An April century ride, Minnesota style.

Jeff and I went down to the Twin Cities this past weekend for the Minnesota Ironman Bike Ride. This would be Jeff's first century, having never ridden further than 45 miles before. I've done numerous centuries and this would be my fourth year in a row for this ride. This is the only ride of this type I do. I enjoy this ride because it has a long history, and therefore well run, and draws as many as 5400 riders. It's a cool atmosphere with that many bicyclers all in one place. However, read my rant later in this post. I may or may not go back next year.

Saturday is wasn't looking like we'd have pleasant weather for the ride on Sunday. It was snowing. We got a couple inches of wet sloppy stuff. Of more concern was the winds gusting to 35 mph.

Jeff picked me up with his van Saturday afternoon for the ride down. At my request we made one stop in the cities, the Bloomington REI. I had a $116 member dividend burning a hole in my pocket. We then stopped and had a very good dinner at a Thai restaurant before heading to Lakeville. The ride starts at the High School. They allow people to camp on the school grounds. I pitched a tent and Jeff slept in his van. It was a cold night for this time of year with a low in the mid 20's. I brought my winter down sleeping bag that's rated down to 0 degrees. I sleep better in a tent than anywhere else in the world. So I had a great sleep.During the night the skies cleared off with just a few clouds in sight. Luckily I remembered to bring the sunblock. Not something I normally think about when it's cloudy and snowing. Jeff and I got up. I was up by 5:30. I'm not a get up and go kind of guy. So it took us until 7:30 to hit the road. It started off cool with a light headwind. The first of five rest stops is over 20 miles into the event. My legs were stiff and knotted the whole way. I could not get them to loosen up. I didn't ride on Saturday. I've finally decided I just need to stop taking days off the bike. I always feel worse the day after a day off.
This ride starts in an southern outer ring suburb of the Minneapolis/St Paul and goes out into the surrounding countryside. Much the land is still small farms. This is midwest prairie. It leaves the route exposed to wind. It passes through many small towns along the way. All the rest stops are at schools and a VFW post.
It has many, many small hills. None much bigger than what you see above.
Jeff making some clothing adjustments. It warmed up into the low to mid 50's. The forecast called for a 30% chance of afternoon showers. Sure enough dark clouds appeared to the west around mile 65. At mile 75 it started to rain lightly. While we where at the last rest stop at mile 83 we heard people talking about snow outside. Sure enough it was starting to snow mixed with rain. Many, many people were loading up their bikes into the trailers pulled by school buses for a ride back to Lakeville. Jeff and I headed out into the rain and snow. The temperature had dropped down to around freezing and the wind had switched around to out of the north. Giving us a headwind when we had expected a tailwind. The next 5 or 8 miles we rode into a headwind and were pelted with some of the biggest wettest snow flakes I have ever seen. I had caught a bit of a chill at the rest stop. I took the lead and was setting a pace that I hoped Jeff could keep up with. I needed to get warm and the only way to do that was push the pace. Jeff had been feeling good up until the last rest stop. Amazing for someone that had never ridden that far before. I had expected him to slow at the end. But now I had hopes he'd keep up the pace until the end.

Nothing doin'! At mile 88 Jeff ran out of gas. He called to me to slow the pace and announced his legs were gone. I was wet through and my left foot was going numb. We slowed to a 8-9 mph pace. It was a long last few miles. But Jeff made it and in fine fashion. We averaged 14.1 mph on the bike for the 100 miles. Fantastic pace for a first century. Jeff just started commuting full-time last summer. He rode all the way through his first Duluth winter and now he had ridden his first century. I'd say he is an Ironman!
Lots of different bikes on this ride. Here is one of the more unique rides. A front wheel drive recumbent with what looks like carbon fiber disc wheels. Lots of 'bents this year.

Now for my rant. Normally I am a very quiet, passive, introverted person that says little and never raises my voice. I don't think my wife has heard me raise my voice in the ten plus years she's known me. But something happened on this ride that had me yelling at people. It was those testosterone filled pacelines that had me pissed off. I don't care what people choose to ride (carbon fiber bikes) or what they wear (lycra) and all that. But if they ride in a reckless manner when there are less experienced riders around it starts to piss me off. Ride rules stated you should announce when you are passing people. At least a dozen times I had a group in a paceline brushing my shoulder before I even knew they were coming up behind me. The first few times I just tried to ignore it. But they all started to do the same thing. Brush by me within inches and then cut over in front of me as they pulled past my front wheel. Many times with only a few inches to spare. I don't know if that is some ego trip behavior or what, you know rub it into your face that they are going so much faster than you are. But it was completely unnecessary! About the tenth time one guy came so close to me his hand touched my handlebar. I reached out my arm, pushed against the side of his chest and physically moved him over. He didn't even look at me or acknowledge what I did. A few pacelines later and a guy in the middle of a paceline started to move over in front of me before he was even past my handlebars. By the time his back wheel cleared my handlebars his wheel was almost touching my front fork. That's when I yelled as loud as I could, "Hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He narrowly missed touching my front tire as he pulled in front of me. What an A**H***! He never looked back. I looked over at the guy that was now brushing my shoulder and said to him, " What the F*ck is wrong with that A**h***!" He never looked at me and pulled on through.

I was so flipping mad. Riding like that is fine if you are with other people doing the same thing and you're RACING! This was not a RACE!

I like this event, but I will have to give it some thought about whether or not I want to ride it again with ignorant people like that riding the same ride. It really ruined it for me. I have a lot of experience in pacelines. I've ridden in criteriums and club races and training rides with the likes of Davis Phinney and Andy Hampsten, back in the late 70's. I could ride in pacelines now if I decided that's what I wanted to do. But it's not the way I choose to ride. And if it's the way you choose to ride, don't be an idiot!

'Nuff said, thanks for letting me vent!

I rode my new Surly Long Haul Trucker. What a joy it was to spend 7 hours on a bike without even a hint of a sore neck, shoulders or back. I also had very little body fatigue as well. Vastly different from my road bike I used to use for long rides. The combination of a high handlebar, fat tires, and the relaxed geometry of a bike designed for touring provided for a comfy ride. I will admit it doesn't climb or accelerate like a road bike. But that's okay. I'm not into speed and I can climb with anybody on almost any bike. With only seven rides on the LHT I've put on 344 miles. That's a 49 mile per ride average on the new bike. Not bad! It's definitely already my ride of choice for the longer rides.

I started this entry a few days ago. It's now April 30th. I had an excellent month and I can't wait to ride some more.

April: 754 mi
2008: 2,405