300K in Edwardsville, IL (St. Louis)

I drove up to Edwardsville on Friday evening. Actually, I stopped at Granite City, IL, where I camped at the KOA. The radio said a front would be moving through soon, so I located a tent site and went to dinner at Ravanelli's. The front had still not come through when I finished dinner, but it looked like it would start pouring any minute and there was some lightning. I stopped at K-Mart for a gallon of water and sat inside the store for about 15 minutes until the front finally passed. By the time I got back to the KOA, the rain had stopped and I set up my tent. It rained some more during the night, but when the alarm went off at 5:00AM the sky was clear, the tent was dry and it was definitely cooler.

I was at the start in Edwardsville about 6:05AM. John Jost, the RBA, and one other rider were there. There were about 14 riders at the 7:00AM start. Five or six were riding a 200K. I left with the first riders that were all riding the 300k. I hung with them as we headed east through town and along the Quercus Grove Bicycle Trail, but as soon as we hit the first farm road (Fruit Road), they stepped it up and pulled away. With a 10 mph wind out of the west and the flat terrain, I was able to speed along at 20+ mph, but the lead group kept increasing the gap.

I stopped in Pocahontas (16 miles) for a bottle of water to mix more chocolate Spiz and to remove some clothing. On this ride, I rotated through bottles of Spiz, HEED and Perpetuem. On future rides, I am going to drop the Perpetuem. I have a hard time getting it down late in the ride. When I made the turn south at 8:43AM in Stubblefield (30 miles), I was averaging 19.3 mph! Too bad I could not maintain it. At the first control in Breese (51 miles) after riding generally south, my average was down to 18 mph.

There are not many picture opportunities because most of the route passes through farm fields. There has been a lot of rain in the area, and the route had to be revised because one of the roads had been under water for several weeks. At Queen's Lake, there were a number of houses on stilts that were surrounded by water. The last two years I rode that segment, the houses were high and dry. I am not sure how the septic systems work in the wet conditions. I hit one of the expansion joints on a bridge at about 15 mph and my camera popped out of the Bento Box. It hit the deck and a car almost ran over it, but the camera continued to worked.

At the 3rd control in Okawville, after riding mostly west and south, my average was down to 17 mph. The next 15 miles out of Okawville were due east, so I had a good push from the wind that was up to 13-15 mph. That was the last segment to the east, but about the time I turned south, the west wind slowly began to decrease.

The 4th control was in Oakdale (121 miles), home of the Easter Eggstravaganza. As I was heading into town, one of the other riders was coming back towards me. I was passing a small c-store and I stopped in the parking lot.The rider told me it was the control. I used the restroom and bought some water and a V-8. When I asked the clerk to sign my card, she said we had the wrong place. So we rode up the road to the actual control.

The other rider pulled away a few miles outside of Oakdale. He was in a hurry to get back because he did not have any reflective gear. I stopped again in New Baden (151 miles) for water and V-8. I finished off a bag of potato chips I bought in Okawville. I was feeling sleepy, so I also popped a caffeine pill. My final stop was in St. Jacob (166 miles) for water and to put on reflective gear. I pulled into the final control at 9:22PM. The fast group was back 2.5 hours earlier. I spent the night again in Granite City; this time in a motel.

200K Brevet in Liberty MO

John and I went up to Liberty for the 200K brevet on Saturday, April 5. We left at 1:00PM on Friday to scout out a new permanent route from Strafford to Humansville. The original route I mapped out had some gravel roads west of Buffalo, but after driving around the area, we found a paved route.

We were at the Perkins Restaurant, the start of the brevet, at 6:00AM. John ordered a big breakfast, but did not finish it because he was feeling queasy. I gave him a couple of antacids to try to calm it down.

There were 28 cyclists when Bob Burns, the RBA, sent us off at 7:00AM. There were more cyclists than I expected to see following a PBP year, but the weather was predicted to be nice (high around 65 degrees and sunny) except for a stiff south wind later in the day.

The route is hilly with 8,580 feet of climb (profile) and meanders around generally north and west of Liberty (map). Shortly after the start, John dropped behind the group and I slowed so he could catch me. He had dropped his chain and said he was doing okay and not to wait for him. That was the last I saw him until after the ride.

As we climbed to the northeast towards Prathersville, I connected with three other riders: Jack, Eric and Brian, who I rode with off and on most of the day. The ride was generally uneventful until I turned south on B Highway just outside Ridgely rather than heading straight west on E Highway. Eric was with me, and we ended up riding an extra 5 miles, about half on gravel roads. Jack and Brian were behind us when we left the route and were surprised when we later pulled into the halfway control at Platte City.

The first part of the return ride went well because we were generally heading north and east. We turned into the wind for the last 25 miles from Plattsburg back to Liberty. It took almost 2.5 hours to complete that last leg. I am not sure how strong the wind was blowing, but the Perkins' flag was straight out when I returned. The ride took about 10 hours and 20 minutes, 40 minutes less than last year even though I rode 5 more miles.

Meanwhile, John's stomach had gotten worse, and he heaved his breakfast on the front of his bike. He had to abandon the ride about 9:30AM and checked into a motel in Kearney, the hometown of Jesse James. He was only about 10 miles from the start as the crow flies, but since I had the truck keys, he did not have anyplace to go. He tried to call my cellphone to let me know his situation, but my phone was off. I called my wife after I returned, and she called back about an hour later after John called her. For some reason, John's voice mail message was not registering. I drove up to Kearney to get him, and we dropped his brevet card back at the Perkins before heading back to Springfield.

Cold, Wet Ride; Hot Pancakes

The Ladies' Auxiliary cooks pancakes at the VFW in Strafford on the 5th Saturday of the month. Since it only happens a few times a year, the weather has to be really harsh to call off the ride. It was about 44 degrees, but not raining, when I left the house. It started to sprinkle when Rae, Doug and Tom met me downtown at 7:30AM. We had to be at the VFW before it closed at 9:00, so we headed east into the headwind (about 11 mph) that made the rain seem more intense. The rain stopped outside of Springfield, but picked up again just outside Strafford. When we crossed MO744, we passed a stream of runners and walkers doing a 5K. As usual the pancakes were great. For some reason the women make better pancakes than the men who cook them the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month. Since it looked like we were going to get more rain, we decided to head back to Springfield after breakfast. The rain started again after we crossed I-44, but with the wind at our backs it was not bad. Instead of a 50-mile ride, I only did about 33 miles. More than enough in the cold and rain.

The Spirit was Willing, but the Flèche was Weak

We put together a team (Emily, Hunter, John and myself with Rudy in support) to ride a Flèche from Springfield to Grain Valley, just east of Kansas City. The 237 miles had to be ridden in 24 hours. The intermediate checkpoints were Miller, Golden City, Nevada, Holden, and Greenwood.

We left Springfield at noon on Friday into a headwind that wore on us most of the ride as it swung from the west to the north. We were little late getting to Golden City, in part due to a flat the John had about 10 miles out. Emily also dropped out prior to Golden City. Dinner took some more time, but we began to make it up on the road to Nevada until we hit a gravel section just south of town. We had ridden four miles up MO 71 to avoid a gravel section between DD Hwy and E Hwy in Vernon County. We made good speed on the wide, smooth shoulder, and there was not much traffic that late at night. When we got to E Hwy, the map was not correct because E Hwy only went east and we were heading west. The road to the west was paved, so we kept going and hit gravel after a few hundred feet. The gravel was not too bad, but after two miles we came to a road closed sign. Fortunately there was a road to the north and it was paved. We made it into Nevada about an hour behind schedule, so we actually lost ground we had started to make up.

We were also a little slow getting out of Nevada (12:30AM), and we hit more gravel, that we were expecting, before we got to M Hwy that would take us northeast toward Holden. While M Hwy is flat, we were not keeping up a speed to make it to Grain Valley on time. The wind had picked up from the north again, and it was getting colder. Just before 3AM and after 140 miles, we decided to abandon and called Rudy. Fortunately he was only about 1/2 hour away. Everyone was really chilled, so John wrapped up in a space blanket, and Hunter and I took turns in his bivey bag until Rudy arrived.

Sunday Ride to Ash Grove

Since the Flèche to Grain Valley is coming up next Friday, it's time to start tapering and we (Tom, Doug, Rae, Ron, Dave, John and I) rode the relatively flat route out to Ash Grove for lunch. It was clear and about 38 degrees when we left at 10AM with a good wind out of the east to push us along. The planes were using the northwest runway because of the wind. The clouds rolled in while we were having lunch at Willy B's, and the temperature had only climbed to about 44 degrees when we left. We stopped not far outside of Ash Grove to call the owner of a dog that had been killed. The owner's name and telephone number were on the collar. The sun broke out again as we approached Springfield, and Rae's shadow raced along side her.

Commuting Year Round

You don't have to quit riding in the winter.

A Pleasant Ride to Pleasant Hope

Rae, Doug, Tom, John and I headed north to Pleasant Hope late this morning. The weather was mostly sunny, in the mid-40s at the start and high-50s by the end. The route north took us across Fellows Lake, where there are facilities for a quick stop. There was still snow along the northern slopes. We stopped for lunch at the Junction Grill in Pleasant Hope on the northwest corner of MO 215 and H Hwy. The route south crossed McDaniel Lake, and by 3:00PM the fishermen were out in force on the bridge. The water level of the lakes is higher then I have seen it in a long time. We were chased by a number of dogs who were also ready to get out for a spring run. Other than the dogs, it was a pleasant 50-mile ride.