The frenzy of the Tour de Franzia

This is our second year in a row visiting our good friends in Lake Placid. Every visit is special, very special… because it’s a totally different beat that what we are accustom to but mostly because they are completely nuts!

It was hard to get going on the friday, a lot of rain in the last few days and very stressfull week at work for both of us.

We set up for our first camping weekend of the season at the KOA in Willington. We were really excited.

Usually we get there for the Friday night ride and this year was supposed to be quite special because it was the Full Moon Friday the 13th people die mysteriously in the woods while the wolves howls party/night ride.

Instead we went to the fabulous Liquid’s and Solid’s for a incredibly tasty meal along with my favorite beer on the globe: Stone’s Ruination IPA on draft.

Our lake placid posse are on there very own time zone. We usually ride pretty early and then drink beer the rest of the day, instead they start late and ride AND drink all day.

We used this free time to relax and do a late start.

Then Bill and I rode both side of the Hardy road trails. I love these trails, they dry quickly, the flow is great and they are man made. There is a couple of cool features like slippery rocks to climb and hidden drops here and there. Unfortunately Isa (along with her camera) was not on the ride so no pics.

After Hardy road, we did a quick shuttle down poor’s man downhill, crossed over to the flume network via the reservoir trail and did a quick sample of these trails. We were running late for the major event of the day The Tour of Franzia!

I don’t know how the idea was born but the concept is this: a bunch of cyclist enthusiasts bike from houses to houses on sweet vintage bike to drink cheap wine (Franzia) and goof off.

The collection of cruiser bikes was incredible.

Huffy Miami vice style! These faux mags are as loud as my fat bike tires with studs.

The stylish way to carry the Franzia from one stage to the other.

This was one of my favorite maybe because of the mtb tires.

But I think the greatest one was this vintage Schwinn tandem.

It seems that even in the US they had those stupid bike licence plates at one point.

But the Tour of Franzia is not only about riding and drinking, it’s also about playing foolish games like the water balloon toss.

Everyone’s favorite mannequin was waiting patiently to get unto the next stage.

It was quite something to cruise the town on our old school bikes and ridiculous outfits.

Isa and me had the privilege to ride for the first time a sweet Cannondale mountain bike tandem.

And at everyone’s disappointment we did not even crash! but some did, 3 medium to bad crashes happened during the night and only the guy with the antlers helmet was safe….. or was he really? he could have been gunned down at any point by a unsuspecting hunter.

After that we carried on to do a very inspiring lap of the olympic ice skate oval ring and a very scenic tour of mirror lake. Then we all gathered up at the Lake Placid Brewery for beers and of course the well deserved Tout de Franzia Awards!

Some the awards were : best costume went to Superman and the bike award went the to tricycle with the mannequin.

The next morning we took the extra time from our rather early start (from a LP perspective) to drink a handpressso and go see some viewpoint of the high rivers.

After we did not do one or two but we did three rides in the afternoon. We started on henry’s wood trails. These trails are machine build and have a sweet fast flow and they were dry compared to the other LP trails.

We took some obscure back trail down to a very scenic field with a fantastic view of the high peaks of the Adirondacks.

The way back up was steep and loose but it gave us the chance to go down the henry’s wood flowy trails.

After that we joined the rest of the crew for a quick spin on one side of hardy’s and then headed up the toll roll for the sunday classic shuttle down poorman’s downhill. PWD (poorman’s downhill) is quite unique, it’s a snowmobile trail that goes down the lower part of whiteface, it’s old school, it’s wide and it’s ridiculously fast and fun.

We skiped the second shuttle back up to drive back home via the ferry and got home after midnight after a food stop in Burlington. Vive le Tour de Franzia!