2012 Coffeeneuring Challenge

As soon as I read about the 2nd Annual Coffeeneuring Challenge I knew I had to give this a try.  7 different coffee shop rides in 6 weeks? Thata's my kinda challenge! I wanted to avoid going to Starbucks, and since my usual days off are Sundays and Tuesdays I needed to find local coffee shops that weren't closed on Sundays.  I enjoyed finding a couple of new coffee spots, as well as hitting some of my usual places.

Day#1: Aversboro Coffee
Sunday, October 7th I started the Coffeneuring challenge with a visit to my favorite local shop here in Garner, NC- Aversboro Coffee, at 1401 Aversboro Rd. I'd invited others to join me for a 40-50 mile ride, but the weather was looking iffy.  I got a café mocha and waited a little while for anyone to show.  Soon it was apparent that 1) we were about to have a big thunderstorm and 2) no one was coming.  I quickly rode home and waited out the storm.  A couple of hours later it was all clear so I went for a solo 45 mile ride on the LeMond, finishing once again at Aversboro Coffee for a small coffee and a brownie, just to make sure it counted!

Day#2: It's A Grind

My second coffeneuring outing was Sunday, October 14th.  I met Geof for a casual ride in Cary on the condition that somewhere along the way we'd stop for coffee. I'd been building an early eighties Italian Ciocc, and I wanted to take it for a spin.  He led me on a 45 mile ride and we stopped at an It's A Grind at 2000 Boulderstone Way in Cary, NC. I got a small iced coffee, and a brownie from some high schoolers outside having a bake sale for charity. 

Day#3: The Coffee Mill
I skipped the next Sunday to ride the NCBC Fall Rally so I went for a coffeeneuring ride on my other day off, Tuesday October 23rd.  Luckily the rules allow for those of us whose jobs don't have the typical Saturday & Sunday weekend.  For this trip I rode solo down to Clayton, NC to check out a shop there called The Coffee Mill at 105 S. Lombard St.  The shop is attached to The Flipside restaurant, so along with my café mocha I ordered some lunch- a very good burger and fries. I'll probably do this run again, since it gets me a nice 25 mile workout and a good lunch too!

Day#4: Godino's Bakery

I'd been riding the Ciocc quite a bit and really enjoying the bike, but it still needed a couple of key parts: I needed to replace the Kalloy seatpost with a Campagnolo one, and the rear wheel skewer was a Shimano- I needed to get a matching pair of period correct Campy skewers.  Cycles deOro in Greensboro was having it's annual Tweed Ride and swap meet on Sunday, October 28th so I decided to drive over, look for some vintage parts, and show off the bike a bit. I met up with some friends earlier in the morning before the Tweed Ride for a tour of my old haunts in Greensboro and a visit to Godino's Bakery at 1007 Hwy 150W for a cup of coffee and a muffin.  It was a nice 16 mile ride, some roads, some greenways, casual pace and lots of fun.

Day#5: Benelux Café

I traded days off with a coworker so he could close on a house, so this week I had Thursday November 1st off.  I did a quick solo ride to downtown Raleigh and back for a stop at another favorite coffee shop- Benelux Café at 309 Blake St. in Historic City Market.  I had a medium coffee and got in almost 15 miles on the carbon bike.

Day#6: Cup A Joe

Sunday November 4th was a busy day for me, but I wanted to squeeze in a photo shoot of the Ciocc and a coffeeneuring ride.  I started at City Market, and took pics of the bike on the cobbled streets, then I rode through downtown to Cup A Joe at 3100 Hillsborough St. near the NCSU campus. I ran into Jon Turner there, he'd just finished pacing the City of Oaks Marathon.  I just had a regular cuppa joe, and we talked about bikes and endurance events before I rode back to City Market to head home.  It was a short ride- less than 6 miles!  For good measure I had an espresso at Benelux before driving home.

Day #7: The Morning Times

My final coffeeneuring run was on Tuesday, November 6th- my usual day off.  It was cool and overcast, threatening rain. I spent most of the day working on projects at home, then squeezed in a ride late in the afternoon. I rode the NYCBikes commuter to downtown Raleigh to visit The Morning Times, 10 E Hargett St. and have an excellent latte. Just a 15 mile ride, with the last half in the dark.

That does it for the Coffeeneuring Challenge- it was harder than I thought it would be, but I found some new shops to frequent and ingested large quantities of caffeine. I got to ride with some great friends and also had a few solo outings. Most of all I enjoyed not having a schedule to keep- the rides started whenever they started and I never rushed anywhere or tried to reach some goal of speed or distance.  The caffeine dictated the pace...