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.
Showing posts with label Bicycle Fun Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bicycle Fun Club. Show all posts
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
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.
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.
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| 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.
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.
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