Great Lakes - Dairyland Dare Ride Reports Go Here.

Dang. The morning after and no reports. Y'all must be sleeping in.

Hook a brother up with some details!

Dang. The morning after and no reports. Y'all must be sleeping in.

Hook a brother up with some details!

I just got up and then getting down the stairs took some doing!!! Will get a report posted. Dang, did we miss you!!! I certainly thought of you on Roberts and Shop Hill.

DD, the numbers. (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6531687)


http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/chart/get.mb?xy.domain=totalDistance&xy.ranges=elevation&xy.histogram=false&xy.legendVisible=false&xy.primaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.secondaryRangeAxisVisible=true&xy.rangeTitlesVisible=true&xy.domainAxisVisible=true&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&episodePk.pkValue=6531687&xy.plotForegroundOpacity=0.75&xy.autoFit=true&xy.width=340&xy.height=227


more later.

later.

Here are mine. The milage is a little short, understated as I didn't have my speed sensor in the beginning , sprinted up an early hill, stopped, adjusted it, and then kept on going with the goat.

Slopes 14 .... that's freakin funny!

Full report later, still vacationing with the kids.

Data Value Unit
Duration 5:45:24
Sampling Rate 1 s
Cycling Efficiency 20.1 %

Energy Expenditure 3623 kcal
Number of Heart Beats 51812 beats
Recovery -159 beats
Minimum Heart Rate 107 bpm
Average Heart Rate 150 bpm
Maximum Heart Rate 169 bpm
Standard Deviation 10.7 bpm

Minimum Speed 1.2 mph
Average Speed 17.3 mph
Maximum Speed 46.1 mph
Distance 97.8 miles
Odometer 1118 miles

Minimum Cadence 4 rpm
Average Cadence 79 rpm
Maximum Cadence 199 rpm
Coasting Time 1:24:42 (24.5 %)
Coasting Distance 29.3 miles (29.9 %)

Minimum Altitude 325 ft
Average Altitude 587 ft
Maximum Altitude 902 ft
Ascent 8041 ft
Descent 7329 ft
Slopes 14
VAM 1397 ft/h

Minimum Power 2 Watts
Average Power 226 Watts
Average Power (0 W incl.) 170 Watts
Maximum Power 890 Watts
Pedaling Index Average 22 %
Pedaling Index Maximum 100 %
Left Right Balance Average L50 - 50R Left - Right
Left Right Balance Maximum L90 - 10R Left - Right

Dang, did we miss you!!! I certainly thought of you on Roberts and Shop Hill.
:) I already got a PM from someone asking why I didn't warn them about Shop Hill. I'm pretty sure I mentioned it a few times over the last couple of years. I remember that switchback and it tilting skyward and then me walking most of it.


Duration 5:45:24
Average Speed 17.3 mph
Distance 97.8 miles

I declare your days of "I'm fat and out of shape" to be officially OVER. That's a fast pace over this route. Very fast.

I was hoping to read some ride reports for inspiration before my morning ride but I guess I will have to wait. I guess I will check back in a few hours.

Kenal0

Cy, the second time through Robert's road I frickin unclipped! Fat and slow stands!

Well at least the fat stands. I'll try to fix that for next year.

Report later. First I need to hit the farmers market. Even tho it's kinda late already

uh...

Did the 300k and got back home about 11:00 last night, long day. I finished up with 192.78 miles because I missed a couple of arrows. I crossed the finishing line at about 7:50 Saturday night. I had 12 hrs and 34 min of riding time on my computer w/ 15.3 average. It was hard. The loop out to Highland was hardest and the second hardest was the 33k extra loop at the end. Had fun Friday night at supper. Short and sweet ride report more to follow later.

I had 2 goals for the Dairyland Dare.....to finish the 200k and to not walk my bike. I did it! My total time out there was about 10:35....ride time was under 10 hours.

I knew I was going to make the 200k when I got to the top of Roberts Rd. the first time and looked down and realized I had ridden up in my big ring ( I thought I had shifted to my smaller ring) and it wasn't really *all* that hard. Not nearly as hard as it had been the year before.

Math is different up in Dodgeville. 200k is not 124 miles. According to our computers the 200k was 130 miles which at the end was really disheartening to me. My map and jersey are indications of my frustration. Pictures coming.

We awoke to the most perfect day ever. It was chilly taking off in the low 50's but warmed up nicely. Very low humidity. The sun coming up and some of the most gorgeous scenery was the reward for going on the longer routes.

I was pretty much alone all day :( I started briefly with the studs and then settled into my own pace. Chatted with some really nice folks all day long but pretty much rode alone. Nietsmas, it was so nice to have your company for awhile and I know you were slowing down to ride with me ...thanks...I hear the baby is just adorable!

Met up with jbmadtown as well. He was riding strong all day and I would leave a rest stop ahead of him knowing he would pass me at some point. I didn't see him after the 2nd Tower Hill stop and figured he might have headed in to the finish from there. Good chatting with you!

I started out the first 30 miles as usual feeling like crap. At my age it takes a good 2hrs anymore to get warmed up. Then I started to feel really good. Like I could pretty much ride all day which was pretty much what I was going to have to do :D

The first time of Roberts Rd., the killer climb, I was with Nietsmas on the approach. We both groaned as we made the turn. The second time up Roberts Rd. I was with jbmadtown and after a brief encounter on the way up with a snake!!!! and watching jbmadtown zoom right up ahead of me like a champ, I, too was at the top without feeling too taxed.

The ride from there to Shop Hill is sort of a blur. Just lots of ups and downs and getting it done. I met cyclpsycho and colorchange's friend at the Tower Hill rest area (2nd time) and they informed me they were calling it a day and heading in. I also learned from them that aham was still out ahead of me and Scummer.

It was at this point that cyclpsycho started to learn the ways of those of us OTB. He is, as you might imagine, quite unschooled as to what those of us do who are...mere mortals. He marveled at my IPod device and my genius for having brought it along. No, he knows nothing of the distractions we slower folks have, nothing of the ways we entertain ourselves. I didn't have time to show him my other weapons...the advil, the electrolytes, the extra food stuffed in my jersey pockets.

My left knee bothered me all day. Really not the knee... more the tendons on the top of the knee. I think it was the cold conditions we took off in as I had no trouble out west with the high mileage I was doing nor on any other ride. I managed it all day with Advil and a good dose of ignoring it.

Shop Hill is just nearly impossible. I think it was one of my major life's accomplishments to ride that hill without unclipping and walking. I did ride up with 2 other guys and I did hum Rob's climbing ditty. That hill is nastiness...you make the turn and a sudden 10% grade hits you like a brick and you're at 107 miles so the legs are pretty taxed at this point. I did a little weaving, a little out of saddle time and made it to the top.

From there on I figured I didn't have that far to go. 124 minus 108 is just about 16 miles, right? However from there on I was lucky to average 12 mph. I was just shot and every climb no matter how small was dropping me down to about 5mph. I dropped my chain once in this section and was just so tired that getting off my bike to put it back on nearly had me in tears.

I didn't stop at the last rest station at Pleasant hill as I was calculating I surely only had about 6-8 miles to go. The long hill after that long downhill is just killer at that point but I crested it thinking....woohoo....I'm about 3 miles from the finish. BUT I was more like 8 miles out due to the aforementioned math. Those were the absolute worst miles ever. I stopped my bike at the corner of Z and YZ to make sure I hadn't screwed up and missed a turn. The hills just kept coming all the way into the parking lot finish. :mad:

It was great chatting with everyone afterwards. Scummer had just finished and aham was changed and looking fresh as a daisy in spite of having completed the 200k on substandard wheels. Rob has a lot of pictures to document our post ride merriment. I was looking pretty rough...as was my map :roflmao2:

The best part of these rides is always the fun had along the way. I had a great time hanging out with the BFNICers. Dinner was delicious; I had a great time!

A big thanks to Dave for picking up our chips. I'm really anxious for him to check with the details about the 300k route.

Looking at aham's elevation chart makes me feel like a cycling goddess!!!!! HA HA HA:roflmao2:

Did the 300k and got back home about 11:00 last night, long day. I finished up with 192.78 miles because I missed a couple of arrows. I crossed the finishing line at about 7:50 Saturday night. I had 12 hrs and 34 min of riding time on my computer w/ 15.3 average. It was hard. The loop out to Highland was hardest and the second hardest was the 33k extra loop at the end. Had fun Friday night at supper. Short and sweet ride report more to follow later.

Picture me bowing down in honor of your accomplishment. You are, without doubt, the biggest stud in our group. I was worried that your...uh....accomodations might have hampered your performance. :D A hearty congratulations!!!! I am in awe.

DD, the numbers. (http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6531687).

Almost 131 MILES!!!!!!

ugh...

Fixed that for you :D

I'm leaving on vacation, but a quick thanks:
Dave342 (Smokey) for sharing his cigs :roflmao2: (300K -- You the man!)
Psimet for building most awesome wheels :thumb: and piloting the starship.
Nick (Barrington Hills ride) for dragging my carcass in. :cry:
Aham23 for showing me how its done! ;)
And a very big thanks to Stew for arranging this whole sufferfest :thumb: . . . I'll be back :twitchy:

TM 6:24
DST 104.5
MAX 44.2
AVG 16.3

HCIS!

Did the 300k and got back home about 11:00 last night, long day. I finished up with 192.78 miles because I missed a couple of arrows. I crossed the finishing line at about 7:50 Saturday night. I had 12 hrs and 34 min of riding time on my computer w/ 15.3 average. It was hard. The loop out to Highland was hardest and the second hardest was the 33k extra loop at the end. Had fun Friday night at supper. Short and sweet ride report more to follow later.

You da man!! Nice job.


Kenal0

I rolled out at 6:30am and felt like a million bucks. The miles were flying by and before I knew it I was halfway into the ride w/ a 16.8 mph avg and still feeling pretty good. I leapfrogged SmokinMiles a few times and enjoyed chatting And also got a kick out of our harrowing encounter with the snake (what I dubbed the Indiana Jones portion of the ride- "I hate snakes")

I was careful not to spend too much time at the rest stops, just enjoying the day and feeling every bit like 130 miles was within my reach. I ran into the crew at Tower Hill and again at Pleasant Ridge where I had a turkey sandwich (maybe too much food?). Turning back towards Tower Hill I was excited.

Maybe I pushed to hard in the first 100K, because I hit a wall at about 70 miles in. At about 10 miles before hitting Tower Hill the second time every climb, big or small, slowed me to a crawl. I've never used my granny gear (30x27) so liberally. I limped into Tower Hill at mil 80, needing food and some time to cool down, it was starting to heat up and I was worried about overheating. There I ate and drank, and laid down in the shade- now doubting my ability to ride the full 200k route.

I recovered a bit, but just didn't have it in me to take on the back-side of the 200K route to Clyde, so I followed the 100k route back to Harris Park, knowing I could tack on another 33k at the end if I felt up to it. I took another long stop at Pleasant Ridge, and cruised the last 8 or 9 miles to the finish- content with my efforts for the day. I climbed up into the finish at 102.2 miles, avg was 16.03 mph. Total ride time was 6hrs 22mins, total time was around 7hrs 45 minutes. Talk about limping home!

Congrats to everyone on a good day, and I wish you great riding for the rest of the season!

with my oversleeping and my driver (wife) having to feed the baby before we could leave, i unfortunately missed the BFNIC meetup at the start.

i ended up starting at about 6:25am to do the 100k route as my goal. i've ridden about 1/3 the miles that i did last year at this time, so there was no way i was going to try and bite off more than i could chew. started out great, wheelsucked a few groups as i would catch them to try and limit my efforts.

at the first rest stop i saw smokinmiles heading out, so i hurried up and refilled my water bottles and grabbed a muffin to head onto the 2nd stage. wheelsucked again and caught up to smokinmiles so we chatted up for awhile until we got to roberts. powered my way up using most of my strength (surprisingly i had an extra gear) and decided i needed to just keep pedaling.

caught up to some of the BFNIC'ers at the next rest stop to say hi and continued on my way. at the last rest stop i saw psimet and jt1 so we rode back to harris park together.

i felt good in the fact that i finished my goal, but it was also a bit depressing considering that the 66 miles completely wiped me out and left me wondering how the hell i finished the 200k last year. preparation (or lack thereof) certainly makes a huge difference.

great ride again this year, though i question the sanity of including gravel roads in the route. definitely not cool, especially on a descent.

i do plan on doing the 200k next year though.

ride data: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6527155

The DD started for me with arriving at the Cafe Four unannounced, since I wasn't sure if I'm going to make it or not in time. Met up with Psimet, aham, SmokinMiles, dave, JT1 and the alien for some left over Pizza (which was delicious btw) and I had a bowl of fussili with beef ragout. Yumm.

Thanks to dave for picking up our timing chips while the rest of the riders were still flocking around the table for a few more beers.

So after dinner we hit the sack, got up at around 4:40am and were ready to hit the road at 6:00am sharp. It was chilly outside and I opted to put my arm warmers on while everyone else was thinking "What a wussy" and went without warmers. Man, I needed them for the first hour, I was shivering on the bike even with the warmers on. I was riding with psimet for a while until I dropped him like a bad case of beer and I swooshed without stopping through rest stop #1. Then came the nasty ones. Hamburger hill aka Robert Rd was a killer for my fat arse and I just barely made it up there without falling of my bike. I was in my granny gear and biggest cog and I was still hunting for an easier gear. At one point my garmin was displaying 20% grade, which I believe, because it was damn steep.
So I arrived at rest stop #2, replenished some water, ate some food and aham and the alien were rolling in as well. So I chatted with the alien about the route and he mentions we have to make the yellow route twice, which means Hamburger hill again. I could only muster a short "****" and he agreed.
So I rolled out on my own, knowing that aham and the alien would pass me up eventually.
Sometimes the tarmac changed into gravel which made one of the descent pretty iffy and sometimes short pieces of road were gravel while going down a descent at full blast made for some interesting moments and hoping that the wheels would stay straight.
2nd time at Hamburger Hill I was not able to make it all the way up there. About 2/3rds up the hill my thighs were screaming for rest and cramped up in disgust of the pain I put them through. So I had no choice but to dismount. I think I was lacking salt and electrolytes at this point. So I sat down, massaged my thighs, wolfed down a couple of oreo's and tried to get back on the bike. But Hamburger Hill was so steep at this point that I couldn't get clipped in fast enough with my right foot and I almost fell over to the left, avoiding a full crash by a hair. 2nd clip in try it worked and I stormed... err.. I meant crawled up the hill and continued my ride. At the Tower Hill Rest stop I meet up with aham and the alien again. But aham is already in the hole to take off and the alien I think was calling the mothership for help at this point. So I saddled up and off I went on my own. At the next rest stop I catch up with aham again, but he is shortly after back on the road while I sit down for a few minutes, indulge on a banana and some cookies and talk the nice volunteers at the rest stop. So I tell them about my unclipping advanture at Hamburger Hill and one of the guys mentioned that another hill like this is coming up and I was like: "Ahhh.. thanks for telling me. This is not what I wanted to hear"
So off I go again and Shop Hill was just as brutal as Hamburger Hill if not worse. Again, about 2/3rds up the hill my thighs were screaming for help again and I had to unclipp a second time. Son of a gun.. dammit. More oreo's and a gel, a little massage and trying to clip in again on a steep section. This time no problems and up the hill I continued to crawl.
I was low on water before Pleasant Ridge and I stopped by at that rest stop to fill up and I noticed I wasn't sweating at all anymore, even tho I was taking in liquid in good amounts. So I wolfed down a 4 slice turkey sandwich, a muffin, bag of peanuts, bag of chips, a plum, a cookie and lots of water. Man, I didn't know I was so hungry, but I started to sweat again, so that was good.

Some guys were asking if after Pleasant Ridge there was hills left, but I told them only rollers. Damn, was I wrong. After the Pleasant Ridge descent there was another long winding hill again, but with my proper fueling I was able to make it up without any issues. That last 10 miles ticked away slowly, very slowly but I finally made it to the finish and saw everybody minus SmokinMiles sitting at the tables and enjoying some beer or other beverages. I more or less stumbled to them and I was greeted with a big congrats for finishing the 200k.
So we sat for a bit, recovering and shortly after SmokinMiles came in as well and we all chatted about the Shop Hill and Hamburger Hill and how the ride was a pretty tough ride. Seems like aham came into the finish white like a blanket, about to pass out, but after he recovered he let psimet know that with his new wheels he could have finished the ride much faster and easier :D

We all had a good time and I'm looking forward to the next epic ride!

the Dairyland Dare, well that was fun :thumb:.

i will let the Storyteteller (http://psimet.blogspot.com/)provide you with all pre, during, and post ride shenanigans. oh yeah, the BFNIC does like to partake in some shenanigans.

we rolled out early and fast. JT1 tried to hault the group up just prior to take off as he forgot his timing chip back at the car, but i could not wait. well, i figured we would just roll out slow and he could catch up. the ride started with a ton of descending and when you add in my pre ride excitement AND ColorChange's general enthusiasm for all things cycling we went out fast. my bad JT1 :(.

it was cold at the start. especially in the Valleys. i kept thinking, why didnt i bring any arm warmers? :innocent: another thing running through my mind was some words issued by the Goat (http://the-wedge.blogspot.com/); "this ride is relentless, so dont hit the first hills too hard." despite my wanting to try to hang with the Alien and CC i put trust in the Goat.

going into this ride i was under the impression that Roberts Road was the *****. if you could ride it you were good. it came early in the ride. i approached it with the Alien and Nick. we seemed to pick up steam as we rolled towards the base. i think we were excited to ride it. the Alien flew up it. pretty cool to watch him seemingly ride it with ease. he only stood for seconds and that was at the very top. the road really kicks up near the top and i struggled there. however, i was just behind Nick as we reached the top. OK, i did it. where's the beer :D.

lets move along. as usual i got a bit stronger as the day progressed. Nick and i rolled out of the Pleasant Ridge stop together. the Alien was contemplating a shorter route and a couple others were just rolling in. we figured when the Alien got rolling he would swoop us up in no time, and he did. shortley after catching us the Alien effortlessly was up up and away. he was out in front, but we could see him from time to time in the valleys.

Nick & i trudged along together until Roberts Road. neither one of us expected it to come so soon. i was hoping it was after the next rest stop and not before it. i guess that is why they give riders a map. right after we turned onto the road Nick fell back. i had no idea why. i learned later he was cramping. i climbed Roberts better this time. i eased into the climb and waited for the really steep section. when i reached the top i was pretty darn happy about it. now, where's the beer :D. oh, the rides not over??

just prior to the rest stop at mile 83 i caught up to the Alien. clearly a combination of him struggling and me getting my groove on. Scummer and Nick rolled into this stop shortly after us. i could see their reluctance to head back out. so i did my thing, gave them a goodbye waive, and when they gave it back i knew i was going out solo. i would be solo the rest of the ride.

after a quick stop at my last rest stop in Clyde all hell broke loose. normally i am strong mentally. i fight the fatigue and pain and suffering with my mind. at mile 100 i felt like i was lost. i was following those stupid arrows, but where were all the other riders. surely all these hills couldnt be on the planned route. then, VROOM, super duper TriGirl passed me. unless she was lost again i must be on course. this crushed me even more. not TriGirl, just knowing this was the route and it was not getting less difficult.

for the record this was the second time TriGirl passed me as she had taken a wrong turn earlier. dont laugh, the first time she passed nick and i on a climb while in the aero position. serioulsy, dont laugh. we watched her chase down the Alien and pass him on a climb too. see i told you not to laugh.

i made the turn onto Shop Hill road just behind TriGirl. it was a 90 degree turn with gravel at the bottom. i couldnt carry any momentum into it. it was anything but gradual too. i was out of gears at the bottom and looking up to see the super duper climbing machine, TriGirl, standing and weaving. she wasnt even half way up. its a blur from there. not sure how, but i made it and rolled on. that is one seriously great climb. mad props to the sicko who put it at mile 107!!!

after Shop Hill i was mileage counting. i wanted off the bike. i skipped the last stop at Pleasant Ridge. it was only a matter of miles before i should be finished?!@? the climbing has to be done. it wasnt. it was the longest 9 miles of my cycling life. i thought i was lost again. Garmin had passed 124 miles and i wanted to call it day. i mean, the numbers said i had done a Double at the Dairyland. Starship Psimet beam me aboard!

i finished on the bike. i was not feeling well and that was confirmed by the concerned questions from Psimet. we have tackled some difficult rides together, but he claims i have never looked sooo bad. pale pasty white face boy i believe he called me. good times man. good times.

8:23 ride time / 9:38 total time.
131 miles - 15.6 mph avg - 51 mph max
134 avg HR - 172 max HR

well, that's enough blah blah blah for now. shout outs to come later. :D

later.

Brief ride report ... beautiful day for the ride. I finished the 100K fast for me, in about 4:22, through a combo of pushing myself and not stopping at the rest stops. I beat my 30-minute handicap and won the bet with my co-worker, who finished in 3:58. (He beat me by 33 minutes in the HHH.) Yay.

Nice how Roberts Rd is almost exactly the halfway point of the 100K. Once you get over that, you feel like you handle the rest. Although I was flagging some on miles 50-60. After that I picked up the pace again, knowing I was in the home stretch.

At the post-ride lunch I looked for Stew so I could tell him in person how much we appreciate his hard work.

Srsly SmokinMiles, you rode up Roberts Rd on the big ring and it wasn't that hard? Are you doping?

Srsly SmokinMiles, you rode up Roberts Rd on the big ring and it wasn't that hard? Are you doping?



Congrats on winning your bet. In life all things are relative and relative to Shop hill at 107 miles, Roberts Rd twice wasn't that hard.....difficult but not THAT difficult!! :P

"for the record this was the second time TriGirl passed me as she had taken a wrong turn earlier. dont laugh, the first time she passed nick and i on a climb while in the aero position. serioulsy, dont laugh. we watched her chase down the Alien and pass him on a climb too. see i told you not to laugh."


OMG...she passed me too at some point early on. Undeniably the same girl you saw...in the aero position climbing :wtf:

Also, I think Shop Hill is worse when you can see people ahead still going up. I was thinking...".please, God, let them summit! If they're still riding....I still have even further to go." Great suffering, huh?!

OK, this was my fourth ride over 50 miles … ever … and my first since the Arlington 500 back in May. This was also only my second ride resembling hills ever, New Glarus being the first. So, being completely inexperienced did I study the trail map, noting the challenging sections, big downhills, etc.? No, I rode off like a moron and had no map. And yes, I was shivering me timbers for the first few miles. I cruised up the first hill with the alien and things were feeling pretty good. Had to sprint a little in order to buy time to fix my speedometer and got myself back in line.

Things began as expected, I cruise past the alien on the descents and then midway through the climbs, he passes me, only to repeat. Shortly after that though, there was a long downhill and I knew I would have a pretty descent gap but he didn’t catch me on the next uphill. Now I start second guessing … “Am I going out too hard? Am I gonna nuke later?” I still feel good so say … whatever. I didn’t see the alien till I went for a pee at the first stop and on the way riding out, I see the alien going the wrong way, he was doubling back to find the rest stop and that was the last I saw of any of our group. At this point my hr monitor finally started to work as I apparently was too cold before then to get enough sweat to get good contact.

Cruised around with another guy taking turns pulling for quite a while. We got lost at some point but didn’t appear to be off by more than a mile or so. Six guys behind us also got lost. Rode through the Tower stop early but it wasn’t working apparently/yet. Just kept cruising up and down hills. The guy I was riding with was really strong on the hills and I couldn’t keep up with him but usually caught him on the descents. He said he had a hard time keeping up with me on the flats … but sadly there weren’t many of those.

The stops and never-ending rollers just kind of blended together … accept for the second time through Robert’s. I didn’t know we had to do it twice! I wasn’t paying much attention and come cruising into the hill already at 88% hr, and then I think … wait a minute … this looks an awful lot like the long freakin hill I did a while ago. And sure enough, it was. Now I was mad. I can prepare myself mentally for suffering but I was not prepared for this hill physically (should have rested before hand to get my hr down) and thought I was lost again after having to do it twice. So climbing Robert’s a second time when you think you are lost is REALLY frustrating. I actually clipped out at the steepest section for about 100-200 ft. Yea, I know this fat old guy dragging his Cervelo up a hill paints a real proud picture. I didn’t care, I was mad. Oddly enough, after walking for about a minute, I hoped back on and was fine. I’m a damn mental case.

At this point I’ve been riding alone for a long time and still just cruising along up and down, up and down, up and down. Passing some guys, having some guys pass me. Now I get to the moment of truth, the second time I see the blue arrow to the left, the yellow arrow to the right. Hmmm …. Hmmmm …. I wanted to do the 200k. The weather was perfect. But … my neck, shoulders, and arse simply didn’t have enough miles in them. I never spent so much time descending with my chin on my stem and head cranked up that it hurt like hell. My shoulder was hurting so bad I couldn’t reach with my right arm to get the jells out of my jersey so I had to reach across my back with my left arm. I was constantly trying to stretch my neck and shoulders while riding but there was surprisingly little safe/flat areas with which to try to stretch it out really well. And my butt was just plain sore.

Suffering from the riding I could handle at that point, I felt reasonably good. The constant other pains were wearing me down and I said forget it, I’m out of here. I hit the final stop and doused my head with two cups of ice water. Boy did that feel good.

Question … was shop road the real long climbing hill that appears after a right turn and it’s quite long and pretty steep but constant grade, surrounded by trees. You could see all the way to the top once you made the right turn into it. If that’s it, it didn’t hurt me nearly as much as the second unexpected time up Roberts. That steep top section hurt.

After the final stop, that descent was long and fast. I knew I was going to pay for that and while these hills were often long, I now knew what wattage/hr to use and could just crank them out. Many other people were really suffering here and I passed riders by bunches on the final leg.

Got in earlier than most anyone and didn’t feel real good about that, thinking I was the only one who wussed out. Nothing a few beers couldn’t fix, and ohh did that massage feel good.

What did I learn:

1. Spend some time and actually review/plan out the darn trip.
2. After a while, you can look at a hill and judge what gear and how many watts you can put out to get to the top. But you still have to be careful to leave some reserve in case there is yet another hill immediately afterward … as there often was.
3. Groups don’t hold together well when hills are involved. Each person seems to have their own climbing speed and they just get blown apart so be prepared to ride alone.

Had great fun with everyone afterward. BF guys are a really good group of people. This was a challenging but really fun ride.

"Question … was shop road the real long climbing hill that appears after a right turn and it’s quite long and pretty steep but constant grade, surrounded by trees."

No, Shop Hill is after the 2nd climb up Roberts when you make that fateful turn that we discussed to follow the yellow. Then you head on to the Tower Hill stop for the 2nd time, then you're off to Clyde. It was after the Clyde rest stop...not that far past it actually. After being on a nice highway sort of road you turn right onto Shop Hill.

hey CC, no offense, but you have no clue. Shop Hill was at mile 107 of the 130 route. you didnt come within a sniff of it. it is nothing like Roberts Road. nothing. i rode Roberts twice and thought i was the man :twitchy:. i was two feet onto Shop Hill and realized i clearly was not the man. or the TriGirl who passed me :).

that climb at that time in the ride was brilliant.

im not saying. im just saying.

later.

You da man!! Nice job.


Kenal0

Thanks Ken, hope to see you there next year.

i'm pretty sure this mysterious trigirl was the one in a green top on a cervelo. if it is, she snapped her chain the first time going up roberts. i saw her at a rest stop later on having it replaced and she also whizzed past me later on.

good for her.

I loved the DD ride!! :D I did the 100K... but wished I had done more.... oh well, there's always next year. This was my first time at DD and I like it!! I also just took off my triple and put on a compact with all new DuraAce components ;)... so this was my first hilly test on my new crank and gear... and I think I did pretty good :) No idea what my time was.. (where are the results posted anyway?). My goal this weekend was just to have fun doing this ride while camping the weekend at Governor Dodge... and it turned into a great weekend all around... perfect weekend:D

... and got to see Psimet, that's always a plus:p... then sat outside drinking too many beers waiting for our friend who has no ACL but decided to do the 233K:eek:

.. oh and the best part was.. on the way back, we "finally" made it to the Grumpy Troll, LOL:thumb: What a cool place. Racebrat came home with some bottles of some very dark beer:thumb:, and I came home with a few Grumpy Troll pint glasses:p

also, over Labor Day Weekend... there is the Wright Stuff Century on 8/31/08 starting from Mt. Horeb and through some of these same roads. If a campsite opens up at GD (that park is amazingly always packed)... I'm in for this one... can't wait!!. Here's the link if anyone is interested http://www.bombaybicycle.org/events/wsc

That must be some hill then ... I promise I'll know where it's at for next year. Sounds like I do NOT want to get surprised by that mama.

OK....I'll do a little at a time. Been very busy and sick so I apologize to anyone who would actually be upset about me not posting yet :D (most likely no one, but hey...)

The trip up was almost as much fun (for me) as the riding was. On Friday I was able to quickly change over aham's crank from a standard to a compact. Turns out his chain was shot as well. Hardly ever see one that worn. First I measured then I dropped some chain gauges on it. Weird how they dropped all the way in and bottomed out. He's just a beast....that doesn't know how to change a chain....I guess. :thumb:

JT1 met up at casa de psimet and we headed out for a scheduled alien encounter. Within short order we were all docked and on the way. Stories started coming from all directions. JT1 actually called me a chatty cathy :eek: and aham tried to get some sleep.

Made it into Mineral Point to get some grub. We ate at Cafe 4 - nice place. My kind of place. They weren't expecting that big of a crowd I don't think. Service took forever, but that meant I stayed mostly sober and was able to hang out longer.

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/782/picture051ya2.jpg
Dave342 anticipating the pain of 300k

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SmokinMiles humming "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming."

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L to R: JT1 thinking to himself, "How did I get involved with this crowd?" and aham23 just realizing that he signed up for the 200k

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...like magic scummer appeared out of nowhere muttering something like, "this is not real beer...but I like it"....

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I didn't hear the motership drop him off, but the alien was participating in human celebration and taking notes.

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Cycling's version of the money shot....dubbed the "botto shot". Notice I got "Totally Naked" and started an "Organic Revolution". OK, well if I didn't I am sure our waitress has tried at least once in her life. The Pizza was very good, and the cheese plate...well...need I say? The cheese plate was Wisconsoriffic.


http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/4290/picture062su8.jpg
We stayed well past our bedtime in anticipation of the check while Dave342 was nice enough to volunteer to pick up our packets and timing chips at registration. Seriously. Is he just not one of the nicest people you have ever met in your entire life??!! It's OK though....I balance him out on the Yin-Yang scale with my occassional evil.

To Be Continued.....

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aham - "Seriously....200k....:wtf:"

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Must have broken something on this piece of "point-and-shoot" glory on this one because it was the last picture of the night. Anyone know who this lame-ass is? Seriously...wearing a Bikeforums shirt...what a dork.

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/5901/picture068mv5.jpg

Hmmm....I think this sign is trying to tell us something.....

http://img383.imageshack.us/img383/6438/picture072lj8.jpg
The bikes seemed to have enjoyed their stay....btw - if you have a litter of bikelets in 9 months I want first pick there cyclpsycho.

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/4133/picture073fv9.jpg

Hmmmmm........

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/8371/westsidestoryqf4.jpg

Anyone?


http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/5404/picture074kr2.jpg
Indeed....

Continued...

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SmokinMiles and Scummer anticipating the pain.

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Cyclpsycho/alien receiving a transmission from the mother ship with last minute instructions.

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Well...here goes 300k. I'll see you all....well....sometime. -Dave342-

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Ah-ha! I was in fact at the ride. Had to take a picture of myself, but hey...it happens.

OK...so the ride started off fast and cold. I was shivering pretty bad in some sections with my teeth actually chattering. Like any proper BFNIC rollout it was "fast" to start out with. I say "fast" because I was just rolling along. I had long before this ride decided that I was riding my own ride. As most of you know there is little to no point in trying to ride with someone on a "hilly" ride because in the end everyone will go their own pace.

With that in mind I felt no need to do any little accelerations, or push into pain just to hold wheels in the beginning. That said we pretty much stayed together for a lot of the beginning chunk. I rolled into the first stop needing to talk to nature. Most of the guys waited long enough for me to do what I needed to do and fuel and get going.

Out of that stop we held together for quite a while. I started seeing soemthing really weird in my field of vision. Really weird. It was kind of like what resides in your field of vision after a camera flash, but it wasn't going away. I started to get worried -was my blood pressure too high, is this from the supplements I take, did I bang my head and forget about it? When it finally went away I realized it was most likely a ring of sweat on my polarized sunglasses combined with the rising sun that made it look all technicolored.

We turned on to Roberts together as a group. I had remembered Tim-Tim - the bio-mechanical GPS device complete with realtime feedback (aham-tm) - had kept droning on about how hard Roberts was so I sat up at the turn and bid them all a fond farewell. I was climbing this one on my terms. Steep? Yes, but I did the whole thing sitting down - except for the very last bit before the turn at the top.

I am climbing much better than I ever have and it is showing. Difference between HHH and DD? A few races and about 8-10 lbs. Yes, Virginia, weight DOES really matter. After that there was a really cool, long winding ascent that never really seemed to get over 10-13%. That was a really fun climb.

I started to realize what scummer had said earlier was in fact right - you know something is amiss when you are relaxed when the grade drops back to 6-8% - like you just got a break.

Made it to the next stop where everyone still was so I wasn't too aweful far behind. neitsmas and jbmadtown made it into the stop before we all left again. It was at this stop where I was saying stuff like, "actually I am feeling great. I would do the 100K, but I don't feel like having this be over in another 10-15 miles."

Right out of that stop my knee started hurting on climbs. I don't care who you are, but when you're injured everything just becomes miserable. I couldn't get out of the saddle to climb anymore which was OK because I just kept climbing while seated. By the time we made the next stop were the routes split I was tinking it was going to be a long 200k if I went that direction.

So....there I am at the deciding stop. Pleasant Ridge or some such misleading name like that. I see just about everyone. Aham, cyclpsycho, jbmadtown, JT1, SomkinMiles, neitsmas, etc. Meanwhile I'm just trying to figure out what to do. When I pulled in I was doing the 200k. In my heart I wanted to do the 100K and add the 33k loop -maybe twice.

As time went on I realized I needed to just do the 100k. JT1 joined me and neitsmas let us suck his wheel every now and then. Once back we knew we had time so we milled around the rest stop at the start. I bought a jersey. We stocked up on Hammer Gels, etc.

I got to meet Mrs. neitsmas and little neitsmas while they were waiting for him. Things may have gotten off on the wrong foot when mentioned that I had seen all sorts of pictures of little neitsmas on the internet. Maybe it was just how I said it....

Anyway. It was about time to get rolling again. :(. I wasn't excited to ride big hills again, but I definitely had not done enough riding for the day. JT1 and I rolled out together. I think we expected the additional 33K loop to be....easier for some reason. Holy Crap we were wrong.

I actually think the 33k loop was harder than a lot of the first loop we did. It was pretty relentless. No Roberts roads, but constant 10%-14% "rollers" - you'd get to the top of one and see the next three in line right after it. Definitely some good roads. After a while I was starting to say things like, "don't think I'll be riding this twice."

Then it happened. We missed a turn. I had a feeling we might be off course, and JT1 started asking the same thing. We stopped and pulled out a map. Another rider went past so we thought we were most likely OK....but something wasn't adding up. We yelled for the other rider to come back. Flagged down a local who gave some airy answers about what roads we were on and mentioned something about "arrows." It was local talk. Meant nothing to an engineer or cartographer, but would have totally been right up "Tim-Tim"'s alley. I believe I have our bearing so we head off.

After climbing a lot of hills the roads in both directions turn to dirt. Ooops. Something is wrong. We stop and decide to go back. After another quickly failed attempt we make it back on route. There were no arrows at the turn we missed. Furthermore the next major turn the arrow was in fact turned the wrong direction. There were locals afoot for sure. I powered up my Cheese Force Field and tried to use my sense of smell to detect the faint smell of beer and cow pies to serve as additional warning.

...maybe it was a troll.

...continued.

i'm pretty sure this mysterious trigirl was the one in a green top on a cervelo. if it is, she snapped her chain the first time going up roberts. i saw her at a rest stop later on having it replaced and she also whizzed past me later on.

good for her.

No, that was not her. I rode with that gal later after she got her new chain. The TriGirl was a different one.

So we roll in and I've had enough. Time to clean up and get a beer. Had to wait in line forever to get a brat....seriously I thought they grew on trees up here, so I decided on a burger....or 2.

Cyclpsycho lucked out and got a brat so here's his "botto shot"
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/9508/picture089lx5.jpg

Here is the alien himself asimilating food and downloading his observations.
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/341/picture090hr7.jpg


Colorchange caught in the alien's trance..
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/8069/picture091mi5.jpg

JT1 - getting rubbed out....err...down. Getting a rub down there....errr...whatever.
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/6640/picture093jx9.jpg

I snagged a quick one of Whitesox trying to figure out why psimet was so happy...
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4408/picture094vw6.jpg

When is aham going to get here? Srsly??!!
http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/3789/picture095zy3.jpg


...continued...

Ok....that "sorry" sign is the best of all....I am crying. ha ha ha

Psimet, is your knee still misbehaving?

I am glad I wasn't the only to have problems on the black loop. It took us a while to figure out we were off course. I think we wound up doing about an extra 8 miles. The worst part was running out of water while on the course. The last 5 miles were a crawl. I think next year they need to paint the course markings on the street. Other than that, a great day in the saddle.

The discussion quickly turned towards guns. i don't mean to go out on a limb, but I think JT1 has Colorchange beat on this one.
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/853/picture097gl4.jpg


I won the "cycling tan" contest. Yes I need to shave....:rolleyes:
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/9633/picture098fn4.jpg

aham finally showed. 200k in the books....well 200k by Wisconsin math version. I think if the ride was put into gallons of milk/beer or pounds of cheese as units of measurement then everything would have been right...
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/5180/picture099an9.jpg

Seriously about the worst I have ever seen aham. Camera doesn't do it justice. He seemed fine until about this moment. Then he got all pasty and eyes bloodshot. He wasn't responding well to questions....or maybe I had just had too many....whatever.
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/1405/picture100vz6.jpg

Yup...maybe I had. Those can't all be mine...
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/9573/picture102vv3.jpg

Scummer rolled in and toasted a 200k
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/1218/picture104mb1.jpg

...continued...imageshack kind of bombing out right now...

SmokinMiles rolled in with 200k in the books.
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/3711/picture105tv0.jpg

With everyone there it was time for the storytelling to continue....

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http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/7606/picture037ug6.jpg
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Even aliens sometimes have a hard time reading maps....
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Final stats for me....
6:10 ride time
88.9 miles
14.4 avg
56.6 max
Elevation gain = 8,571 ft.

Great job, guys and ladies! BFNIC ride reports are always fun to read, and make me feel like I was there....except my legs aren't cramping up;) I don't mind the occasional roller, but hills with names and I don't get along. You all have my repect for showing those hills who's boss (and you're nice people too :thumb:) Looks like Psimet got his money's worth in beer!

Psi ... the guns shot is a riot! Is it that obvious I hate lifting weights?

First let me state that I am not a climber, at 6"2" and 210lbs I'm not built to climb, and I don't like to climb. After finishing the Horribly Hilly Hundred earlier this year, I immediately changed my crank from compact back to standard. I thought that would ensure my not attempting the Dairyland Dare.

Between knowing all the great people from BFNIC were doing the ride, and Stew's last email mentioning the ride losing money, the guilt started. So two days before the ride I signed up for the ride hooked up with Psimet for a ride there, and Scummer to share a room with. After a couple skinned knuckles and the crank changed back to compact I was ready to go.

The ride started with my crossing the start line and realizing my transponder was in the car and not on me.
A quick trip back to the car, then I'm off trying to play catch up. Needless to say, between the head start the others got, and my great climbing abilities I did not catch up with the group till the first stop. Although I did pass Smoking Miles along the way.

As others stated, with the climbs and descents this is a ride spent riding alone most of the time. There were a few pace lines, some talking with Chatty Cathy (Psimet), but mostly just grinding up the hills, then bombing down the other side. At the moment of truth, deciding wether do do the 200k or the 100k I realized although I felt really good 200k would probably be pushing it. I knew there was the option of ridding a couple 33k loops after the 100k. Psimet like that idea, so we headed put together to finish the last leg of the 100k. I finished feeling great.

After finishing the 100k I was not ready to quit riding. Psimet and I headed out for our first of two planned 33k loops. Eric Clapton was playing on my ipod, I was cruising along on the flat and downhill start feeling great. Then a turn and the first wall. I don't know why, but for some reason I thought this last loop would be easier. Not the case, hill after hill after hill. Well inn to the ride my intuition told me we were no longer on the course, however Psimet thought his Garmin was leading us the right way. I noticed this as we were approaching a series of very steep climbs. I mentioned to Psimet I did not want to ride up those hills if we didn't have to. Unfortunately we realized after climbing the hills we were definitely off course. We had to back track to the turn we missed. At least the downhill return was fun. Once we got back on course there was the constant wondering if we really were on course. With signs missing, and pointing the wrong direction there was a bit of map checking. I was out of water and just wanted the to get off my bike. After 24 miles, and an additional 2583 ft of climbing we finally made it back.

Congratulations to those of you who rode longer distances. Smoking Miles, Aham23, and Scummer who finished the 200k, and Dave342 for finishing the 300K.

Overall I thought the ride was great, and I was able to finish the 100k with 30 minutes less saddle time, and 1 hour less total time than the HHH.

The Stats

100k
4:20 saddle time
5:01 total time
15.1 average speed
50.0 maximum speed

Le Awesome, everyone. Totally le Awesome.

:beer:

also, over Labor Day Weekend... there is the Wright Stuff Century on 8/31/08 starting from Mt. Horeb and through some of these same roads. If a campsite opens up at GD (that park is amazingly always packed)... I'm in for this one... can't wait!!. Here's the link if anyone is interested http://www.bombaybicycle.org/events/wsc

WCS's a good ride. Unless they changed it, I layed out the course... I in my humble opinion it's a pretty nice one. If you can find camping at Blue Mounds State Park or Brigham County Park, you can ride to the start line.

Le Awesome, everyone. Totally le Awesome.

:beer:


Ditto - Awesome, everyone. GREAT pictures. GREAT reading.

Hoping to be there next year.

WAY TO GO!!! :thumb:

"Overall I thought the ride was great, and I was able to finish the 100k with 30 minutes less saddle time, and 1 hour less total time than the HHH."

For someone who doesn't like hills, you sure did great and rode a lot of miles! Thanks for the smoothie recommendation. It really hit the spot and stayed down which I'm not sure would have been the case with any other solid food. :)

WCS's a good ride. Unless they changed it, I layed out the course... I in my humble opinion it's a pretty nice one. If you can find camping at Blue Mounds State Park or Brigham County Park, you can ride to the start line.

thanks! :) I was able to get a site at Governor Dodge... both that park and Blue Mound are packed!! but if one opens up at Blue Mound, we might switch. I'm looking forward to the ride:p

... and I'm guessing you are the famous Mr. Schilling... aka Cruise Director of the Dairyland Dare? If so, I want to commend you on a great ride. The organization of the DD was amazing. The volunteers were awesome... so kind and helpful... the rest-stops were great... and the lunch/dinner afterwards was fantastic!!, as well as the beer!!:thumb: I really hope you manage to have it next year because it would be a great loss to the cycling community to not have that one on our calendar :(... so here's hoping for DD to return for 2009. Thanks again for all your hard work.. I did buy a jersey... and plan to where it this weekend at the Psycho Century :D

WCS's a good ride. Unless they changed it, I layed out the course... I in my humble opinion it's a pretty nice one. If you can find camping at Blue Mounds State Park or Brigham County Park, you can ride to the start line.

just wanted to let you know Stew that the DD was a top notch ride. it was my first go at the DD and riding some of those rodes. the 200k was a fantastic route and difficult for a flatlander from Illinois.

i know some people had issues with the route markings. some of us like to ignore the map and just follow the markings. on a route like yours, you need to use both, or at the very least check the map at each stop. the colors to follow would changed, but those changes were listed on the map.

the rest stops were stocked above and beyond what i normally see. i mean, who the heck is handing out Hammer stuff at every stop? Hammer is gooooood!! you had some great volunteers out there offering up support to the riders. the goodie bag with the pint glass and shirt were cool. purchased a jersey too and dig the design. the food, drink, and massages at the end.....i could go on and on.

we drug as many BFNIC'ers up as we could. heck we recuited some just days prior to the ride. hopefully, you came close to hitting your goal. if not, maybe a scaled back ride for 2009. many of us just love riding the area and would be willing to bring our own Hammer stuff :thumb:.

later.

OK, someone has to ask. Stew, any likelihood of results soon? And great first class ride.

just wanted to let you know Stew that the DD was a top notch ride. it was my first go at the DD and riding some of those rodes. the 200k was a fantastic route and difficult for a flatlander from Illinois.

i know some people had issues with the route markings. some of us like to ignore the map and just follow the markings. on a route like yours, you need to use both, or at the very least check the map at each stop. the colors to follow would changed, but those changes were listed on the map.

the rest stops were stocked above and beyond what i normally see. i mean, who the heck is handing out Hammer stuff at every stop? Hammer is gooooood!! you had some great volunteers out there offering up support to the riders. the goodie bag with the pint glass and shirt were cool. purchased a jersey too and dig the design. the food, drink, and massages at the end.....i could go on and on.

we drug as many BFNIC'ers up as we could. heck we recuited some just days prior to the ride. hopefully, you came close to hitting your goal. if not, maybe a scaled back ride for 2009. many of us just love riding the area and would be willing to bring our own Hammer stuff :thumb:.

later.

+eleventyfivethousandbillion