A 47-year-old home builder who took a couple of years off to bicycle around the world is looking ahead to his final 3,500-4,000 miles in a trans-America tour.
Steve Dale of Yorkshire, England, is presently in Australia and set to fly to New Zealand where he'll bicycle before heading to the United States. He's already traveled across Europe and Asia by bicycle.
In preparation for his bike tour across the US, Steve contacted me at the BikingBis blog. He wants to know about “the best practical, but most direct bicycle route across America.”
He wants to start in San Francisco and finish up in New York. Anyone out there with ideas about the best route? You can leave them in a comment here or send them directly to Steve.
My recommentation
Without ever ridden that specific route, I was going to suggest Adventure Cycling Association's Western Express bicycle route to Pueblo, Colorado. There he'd connect to the TransAmerican bike route all the way to Richmond, Virginia area.
From there, Bikely.com has a route from Richmond to Washington, DC. Then from DC, he could complete his trip to New York via routes of the East Coast Greenway.
The only problem I can see with this route is that he'll be arriving in San Francisco in July, which means putting him across Nevada in the sizzling summer. I imagine, however, that Steve's a pretty tough cookie considering that he's already bicycled across three continents.
Steve's blog
Just to see what Steve's capable of, you can check out his website Ride with Steve. Along with some personal background and a picture gallery, Steve also has a daily blog that he updates whenever he has access to the internet.
His blog is a quick-hit list of the highlights of the day. He writes about climbs up such Tour de France landmarks as the Col d'Peyresourde and Tourmalet, kids throwing stones at him in Turkey for not paying up, and keeping a lookout for bandits in India. He also write about the wonderful hospitality he's received from strangers.
While in Australia, he's seen plenty of kangaroos and emus in the wild and been battered by rain and headwinds.
We wish Steve lots of good adventures as he arrives in the US for the final leg of his world bicycle tour.
You can reach Steve through the contact page at his website.
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