velodev

I had some errands planned for today (knowing that IL weather will always change on you). But after 10am, I was convinced this will be the last priceless weather ride on the season.

Met "Sarge" (at least that what people were calling him) and chatted with him. Right off the bat I knew I was amongst some friendly folks. Riders came back in just after 1 or so and they got their share of nourishment. And we're off...

Nice long farm roads with rarely a car from behind. Legs of the ride were long and a bump or two in the elevation. It was good to know we had a great range of riders hanging in the pack. Then the south wind hit. UGH! I was really wishing and hoping to see "N" on the directional as soon as possible.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased I got out to meet some of you (great folks, every one) and got a nice effort before Mother Nature takes away our season of pleasant weather.

Thanks for organizing this ride. I plan on participating any chance I can.

Motionbased.com Link: Ride data

Kimbercop

Well, I went out with the first group for the 38 mile leg. Had to get home and do some family stuff before heading back out of town tonight for another week away. What a great turnout and even better weather!! It was absolutely perfect this morning. Sunny crisp and no wind.

Had probably 10 riders for the first leg, and the second leg had even more. Met up with everyone a few minutes before 8AM and said howdy to those I had not yet met. Pictures were taken and then we headed out in a nice crisp single file line and the game was on. Unfortunately for me, I wasnt in the game. Not sure what my problem was but after 8 or so miles, I knew it was gonna be a tough ride. Just felt like I had no gas in the tank whatsoever. Maybe its that I havent ridden a lot lately, or have been eatting out every night for the past week, but it was not good. I seriously thought about turning around, but I decided not to wuss out. Afterall, I have been waiting for this day for quite awhile.

Psimet, (Rob) was nice enough to hang at the back with me for awhile and refused to ditch me when I told him to hand me a cue sheet and take off. For that I'm appreciative, but I really feel bad that I just slogged around at the rear. The good thing about riding with Psimet was he knew where we were going so when all the leaders took a wrong turn, we went the right way. The leaders took a 1 1/2 mile loop, that put them back in touch with us soon enough. After the King of the mountain competition, I was really at the back, but hooked up at the halfway point where I tried to refuel, but to no avail, it just wasnt in me today.

After the halfway stop in Marengo, I just held up the back of the group, (way back) for the rest of the way in. Dekalbsteel was nice enough to ride a bit with me at the back, he too refused to leave me when I told him to go cause I knew where I was. Eventually I hooked back up with my buddy from work Scott and we rode the final 4 miles or so together. We came in probaly 10 minutes or so behind the group. I again apologize for looking like such a weakling out there, not sure what got into me, but I had nothing in the tank from very early on. My friend Scott amazed me even more. He's done 200 + miles in the past week, on his mid 80's Schwinn. He rode the ride today on the Schwinn with full panniers, and as usual, he never shifted out of the big ring/small ring combo. The guys got some amazing leg muscles.

Overall it was a great ride and I had fun, but wish I had made a better showing.

Cant wait to see some pics from those sporting cameras today.

My Ride stats: https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/e...kValue=1448041

Drag

Gosh it was beautiful out today! I don't think the weather could've been better (okay maybe less wind on some routes).

First, off, a hearty THANK YOU to the entire BFNIC crew, especially Psimet for doing all the event legwork. (Thanks to your father-in-law for the SAG role too!)

I've only been on the bike since the last weekend in August and I was able to accomplish a lot of FIRSTS today:

1) First time I rode a distance far enough that it actually had a name: HALF-METRIC! Woo-hoo! I know. I know. What's the big deal, but again I've only been riding a few weeks, and my longest ride prior to today was only 21 miles. I don't think I could've shared the event with a nicer group. Thanks for pulling me along fellas!
2) First organized group ride.
3) First pace-line. That was a paceline right?
4) First time as lead bike of a paceline. Not that I meant to pull, but I just happened to be the second bike in line when the first guy rolled out. It was a short lived mile and a half experience but will be cherished nonetheless.
5) First mid-ride stop at a gas station for refreshments. Never rode far enough to need to stop anywhere. LOL!
6) And, lastly, first Christening of my Litespeed as it fell and kissed the asphalt . . . with me clipped into it. Just my luck, a decade of riding MTBs on wicked trails that require multiple spontaneous clipless exits and I can't unclip in a parking lot at 1mph in front of a dozen seasoned cyclists who I just met. (My wife got a kick out of this.) Anyway, anybody know where I can get a replacement left Ultegra brifter cap? For cheap?

Some things I learned:
A. These boys are FAST! I could barely keep up with them, if at all!
B. I really need to get a lot more miles in these legs, but that's no surprise. I was in upper Zone 4 and Zone 5 nearly the entire time. Clearly puts things into perspective and provides me something to shoot for.
C. Paceline riding requires a series of quick strokes and minor jabs at the brakes.
D. For the first time, I didn't find riding in the drops all too uncomfortable, at least not as much as I remember. My other road bike has a farther drop from the seat to the bars, so that obviously had something to do with it. I also figured out I may need to mildy adjust the angle of my bars.
E. Don't bother riding clipped in while in a small parking lot (see #6 above).

It was a privilege to meet all of you BFNIC gents!

Sorry, that I didn't meet you Kimbercop. You and I may be riding partners at a future outing - I'm really not that fast at all, and I too was last into the parking lot. Here's my MB stats.

dekalbSTEEL

Yeah, that 2nd leg really took off. I ran out of gas 5 miles into the second leg and pulled out. Circled around and ended up at 50 miles for the day. Great ride! Hope everyone liked the cookies I left behind.

Hey drag, here ya go

https://store.airbomb.com/Itemdesc.asp?ic=LD6627

Drag

Hey dekalbSteel -

Thanks for the link. And the cookies!

Funny. I brought a box of Clifbars for everybody and nobody wanted them! LOL! Appeared they all wanted the cookies instead!

CyLowe97

Thanks everyone for coming out to our neck of the woods.... err.... farmland.

Unbelievable weather all day long. Couldn't have ordered anything better. Even that wind from the South/Soutwest was okay, especially because we were riding with a tailwind of sorts for the last dozen miles.

Oh yeah, S_DOG.... click here for a little edification on Psimet's avatar.

Hipcycler

I'm off to the cycling room to prepare for today's ride....when I get back I better have some pictures to judge here....

CyLowe97

Yeah, can't wait to see them. I didn't have a camera yesterday. Sorry, Hip.

Hipcycler

WHAT!!!!!!

YOU....no camera?

I'm crushed.

Seriously....Mrs. Hip and I worked like a dog out at the lake house yesterday in that wonderful weather and we took a break to ride over to Backyard Bikes for an ice cream. I even said to her, "Man, my BF brothers have some great weather for their ride today."

In fact, here she is...




Anyway....I jump on BF this morning to check out the pix...nothing yet.
Later then...I'm off work today and wondering if I can squeeze in a big solo ride...to the lake and back...72 miles before it storms again. I hope.

Did you do a full century yest.?

aham23

Much props to Psimet for picking out such a beautiful October day for our ride!!! I really enjoyed the routes and entire loop back concept worked out great. We had cue sheets, maps, & COOKIES. There were K.O.R. (King of the Rollers) points marked out on the map for a little Midwest Riding fun !! Psimet clearly put a lot of time in to organizing this event and did a fantastic job!


The BFNIC had a super turn out for the ride and it was nice meeting everyone. I wish I would have had a pen paper to write down everyones names. We were all introducing our self with both our BF name real name. That is a lot of names for a guy who has trouble remembering names . It was greating meeting all of you.

As for the ride I felt pretty good. Rode a lot with the powerhouse from the Rockford Area (screen name escapes me at this time?) who is a very strong rider. He took the K.O.R. competition. The third loop was a toughie as it took us South into the wind. Things really started to hurt during this loop. Thanks to velodev for pulling me through stretch with the wind.

Some more Garmin Stats..............Here

As you can see my total excersice time and location are way off. After my last run I must have briefly started the timer before turning off the unit. Looks like it ran for a second or so before I shut it off on Thursday. So when I powered it up yesterday it continued with that session, giving me 70 hours or total time!

Later.

shider

Excellent ride! Many thanks to those who put it together. This was my first century and really my first road ride with a group. We couldn't have asked for better weather. I'm really impressed with how easy it was to get along with everyone. Not a bad one in the bunch!

The course was really nice and well documented. Of course if I choose not to look at the directions it's not surprising I end up going further than planned. Next time, let's see if we can find some hills.

jschen

Great job, guys. The SoCal group thought of you guys as we rode our century yesterday.

iab

Hi guys. It was nice meeting you yesterday. It was a perfect day for a ride. I would like to thank everyone again for their efforts putting the ride together. Also, thank you to delabsteel for the surprise treat, it hit the spot. Thanks to aham23 and the very strong rider from Rockford (sorry, I am terrible with names) for pulling me nearly the whole route. I thought I could keep up with those guys, what a mistake. I usually ride alone and after being 6 inches off of someones wheel for a few hours, I had the urge to tailgate while on the freeway today.

I am almost too embarassed to post my pictures, but I warned most of you guys the quality of the camera phone. Hip, if you are looking, DO NOT use these pics to render judgement.

This is at the first rest stop, for those who don't know, the ride started at 46 degrees, I was damn cold.







Here, although I could be so far behind I couldn't see anyone, I am leading the pack. You will have to take my word for it.


This is getting ready for the third leg. I had to cut out to go ice skating with my daughter. (Which was suprisingly difficult.)

iab

More third leg pics.

iab

106 miles, 70 hours total time... pretty impressive.

CyLowe97

And you thought he was having a strong day.... That's like 1.49 mph average! I was WAY faster than that!




Am I the only one left without a Garmin 305????

aham23

Yeah, I know.......RESET button is My Friend. Even when you think it is cleared out and ready to roll, RESET one more time. Luckily it didn't mess with the rest of the stats.

Thanks for the pics. Later.

Psimet2001 

Hard to find this thread with the title being what it is...I'm starting a new one for the official tally of KOM, etc...

aham23

Well Git-R-Done. You act like you are working or somehting.

CyLowe97

King of the Mechanicals? Not sure if dropping the chain right before the "climb" counts, but I think I was up there in that competition, for sure!