The Epileptic Cyclist

This kind of blew up online, so for all the people I don't know, I apologize once again for my poor writing. Leaving from home I had a little send off with my family, and started pedaling at about 9 o'clock in the morning, starting in the North side of Longview.  I had ridden or driven through a lot of this country before, so while there was a bit of sightseeing, I mainly focused on putting in mileage. However, if you've never been to East Texas, I really do recommend it. The countryside in East Texas is gorgeous and full of lush natural scenery.  For this trip I have a goal of averaging 100 km a day (63 miles), which would put me there in 2 weeks, but I'm not really afraid to push on further if I feel good, which is exactly what I did. I didn't anticipate how hard the first day would be though, I was pushing into a 13 mph headwind and the entire route was rather hilly. Even considering that, I felt like I was going slower than normal, and later

I'm a little proud of my bike. My Specialized Secteur is not the highest end of bikes, is not really designed for trips like this, and many people are scared to tour on carbon and aluminum, but I think she's beautiful. This is the bike that got me into cycling, the bike that I did my first race on, the bike that I won the collegiate season with at UNT, and will be the bike that I ride 930 miles across 4 states from Longview to Chicago. I've made a few changes since I first got her to make touring a bit more comfortable and feasible, including swapping out the rear derailleur for a mountain bike rear derailleur to fit a huge gear on the back, and swapping to bar end shifters instead of brifters. Some of this is going to get really technical to people that don't know much about bikes so I apologize in advance. Specs: Frameset: Specialized Secteur Crankset: Shimano Claris compact double Front Derailleur: Shimano Claris Rear Derailleur: Sram X9 10 s

Howdy. My name's Kanten, and while I'm generally making this blog for friends and family to be able to keep up with my upcoming trip, I figured I'd introduce myself a bit too. I don't really have any experience blogging so I'm sorry if this is a total bore, but hopefully not!  Me at the World Series in Chicago-29th of October, 2016 I'm 20 years old from Longview, Texas and attended UNT for the past two years, but I'm not planning on returning in the fall. I'm a competitive cyclist that struggles with epilepsy but still harbors dreams of being a pro cyclist one day, so in the fall I will be training and racing with the Williams Racing Academy based out of Wimberly, Texas.  I decided at the beginning of this summer that I wanted to do a bicycle tour of some significant length, and with my love for Chicago and The Cubs, I felt that The Windy City would be the perfect destination. I'll be riding a Specialized Secteur, which I'll