Just as I Thought Cycling Was Easy: The Cedar Cross (a.k.a. How not to prepare for a self supported event)

I've been putting off doing this for far too long, probably because I've been too tired to do much writing the last week or so I still don't want to admit how much I failed to live up to my own expectations. 

Back to the beginning - after attending the first annual MLK weekend Berryman ride and discovering how good of a post ride party Team Virtus and the Hoosier Daddies can put on, I immediately signed up for the 100+ mile Cedar Cross, not even worrying that I didn't have a bike that was ideal for the ride.  There was no way the skinny tires on my road bike would be able to handle the gravel, and the 26" wheels on my mountain bike would be way slow with everyone else probably on either 29ers or CX bikes.  I mean, I'd just done 25 miles of Berryman in January and had done 50 miles on the KATY trail in a morning with my mountain bike, and I had 4 road centuries under my belt.  It couldn't be that bad, could it?

Fast forward to March, and I actually bought the CX bike that most people would probably be riding in the race.  While I immediately fell in love with the new bike (and relegated my Schwinn to the rafters in my garage), the brief stint of gravel on the century I did a week and a half before the race made me nervous enough to decide that even wider tires than the 700x33's that came on the bike were necessary.  The CAC and that century also both aggravated my knee that I had bruised in a low speed mountain bike crash at Castlewood last October.  I don't know if what I did at the CAC is really related to the fall at Castlewood (since there was no pain in the 6 months between the two), but it was the same part of the same knee that hurt.  So while I felt I had the base miles in to be successful at the Cedar Cross, doubts were starting to creep into my head.

After researching wider tires, and finding out that the LBS closest to my office only had tires as wide as 700x38's, I found a shop that had the 700x45's that Luke from Team Virtus said he was going to be using.  The day before the race, and an hour before the shop closed for the night (right after Super Kate dropped off her famous chocolate chip cookies), I headed over to it to pick them up.  My plan was to put them on when I got home, then spend some time cleaning up my bike and getting everything ready to go so that I could wake up in the morning and leave, just like I did for the century ride a week earlier.  However, when I got home, everything started heading south.  I pulled in the driveway to discover that my lovely wife had started to clean out the garage.

-I only add the next two paragraphs because I think they started a string of bad luck-

At this point, I'll admit that I'm a bad husband sometimes.  About 2 or 3 times a year (usually depending on how many big snows we get), I get nagged to hose out the garage, and I HATE doing it.  I usually fight it for a good month before I grudgingly drag my butt out there to do it.  This year, since we had 2 months of crazy warm weather in March & April, all of the kids outside toys were cluttering up the garage instead of the basement which made it that much more of a chore.  I haven't been able to park my car in there since mid-March.

Anyway, after earlier in the day in which she told her parents not to clean out their garage in the 90° heat, she was cleaning out our garage, which meant that I would have to take over doing that or keep the kids occupied and out of her hair.  I opted for kid duty.

After the garage was put back in order, I was finally able to put on my new tires.  Unfortunately, when I finally got them on, it was pushing 9:00, and I knew that I needed to get to bed since I had a two hour drive to Jefferson City the next day for a 9AM start.  I didn't have time to do much else in the way of bike maintenance that night, so I decided to set the alarm for 5:00, then wake up and finish preparing for the race.

I actually woke up closer to 5:45 because while I set the alarm on my iPod, I neglected to turn the volume up, so the alarm went off, but it didn't make any noise.  That meant I had to rush around even more to get ready and finally, I was ready to go around 6:30.   The drive to Jefferson City was uneventful, and I managed to get into town right around 8:30, about a half an hour later than I really wanted to.  I made a quick stop at a gas station to get a 2 liter of Sierra Mist and some ice for my water bottles and hydration pack, then crossed over the bridge to the park where we were starting.  I quickly got registered and changed, then got in the group for the pre-race meeting.

Coming into Jefferson City on US 50.

About 9:10, Bob fired up the truck that was going to be the lead out vehicle, and we were off.  I started off in the middle of the pack and I figured that soon enough I would either start passing people or getting passed.  I knew there were some really strong people out there and some others who I could probably hang with no problem.  Not long after we hit gravel though, I starting feeling my water bottle rubbing against my leg.  Uh-oh.  I looked down and the top screw came out of my water bottle cage, so it was flopping around as I was pedaling.  I pulled off and the pack immediately passed me.  Unfortunately, in my haste to pack, I did not have my multi-tool with me, and I had to flag down Luke and Adam who were sweeping the course.  Adam didn't have his multi-tool either, but Luke managed to find his and I unscrewed the other screw and put the cage and water bottle in my jersey pocket.  Great.  More weight on my back to carry around all day.

Once I got packed up, I rode with Luke and Adam for a while, but gradually started to pull away from them.  Eventually I even started to pass a few other riders as we made our way through the edge of Holts Summit towards the first piece of singletrack, which also happened to be the same pasture that I had hiked through during the CAC.  This time though, I didn't see any of the cows that were out there that weekend.  About halfway through the pasture, I saw a pickup truck with a few people hanging out around it.  As I got closer, I realized that one of the people was Todd from the Hoosier Daddies and their team had brought a keg of beer and some bottles of water out to hydrate the riders.  That was a welcome site!  The temperature was climbing pretty rapidly towards 90, and I wasn't about to turn down any cold liquids.  I also was able to give Todd my water bottle cage to take back to the finish line so I could get it out of my jersey.  I hung out there for several minutes while everyone bringing up the back of the race came in, and when we took off, there were about 15 or so of us that formed a pace line through the rest of the singletrack and back onto the gravel.

Refreshments!!

Once we hit gravel again, the pack started to thin out again and I found myself riding with Jim Davis of Team Seagal.  We'd only met maybe once or twice before at some GORC functions, but it was nice killing the miles talking to him.  After a while, we pulled into the first official rest stop, a church that had a water faucet in their yard.  At this point, I combined the Sierra Mist from my water bottles into one and filled up the empty one with some nice cold water.  I also downed the two packs of M&M's I picked up at the gas station in Jefferson City.  There was only 40 miles to the next place I could buy food, it wouldn't be that bad, right?  Not two miles after leaving that church, we were back on the second stretch of singletrack.  With the rain the area had a couple days earlier, this was still pretty muddy, and there was a lot of hike-a-bike through here, so what might've taken 20 minutes if it were dry wound up taking probably closer to an hour.

Creek crossing on the singletrack.

After finally exiting that section, we had about 3 miles on gravel before we crossed over this old bridge only wide enough for pedestrians and started climbing another section of doubletrack.  This was also familiar ground as it was where we exited the singletrack on the biking leg of the CAC.  Unfortunately, it was a lot soggier this time around, and coupled with the narrower tires on my CX bike, it made for a fair amount of hike-a-bike as well.  Fortunately, after we trudged through the muck, the Hoosier Daddies made another appearance with their beverage truck!  At this point (mile 35), we had about 15 miles to the next rest stop where our drop bags were, and 35 miles to the next stop with a convenience store.  While we were done with the singletrack until that rest stop, that also meant that we were going to be riding through a lot more open areas without much in the way of tree cover, so those 15 miles were hot!

Bike & Pedestrian bridge across Cedar Creek

While I was wishing I had more food with me by now, I also thought I was making pretty decent time, and I was still passing the occasional rider that was getting worn out in the heat.  Everything was going all right until I heard a loud POP! and saw my front tire go flat.  While I did have a spare tube and CO2 cartridge, I had also forgotten a CO2 applicator (the downside of having 4 bikes!) in another bike bag.  Fortunately, about this time I had a double stroke of luck.  Another rider named Dave and his wife pulled up about the same time, and Dave helped me air my tire back up while his wife, who was driving the course in a van with their 4 kids, offered to take me back to the start if I wanted.  I was getting to the point where I was thinking about heading back when I got to the rest stop anyway, so I graciously accepted his wife's offer and put my bike in the van and cooled off while we headed back to the park.

When I returned, the Hoosier Daddies were back grilling their famous bratwurst (see MLK Berryman report), so I ate a couple of those and grabbed a couple of the baked potatoes that were promised to all of the riders.  Super Kate's chocolate chip cookies were locked up at this point though, so those would have to wait.  It was getting to be about 3:00 now, so after refueling my body, I chilled out with some of the other people who DNF'ed and we waited for the winners to cross the line.  Just after 4:45 the first group of 4 came across the line.

The Cedar Cross Winners

I continued to hang out at the pavilion for a while, but I was starting to get thirsty for a soda or something like that.  Too much beer and I wouldn't be in any shape to make the two hour drive home.  Caffeine would also be good to keep me awake.  I hopped in my car and headed across the bridge back into Jefferson City, and immediately after getting off the highway, I saw this:

Snow Cones! (US 54 & Missouri Blvd)

It's not soda, but I love snow cones, and when I saw that stand, I had to stop.  I ordered me a strawberry one, and went back to the pavilion to eat it.  After I finished that though, it was after 6:00, so I had to start thinking about heading home.  As much as I wanted to stay until everyone finished, it was looking like I would be there well after 8:00 if I did that, and then I wouldn't be home until after 10:00 (as it turns out, the final group of 4 didn't come in until 11:00).  I decided to say my goodbyes and head out.  So while the ride didn't work out for me very well, Bob put on a really well run event, and I hope to give it another shot next year.  Hopefully, I'll prepare myself a little better next time.

The Cedar Cross Training Century

I'm a little torn about which report I should write first - the training century with Team Virtus from a week and a half two weeks ago, or the Cedar Cross that happened yesterday five days ago?  In order to keep this somewhat chronological, I'll write the training century report first.  Plus, I have the pictures from that on my computer already, and I'd have to go get my phone to do the Cedar Cross report.

Anyway, about a week into April, Team Virtus posted that Luke & Bob were going to do a training century the Wednesday after the CAC.  Since I had vacation to burn, I put in for the day off and made plans to join them.  At the time, I didn't think doing the race 4 days after the CAC would be a big deal, but when I could barely walk for two days after finishing the (non) race, I started wondering what I'd signed up for.  Luckily, by Tuesday my knee felt fine, so before I went to bed that night, I packed up my car, filled & froze my water bottles, then set the alarm for 4:45 AM to be in Jefferson City for the 7:30 start.  With the 2 hours of travel, I wanted to be able to roll out of bed, put my bike on my car rack, then leave.

When the alarm went off, I was able to get up and go like I planned.  The drive out to Jefferson City was pretty uneventful, and I was able to make good time on US 50 getting over there.  Heading against traffic after I got off I-44 was nice as I could see the line of cars heading east towards St. Louis, but there was hardly anyone going west.  I had plenty of time when I was getting close, so I pulled off to grab a quick breakfast when I got to the town of Linn.   Shortly after that I was in JC.

50/63 Heading into Jefferson City

We were setting off from the North Jefferson trailhead of the KATY Trail, so I made my way downtown and then crossed the bridge over to the north side of the Missouri River.  The forecast was for near record high temperatures of about 90° but when I arrived it was overcast and in the mid 60's - very pleasant for a long day in the saddle if it were to hold.

Rain in the area?

There were going to be five of us on the ride, myself, Luke, Bob, a friend of theirs, Aaron, and fellow CAC racer Justin, who had made the trek from St. Louis as well.  Unlike me, he stayed with his brother in Columbia the night before, so he got to sleep in a bit more than I did.  Around 8:00, we set off towards Boonville.  

The Missouri River from the trail.

We ran pretty well at first with the cool temperatures.  Luke mentioned in the original post that he wanted to do a 12 mph pace, but we started off around 13-15 since everyone was feeling pretty good.  Plus, it's flat.  Not long into the ride, Aaron, Luke, and I were riding 3 abreast when a squirrel with a death wish ran out in front of us from the right.  It stopped in the middle of the trail, turned around, then turned around again and ran right into my leg.  At that point I'm not real sure what happened, but Luke said I ran over it with my back tire.  I don't remember feeling any huge bump, so I think it may have just brushed up against my tire before darting off into the woods.  We'll assume it survived.

Another shot of the Missouri.

As we got close to the turnoff for Columbia, we left the KATY for a bit and rode along some gravel farm roads.  At first we were curious why the route we were following did this, but just before we got back to the trail, we saw this tree right off the road.  At first it didn't really look like anything special, but as you got closer to it, the tree just got larger and larger.  It was one big tree!  There was some sort of monument next to the tree, but unfortunately, some less than stellar citizenry had decided to spray graffiti all over it.  I guess it's probably some sort of champion tree for it's species (oak, I think).

Luke showing his love for the tree, along with his bad-ass singlespeed bike.

Looking up at the tree.

By now, the cloud cover had dissipated and the mercury was rising fast.  It appeared that the weatherman was going to be right after all.  We decided to get back on the trail since it had more tree cover than the farm roads. 

If you notice the picture of Luke's singlespeed, there is an empty white water bottle holder behind his seat.  That originally had 2 bottles in it, but not very far into the ride, we hit a rough patch and they rattled off and hit the ground.  It was not long after we got back on the trail that we pulled up on a DNR pickup truck and out hopped a lady holding two bottles.  It was his lucky day!  They were warm by now, but at least he had his sports drink.

In addition to the crazed squirrel, there was also other wildlife on the trail.  This is the first of about 3 turtles I saw.  When we first came upon this little guy, he curled up in his shell, but after the other guys left, I was able to get a picture of him sticking his head back out.

Poking its little head out.

After going through the town of Rocheport, we were able to cool off briefly in the one tunnel along the whole trail.  Up until this point, most of the trail was surprisingly scenic compared to what the KATY Trail is like through St. Charles County.  While parts of the trail between Highway 40 and Defiance are pretty neat, there is a lot that is just next to open fields.  A lot of the trail along between Jefferson City and Rocheport was right up against the edge of the river bluffs.  It definitely made for some pleasant riding.

East entrance to the tunnel.

 Unfortunately, once we passed through this tunnel, everything seemed to change.  All of a sudden, the trail seemed to cut right through the middle of the flood plain, with the river a mile away on the left and the bluffs a mile away on the right.  In some of these areas, farmers had also plowed their fields almost right up to the trail and shade trees became scarce.  The trail was like this almost all the way to Boonville, 13.5 miles away. 

When we arrived at Boonville, we crossed the Missouri right into downtown.  We immediately saw a place to eat called the Riverside Diner, so we stopped in for lunch.  I'm sure the five of us in our bike gear were quite the site to the locals.  But my lunch of popcorn shrimp and fries with Sweet Tea to drink sure hit the spot.  Next time I'm headed west on I-70, it would be worth the trip into Boonville to stop.

When we left Boonville, to mix the trip up a bit, we got off the trail after we crossed over the river into Franklin and hit some gravel for a bit.  After all, this ride was a prep ride for Cedar Cross and Dirty Kanza, and the gravel on those rides was surely not going to be as smooth as the KATY Trail.  However, with my bike computer showing temperatures in the 98°-101° range in the sun (it was really only about 90°, but the sun was influencing the readout), we were baking out there on the gravel, so after about 5 or 6 miles, we got back on the trail.  At this point, I was starting to run low on fluids, so the tunnel and trailhead at Rocheport were looking very inviting.  I shifted into high gear and pedaled towards the tunnel just about as fast as I could. 

West Entrance to the Tunnel.  Darkness has never looked so inviting!

When I arrived at the tunnel, I just found the coolest part of the tunnel and hopped off the bike and stood there until everyone else showed up.  Thankfully, I was able to chill for 5 or 10 minutes.  After everyone regrouped, we headed over to the trailhead to take another rest and I refilled my water bottles.  The one thing I was pleasantly surprised about along here was that the more popular trailheads had full-blown bathrooms with running water and real toilets, not just composting ones.  I'm not even sure the trailheads around St. Louis have that.

After we left Rocheport, we realized that if we kept running at the pace we were going, we were going to be an hour later back to Jefferson City than we originally planned.  Aaron needed to be back close to 5:00, so he and Justin stepped it up a bit and took off.  I thought about going with them, but decided to hang back with Luke and Bob.  This was probably a good move on my part, because as we got towards McBaine and the turnoff to Columbia, my knee that was killing me after the CAC started acting up again.  With 25 miles still left, this wasn't going to be fun.  The weird part was, it seemed to hurt the most when after I'd coast for a bit and try to get going again.  The initial pressure on the pedal seemed to be what was irritating it.  By now though, I'd learned what milepost Jefferson City was at, so I immediately started counting down the miles as I'd pass the markers.  Of course, they never go by fast enough when you do that.  I also tried pedaling just with my right foot, but I got razzed for being a show-off.  That didn't help things much though.

It's really hard to see, but that's Jeff. City along the horizon.

Finally, after another rest stop in Hartsburg, we did the last 10 miles to Jefferson City.  I was getting pretty wiped at this point, mostly because of my knee, but after I came out of some trees and saw this view of the capitol, I did have enough left to for a 17-18mph sprint finish back to the car.  Except for the knee pain, it was a really good ride with this group of guys, and I'm glad I took the day off work to make the trip.  It was also nice getting to ride a section of the KATY that I'd never been on before.  Now I need to bust out the segment between Augusta and Jefferson City.  That part is only 80 miles, I should be able to do that without too much trouble.  Unfortunately, I hear it's more like the Rocheport-Boonville segment rather than the JC-Rocheport one.

BFC Spring Chicken Ride

Cycling season is definitely gearing up.  It wasn't that long ago that I couldn't wait for all of the organized rides to get started, and now I've got something almost every weekend.  March 25 started it all with the Lost Valley Luau, then I had two free weekends before the first BFC ride out in Wentzville on April 15th.  But after that, the next weekend was the CAC, then 4 days after that I drove out to Jefferson City for a century with the Team Virtus crew (report coming soon!), then 4 days later was the next BFC ride, this time over in St. Libory, IL.  I think my next weekend without some sort of ride isn't until Father's Day!  So while I'm a little bit out of order with these ride reports, I'm hoping to catch up on a few of them before I get so far behind I don't know what happened on what ride.

This was the third time I've done the Spring Chicken ride, and the first two were very much a tale of two rides.  The first time I did it in 2009, it was my second "long" distance ride on my road bike, and I was originally planning on doing the middle route of about 35 miles.  Well, there was a pretty strong wind out of the south that was pushing me down the road at 25 mph to the decision point, and I was feeling pretty good, so I opted for the 45 mile long route and paid the price as soon as I had to deal with a huge crosswind that turned into an awful headwind as I turned to head back to the car.  It was so bad that riders who had finished were coming onto the course to rescue people coming in, and I caught a ride with a nice stranger to save me from the last couple miles.

The ride wasn't on the schedule in 2010, but they brought it back last year, and the weather was beautiful that day.  I had just gotten my bike it's spring tuneup before that ride, which included a professional fitting, so I was hauling a$$ that day.  Being 20 pounds lighter didn't hurt either.  When I had arrived, Amy (the recently departed coordinator of the Bicycle Fun Club rides) had informed me that George had left just a few minutes before me, so I decided to see if I could catch him.  There was a slight wind out of the west, so I was averaging 18 + mph on the early stretches, and while I never caught George on the route (I think I dilly-dallied too long at the first rest stop), I made it back to the car right as he was loading his bike up after averaging about 17 mph over the 45 mile route.  I think this may still be my fastest long ride ever.

This year, it was a rainy weekend (in fact, parts of metro St. Louis had significant hail the day before), and I was obsessively checking the hourly forecast to see if I would be getting wet or not on the ride.  While there was rain in the metro area, the Weather Channel was saying that Washington County would stay dry until about noon, so I headed over there early hoping for another dry ride.  George and I met up just after 8, and headed out on a cool and foggy morning.  This year, the wind was blowing out of the east, so it made the initial leg the tough one.  It was slow going to the first rest stop, and while we had another rider join up with us for a while, I think he wanted to go faster than we were, so he took off before us at the stop.  While I've lost 40 pounds since I started riding, I think my size still puts up a fair amount of resistance when it comes to hills and wind, because both of them still slow me down more than I think they should at times (or maybe I just have a warped sense of reality since George is still 50 pounds lighter than me).

After we chatted with Hank, the driver of the SAG wagon for a bit, we headed off on the next leg of the ride.  We had a couple more miles into the wind before we got to head north a bit and have the headwind turn into a crosswind.  I had a decision about ride length to make along this leg as well.  My knee was still a little tender after the CAC and the century ride from the previous week, and I didn't want to put myself in too much pain because I didn't want to drop out of Cedar Cross before the ride even gets underway.  While the knee was mostly okay, there were a couple times where I put a sudden pressure on my foot that caused a jolt to go up through my leg, and that was making me nervous.  Strangely, it seemed to be happening when I start up after my rest breaks.  I think this means my best bet at Cedar Cross is to do the 112 miles without stopping.  I just need a personal support vehicle in charge of refilling my water bottles.  With the occasional jolts of pain I was getting, I decided to cut the ride short and do the medium route back to the car.  When the routes split, I assured George that I would be okay getting back and we said our goodbyes. 

The added bonus of the medium route was that it immediately headed west, so I had a nice tailwind for a mile or two that I took full advantage of before heading up towards the small town of Venedy that was the other rest stop.  Since I still had plenty of water and the knee seemed to be okay so long as I didn't stop, I rode right by this rest stop and headed back to St. Libory.  The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful as I think I saw about 4 other riders after splitting off from George, and about 11:30 I made it back to my car dry (except for my sweat) and with only a slightly sore knee. 

I did get rained on during the drive home, so it's probably a good thing I took the shorter route, although I think George said he did stay dry.  I also got my first Orange Sherbet ice cream cone of the season from Dairy Haven in Caseyville, so that did a pretty good job of easing what pain I did have.  I've mostly stayed off the bike this week, only doing a short little ride with the family Tuesday night and riding into work today, so hopefully I'll be good to go this weekend.

BFC Dog Prairie Ride

I have to credit Trailnet's Bicycle Fun Club with getting me interested in all of these long distance rides.  I bought my road bike in March 2009, and I either saw their calendar of rides online or in a shop not long after that.  Their first ride of the season was at the beginning of April, and on a cool, windy, Sunday morning, I ventured out to Orchard Farm High School to see what these rides were all about.  There were 3 choices of routes, one was about 11 miles, one about 25 miles, and one about 45 miles.  The day before, I had ridden 10 hilly miles around the house, so I figured I ought to be able to do 25 in the flood plain no problem.  I was mostly right.  Since there was this 20+ mph wind out of the south, and the route went north of the high school, everything was just fine until I had to turn around.  On the way back, there were probably 4-5 miles almost straight into the wind that about killed me, (I think I was going about 7-8 mph on those stretches) but I was hooked.  When I got home, my wife challenged me to do all of them, and not being one to back down from a challenge, I started all 20-some rides that year (2 or 3 ended in the SAG wagon), including the end of the year century.  I actually won a hydration pack from Trailnet for doing the most rides of anyone that year.

At any rate, the 2012 season of rides kicked off back on April 15th out at Wentzville HS.  Throughout the week, the forecast had some chance of rain, but Sunday morning, it was saying that the rain should hold off until about 3 or so.  I had volunteered to help at registration, so just before 8:00, I arrived at the high school ready to help set up.  Most of us who volunteered do so fairly regularly, and by 8:15 we were ready to start registering the riders.

Riders anxious to start the BFC season

 Attendance at the early season rides can be hit or miss, so while we had a crowd waiting to get going when we opened, traffic was somewhat slow the rest of the morning.  George and I were manning the non-member table in the trailer, which was nice given the wind that morning.  We didn't have to keep everything pinned down as much to keep papers from flying around.  A little before 10, Kristen & Jules, who were going to ride with George and I, showed up.  After we all got ready, we started the ride.

With the 20+ mph wind out of the south, the first leg north to Old Monroe was easy going.  This is always my favorite part of this ride, because it is also mostly downhill, with Old Monroe being in the flood plain of the Mississippi.  Here was also a decision point on whether to do the medium or long route.  By default, we usually just plan on doing whatever the longest route is, but with the storm front rolling towards us, we checked the radar while we refilled our water bottles.  The storms had reached the town of Mexico, which was about 70 or 80 miles west of us, and we thought we had about two hours before we would get wet.  If we continued with our plan to do the long route, we had about 30 miles left, but if we took the shorter one, it would only be around 20 miles to get back to the car.  We decided to push our luck and do the longer route.

I said the stretch getting to Old Monroe is my favorite part of this ride, but leaving Old Monroe is my least favorite, because the path out of town is on Highway C, which is a higher traffic road with a minimal to non-existent shoulder.  Sunday mornings sometimes aren't so bad on these roads, but it was pushing 12:00 now and church traffic was adding up.  The few miles we had along here were a bit nerve racking as we frequently had traffic stacking up behind us with no good place to pass.  When we made the left off of the highway to turn toward Chain of Rocks, I was relieved, even though it meant I now had to face the headwind.

The stretch here was definitely grueling, and speeds dropped to close to 10 mph.  George dropped us all, but when we regrouped at Chain of Rocks, we decided to try and ride a paceline to help move through the wind.  This definitely helped me out, but Jules was starting to cramp up, so he and Kristen took it easy to the next rest stop.  When we got to the Dog Prairie Tavern at St. Paul, we checked the radar again and from what we could tell, the storm hadn't moved much closer to us (though a slow internet connection may have been preventing the radar from refreshing).  We decided that we should be able to get back pretty easily now, but we got back on the bikes pretty quickly after everyone regrouped just in case.  At this point, we were the last group on the ride, so we had the SAG wagon practically following us in case the skies did open up.

The final stretch is also the hilliest, at least until we got back close to I-70.  Unfortunately, it also has more traffic on it and St. Charles County hasn't added much in the way of shoulders.  There were a couple of incidents here that reminded me why have this general disdain for the county.  The first was when I pulled off to let a pickup go by before I went down a hill, and got yelled at by someone in the truck, and then not long after that, I had another truck pass pretty closely to me.  Grr....  Fortunately, after that, we made it back to the cars without incident, and the rain held off as well, which I was happy about.  Except for those two idiot rednecks, it was a good start to the season.