TOUR DE POWAY

102-Mile and 50-Mile Courses

October 4, 2009

Sunday, October 4th was a day of elliptiGO inductions at the 24th Annual Tour de Poway.  Bryce Whiting, our Chief Enthusiast, became the 3rd member inducted in the elliptiGO 100-mile club while Erin Whiting, our Lead Enthusiast, became the first woman ever to complete 50 miles on an elliptiGO.  They chose the Tour de Poway because it was local and the route seemed like a fun and challenging course.  Bryce and Erin live in Encinitas, so they can often be seen riding the coast.  This course offered exploration of new riding territory and some decent hill climbs.
The Tour Day Poway starts in downtown Poway and doesn’t waste any time in getting to the first climb.  Both the 100 and 50 mile course begin up the Poway Road grade (8% for 3 miles), followed by a fantastic 7 mile downhill.  The 100-mile course features 4,500 ft of climbing taking riders all the way to the scenic coastline of North County.

Bryce was out on the course with the green prototype and Erin rode our Orange prototype. They joked about doing the ride with the new production model, but just couldn’t steal it away from the engineers. Both bikes, as usual, performed flawlessly and gained a lot of attention on the course.

At mile 83 Bryce got quite a surprise.  He looked ahead and saw another elliptiGO out on the course coming towards him.  It was Bryan, who had flown in for the day to cheer us on and capture the epic ride on video.  Overall it was a great day for team elliptiGO.  Bryce finished the 100-mile course in about 7.5 hrs averaging about 14mph.  Erin finished the 50-mile course in less than 4 hours, averaging close to 15mph. 

The true testament to the elliptiGO came the following day when both of these marathon runners were walking around with a spring in their stride.  Like most people, in the past when they'd run marathons, the next day their joints felt awful and even the smallest tasks like walking down stairs, sitting down on the couch, or chasing the kids were arduous.  However, after the Tour de Poway, both Bryce and Erin were climbing stairs, picking up the kids and moving around pain-free.  There is definitely something to be said about getting an awesome workout without beating up your body.