Cyclists gearing up for 16th Nut Roll

ALBANY — There are as many reasons to hop on a bicycle and pedal 32 … 46 … 65 … 104 miles on a Saturday morning as there are cyclists.

Some of the local riders who will take part in the 16th annual Pecan City Pedalers Nut Roll on Sept. 14 offer a few of those reasons as they train for the yearly event that draws hundreds of riders to southwest Georgia.

“This is part of my training for an Iron Man competition,” Sally Layson Gray, a masters-level athlete says.

“A group of us ride as a family and we just ride for fun,” contractor Steve Glover adds.

“Five minutes outside of Albany, you can ride 60 or 70 miles and not see a single car,” Chip Battle, a probation officer, offers. “There’s just something about being out on these roads.”

“Biking was my least favorite part of competing in the triathlon,” Ashley Brown, an MCLB-Albany employee who is a relative newcomer to both cycling and triathlons, said. “This is my first time in a group event like this, so I don’t know what to expect. It’s part of my training, though.”

“The camaraderie is amazing; you meet some really great people,” Jason Martin with Muskuloskeletal Associates said. “And where running wears on your knees and feet, cycling allows you to get in exercise with none of those effects.”

Roger Haggerty, the Pedalers’ ride director for the Nut Roll, will do his fellow riders one better.

“This ride is about advocacy,” Haggerty, the COO with Aspire Behavioral Health & Developmental Disability Services, said. “It’s to promote cycling, to raise funds that will benefit our youth team and to advocate for sharing the road. We use some of the funding to put up signs encouraging drivers to share the road with cyclists. We have the signs up in Dougherty County; Lee County is getting theirs up, and we working to help Terrell County fund theirs.

“The beautiful thing about the Pecan City Pedalers is that there’s a group to ride with pretty much every day of the week. We have some who ride dirt roads on Wednesdays — off-road biking is the next big thing — Chip (Battle) does a developmental ride on Mondays where he and others ride at the pace of newcomers. We have a group ride on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, and there is a group of seniors who have morning rides.”

Around 300 riders took part in last year’s Nut Roll, which leaves Chehaw park at 7:30 a.m. and heads in all different directions — to Leesburg, Bronwood and Plains — for rides covering 32 miles, 46 miles, 65 miles and 104 miles. Glover and his nephew, Colton Glover, learned the hard way that paying attention is one of the requirements for the excursion.

“Colton and I have been doing the Nut Roll together now for three years,” the contractor and race sponsor through his Steven Glover Construction, said. “The first year, we’d only been riding a few months, so we decided to do the 32-mile ride. The farthest we’d ever ridden was 16 miles.”

The Glovers came into Leesburg for the first refueling stop, and auto traffic stopped to let the riders pass on their way.

“Unfortunately, the cars stopped on the markings that showed which way to go for the different rides,” Steve Glover said. “We were out by the (Lee State) prison, and I realized we’d already done 18 miles. I asked another rider about the 32-mile route, and they said we were supposed to have turned in a different direction back in Leesburg. The markings had been blocked by the cars waiting for us to pass.

“We went ahead and did the 62-mile ride, and when we finished we both were barely able to talk.”

Gray, who at 69 is an admitted competitor, started biking more than 30 years ago when she decided to compete in triathlons: a 400-yard swim, 12-15 miles on the bike and a 5K run. From there, she graduated to Olympic-level triathlons (mile swim, 26 miles on the bike, 10K), the Half Iron Man (1.5-mile swim, 56 miles on the bike, run a half-marathon) and finally the full Iron Man, which covers 3 miles in the water, 112 miles on the bike and a 26-mile-plus marathon.

“I’d run a couple of marathons back around ’86 when triathlons kind of became a fad,” Gray said. “I just got wrapped up in it. I love being outdoors and active, and I’ve pretty much always been competitive.

“I’ll use the Nut Roll as a training ride; I don’t think I’ve ever had the opportunity to just ride for fun.”

Some of Brown’s pals convinced her that she could prepare for a triathlon in a relatively short period of time, so she took them at their word. She joined the Pedalers in February of this year, and by April she’s competed in — and finished — one of the three-tiered events.

“I really pushed myself, but I didn’t really think I was ready,” Brown said. “My group told me I could do it, so I entered and I think I surprised them when I finished. I know I surprised me. And they told me I had a good time.

“What I found by joining the Pecan City Pedalers is that they are a very welcoming group. I didn’t know what to expect, but they are just a great group. They helped me achieve my (triathlon) goal, and while events like the Nut Roll are new to me, I’ll use it to train for my next triathlon competition in November.”

Martin rode mountain bikes in college and later became a runner, but that led to issues with his joints. So he bought a bike and decided to return to an earlier activity.

“I started asking about rides around this area and found out about the (Pedalers),” he said. “I love it because with cycling, you can go hard or just take it easy and enjoy the ride. I usually ride six days a week, anywhere from a 12-, 13-mile ride to a 70- to 80 mile ride. And just like you can put whatever effort you want in your ride, you can put whatever amount of money into your bike, too.

“I have one bike that, with all the alterations I made to make it lighter, I ended up with about $5,000 to $6,000 in it.”

When he was a younger man, Battle rode his bike to his lifeguard job in Warner Robins. When he started gaining a little extra weight after college, he decided to run to get back in shape. Pain in his knees and back sent him back to his two-wheel transportation from younger days.

“Man, you can’t live in a better area to ride,” he said. “You get outside the city limits on these back roads, and all that stress from your daily life just goes away. You don’t think about all those things that bother you all day.

“Plus, being part of the Pecan City Pedalers adds to the experience. They’re a good group, very receptive. You go to them and say you want to have an event of some kind, and they ask what do you need me to do. I’ve ridden in every one of the Nut Rolls, going back to the ‘Lowenbrau Century,’ and it’s always a great time.”

Registration for the Nut Roll is available by logging onto nutroll.org, hitting the registration button and following the prompts. Early packet pickup for the ride will be Sept. 13 at Pretoria Fields Brewery from 6 to 8 p.m.

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