2nd Annual Ice Cream Bicycle Tour July 12, 1998

by Gail Breslow

Did you miss it?? Well, nuts on you! A motley group of 15 versatile cross-trainers met in Concord Center on Saturday, July 11th, for the Second Annual CSU Ice Cream/Bicycle Tour.

The ICB Tour fittingly coincided with the first stage of the Tour de France (whose competitors seemed to ride by many more Irish pubs than ice-cream stands, just for the record). In spite of a few dark clouds that threatened to sprinkle rain on our ice cream, dry weather and cooler conditions prevailed, keeping drips to a minimum for all but the slowest of cone-lickers. Tried-and-true race strategies were applied in innovative ways, including the ever-popular putting-some-in-the-bank-for-later, going-out-slow-and-tapering, and DNF-ing. Only three people (that we know of, anyway) got lost, and they wisely turned around when they hit a dead-end at the Assabet River. (Next year perhaps we’ll add an Eco-Challenge type water crossing for you guys.) In fact, several course records were set in what shaped up to be a competitive field. Everyone went home happy, sated, and sticky.

And now for the results:

Jennifer Wynn and Del Williamson tied for first place in overall ice cream consumption, (though there was heated debate over whether Del should get points added or subtracted for cone consumption). Pat Robinson gave the other Masters women a solid licking, finishing strong in third place overall. John Howard handily trounced the entire field in the lactose-free Clydesdale division. Isaiah Shalom slopped his way to a first-place finish in messiest-cone consumption; Isaiah also won most-mileage award (assuming he made it home okay). Glenn O’Conner won Mr. Congeniality for overdoing it at the first stop but then not complaining about it too much afterwards. Audrey Nelson-Wagenaar and Robin Hastings pedaled to a strong first-place tie in the I-can’t-believe-they-did-all-53-miles-on-a-mountain-bike division. Pinar Z. won the roped-most-people-into-coming award; she and her husband also won tongues-down in the most-conservative-consumption division. Paul Thompson was awarded fastest-leg-under-stress, consuming an entire Kimball’s hot fudge sundae and then sprinting 12 miles back to Concord in order to get home in time for something (dinner???). Dick Duffy paced the field in the greatest-number-of-contraptions-on-bicycle division (including a cooler, and a most amazing combo radio/headlamp, presumably to ward off bears in case any of us slowed to an after-dark crawl). Sue Reinert won the Seniors Division and received an extra point for stopping to buy raspberries along the way.

Post-race festivities included a few slurps at the Concord Green water fountain. Nobody seemed interested in stopping at the nearby Brigham’s for their newly-introduced “Big Dig”… wimps one and all!!! Hope to see you next year!

posted by admin in Stories on July 12, 1998

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