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08-11-07, 05:09 PM
In spite of good advice on the subject of cycling in inclemet weather from Coyote and on using common sense from BluesDawg (handling the heat pg.3) I decided to tackle the Dairyland Dare today. I made this decision at 3:30am this morning so I think that I can be excused for not thinking quite clearly. In all honesty, I must admit that I loaded up the car last night but had not yet registered or even made the decision about doing the ride. But I figured-what the h-ll its not like I have anything else to do but sleep and I was after all awake at that point, so off I went. It was a one hour drive to Dodgeville, wi located about 30-40 miles west of Madison. After doing all the paperwork (I was #747) I jumped on the bike and off I went. The advertised distance was 64 miles. At the end of the ride my odometer showed 67plus which was approx. the same as a few other that I talked to. The advertised climbing was 7685ft.. I'm sure it was more like 76000feet. There were a number of hills in the 16-18% grade range and they were much longer than what I'm accustomed to riding around here. Fortunately, it was cool when I started and it rained for much of the middle section of the course. The sun came out as I was finishing and the temps shot up with 91 deg. being the predicted. I feel sorry for those doing the 200 and 300 k. routes as it has to be brutal out there now. The rest stations (3) were well stocked with the usual goodies and the sag support was visible and regular. Will I do it again-not now, however, I'm sure I'll have forgotten the pain by next year. Besides as Skipper is up in Door County with his wife and their tandem, he couldn't ride it this year. As a reward to myself for completing the whole thing without walking a single hill and doing so in good time, a bit over 5 hours, I've ordered one of their jerseys. If anyone wants more info on a ride for next year-go to google and type in Dairyland Dare, they have a very good site or send a request and I'll give you what info I have.