What a great weekend it was in the Midwest, finally some cool weather and a perfect weekend for riding, both mountain and road bikes.
On Friday this mountain girl held a Night ride out on some great single track, that the Gateway Off-Road Cyclist built and maintain in Edwardsville, IL. The gang met at the airfield at 6:30 and headed out for about 30 minutes of hammering before it got dark. We stopped and turned on headlamps and went back for more.
Those trails look a lot different in the dark and obstacles you can usually get through in the light, become very ominous. You can just ask Patrick about that, those hanging vines were not being very nice to him in the dark. I was up front a lot of the ride and kept hearing loud thuds and then someone saying hold up Patrick is down. Patrick wasn’t the only one though, I think the vines got everyone at least once. Good thing Patrick had his Honey Stinger Rocket Chocolate bar, to give him energy to finish the ride.
We had a few new guys that saw the trek posters at the Cyclery & Fitness store and came out to ride, a good time was had by all.
We road for 2 hours then ate pizza and drank beer, well I had diet coke, and best of all Trek picked up the tab, Thanks Trek.
Mark had to take the XTC in to the shop for some surgery after the ride, so I’m thinking if it doesn’t make it, there is a Trek Superfly 100 in his future. It was a great way to finish up the week. I have had many emails asking when the next ride will be. I will be setting up a ride for November, I’m thinking Indian Camp Creek.
The Windy Century
It wasn’t enough to just have a night ride over the weekend, not while the Midwest is getting it’s 5 days of the year that are not too hot or too cold. So what did we do, we went out for a metric century ride. We started with 11 riders, 4 dropped off at the 40 mile mark due to some other commitments.
The rest of the gang finished up the metric century, then headed into Mike’s house for some of Rob Rongey’s famous pulled pork, along with Amy’s (Mike’s wife) hospitality and some cold drinks. We had a great lunch.
Christi had a birthday the day before the ride and wanted to ride her age, but we said, why stop there, I mean 29 miles is just not enough on such a nice day.
The three diehards, Mike, John and Shawn went out for enough miles to make it an American century, while the rest of us wimped out with the excuse of other commitments. I, myself, went home to get some chores done. I had my vitalsox on and they felt so good I didn’t want to take them off. They have really been helping me deal with my foot issues. So after a shower, I put on a clean pair and put me feet up for a while before starting those pesky chores.
As soon as I got a break from the mundane I ran out to Mills Apple farm for a hot apple pie,
I hate to burn all those calories and not have a way to put them back on.
It was a great ride, can’t wait for the next one.
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