The Food Lion HammerFest

On virtually every Saturday morning of the year, between 10 and 50 riders meet at the Food Lion at Kerry Forest Parkway and Shannon Lakes.

The ride goes out Velda Dairy and takes a right at Roberts Road. From there, we take a left on Centerville and ride in a 24 mile triangle; up Centerville to Miccosukee; Miccosukee to Crump then back to Roberts. At that point we head in on Velda Dairy. The entire route is 32 miles. When the clock moves ahead in the Spring we do the same loop on Wednesday nights except we do the triangle counterclockwise.
Most riders claim that despite a faster ride, the Wednesday night direction is harder. The loop has rolling clay hills covered with oak. Its a rural area. Ken Schilling once said that the roof of your mouth is bound to burn with the smell of hog manure about half way through the ride. There are no real climbs but there are some respectable kicker hills.

Most riders are officially unaffiliated with a team but we sometimes get folks wearing the jerseys of the FSU Cycling Club and Red Hills Racing.

Photographs of the Fest

You might want to start
with this group shot
taken before a
Wednesday night ride in
1992. You can see Ken
Schilling, Kevin Jones,
John Flynn, Pete Boyd,
(Little) Louie LeMarche,
back when he waslittle,
Andy Roberts, Steve Welsh,
and some other folks (51k).

Now somewhere on Centerville Road Ken Schilling has spotted the guy with the camera and moved to the front to capture a nice position for this shot of the bunch rolling it up. You can also see Nathan King in the background looking ready to chase down anything that moves (25k).

Here is the picture used for the original banner for this page. You can clearly see Gunnar Christoff as the group comes over a rise on Centerville (46k).

The last sprint in the "Wednesday night direction" is just before the intersection of Centerville and Roberts roads. How many places pay you ask? None. That explains why it is so fiercely contested.

You can see Benny Lesch and some other folks (31k).

Bert Voorting and Julia Winter revealing a low ratio of riders to bikes (63k).

A glance over the shoulder is hard to do on a bike without changing your line (31k).

Here I am having loaned my camera to Benny (12k).

Chris Lacher looking curious as to why someone has pulled up next to him (29k).

Derry Walsch and Kirk looking relaxed on the ride out (26k).

Debby LeMarche showing us that it is possible to ride road elkhorn handlebars and have nice nails (36k).

Here is Ivan Glymph finding some amusement in having his picture snapped (26k).

Jennifer Lane and Debby LeMarche chatting a bit on the way out Velda Dairy (56k).

Bike shop pro John Sewall and KC Glymph riding out past someone's horse farm (77k).

KC Glymph with a smile for the camera (23k).

Kevin Jones, Ken Schilling and John Flynn look at little cool in this picture which actually comes from the 1992 Spaghetti 100 ride (29k).

(Little) Louie LeMarche and Dan Ingram mugit up in this shot (27k).

Mark is shown in this Spaghetti 100 shot.

A cocky young looking Mike Ross gets ready for the ride. To his right is David Breese (26k). Here Mike is again going out (45k).

Paul Armor chats with Bert Voorting at the beginning of a ride (14k).

Pete Boyd rolling out of the Food Lion (81k).

Randall Smith shows what he thinks of the photographic process (14k). In the next shot you can see Randall with Andy Roberts and John Locke (23k).

Richard Williams is in the foreground and Christopher Erving in the background (22k).

Rick Culverhouse preparing for the 1992 Tour of Tallahasseee crit (10k).