Dark Side of the Solstice

Saturday the crew headed down to Beatrice to ride the Solstice DIRTY Quarantine Ride which is meant to be a virtual race, as in no mass start; instead the idea is to go ride it when you can in the month that it's being tracked and see where you end up on the leader board. Yes, The Solstice has already done one of these but this one included all the MMRs that were deemed too moist to put in the last one, besides there isn't a lot of other gravel gigs going on right now so, what else you gonna do. And yes, the actual solstice was some weeks ago so we are technically on the down side of the longer days but whose counting all that. Since I was going to try to do this one a little quicker and because my time with the Giant Revolt is coming to an end soon, it got the nod for the ride. It really is a shame, I do think she would have made a great race rig... maybe next year's demo will be equally up to the speed task.


The forecast had said it was going to be very hot and very humid, heat indexes into the 105 degree range, with gentle breezes in the single digits for most of the ride so a few of us lost the sleeves in preparation for the heat. This of course was the opposite of what we actually got, the winds had to be at least 12-15 at the start and the temp was a somewhat chilly 74 degrees and never did get much above 85 degrees all day while we were on course.





The first 25ish miles of the course was going to be mainly into that stiff headwind, being a rider with a little bit of girth, steady head winds aren't my thing so I knew that I'd just need to bide my time until we rounded the corner and got that wind at our backs. Add that to the colder temps and the legs had a heck of a time warming up, I think I was at almost mile 20 before they started feeling good to go. Looking at the data, the first two hours of the ride, into the wind and the chilly temps, I was averaging about 3-4 mph slower than the following three hours once the heat came out and we weren't fighting a constant headwind. The dirt roads were primo though, so at least there was that.



Unless you're getting paid well to ride a bicycle really fast, when you are greeted by a friendly doggo on the course, you stop and pet said good boy. Charlie was super friendly and was just looking to make friends, I was happy to oblige.


Odell!!!! Sarah lit out with the Latino contingent of our group at a pace I wasn't comfortable doing that early in the game, especially with the legs being finicky and knowing there was nothing but headwind ahead for for the effort. I did manage to catch up to her just before Odell though, well... catch up as in she got tired of riding by herself and waited but we did ride into Odell together.






Odell meant the end of the relentless wind, my legs were finally waking up and the heat was starting to pick up too; the way back would be a new ride or at least I was hoping it would be. Sarah and I stopped for some refueling and bio breaks before getting passed by Doug who refused to hang out with us... or he didn't see us, you chose your own adventure.


We didn't stop at the ole Kross-Eyed Kricket but it does have a name that screams, stop here and experience all that is the small town bar and grill. Maybe on the next go when speed is not a factor.






Leaving out of Odell I felt great and so began the planned increase in speed and output now that the legs were alive and the winds weren't as much of an issue. The next 15 miles went pretty quick and Sarah and I were into and out of Diller in about an hour, since we'd stopped at Odell we blew through Diller and continued on down the road.




We caught up to Doug a little ways out of Diller, I think when I snuck up on him and gave him a "good game" he was actually surprised to see us behind him. So I suppose maybe he didn't snub us in Odell but did indeed not see us. Since he'd been carrying a ditch beer all day, it was only hospitable to stop and help him drink it on a dust and desolate dirt road.


After the ditch beer stop, this picture of a crop duster was the only picture I took in the last hour and a half or so of riding. I felt great, the bike was performing well and I wanted to try to make up for some of that headwind slog. The last two hours were 16.1 and 17.2 for mph average, that up from a disappointing 14.2 and 13.5 for the first two hours of the ride.



Rolling into Beatrice I spotted Carlos, Roy and Karla at Stone Hollow, the finish line for the race, and was very glad to be done pedaling. I took a few minutes to compose myself and then enjoyed a cold cider and slice of pie with the group while we waited for Sarah and Doug to roll in.


Reunited and it feels so good. Great group of friends to ride with on Saturday, even if we all had our own pace. All in all in ended up being a great ride for all of us and for me personally, I am sure it will change (or maybe not too much since there is only one more weekend of the virtual race) but as of Saturday we were all sitting in the top 10 on the leader board. Can't ask for much more than that I suppose. Next week is the Wear Yellow Ride out of the Strategic Air Command, if you haven't already, get signed up and come join us for some gravel and to support those that fight cancer.