I did my first organized 'Century' ride yesterday with my buddy Roger from work. These organized bicycling events are like Francis with the Tight Pantsis Conventions, good Lord, never diverted my eyes so much in my life. Anyway, 100 miles is a long freakin bike ride! Scorcher too, bike computer registering over 100 degrees on the asphalt for most of the ride. It was great fun tho. Very well organized ride from the folks at Fox Valley Bike and Ski club,
http://www.fvbsc.org/swededays.html There were rest stops every 20 miles loaded with cookies, fruit, gatorade etc. Good thing, I burned about 6000 calories on the ride, very little question about that if you saw how I attacked the tables at the rest stops. ;-)
Here's a map of the ride. A couple loops but mostly fresh new road to explore throughout. They did a great job routing the ride, very little if any traffic on many of the roads. Lots of corn and cows. Really beautiful ride. They routed us past a bar at 89 miles, God bless them, ..... more on that in a bit :P For more detail, and a map you can zoom in on go here..
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192509268
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| I think we covered greater Kane County! |
At 50 miles I went through a rough spell, everything hurt. But a couple tylenol, some food and a stretch and I was fine again. At 75 miles Roger started to fade pretty bad. A few minutes horizontal in some shady grass and ice water at the next stop and he was fine again. We both finished strong, feeling good.
All in all it was a total blast. can't wait to do another one. With my knee starting to tweak out from running, biking is a nice break from the pounding and Im very happy that after 100 miles on a bike there's no knee pain at all today (my quads and hamstrings are a different story). We finished 101 miles in 6 hours 26 minutes. 1512 feet of elevation gain. Avg 15.7 mph. We wont be entering the Tour de France but very happy with that. Life is good!
Here's a few more pictures taken along the ride.
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| Lots of food! PBJ sammiches, cookies, fruit and more. Rest stops every 20 miles. |
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| GALLONS were consumed on the ride, by each rider! |
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| She's old, but she carried me for 100 miles no problem. |
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We latched onto the guys on the left for a few miles.
Drafting does make the miles easier! |
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| Ya it was HOT! |
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| Roger Finley, riding buddy on this trip. Were you trying to dance with her Roger? |
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| We passed a bar at 89 miles. Couldnt resist, damn these beers tasted good!!! |
Cheers! Run (ride) like the police are chasing you.
