Biking Back from the Dark Side

 Maybe the best way to describe today’s ride is to show you the route profile. That is a lot of freaking up-and-down. And toward the end, the climbs were 9%, 10%, 11%, even tipping up to 14% at one point.   So even though we lost a couple hundred feet of elevation, we climbed the better part of a mile over the course of the ride.  And I can feel every one of those climbs in my legs right now. We spent last night, and this morning at breakfast, trying to figure out if we were going to get rained on. Just before we started out, we were all pretty convinced that the rain was going to miss us. And some folks even took off their rain gear under the overhang at the hotel entrance. So then, of course, we roll out and within 50 feet the rain starts. And by half a mile down the road it was absolutely pouring.  We got rained on pretty well for about 5 miles. And then just as it was slacking off I got a flat tire. The problem with riding in the rain is first of all you can’t se...

  I think we all had a love-hate relationship with Kansas. We loved the east and hated both the west and the ill-considered rumble strips all over the damn place. Today was unexpectedly hard. Rollers and Cross/headwind.  Plus, the first half was on a road with no usable shoulder and a lot of traffic buzzing by very close. That requires a great deal of concentration on your line in the road and you can’t listen to music and you can’t look at the scenery. You’re just trying to stay safe. And doing that for 2 1/2 hours gets tiring. Just after our second SAG in Atchison, Kansas, we rode over the Missouri river on the Amelia Earhart Bridge.   Amelia Earhart Bridge I shared with everyone the Purdue connection, both the fact that she took off from the Purdue airport to start her ill fated around the world flight. And the fact that Purdue bought her the plane she used. Coincidentally the same plane models currently in use on the daily Purdue to Chicago milk run.  Southern Ai...

Todays route began with a hard left at the giant coke can   Yes, dad.  Its a silo, not a coke can. Emporia is evidently in charge of the nations strategic stockpile of coke.  Which should come in handy when 4000 gravel riders descend on the town.   We saw a bunch on the road today testing out the routes.  The day after a rest day can go one of two ways.  Either your legs are a bit heavy and creaky.  Or you feel fresh and frisky.  Today the peloton was feeling frisky, hammering up and down the rollers formed by the Flint Hills.  This pic shows a lot of down, but there  was an equal amount of up … I rode for much of the day with the Columbus ladies who are tough tough cyclists!  They really hammer the hills   Tanny, John, Me in the Dia de los Muertos jersey, Barb, Carol, Jim, Maggie, Jens, Olaf  I got a little ambitious early on but I’m slowing down tomorrow. Plenty of rollers to enjoy.  A highlight today apart from the...

 After three weeks in the southwest, and western parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, I didn’t realize just how much I missed the sight of open water.  And green.  Today was an absolutely spectacular ride. Perfect weather, perfect views, perfect pace.  I spent the first three hours with a stupid grin on my face just feeling… Joy.   At one point, I was literally tearing up I was so happy. Either that, or my eyes were watering from the speed of a descent. Probably the latter.  But I was deliriously happy. (Photo credit Steve Harvey) I couldn’t even get irritated with the Kansas State highway department and their absolutely ridiculous placement of rumble strips.  (That said, when some of this euphoria fades, I will be writing a sternly worded letter…) I’m wearing the postal team kit behind riding buddy John My conditioning has improved immensely. We knocked out 81 miles in less than 4.5 hours over some rolling terrain.  (That’s pretty fast for an ol...

 My God, what a glorious day to be on a bicycle.   Mother nature cleared her throat with violent storms overnight, and when we got on the road, the weather was spectacular. Cool with a nice tailwind along a smooth road with little traffic. We made very good time, even with a flat tire in the last 6 miles. There is something about wheat fields in the wind… (Credit Mark Hansen) We had one sag stop at which I saw this delightful contraption.  (Abby…THIS is the princess seat!) Now that is how a child bicycle seat should work.  And an old timey grain elevator ! (Credit Jodie Oates for the photo and my dad for correcting my misimpression of what it was) All in all, a chill day of riding at high speeds over gorgeous terrain, with a tailwind making life easy for us.  No deep thunks for the day, just a giant smile on my face and an appreciation for the joy of the open road and the wind in my face. Finished the day watching the end of the Indy 500 with my new biking frien...

More wind today. But a few degrees on the compass makes all the difference in the world. We started off with a crosswind for about 30 miles. It was tolerable because it was coming from our right and not blowing cars into us. And as we turned north east and the wind swung more to the south we actually had a trailing wind for a solid 40 miles or more. You know you’ve gotten used to long-distance cycling when you look at the cue sheet after a few hours and think… Oh good! Only 50 more miles today. We stopped at a sign that is halfway across the US… If you’re going San Francisco to New York. But we’re going diagonally and have another almost 200 miles before we’re halfway to Boston.  But,…getting close.  For perspective.  Other scenes… If we clap really hard… This plane will get its wings! h/t Steve Harvey Little known Plains Sasquatch A lot of people think the Sasquatch only roams the Pacific Northwest. But clearly there is a special breed of Plains Sasquatch in the middle o...

If Nigel Tufnell were here, he would say It's like, how much more windy could this be? And the answer is none. None more windy. The forecast today was for 18 to 20 mile an hour sustained winds with gusts nearing 40.In Kansas meteorology they have an interesting definition of the word gust. It means what the wind is doing 95% of the time. Making it more fun the wind was coming at us not straight on but at a 45° angle. So drafting doesn’t really help and the wind is blowing you sideways on the road. Except for when a truck passes and blocks the wind. Then you are sucked toward the truck, a huge tailwind boost as a truck rolls by and then a giant sideways gust as the truck clears you. So you were bouncing all over the place. It was also just incredibly loud. The wind. The trucks. The trains.  An  assault  on my ears all day long.  I only ran off the road twice.  Thankfully, nowhere near any steep drop offs. Not sure about others because they are all skinny little F...