Brad Lohmeyer

Last Day - Thank You

Today was short and relaxed on the bike.  We rode less than 20 miles total, meeting up with a police motorcycle escort that took us into downtown Indianapolis. At the end there was pie waiting for us along with a slideshow presentation and speeches.

Thanks to all the medical tape, some of my nicknames today included “mummy,” “burn victim,” “boxer,” and the guy who “braked with his face.” I’m feeling much better though, I was able to use my left hand more today. One of the older cyclists gave me some advice for treating the wounds, and I should make a full recovery soon.  

My car was still 10 miles outside of Bloomington, but Spencer’s dad gave us a ride there. I was fast asleep in his backseat within 5 minutes of leaving Indy. I drove us home from Bloomington then headed straight for bed to catch up on sleep. As tiring as it’s been, it was a great experience and I’m glad to have been a part of it.

This year you guys helped me raise $425 for Lafayette’s Habitat for Humanity, which exceeded my expectations. I appreciate the support and encouragement, as does Habitat. I hope you’ve enjoyed following along this year!

Day Two - Bike Wreck

Competitive cyclists tend to draft off each other to save energy, riding almost wheel to wheel in long lines. The reason you wouldn’t want to do this on a bike is the same reason you wouldn’t want to drive cars bumper to bumper on the freeway, you can’t react fast enough to avoid accidents. Experienced cyclists have ways of managing the risks; communication, maintaining a steady velocity, and avoiding sudden or unexpected movements.

I was in the back of one of these lines this morning. Around mile 20 one of the leaders realized she was about to miss our turn and slammed hard on the brakes without warning, causing the next guy in line to ram into her. I tried to swerve out of the line, but it wasn’t enough to prevent my body from ultimately slamming into the road. One of the riders said he turned around just in time to see my chin grinding to a halt on the pavement.

Your hands are often the first thing to hit the ground, which is why I always wear gloves. Even with them on, the impact ripped through a few layers of skin, soaking the front of my gloves with a bit of blood. My left wrist was bruised and thumb might be spranged. The next parts to hit were likely my right knee, ankle, and forearm as they weren’t bleeding quite as bad as my hands. My face was probably last, thankfully my chin wasn’t as bad as the rest of it.

When the shock wore off I untangled my legs from my bike, picked myself up, and called “SAG Support” (two vans that follow us around with supplies). The driver showed up a few minutes later with a modest first aid kit, I got to work cleaning the 7 wounded areas while the other riders worked on my bike. Max found some creative ways to bandage everything so I could get back on the bike and ride.

The driver informed us that there were still 40 miles left to go, and I managed to ride all of them unassisted and finished with the other riders. I refused pain killers until the ride was over. I figure if I’m doing something on the bike to aggravate the injuries, pain is the only way I’ll know I need to stop. Numbing everything up means risking worse injuries.

Sure enough, the pain told me I really shouldn’t be gripping the bars with my left hand, so I wound up riding one handed for most of the 40 miles. Occasionally I would tuck down and rest my left arm on the aero bars, but I couldn’t rest my right on it due to other injuries.

So that’s what I did today to support low income housing in Lafayette. If you want to support it in an easier way, you can donate a few dollars at:
http://bradlohmeyer.com/sponsor.html

After dinner a large group us went to see The Avengers at a theater down the road. We managed to squeeze one last fun night out of the trip, but we’re all beat and ready for bed. Tomorrow we ride into Indy with a police escort, should be fun.

Day One - Blues, Strawberries, and a fireplace

Today was day one for Spencer and me, but most everyone else had 4 days and 200+ miles of fatigue in their legs. Spencer shot ahead early on and wound up finishing second overall. I kept reminding myself this isn’t a race and rode on the tails of one of the lead packs into Bloomington. It was great to see so many friendly faces on the road, a number of old and new friends are on the tour this year.

Arriving at Bloomington’s IU campus I heard the sweet sounds of harmonica and blues guitar. I chased the sounds to the Strawberry Shortcake Festival at the courthouse and enjoyed the live show. I sent Spencer an invite, perhaps so he wouldn’t get any wild ideas about why he finished so much sooner than me…

Of course, some of us maintained the tradition of wearing our Purdue Jerseys through IU and taking photos in front of the campus gates. This town is always such a good sport about it.

A series of unexpected twists of fate brought my car to our over night location, making me the only rider with a car. Every year I wish for this on Friday night as downtown Bloomington is 10 miles away. I’m still surprised it actually happened. Spencer and I resigned ourselves to take it easy though and went looking for a late night snack (honestly). We wound up at the Upland Brewery enjoying delicious food and a warm fire. But I couldn’t leave without checking out the live music scene first… thanks to a lead from our server we found the rock band “Jerome and the Psychics” in the downtown area.

All in all, this was a great day.