Mega Century ride - Iowa City (133 miles)

Gentlemen on Bikes,

Just an official 'thank you' for the fab bike trip yesterday.

After setting off for Iowa City in the glorious morning hours and waiting in the shade with Mr. Spitz, while Feist bike repair attended to Joe's flat, the day unfolded marvelously well.

Going into Brighton, Gary took off for the gas station, and a few minutes later, a select few of us were almost treated to the "Full Spitz" by the restroom....(Note to self: Consider managing gig composed of biker dudes, along the lines of "Thunder From Down Under". Motto (Jerry's suggestion) "We do it on the Road". Quick bucks for new, fancy bikes. Any investors out there? Sol, Alan....???)

On the way to Washington, Sol and the gang showed their true colors and blazed off into the beautiful morning, keeping a brutal & fast pace, while Jeff performed turtle rescue of a leather back which scurried away as fast as his fat little legs could carry him once released near the river's edge.

I was under the misapprehension that we were keeping a good pace, but once Jerry and Chaz joined the group in Washington, they took charge and set a proper fast pace. Tom departed Fairfield ages later than the rest of us, biking the back roads and joined up in Washington, yet looking like he'd never broken into a sweat. Next time, perhaps we'll just tell Tom when we expect to do lunch in Iowa City so he can join us there in half the time it takes novices like myself to bike 60+ miles.

In Riverside, sadly we missed the annual Star Trek festival. Imagine biking into town, fully dressed in Star Trek outfits. Who'll be our own Captain Kirk? Ran into Greg Titus who lead us on a fast sprint along the crummy roads into Iowa City. Thankfully, expert mountain biker Alan Marks was on hand to offer advice, specifically, how to handle road bikes on the obstacle course excuse for a road we traversed. Just for fun, Joe and Jim took off, again.

After a brilliant lunch at the Bread Garden, the group departed Iowa City along the splendidly fast and scenic roads towards Riverside. It was looking like a lovely, easy ride home to Fairfield, however, when we turned west on W22, what seemed like gale force winds hit us straight in the face. (And I want you all to know that as we were battered by winds going up towards Iowa City in the morning, Alan turned to me and said "looks like we'll have a tail wind coming home". Later, as I was frantically trying to staying upright on my bike in the nasty wind gusts, I considered mentioning that as a profession, heavy duty investments is the way to go for Mr. Marks. If Alan joined the Weather Channel, I for one, would complain.)

Arrived back in Riverside with gritty teeth and eyes from the fierce winds and enjoyed yet another lovely sit down in the shade before heading back to Washington. Going out of Riverside, I made the mistake, again, of trying to hitch onto the wheels of Joe, Jerry and Chaz. Thankfully, Joe took pity on me, circled back a bit and brought up Tom and Jim, who quickly set a nice (but brutal) pace going into the head-on gale winds. With Joe now in the lead, trying to catch Jerry and Chaz in the far distance, Tom, Jim and I did intervals, hitting 21-22.5 mph. (Note to self: After doing 90 miles on a bike, do NOT get fooled into thinking I can get away with 22.5 mph sprints going into brutal head winds).

Loud cheers and congrats to Sol, Jeff, Jim, Joe & Tom who did the entire round trip (did I leave anyone out? ). And thank you to everyone for making me laugh and keeping me entertained the entire day. You guys are the best!

Kristina

It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.
-Sir Winston Churchill

TOMROV 09'

Tour of the Mississippi River Valley -
No faint heart in this group. Rally at 0600, the first eighty miles will be flat and simple along the Mississippi River. After a twenty mile warm up we will look for swift moving pace-lines: join in for close action. Double pace-line, no room for echelons, our wheels will be one off the next in close quarters - no hesitation lest we all go down. Totally in the moment, awareness levels high, for the value of future rides our bikes are worth more undamaged. Regroup at Hanover, we will attack in the bluffs along Blackjack Ridge. Like banshees, we will descend down the side of Chestnut Mountain at 40 mph+, cognizant that this is where Vern Willy sheared his front fork in ‘96, went down and became a paraplegic. To this day he still rides TOMROV, albeit hand-cranking a specially built bike.

Next is Galena, then comes The Wall and it is every man for himself to make it up and over to Scales Mound. On to Dubuque, 110 miles for the day, rest up and do it again the next day homeward bound.

Far from Fairfield, our bikes and our comrades are our home .

Let it go!

The Law of Diminishing Return

Things started out well enough I had a plan, stay on the hwy. and off the gravel. In the winter when the frost gets into the gravel roads and its been wet and then it warms above freezing the roads turn to goo. The freeze / thaw breaks up the surface, I’ve learned this lesson over and over again.

I was heading south on Stockport Rd. enjoying a 22 mph head wind minding my own business when I was passed by John Deere tractor. This wasn’t your baby Deere this was the double wide double good rig with duels on the back. OK! the rooster crows I was on his wheel like a fly on a manure spreader. I couldn’t believe my good luck a free tow and then a blast home with a tail wind what could be better? We headed down the long hill into the Cedar creek valley then across the Stockport bridge doing about 15. Right when we get on the other side of the bridge heading up the long hill out of the valley Mr. Jo six pack sitting high in his glass cab gives her the gas. I’m thinking WTF! who does this JD diesel jock think he’s playing with some 3 year old riding his tricycle for the first time? I jam her in the big ring and stay tight on his wheel, well actually it was his 3point hitch but you get the idea. A half a mile over the top of the hill I decide the tractor farmer has had enough so I pull over onto the side of the road and try to re-swallow my lungs…showed him. I turn around and head back, might as well check out the tailwind. I don’t know what happened, I think it was maybe a combination of the euphoria of "mission accomplished" and the fact that I had been breathing diesel fumes for the last 4 miles but I allowed myself to be tempted. Cursed are the weak that stray from the path. But there she was heading west just on the other side of the Stockport bridge the allure of gravel, no cars, beautiful sunset, fresh air, all right. The approach didn’t look to bad maybe a little wet and sticky but nothing a true biker couldn’t handle. ¾ of a mile in I drop down into a draw and it’s more then a little wet and sticky, there’s about a ½" of goo on the road but this is a draw it can’t get any worse, go for it I tell myself no turning back now.

Winter gravel road riding, the law of diminishing return states:

" At exactly the half way point of the ride, road conditions will diminish to the point of no return"

I turn north at the next gravel intersection to head back up to Glasgow Rd. and be done with the gravel experience. I’m very familiar with this road I’ve ridden it many times, there’s a fairly long climb up to a plateau then it drops back down into a valley with a bridge over a creek then a climb back out of the valley and a short run up to Glasgow and the pavement. So far things have not been to bad I’ve been in the goo but I’ve seen worse. The long climb up was wet and soft with some areas of ½" thick goo, I move back and forth across the road trying to avoid the worst of it. At the top of the hill at about exactly (oxymoron alert) the halfway point on the gravel road run the law of diminishing return kicks in. I’m now riding in a 1-1/2" thick soup of clay, sand and small rocks. I know I’m having a peak experience because so much of this stuff is being thrown up onto my chain it starts skipping on the cogs.

Ahhh the great outdoors just me, my bike and a two wheeled mud wrestling contest. Lesson learned, yeah right.
tm

A fine pleasant misery...

For those so inclined the gravel roads are in decent shape, the B dirt roads have some snow pack on them and will turn to goo when they warm up. It was 26 degrees with an 18 mph wind when I went out yesterday so bundle up.

tm

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Event- Des Moines, Iowa

Forwarded from John Freeberg -

On January 24th, 2009, the mountain biking legend Gary Fisher will speak at the Iowa Bicycle Coalition's Bike Night in Des Moines at the Holiday Inn Downtown. Fisher is a pioneer in off-road bicycling, originally designing the first mountain bike. Fisher continues to innovate in bicycles with his own line of popular Gary Fisher bicycles. The fourth annual Bike Night raises funds that support bicycle advocacy and safety education throughout Iowa. The event includes dinner, a silent auction, and a talk by Gary Fisher. Tickets to the event are $35 each. Online ticket sales are limited to the first 200 people and the event is expected to sell out quickly.

http://www.iowabicyclecoalition.org/bikenight.htm

The Gary Fisher Story:
http://www.fisherbikes.com/gary/story/

Mt. Evans, 2008

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