http://connect.garmin.com/activity/311564563
I have become arrogant. May 11th was the first brevet ride on the GLR calendar for 2013 which is a bit later than normal. While logic would dictate that the later date would allow for building a better early season base, the extended crappy spring weather coupled with a January broken arm and accompanying rehab have resulted in a lot of extra couch time in the waning winter months.
Arrogant because I came out for the ride thinking pffft, it's only a 200K, piece of cake, right? Saturday's ride was a humbling experience and reminded me if you plan on riding comfortably, you'd better put the work in before hand. I struggled most of the day.
Weather conditions at the start were cool, probably mid 40s with the high expected to be in the low 50s. The main story coming into the ride was wind. Forecasts called for strong winds from the northwest building throughout the day. This was good news as it appeared we would have a very nice push back into Delavan at the end of the ride.
We pushed off at 7:00 due west toward the first stop in Brodhead about 45 miles out. Naturally I went out too fast and did not sit in on any pace lines so I started wilting within the first 20 miles. A group of 4 was making good pace with a tandem in front of me but I was already a bit too fried to catch them. Just had to slack it back a bit to recover some. The winds at this point were not too crazy but definitely seemed to be out of the southwest. I did try to keep the pace up a bit to try to see if I could get a bit of a push as the route turned to the north after Brodhead.
As I approached Broadhead and started hitting some of the hills, I was definitely struggling. The winds had picked up significantly and were beginning to shift to the northwest as predicted. Finally finished the first 45 miles in about 2 hours 45 minutes which is slow going, but still a lot of work. The lead 4 were already at the control taking in calories, but the tandem was still back on the route with a mechanical. I made my stop quick to avoid getting too comfortable, knowing the winds were only going to get worse, and it was only about 15 miles to the next control in Evansville.
There were a few jogs in the route to the east on this section which provided some needed relief from the winds which were now blowing steadily at 20-25 mph with gusts near 40 mph. Every left turn was back to the north and back into screaming crosswinds. I was in the small ring the whole time pushing my secret 26 cog, only to be used in desperate situations! Even then, I was wishing I was sporting a triple at that point. Even under constant cadence, the bike was tacking back and forth up the road, being redirected every time a gust came up. Looking on the positive side, the completely overcast skies, which let loose some small showers in the previous hours gave way to mostly sunny skies which felt good given the cool morning temperatures.
The lead 4 caught me again by the time I reached the Evansville stop. Keeping my breaks short, I pulled out, eager to get to the next control in Oregon, which was the 75 mile mark, and more importantly where we would finally pick up the coveted tail wind home!
The leg to Oregon was also short, but tougher than the last, as it headed in a north northwesterly direction, straight into the deafening winds. As I reached the residential area of Oregon just before the control stop, I once again picked up the group of 4 riders in my rear view mirror. While I am used to doing a lot of solo riding and of course also enjoy riding in the company of others, I became pretty convinced that there was not a lot of benefit one could derive from sitting in a pace line today. The unpredictable gusts were knocking everyone around big time, and from my perspective, going solo in these conditions was just fine with me. Riding in a close pace line just added too much additional required focus, when I was already trying to focus on just keeping my own bike moving in somewhat of a straight line.
I took a longer break in Oregon as I was pretty fried at this point and knew it should be much easier going from this point forward. As it turns out, those 4 riders I learned have names (David, Mike, Zach, and Steve??, I think). After David so graciously picked up the groupo's junk food tab, I of course thanked him and joked that I will pull the group home, now that the tailwind section has finally arrived! As we left Oregon, the celebration began. The sails were opened and we let the breeze do the rest. The last 5 hours of deafening winds were replaced by no audible sound of wind, just the whoosh of the tires on the road.
We made good time back to Edgerton, the last control before the finish, but it did not demand break-neck effort. At this point I was still pretty beat from just getting to the turn toward home. As we pulled out of the Carl's Shell for the last 26 mile leg to Delavan, I waited up for Zach who opted for some hard core calories vis a vis a Taco John's burrito. There's about a half mile downhill run over a bridge crossing the Rock River, followed by an immediate right turn. Zach and I were at the top of the hill as we saw the other 3 in front of us miss the right turn. We were so far back at this point there was no way either of us had the ability to chase them down. We could only hope they would quickly realize their miscue and backtrack to the course without too many bonus miles.
As Zach and I proceeded through Milton, we aligned ourselves on a beautifully newly paved section of County M which was aligned with a perfect dead-on tail wind to finish the day. Once the newly paved section ended, we opted not to take the identified detour and continued on County M for old times sake, dodging pot holes ruts and loose gravel all the way.
We pulled into the Super 8 at about 3:45 to finish the day. Happily, our missing 3 riders rolled in just minutes past us. A good end to a hard but fun day.
