Let me introduce you to “The Turbocharger.” He recently helped kick my butt
His real name is Dennis Bilodeau, he’s in his mid 50’s, lives in central Vermont.
When I met him, “The Turbocharger” and another avid Verrmont cyclist named Diana Hanks had formed a team and were training together to ride a tandem mountain bike over 50 miles of rough Vermont trails in the annual “Vermont 50” mountain bike race scheduled for September 27, 2009. This is one of the great “citizen” events in all of New England, and benefits a very good cause, Vermont Adaptive Ski and Sports.
The year before, The Turbocharger had entered the same race with another partner. They hadn’t done any real training or conditioning together and managed to finish only 30 miles of the 50-mile race.
“Only.” That’s how Dennis told it. “Only 30 miles.”
My sweetheart Marilyn and I ride a tandem mountain bike together all spring, summer and fall, and, frankly, 30 miles of road riding in a day is about all we can handle. Fifty miles of single track, which is MUCH more difficult, especially on a tandem, is almost unimaginable.
An Adaptive Sports Adventure on a Tandem Bicycle
Diana and The Turbocharger were seriously training for the race. So when they invited Marilyn and me on their third training ride together, we couldn’t resist seeing if we could keep up.
It was early April, and the single tracks were still far too muddy for mountain biking. So we met at Ascutney State Park in Vermont to ride a loop of mostly dirt roads. Diana and The Turbocharger figured a ride of about 12 miles would be good. The ride didn’t look that bad on the map. Sure there was one very long, sometimes steep hill. OK, so we’d deal with that when we came to it. Marilyn and I breathed a sigh of relief when we realized there were a couple of bailout options to shorten the trek.
On a cloudy, cool afternoon, we geared up and launched up a main road with a slight incline. A number of cars slowed to watch two bright red tandem bikes whizzing along together. Then our route turned to plunge down to the brook where the dirt road riding started. And there began “The Hill,” which went up, got steeper and steeper still as it went up.
That’s where The Turbocharger earned his nickname. Marilyn and I pedaled as hard as we could. Then we got off and walked the bike up sections that were too steep to ride. Diana and The Turbocharge never hesitated. When the going got steep, they simply shifted into the lowest gear and pedaled up the hill. We could keep up with them on the flats and on downhills, but not up hills when “The Turbocharger” kicked in.
Oh, by the way, did I forget to mention that “The Turbocharger” was completely blinded in an auto accident when he was seven years old? Though he wrestled and ran track in high school, he hadn’t done anything Active Outdoors until he hooked up with Vermont Adaptive a couple of years ago.
And Diana began volunteering for that organization in part to celebrate her recovery from cancer. So she and a Turbocharged Stoker are a good match for each other. Together, they make one great team.
What is it that’s keeping you from getting outdoors and doing something active this summer? Maybe it’s not that much of a problem after all. Maybe you can get out and do something today.