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.