200, 300, 400Km

Been riding and have not had much time to keep the blog updated. Dan Pfaff and I pre-rode the Southwest Missouri 200Km on March 18, my birthday. It was a nice day to ride, except that we had a south head wind on the return that slowed us up. We finished in just under 11 hours, which is one of our slower 200Km. There were 13 riders the following Saturday for the actual event, and they were all faster except the two that got lost and did not finish. Three riders came from Columbia, MO, two from the St. Louis area, and one from New Jersey via Mountain Home, AR.

SW Missouri 200Km Pre-ride

Dan and I also pre-rode the Southwest Missouri 300Km with Joe Kratovil on April 7. Joe is from New Jersey and was visiting his mom in Mountain Home. He rides a fixed gear. The ride was prety non-eventful until it started raining as we left the Jasper control. About three miles from the Joplin control, Dan hit a pothole and crashed. He was able to ride to a convenience store a short distance away, but the tire was beginning to deflate. When he took the wheel off he discovered one of the spokes had broke. After changing the tube and remounting the wheel,the wheel was no longer true and rubbed against the brake pad even with the brake open. He ended up abandoning the ride and had his wife pick him up. If we had thought about it, he could have walked to the control and had his wife bring him a replacement bike. The rain stopped, and Joe and I continued on. As luck would have it, the wind also shifted out of the west. Prior to the storm ending, the wind had been out of the SSE, which helped us until we made the turn south, just west of Jasper. The wind would now push us home, and I completed the route with my fastest time, just over 15.5 hours. Dan ended up riding the route again the day of the event along with two other riders, of which only one finished.

SW Missouri 300Km Pre-ride-Joe & Dan

Dan and I also had a four-member Flèche team for the KC Region Flèche on April 20. One member bailed before the ride because of work. We left Republic at 17:30 for Grain Valley, just east of KC. The other rider got sick to his stomach in Golden City, and we ended up abandoning, which was unfortunate because we were on schedule and it was going to be a great night to ride.

 On April 28, Dan and I rode the 400Km in Liberty, MO. We drove up the evening before. As we were unpacking, I realized I had not brought my water bottles, and Dan only had one bottle. Fortunately, there was a Dick's sporting goods store just down the road from the motel.

Bob Burns, the RBA, sent off the 15 riders at 06:00. We hung together the first eight or ten miles, but then several of the faster riders moved ahead and a couple of riders dropped back. Dan and I stayed with the main group until the north side of Excelsior Springs when we were separated by a traffic signal that forced us to stop for crossing traffic. The other riders were going slightly faster and slowly pulled away. By this time, there was a slight headwind that stayed with us the entire day. The route is pretty simple from Excelsior Springs north; it follows US69. We soon got to a bridge that Bob said was closed but should be ride-able, and we rode across with no trouble although it was closed to traffic.

At the start

Riders behind

Riders in front

Speeding around a curve

Heading north on US69

I had an AMC Gremlin in college

Closed roads don't stop randonneurs

Dan and I stopped stopped briefly in Cameron at a Casey's (45 miles). We crossed paths with the big group as they were leaving the Pattonsburg control (73 miles). The riders we thought were behind us were at the control and left as we arrived, so we were at the back. We were planning to get back to Pattonsburg before 21:00 when the store closed because we would have to find another store further south if we did not make it on time. We also stopped in Eagleville (88 miles) for a quick soda.

Cameron, MO

Riders leaving Pattonsburg, MO

Pattonsburg control

 North of Eagleville, the two fastest riders passed us heading back. We figured they were about 35 miles ahead of us. Two other riders passed before we got to Lamoni, where we stopped at the next control (118 miles). We passed the three riders, who had been behind the big group, between Lamoni and Davis City. We arrived in Davis City at 16:39 (124 miles) and dropped our post card in the mail box. We stopped at Subway in Lamoni as the three riders left. Apparently the big group had stopped somewhere to eat, and we did not notice when we passed them on our way to Davis City. After we ate, we stopped again at the Lamoni control and then took off to try to get to Pattonsburg before the store closed. We made it by about 20 minutes (177 miles) with the help of the slight tailwind that we had pushed against on the ride north.

Big barn

Crossing the Grand River

Just south of Lamoni, IA

Lamoni, IA

We were in Amish country

 We had a scare after dark where US69 and MO6 intersected with MO6 coming from the northest and US69 headed southwest. We could hear sirens coming down MO6, so waited expecting them to continue southwest on US69, but they turned right at high speed with us directly in their path if they lost control. We heard another siren coming, so we took off down US69.

We stopped again in Cameron, and the clerk said several riders had stopped earlier. South of Cameron, we began to see lighting in the distance, and it began to sprinkle. Soon the rain was pouring down. We finally found a sheltered place to stop just north of Lawson, where we put on more clothes to keep warm. The rain slowed, so we took off again. At Lawson, we ran into the three riders who thought were well ahead. They were taking shelter under a gas station canopy. The rain had picked up again, so Dan and I stopped. When it slowed, we started to leave only to return when it started raining harder than ever. As we waited, a guy in a pickup stopped and told us there was a 24-hour c-store just east about ½ mile. We took off for the store and waited for the rain to slow as we warmed up and dripped water on the floor. We monitored the storm on a mobile phone, and when there appeared to be a break in the storms, we headed out again. The other three riders were riding faster, and we lost contact with them before Excelsior Springs. As a result, we missed the turn off of US69. We had to backtrack about ¼ of a mile when we realized our mistake. We made back to Liberty (250 miles) at 04:26.