Category: ALYN Wheels of Love

Regba to Achziv Beach National Park, 50 miles, 4,700 ft elevation

The last few miles of each year’s ride are always the most emotional of the entire journey.  The brutal climbs are over and all that’s left is to take some pictures at the overlook at Rosh Hanikra and then ride a beautiful (flat!) last few miles along the beach to the finish line.  For several years, I would ride across the finish together with Steve Nachman but he unceremoniously got a flat just a mile or so from the finish!  I hope he will forgive me for going on ahead. 

We usually finish the ride in Jerusalem at ALYN where we are greeted by the children and their families, but the pandemic was still rearing its ugly head and forced the relocation this year to Achziv Beach National Park where we had a barbecue and closing ceremony.

The fabulous Leah Goldstein and Israeli pro-cyclist Guy Niv, joined the Children of ALYN to thank everyone – riders and sponsors – for a fabulous Wheels of Love!

We ate, we drank, we danced, we sang, we cried and we said our goodbyes.  Until next year! 

Please enjoy these beautiful pictures from ALYN Day 4 – The final emotional finishing ceremony.

Once again, I am deeply grateful to all my generous supporters.  Won’t you please join us on this fantastic journey.  You can donate at: https://www.alynactive.org/participant/jeff-blye/

You can subscribe for daily email updates (and pix!) by signing up at www.jeffblye.com

Follow me on Facebook or Twitter @bikerboyjeff, or contact me at:
Jeff Blye
pianoman88@optonline.net
+1 917-717-0096 cell
http://www.jeffblye.com

Regba to Achziv Beach National Park, 50 miles, 4,700 ft elevation

Finally – a sunny day to finish up this year’s Wheels of Love.  Our fearless leader Aviv announced some extra miles and some extra climbing to make up for yesterday’s rain-shortened ride.  And extra climbing, it was indeed!!  We climbed and climbed and climbed – and then some (as you can see from the photos.)

Our final day riding together took us up to Israel’s Northern border with Lebanon.  I’ve always said that you can’t get lost in Israel:  if you hit a border, you’ve gone too far.  I knew it was Lebanon because my cell phone automatically switched carriers and said, “Welcome to Lebanon – phone calls only cost $2.99 per minute!” 

It was a wild and scenic route that eventually took us to Rosh Hanikra, the North-West corner of Israel and from there along the coast to Achziv National Park. 

I mentioned that we had Guy Niv, from the Israel professional cycling team joining us on the ride for the final day, and I was able to grab a photo with him my new cycling friend from Long Island, Dan Kamensky.  You’ll be able to find Guy rather easily in the threesome – he’s the one who weighs 128 lbs!   

Please enjoy these beautiful pictures from ALYN Day 4 – Part 1.   Stay tuned for Part 2 and the emotional finishing ceremony. 

Once again, I am deeply grateful to all my generous supporters.  Won’t you please join us on this fantastic journey.  You can donate at: https://www.alynactive.org/participant/jeff-blye/

You can subscribe for daily email updates (and pix!) by signing up at www.jeffblye.com

Follow me on Facebook or Twitter @bikerboyjeff, or contact me at:
Jeff Blye
pianoman88@optonline.net
+1 917-717-0096 cell
http://www.jeffblye.com

Sde Nechemya to Shlomi, 42 miles, 5,068 ft elevation (*)

(*) But … the weather! 

We started off with a beautiful sunny day and spirits were high.  After a 10km flat warm up, we began a long killer climb with steep stretches of 10% and 11% gradient.  It was slow going. 

And then the rain came. 

Our ride leader directed the sweep bus to start picking up people from the back of the pack and about a third of the group got on the bus.  The rest of us kept soldiering on – and up – in the rain.  Eventually, the decision was made to pick up everyone and that’s what they did.  Coordinating with the police escort, it was also decided that the weather was too treacherous to continue and the ride was (sigh) canceled, leaving us with a long bus ride back to the hotel in Shlomi. 

Ironically, once we got down off the mountain, the weather was – of course – sunny and beautiful again.  Nevertheless, logistics prevented us from restarting at that point.  Instead, we will add on extra mileage tomorrow.  Oh, well.  (I noticed afterwards that I had left my Garmin on the bike, so Strava is showing me speeding along the highway at an ungodly speed. Too funny.)

Joanne and I took advantage of the now nice weather and headed out on a 4-mile walk to and from the beautiful beach.  From the shores you could see a long line of tankers on the far off horizon waiting to dock at the large port in Haifa, just south of us. 

We had another honored guest tonight after dinner.  Guy Niv, from the Israel professional cycling team joined us for a fireside chat and shared his experiences being the first Israeli cyclist to compete in the Tour de France.  Guy rode with us in 2019 and no kidding, he is awesome.  What a treat. 

Please enjoy these beautiful pictures from ALYN Day 3.  It is so good to be back in Israel after three years of waiting. 

Once again, I am deeply grateful to all my generous supporters.  Won’t you please join us on this fantastic journey.  You can donate at: https://www.alynactive.org/participant/jeff-blye/

You can subscribe for daily email updates (and pix!) by signing up at www.jeffblye.com

Follow me on Facebook or Twitter @bikerboyjeff, or contact me at:
Jeff Blye
pianoman88@optonline.net
+1 917-717-0096 cell
http://www.jeffblye.com

Sde Nechemya to Ginnosaur, 62+ miles (100 km), 2,600 ft elevation

Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening! 

Whoa, the weather overnight was terrible and we awoke to heavy rain this morning.  But our logistics crew is first rate and after working closely with the police and delaying the start, they came up with an alternate plan. 

The bad news:  no climb up Mt. Hermon this year.  The weather conditions there would just not allow it. 

The good news (frankly): no climb up Mt. Hermon this year.  Can’t say we were all that sad not to be climbing straight up for 18 miles!!  I’ve done it seven times already and believe me – it is tough!    

So, instead, our route took us on a beautiful course down to and around the Knerret (Sea of Galilee).  With our delayed start, the rain had stopped and eventually the sun came out, making for an exquisite day of riding.  The scenery was spectacular and the camaraderie was there as always.  We threw in a couple extra kms so that the numerically anal (not me) could say we did a metric century.

We capped off the day with our makeshift bar featuring several bottles of duty-free liquor that some of us (ahem) have been lugging around Israel.  We did it justice and a good time was had by all.

Please enjoy these beautiful pictures from ALYN Day 2.  It is so good to be back in Israel after three years of waiting. 

Once again, I am deeply grateful to all my generous supporters.  Won’t you please join us on this fantastic journey.  You can donate at: Jeff Blye (alynactive.org)You can subscribe for daily email updates (and pix!) by signing up at www.jeffblye.com

Follow me on Facebook or Twitter @bikerboyjeff, or contact me at:
Jeff Blye
pianoman88@optonline.net
+1 917-717-0096 cell
http://www.jeffblye.com