The Heatstroke 100 was a few weeks ago and for the first time this year they added a gravel route, which had a lot of people excited... and then it rained. I had heard that there might have been only two people who finished the entire 100 miles of gravel and both of those guys were on Fat Bike, one of them a SMNDFBR regular.
I had a hand in helping to come up with the course and I had ridden most of the roads on the route, although not strung together as they were for the Heatstroke, so I knew it would be a good mix of gravel and dirt with some great scenery but unfortunately I was out of town for the official Heatstroke so didn't get to ride it. So, we did the next best thing and rode it last Saturday and conditions were ideal for the ride; albeit we did a slightly modified route cutting out the top portion of the route to whittle it down to a nice 80 miles.
Weather was absolutely fantastic, it's too bad it couldn't have been the week before for the actual ride. 8 of us set out from Sprague at 8 am on Saturday for 80 miles of great gravel and mmrs; heck one of us even provided a little tech support for a TV issue while in the middle of nowhere... can you hear me now?
The first 20 miles between Sprague and Clatonia was mostly flat, smooth rolling dirt and gravel roads, even the temps were being cooperative and staying mild making it a great day so far to be out on a bicycle.
Normally you probably wouldn't stop at mile 20 of a ride but when the course was initially designed for the Heatstroke there were going to be strategically placed SAG stops, we were without that benefit on Saturday and the next stop on the route was Wilber; 54 miles into the ride. Given both the distance and lack of SAG we decided to top off our water just to be safe. Unfortunately nothing was opened in Clatonia and we thought we were going to be out of luck and we would have been if not for the awesome gentleman (possibly the owner) of Legends in Clatonia who allowed us to come in and use the restroom and grab water despite not opening until 5 pm that night. So, if you're ever out and about on your bicycle or just looking for a place close to Lincoln to go for dinner, lunch or drinks definitely keep Legends in mind and help support the folks that support cycling in our great state.
Leaving out of Clatonia we started hitting the hills (not monsters by any means but a fair amount of rollers) and the minimum maintenance roads in earnest, as well as a few wheel sucking wood plank bridges that had the skinnies a little nervous. The two of us who opted for a less svelte tire crossed with no trepidation at all about those deep crevices. It is after all the Saturday Morning FAT BIKE ride.
We also ran into a few flats on the section between Clatonia and Wilber, 4 total for the day and all of them in between those two towns. It did however offer us the opportunity to enjoy the Wasatch Black-O-Lantern I had stashed in my Yeti coozy and it was delicious.
Road graders must have been out fairly recently because we did run into a few decent sections of road that had deep, fresh gravel on them or where the gravel had all been pushed toward the center. Not a whole lot of fun to ride on even on the fat bike but a good deal easier and less pucker inducing than on narrower tires.
It was a great group, spirits were high, the conversation was good and for the most part we all zipped along at a fairly similar pace on the way to Wilber.
The plan had been to get something to eat once we got back to Sprague but a few things changed that plan for us, the 4 flats didn't help as we added about an hour or so to our time table plus the heat and the wind both picked up a bit more than we would have liked. So presto change-o and we decided to hit up the Casey's in Wilber for some world famous pizza and some cold beverages.
Leaving out of Wilber everyone was feeling pretty good again but I think everyone was kind of just wanted to get back to Sprague and get back so that everyone could prepare for the game that night. Not a whole lot of pictures between Wilber and Sprague since it was some of the least scenic stretches of roads and people were picking up the pace a bit to get back. Todd and I, being on the fat bikes, brought up the rear... well that is to say I brought up the rear and Todd was nice enough to stick with me... but somehow we managed to get back to Sprague before the rest of the group except for J.D. due to some weird navigation issues that the lead group had. We did all make it back and I think for the most part we all had a great time, we even managed to maintain the projected 12 mph average we had wanted to keep so if not for the flats we would have been done as expected. Even so we were only slightly behind schedule. It was a great day on a dry and beautiful course that I only wished would have been as good the previous weekend when it was for all the marbles but fear not, since most people didn't ride the course in it's entirety this year I'm sure it will be unchanged for next years Heatstroke. Thanks to everyone who made it out, it's always a pleasure riding with you all.
Just an FYI, as the season starts to change over to fall the Wednesday and Thursday rides have come to and end and to show our appreciation for all those who came out for one of the group rides this year there will be a BBQ behind the shop on Thursday Sept. 14th and we'd love to see you there. Details can be found on the Facebook Event Page, HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment