ThNNDRR - Strava Made Me Do It

~ To the tune of Waterfalls by TLC ~

Don't go chasin' faster dudes

Please stick to the rhythm and the cadence that you're used to

I know that you're gonna want them KOM’s or nothing at all

But I think you're pedaling too fast

Skinny roadie has a natural obsession

For segments that he just can't beat

Strava gives him challenges his body can't handle

But all he can say is, "Baby it's gotta be me"

One day he goes and takes a glimpse in the mirror

But he doesn't recognize his own face

His health is fading and he doesn't know why

Three letters took him to his final resting place, 

y'all, don't hear me

Don't go chasin' faster dudes

Please stick to the rhythm and the cadence that you're used to

I know that you're gonna want them KOM’s or nothing at all

But I think you're pedaling too fast

Awesomely, fantastic group for last nights ThNNDRR, huge group as well with 13 of us at one point during the ride. I was feeling pretty good and ambitiously, perhaps too much so, and decided to try to make it to Cortland and back before it got too late. 

We rolled out of Cycle Works and had a few miles of neutral start via the always excellent city bike paths, it was pretty cool seeing all those bikes riding along in a group.


Once we got out on the open road the pace picked up a little bit, nothing crazy but faster than I generally like to ride on the populated trials within the city.


Had a really strong group as well and the couple of regroups that we did have were fairly short as we were mostly within a few minutes of each other.


How awesome was the group last night... so awesome we even had a Bike Rack rider join us for a bit. He might not have actually joined us as much as he was riding the same direction at the same time but I'd like to think we were one cohesive unit of like minded cyclists.


What wasn't so awesome were a few of the pictures from the Cycle Works staff photographer, if you want my opinion I think that they pay that guy too much money given the quality of some of the stuff he puts out but they don't let me make those types of decisions and probably wisely so.


The group made it to Princeton by about 7 pm, I had hoped we would have been in Cortland by this time but it just wasn't in the cards with the fairly decent headwind we were fighting but sometimes you just have to make the best of what nature gives you. It's a shame that Princeton doesn't have any services in the town, it would be an ideal refuel stop and an enjoyable ride destination in itself if there were anything there. 9 of us decided to push on to Cortland while 4 of us decided that they should head back to Lincoln and save a little fun for another day.



The pace was decidedly quicker from Princeton to Cortland than it was from Lincoln to Princeton, I think everyone realized if we wanted to make it back to Lincoln at a decent time we were going to have to bump it up a notch. We quickly invaded the unsuspecting Sinclair EZ Stop, dripped a little sweat here and there while refueling for the push home.


With the wind at our backs and a steady decline into Lincoln the guys were flying, Chris was pretty quiet on his recumbent until we pointed back toward Lincoln and then beast mode came out, that guy can absolutely fly on his recline- o - bicycle.


After a few of miles of trying to stick on Chris's wheel a couple of things were apparent, keeping this pace for the next 20 something miles didn't sound enjoyable and we were dropping a few people off the back end maintaining the pace. Not wanting to have anyone ride home alone in the growing darkness I decided to give up the ghost and drop back to see where everyone was, several still decided to give chase and the rest of us decided to hang back, spin at a nice pace and enjoy the beautiful night it turned out to be. Totals for the night were right at 50 miles in just a tad over 3 hours for about a 15.5 mph for the average, not a bad ride at all.

Thanks to all that came out and made it even a more enjoyable ride, for me it's never been about how fast we go but that everyone has fun and hopefully we accomplished that last night.

One-speeding to the land of Cort

So... I have this bike, it's sorta, kinda a road bike but it's also sorta, kinda like a cross bike but it's not really either; it's actually probably close to a commuter but it's got these skinny tires, although not as skinny as the ones it had on it when I bought it used a few months back. I got it at a heck of a deal on it for a bike not from Wal-mart but I just haven't really been able to figure out what to do with it, so I figured I'd take it out and see how it did as an open road bike. Not wanting to be too adventurous on my first outing I decided that Cortland would be a nice enough distance without being too far. Having only one speed I wasn't sure how the hills were going to be, they turned out to be fine as long as they weren't accompanied by a 20 mph headwind.


Not really sure if runners are out every Saturday at 7:30 a.m. en masse but they sure were today, had to be almost 30 or more of them on the Rock Island trail.


Truth be told in all my years here in Lincoln, I've never once ridden on Hwy 77 so I was tad bit apprehensive.


Once up to speed and a few miles behind me it actually wasn't too bad, as long as you didn't linger on about those 2,000 lbs+ hunks of metal screaming by only a few feet away from you at 70 mph. You really do have to put your faith in the guy behind the wheel because if they were to veer off the road at the same time they were passing you my guess is you probably wouldn't even hear them until they were sending you flying skyward.


Princeton seemed to come up much quicker than it does via the Homestead Trail.


Roughly an hour and a half later the water tower came into view, to be honest I can't say that I've ever been there before today... drove by a few times but never stopped.


Lucky for me they had a sign up letting you know how fast you were going, I'd hate to get a ticket for speeding on my first visit and get off on the wrong foot.



They were either having a tractor show of this is just how they roll in Cortlandia.


This is also how they roll apparently, so if you're ever need to get your picture taken in a large cat box you now know where to go.


Town greeter?!?

The way back completely, totally, unequivocally sucked donkey balls, big, fat, hairy, juicy ones. The wind wasn't supposed to be howling through the prairie quite so quickly until later in the day but just to be nice it decided to come early. I can't really say for sure how strong it was but my best guess from riding in wind before is that it was at least 20 mph, it took everything I had on the uphills to try to maintain 9-11 mph; 12-15 on the downhills was even a struggle. I do have to say though it was nice to be able to jump on the bike and pedal non-stop for 22 miles straight without needing to stop or dodge pedestrians, so I guess you take the good with the bad as they say.


Dude must have been late for the tractor gathering, as slow as he was I'd bet he was still going 2-3 times as fast as I was; lucky bastard had the tailwind.


I've never been so happy to see this turn off as I was today, after struggling with wind for the better part of 2 hours I was spent. Even the little relief of turning slightly out of the headwind felt like heaven. I'm not going to turn in my baggy shorts and mountain bikes anytime soon for a lycra bodysuit and sub 11 lbs carbon fiber road bike but I definitely will probably give this ride a go again on a day where it's not quite as windy.