Great Lakes - Bike the Drive ride report :)

Yep. I had to do it. A ride report for an event mostly ridden by Sunday riders who are struggling up the small inclines that Lake Shore Drives provides. But, at least those people are getting out there and ride! Even if it's only this one time a year.

So I got to the Start at around 7:30 after I parked my car on Jefferson and Polk, far enough to have no trouble with parking or heavy traffic. Yeah, riding to downtown didn't work out as I planned as I had some family business to take care of the day before and I needed at least 6 hours of sleep. Ow well.

I had my ADA number on my helmet and didn't even stop by at the ADA tent. I just wanted to ride the beautiful smooth concrete of LSD. I turned into the direction South entrance and was greeted with a nice hefty headwind. Ah, wonderful, this is going to rock! So I rode along on the left lane at a leisure 15-16mph pace just so I could feel my legs and met a group of three riders about my pace and stuck with them until we got to the Museum of Science and Industry turn around point.
I disregarded the rest stop there as I had a nice breakfast before and turned around for my northbound part of the ride.
Somewhat tailwind with some crosswind was waiting on the northbound stretch and I was keeping pace at 23-24mph until I met a 4 man paceline which was going a tad slower and I passed them on the left.
One dude was wearing a CSC jersey and the paceline latched onto my wheel once I passed them and now 5 guys were trucking along at 24-25mph as I upped the pace a little to make this a worthwhile training ride. I pulled for maybe 2 miles and had them pull through and one dude said "Strong rider" which gave me a nice feeling but at the same time I thought "You guys are lucky only a B group rider was pulling, Psimet would have dropped you guys like wet flies :D ;) "
So I let them pull through and latched onto the last wheel and we were flying northbound LSD sometimes at 23mph and sometimes 29mph on the downhill sections.
People of course completely oblivious to the fact that such thing exists as faster bike riders who don't want to go 10mph, and we had to yell a few times that we want to pass on the left. One time that was greeted with a "Don't listen to them, they are nutcases" Which I'm thinking to myself "I don't even want to know how much exercise you're getting on a bike" :rolleyes:

So the paceline drops one rider somewhere around Mc Cormick place and the four of us are still going at speed until we hit Jackson where the start/finish line is and too many bikes going in and out of LSD are breaking our paceline apart. So from that point on I continue to ride solo at a leisure, tailwind induced 22mph and make my turn around on the Bryn Mawr turn and disregard the rest stop again. I still have water and my breakfast is still giving me good energy so I ride on, this time southbound again, heading for the Jackson Street finish. Wow, the headwind has picked up and this time I'm grinding along at 15-16mph, not wanting to drop below that speed, but going up a few inclines on LSD I need to go out of the saddle to be able to hold it.
I start breathing harder and it becomes more difficult to hold the pace while I'm full blast into the headwind, but I finally make it to Jackson, have a Banana and some cookies, fill up my water bottle and had to my car for the drive home.

It was a beautiful day and the paceline turned it into a nice training ride for a short while.

The End

Thomas

Hello:
Great day,weather was perfect,started right out in front from the start going south first stayed right behind the police pace all the way to the south end doing speed in the mid 30's,turned around now going north with a slight tailwind maintaining 30+mph up until i reached where the starting area is then i had to slow it down and weave in and out of all of the riders.
i did the loop 2 1/2 times for a total of about 75mi held a good pace for about 50 minutes then i had to slow down to about 23+.
very good ride and workout i wish i could do more often during the riding season.
kudos to all of you who did this ride and looking forward to ride the Udder Century next Sunday.

I saw you on my way southbound from Bren Mawr :)
You were parked on the side when I was riding by and thought to myself "Wow, what a cool bent this guy is sporting"

Thomas

+1 - Saw you too. I wouldn't have dropped anyone today. I was in full family effect. It was definitely nice to have 8-lanes dedicated to cycling. It was definitely Fred-landia though.

It was like someone had dumped 8 million squirrels on to the road.

I checked the weather before going and saw that the wind was coming from the South. My wife hasn't been on a bike in about a year. I figured we were better off heading into the wind early. Then we'd have the tailwind the whole way - so we headed South.

I have a few pictures that I'll try to get up later. We did the whole route (once of course). I was hauling the trailer with my son and enough provisions to serve an army. The wind was just enough that I had to shift into the little ring in the last few miles.

I'm glad I went. The family loved it.

The weather sure was nice! I think I have a little sunburn on my face even. My wife, my brother, a friend, and I rode the course once this morning. Averaged 18.1mph, which is pretty-darn good for having my wife with me. Typically she tops out around the 15mph average over distance. It was only my brother's 3rd time on the bike this year and he nearly doubled his yearly mileage with today's 30-mile ride (recently back from college). I'll be whipping him into shape before long. We debated going for another half-loop, but the smell of pancakes and sausage were enough to end the ride and move over to the park for breakfast. Got some free water bottles from the REI stand. I like free stuff. The potholes/canyons on the north end of the loop were terrible, but no incidents. We had a great time again this year. It's my wife's favorite thing about owning a bike, I think.

Now, if I didn't have to get up at 4am to do it, it would be 100x better... I'm tired and have to go to a barbeque. Napping didn't happen, so now I have to suffer.

+1 - Saw you too. I wouldn't have dropped anyone today. I was in full family effect. It was definitely nice to have 8-lanes dedicated to cycling. It was definitely Fred-landia though.

It was like someone had dumped 8 million squirrels on to the road.

I checked the weather before going and saw that the wind was coming from the South. My wife hasn't been on a bike in about a year. I figured we were better off heading into the wind early. Then we'd have the tailwind the whole way - so we headed South.

I have a few pictures that I'll try to get up later. We did the whole route (once of course). I was hauling the trailer with my son and enough provisions to serve an army. The wind was just enough that I had to shift into the little ring in the last few miles.

I'm glad I went. The family loved it.

I did the same! My wife used to ride every day, but got a new job and has been sans-bike for far too long. I'm proud she held on today. (that said...gawd, spending 2.5 hrs in the saddle at 10mph is mind numbing. :twitchy:) You're right, it is an absolutely perfect "family time" event.

Man, great weather today. I'm still enjoying it.

And yes...fredolicious. The sail-bikes were pretty cool though...:thumb:-

Hey Scummer/Thomas, I did the ADA/Tour de Cure too. I met Eric Goodwin, the manager of the ADA/Tour de Cure. He is also the president and managing director of Burnham Racing/Vitaminwater-Trek. He was the guy on the mic at the Burnham Super Crit. He was a real nice guy, we chatted for a good while. If he is still around next year, let him know you race...

Mike

+1 - Saw you too. I wouldn't have dropped anyone today. I was in full family effect. It was definitely nice to have 8-lanes dedicated to cycling. It was definitely Fred-landia though.

It was like someone had dumped 8 million squirrels on to the road.

I checked the weather before going and saw that the wind was coming from the South. My wife hasn't been on a bike in about a year. I figured we were better off heading into the wind early. Then we'd have the tailwind the whole way - so we headed South.

I have a few pictures that I'll try to get up later. We did the whole route (once of course). I was hauling the trailer with my son and enough provisions to serve an army. The wind was just enough that I had to shift into the little ring in the last few miles.

I'm glad I went. The family loved it.

very cool.

later.

We had a great time! Weather was super, lots of people, I heard 22,000. As for riding fast, this was not the ride! We rode a decent clip, but still saw plenty trying to fly by on the left. A couple times another tandem would cruise by and I would want to jump after them, but better sense got me. It would been fun to crank it up going northbound. South roads were great, north a little rough. Just too many bikes and inexperienced riders to ride fast, we saw two crashes.

We had a great time! Weather was super, lots of people, I heard 22,000. As for riding fast, this was not the ride! We rode a decent clip, but still saw plenty trying to fly by on the left. A couple times another tandem would cruise by and I would want to jump after them, but better sense got me. It would been fun to crank it up going northbound. South roads were great, north a little rough. Just too many bikes and inexperienced riders to ride fast, we saw two crashes.

Yeah, I agree. The riders were definitely very inexperienced but I paid attention. We had to slow down once in a while but were able to pass safely every time after we announced on the left.

I had a late night because of attending a Rilo-Kiley concert. Went to bed around 1am, woke up at 5am, put on my gear, and headed out.

Including the ride to/from the event, I completed 51.03 miles in 2:39:18. I suffered through the last eight miles to get home; my knees are shot. I used the single-speed Bianchi Fremont geared up to 48/16 freewheel (stock is 48/17).

About 45 minutes into the ride my calves started to cramp, but I pedaled through it. After 35 miles I thought I was finished. I stopped on the side of the road to check where a couple friends were to try and meet up with them for breakfast. As I headed south to the loop for free treats I ran into my coworker and his family; had a nice chat with him and slowed my pace for a few minutes.

Turning into the staging area, I nearly ran into a cyclist that decided to cross some cones into oncoming cyclists. Perhaps I was a bit delirious at this point because I slowed down in time but also locked my rear wheel in the process; I skidded up to her rear tire. Oh well; better than doing an endo. At the staging area I scarfed down 2 bananas, 2 bite-size cupcakes, 2 cups of PowerAde, and a small bagel.

Decided to get fifty miles on the odometer, so I ditched meeting up with friends and cycled home. After getting home I shoveled a microwavable meal into my mouth, took a shower, then slept for six hours.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3048/2520554671_c0df598b2b.jpg
(the Trek belongs to some random guy I asked to take my pic)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2102/2526342773_42cf91a6e7_o.gif
Lap 1: home to West Bryn Mawr Avenue (northern most point of the route)
Lap 2: south to the main staging area (headwind)
Lap 3: south to the Museum of Science and Industry (headwind)
Lap 4: north to the main staging area (tailwind)
Lap 5: north to West Bryn Mawr Avenue (tailwind)
Lap 6: south to the main staging area (headwind); north to West Montrose Avenue (tailwind)
Lap 7: west to home (limping because my left knee was shot)

In essence it was an 8 laned crowded 16 mile MUP on a Holiday weekend.

^^^That might be the most descriptive and accurate one-sentence post I've seen in a while.

This pic was take from the opposite side of aaa's above, as we waited for someone else in our group to arrive. I'm in orange. Numbers on chest for about 30 seconds. Those didn't stick to anything.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h11/hyunelan2/Cyclingother/BikeTheDrive08/IMG_2444Small.jpg

I saw you guys!

My wife and I completed one thirty mile lap. The weather was much warmer than I feared when packing the bikes in the van Saturday night. We were well bundled up at the start. I removed my tights at the Bryn Mawr rest stop (we went north first) and finally ditched the jacket when we stopped briefly at the Museum of Science and Industry.

I found the headwind while crossing the river quite surprising. After climbing the hill upd the bridge on the north side of the river, I expected to zoom down the southbound side. Instead, just after cresting the hill, the wind appears from behind the buildings and slows everybody down.

We had an enjoyable ride. This was my wife's first time at BTD. Fortunately for her, we did the Roll the Tollway ride last November, and she knew what to expect of her fellow riders. Total Chaos.:rolleyes:

Al