Interbike was a great success this year. For those of you who aren’t aware of the event, Interbike is the largest bicycle trade event in North America. It is one of the most important events of the year for retailers, manufacturers, and and other industry folks. Over 1,000 brands are represented and 85% of all business within the cycling industry happens over these three days.
We were there for a couple of reasons. Our first objective was to personally thank all of those who took a risk and supported us last year. We’ve built great relationships with each of our sponsors, and it was great to see them for the first time since returning from Europe.
Our second objective was to foster new relationships for the future. We met some great people this year, and we’re really excited about the future. Stay tuned for new sponsor news.
We did it man, and here are the photographs to show you our journey.
A shout-out to Best Western, especially Marie Yarroll, Senior Manager of Public Relations. Best Western sponsored 10 Degrees Latitude and asked Neal to contribute content for their newly launched blog called “You Must Be Trippin”. The latest one is Healthy Continental Breakfasting. Give it a read and tell us what you think.
Today we completed our adventure to traverse 10 Degrees of Latitude under human power on the continent of Europe. Just 6 more continents to go.
Ride stats today
129 miles
Fins to South Paris; completing 10 Degrees Latitude
Our most gorgeous bike day yet, a suitable end to an amazing journey
0 sheep, 5 buguettes, 2 barets
2 huge smiles and cigars at the end
Our journey took us 14 days of biking and 1 day of swimming across the English Channel. This works out to be 1000 miles on bike and 25 miles in the water. It was gorgeous, stunning territory, and the good thing about traveling as we did was that we really got to enjoy the countryside, see the people and smell the smells (most were good).
We have so many people to thank. Our support crew made our adventure possible. Our bike crew (Flora and Bob), our swim crew (Tricia, Amy, Flora, Laura, Dave, Teresa, and the entire Ocean Breeze crew) and our home crew (Michelle, Andrew, Ava and Joshua) were awesome. Our Cadence Cycling coach Mike Kuehn was super supportive. Our sponsors are all amazing people. Everyone treated us so well through the entire journey.
Here are some parting pictures from our final days in Paris. We took our final pictures at the Arc de Triomphe. A fitting end to a stunning journey.
A shout-out to Profile Design, especially the awesome and honest Marketing Director, Barry Smith. We use their seat posts, saddles, bar tape, stems, aerobars, and storage bags for our bars/gels. The engineers build Macgyver-simple solutions to complex problems. Take our aerobar pads for example. One of the big problems with aerobars is that the elbow pads cover the top bar position. Profile Design engineers developed a simple spring system that flips the pad out of the way. Every bike shop that saw our bikes was like, “wow, that’s really clever”.
Holy smokes was it blowing out there today, but we pushed through. The French countryside was gorgeous, which made it easier. We started in Belgium and crossed the border into France during our ride. Belgium was industrial. France was filled with agrarian villages … and WEDDINGS.
Just by chance, we got to be a part of three French wedding motorcades. The cars were decorated and driving the same speed as we were biking. Everyone was happy and honking. We said “Bonjour” with our best frenchy accents. It was awesome.
Here are some pictures from the day. Time for us to rest up now, tomorrow is a 130 mile day.
This blog post is dedicated to our friends at Zipp Speed Weaponry, especially our friend Greg Kopecky, Sponsorship Coordinator. Our bicycles have a 808 rear wheel, and 404 front wheel. This configuration is becoming the sine qua non for triathletes worldwide. The aerodynamic dimples in the carbon rim are the same as golf balls and race cars.
A shout-out to Best Western Hotel Les Beaux Arts in downtown Compiegne, France. Special thanks to managers Talvay and Ouidade for making us feel so at home. The rooms were the biggest we’ve had yet and the location was right along our route and on the river. Best Western Hotel Les Beaux Arts. +33 3 44922626. 33 Cours Guynemer, Compiègne, France.
It was a gorgeous day for a swim from England to France. The middle map pretty well tells the story of our relay swim across the English Channel. We started the morning off strong on Shakespeare Beach and finished the day cold and weary just as the sun was dipping below the ocean horizon. Aches, pains, cold, and sea sickness took their toll, but they all disappeared as I walked up on the shores of France. Stay tuned for a longer trip log with more color. For now we are working through all these wonderfully supportive emails from loved ones and sponsors. Thanks for your warm vibes, we felt them in the cold channel!
A shout-out to Suunto, especially our friend Martin Schamboeck, Sports Marketing Manager. Adam swam with a T6 and Neal swam with a Core. Whether we’re defending presidents (as Adam has) or climbing Everest (as Neal has), Suunto is on our wrists. They also have this really cool software that we used during our bike rides to chart heart rate, speed and distance.
Today was our last day on the saddle for a while. This last circuit brought us within distance of the gorgeous white cliffs of Dover. From here our swim across the English Channel will begin.
Another mechanical failure… My Speedplay pedal broke in the same exact spot that Adam’s broke. These Speedplay pedals are sure lightweight, but I think the company needs to work on reliability. It is unreasonable to assume riders will replace these $300 pedals every 800 miles. We are now both riding non-Speedplay pedals because there are ZERO local bike dealers that stock Speedplay. Boo.
A shout-out to Cadence Cycling & Multisport, especially Matt (founder), Woody (tech), Brady (coach), Luke (sales) and Mike (coach). These guys run shops in Philadelphia and NYC — and there are rumors of California expansion soon. They replace guesswork with science, and are definitely the Lexus of bike shops. Thank you guys!
10 Degrees Latitude is adventure travel for people who like to exert themselves. Announcing 10DL 2009, a journey across 10 Degrees of North America. From the 42nd to the 32nd Latitude in 18 days (August 1-18, 2009). Want to take your game to the next level? Join us. Training begins now. The event starts in 8 months and 12 days.
Learn more.
Adam is an Ironman and Navy Special Forces. Neal is the 125th person to climb the 7 Summits, including Mount Everest unguided. Adam and Neal are graduates of the Wharton Business School. We invented 10DL to put the adventure back into Adventure Travel. 10DL is a journey to bike, swim, kayak and ski our way across the globe. Join us!
Special thanks to:
This blog post is dedicated to our friends at Zipp Speed Weaponry, especially our friend Greg Kopecky, Sponsorship Coordinator. Our bicycles have a 808 rear wheel, and 404 front wheel. This configuration is becoming the sine qua non for triathletes worldwide. The aerodynamic dimples in the carbon rim are the same as golf balls and race cars.
