glad that I did. I have to say that I am hooked on cycling now, and I cannot wait to do BRAG again next year. The people are friendly, the camaraderie is great, and to have such a fully supported ride so close to home is a real benefit. You see all types of cyclists at BRAG; the novices, the experienced, the young, the older, and even some Lance Armstrong types. But all of them were friendly and the atmosphere along the ride was very supportive and congenial. The ride is very safe; other than the folks with heat exhaustion on day two, the only injury along the entire trip was a person who fell from their bike and broke their collar bone. I highly recommend if you are interested in cycling in a great supported environment, that you give BRAG a try.