CyLowe97

Hey all, put your thoughts on today's ride here.

Sorry for the awful weather and the lack of hills.





Pics soon.

Hipcycler

Thought of you guys today....that wind could not have helped much either!

CyLowe97

Here's a little taste of where we were. That's Blue Mound, the beastie climb halfway through the route.

Off in the distance from HH just after the Lakeview climb to the west.



Off in the distance from the top of Barlow many miles to the east.

recursive

Ride Report
by recursive
====================

This ride had a lot of hills. Weather included partial cloud cover and wind.

We started into the wind, saving the tailwind for the way home. The way things should be.

I had been planning to sprint for stop ahead signs, even if no one else was, just for practice. But dave342 caught me by surprise. I didn't see the first, or the second one coming until he had jumped. He took them easily. After that, we traded signs for most of the rest of the day.

But before we got that far, we encountered a few hills. As you might guess, riders tended to split up on climbs. Most notably, cyclepsycho tended to split to the forward side of everyone else. After the first 15 miles, I caught one glimpse of him before we made it back to Uphill Grind.

That glimpse occurred as my motley group approached the entrance to Blue Mounds Park. cyclepsycho was cruising back down the hill towards the rest stop. Although, I understand he didn't bother stopping. I did. I got a double-decker OCP. I never knew that technology existed.

What goes up must come down. On most of the descents I was practicing my out-of-the-saddle descending position. I sit on the top tube, with my chest over the stem, holding the bars in the center. Very aero. And uncomfortable. But I was able to hit a new personal maximum instantaneous speed of 54.3mph. (Now motionbased is saying 55mph. I'll go with that.)

My awesomest experience of the day was pacing a turkey. It was standing by the side of the road when I approached. It ran parallel to the road, clearly trying to get away from me, but not realizing I couldn't follow it into the farm field. I gradually increased the pace, and eventually it took flight to escape! Or some approximation of flight. Hilarious.

Here's the motionbased link: https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5806994

Shoutouts:
* Caleb, longtime BF lurker whom I rode with a significant portion of the day: Thanks for reading the cue sheet for the cue illiterate dave342 and me.
* tjayk, woke up late and rode the route solo starting from Madison behind us: You should have woken up earlier.
* Speedy McAwesome, international dude extraordinaire: Where were you man? Someplace classy I'm sure.

I gave tjayk a ride to a distant Red Robin, where he rode home from, and where I feasted on a tasty feast with some of the IL boys.

Then I came home and took a nap and chewed gum.

I'm not sure what I should do now. Maybe clean up this craphole I call my house? meh

SmokinMiles

What an amazingly awesome day!!!! CyLowe put together a great route and the weather cooperated beautifully. I loved it and was actually sad to roll into the finish …..really wanted to suffer just a little more.

My friend, Dawn, and I left the Batavia area at 5:20 and arrived in Cross Plains around 8:00. We were thinking of rolling out a little early if possible to get ahead of the speedsters and we did. Rolled out with Wiswell and tzracer at 8:20. Wiswell immediately left us in the dust and the three of us merrily rolled along into the gorgeous morning and a stiff headwind. It was nice to turn out of the wind but of course then we were immediately challenged by the beginning of the “HILLS of HORROR” (Cue evil laugh)

We all soon discovered that we were the same age, 45, and that we weren’t allowing anyone else with us unless they,too , met our age requirement. As a result of said age, we all realized that it takes us at least 10 miles to really warm up good so the early hills felt really tough but then we got into a good groove and it started to feel really good. I felt comfortable all day even on the climb into Blue Mound. Very good feeling.

Luckily, for us, although we did have to alter our age requirement rule, Jose Perez was not having a great day after his half marathon (he’d normally be with the speedsters of great legged ability) and he rolled up beside us around mile 12 as we were taking a break and taking in some gorgeous scenery. He rode with us and it was great getting to know him. The conversation was almost as good as the hills and most of the time, we could continue talking up our long climbs which was a great distraction. Of course, with all those uphills came some amazing downhills. My Cateye clocked my top speed at 45 mph

At some point early in the ride we also rode briefly with Psimet2001. I know for sure now that I am truly a favored member of the BFNIC because I made a comment to him that I was hoping this ride would actually get difficult and he flipped me off. Tears of joy sprang to my eyes at that heartfelt gesture. Soon he was off into the distance and we think, since he seems to be the brains of the bunch, that he probably didn’t get lost and actually was ahead of the fast pack.

Speaking of getting lost, we were riding along chatting and then suddenly 2, no 3, dogs were in hot pursuit. Luckily we all made it past with tzracer nearly wrecking with a dog running in front of him and then I said, "wow, I'm surprised cylowe didn't warn us about those dogs" Realized that was because we were off course and had missed a turn. We're no dummies....we soon concured that we'd, gasp, have to ride back past them!!!! My advice was to ride as quickly as possible...no talking allowed and no freewheel spinning and we could get past them before they saw us. Yippee! It worked; I think the beasts were still tired from their first pursuit. It was this Double Dog Dare that led us to tired legs coming into Blue Mound. We had a great rest there at the general store.

The day got really tough after about 40 miles for my dear friend, Dawn, and she was having to walk many of the uphills and I’d go on and then wait for her at the next turn. The four of us stayed together until about 8 miles out. Tzracer and Jose Perez went on and Dawn and I turned onto Observatory Rd. into a wall of wind followed by, gasp, the truly horriblest hill of all.

Dawn figured the only way to make it was to drop every extra bit of weight that she could. So she threw out her Cheese Nips (I am not joking), dumped the water out of her bottles and peed in the weeds. Thus, we began our final ascent……And we both made it… I took the optional Barlow Rd. climb and we zoomed back into town with an awesome tailwind.

Met some great people today….so much fun. A delicious latte finished off a great day. Looking forward to 100 tomorrow at the Udder. Somewhere at some point, it’s gonna get ugly for me, I think.

SmokinMiles

The wind really wasn't much a factor.....eclipsed by the hills!!!! Good news on your hip!!!

SmokinMiles

Here's the motionbased link: [url]https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5806994/
OMG...."hills with sketchy internet types"

Jose Perez

Blech...
That's how I felt as we pulled out of Uphill Grind. HR hit the mid to high 160's within the first few minutes and I just couldn't generate any speed. I didn't feel bad specifically, just not at all strong. I felt not one drop of "fast" flowing through my veins. Speaking of drops, I got dropped. More accurately I was OTB after about 1 mile into the ride. Not a good sign. Before I know it there's a big gap and I'm in the wind. It quickly extended to 1/2 mile then I just lost contact altogether. Like I said I didn't really feel bad, so I said to hell with it and just picked a modest pace and got going. The first few hills were tough, but I got up them well enough that I realized I was going to be able to finish the entire route today, but I would be going at it solo. One hill I do have to mention is Sutcliffe Rd., which was a beast. I did the 100K ride last year, which doesn't go up that sucker, so I didn't know anything about it. As I said, it was a beast. Smokin Miles already said, I caught up with their group around 12 miles in and decided that, given my state, riding with a group was going to make the 60+ miles that much more enjoyable.

As the ride progressed my legs felt better and better. But somewhere along the way I also realized that in my haste to swap my compact crank onto my bike last night, I didn't properly adjust my FD and as a result I couldn't switch into my big ring without dropping my chain. Luckily I didn't need the big ring. Got it working OK later in the ride, but it did need to get tweaked when I got home. Smokin' already mentioned the dogs and the inadvertent detour, so I'll skip that. The rest of the ride progressed nicely and I even felt strong(ish) at the end. Decided to save the trip into the park for the actual HHH ride and also decided not to push my luck and skipped the trip up Barlow.

Sipped an iced coffee afterwards at Uphill Grind and drove home. A hot shower and a few minutes with the massage stick and I felt good as can be. I don't want to use the 1/2 marathon as an excuse, but I can't figure out any other reason for why I felt like ass for this ride. Oh well, I think I was able to work out whatever it was during today's ride and plan on knocking any remnants of it out of my system before the 14th.

CyLowe97

Here are some pics from the meet up in Cross Plains

Jose Perez and Rowdy


Dawn and SmokinMiles


czwhite


tzracer, Psimet, and cyclpsycho


recursive and dave342


recursive, Stahr, and Chances


Nietsmas


CyLowe97 (shilling for the pseudo ride host shop Uphill Grind in their Team U.G.L.Y kit)


The ladies roll out


The guys are ready to roll out

Wiswell

Really sorry about dropping you... but must write this down. I actually dropped someone! The only reason this happened was because I rode to the start, which was 10 miles, so I was all warmed up. I am seven years under the age requirement, maybe that was it too!

Ok, I confess to walking up Vermont Church Rd, right by the church. I slipped out of the pedal and couldn't get going again at that angle.

Anyway, hope to see you guys again at the Cream City Century, perhaps, right?

nietsmas

i'll keep it simple. it was a hard ride. cylowe wasn't kidding when he said it was an arsekicker. maybe my legs forgot what the dairyland dare felt like, but wow am i sore.

SmokinMiles

Do Not apologize!! You were great! We were riding so strong!!! Will see you again for sure!!! And I'll try to stay with you....great day, huh?

CyLowe97

More zaniness.

The rollout into the wind:



First hill of the day.


Psimet showing cyclpsycho how to climb. cyclpsycho is a quick study.


The start of Sutcliff. Before it gets steep.


SmokinMiles and Dawn on Sutcliff. Before it gets steep.


The Wrong Way Gang. The cue sheet said take a LEFT turn.


aham23 eyes Blue Mound off in the distance...


...and conquers it a little while later.


Break time in Blue Mounds.

CyLowe97

recursive nearing the crest of Barlow


dave342 is not far behind.


same for Chances and aham23.


recursive and dave, with Blue Mound way off in the distance between them.

Psimet2001 

CyLowe - thank you for setting everything up!

SmokinMiles - - in my house we only flip people off who are a part of the family.

Great morning. aham and CyLowe met up at my house at crack o'dawn-30. We loaded up intot he new SS Psimet and proceeded to play with the various electronic gadets it contains for the trip up there.

Great collection of riders at the start. Tons of pre-ride chatter (a speciality of mine). I was living it up because I love getting together with this group and I knew I wasn't going to be with them long on the road. You see.....I don't DO hills. That's why I was there so that I could get better at doing them.

Started off into the wind. Then proceeded to go up. That hurt. I looked over my shoulder to see if I was clear and proceeded to swing out and off the back. Strangely though I never really rode without having at least one rider in sight.

I rode better than I thought I would. I was just thinking about how I was probably never going to catch thte group that left earlier and then next thing I knew they were right there. Quickly after that came the bird gesture, but in my defense she was saying how easy the ride was and I was actually unable to talk due to lack of oxygen. I had to express my displeasure with her assessment somehow.

Climbing sucks. It just sucks. Sucks bad.

Blue Mounds...I was worrying about Blue Mounds the whole way. I decided to wuss out and skip the last kicker to the top of the park. As a result I was able to meet up with everyone at the rest stop.

After the stop nietsmas and I seemed to be keeping pace with each other (read - "he slowed down to ride with me"). He'd pull away on the hills and I would come back on the downhills. We suffered together throught the last major sections all the way into the lot.

Uphill Grind is a great little shop. A jewell in the mountains for sure. Everyone who rides in the are should stop by for a cup of joe at the min. It was nice to sit around on the couches and BS about the ride for so long afterwards. Almost better than the ride itself.

Hanging with Recursive, aham and cylowe at Red Robin afterwards rocked as well. We had decided that I would probably get in trouble at home for stopping to eat so we all decided to just not bring it up and I was resigned to the idea of eating twice . Then when we got back to casa de Psimet he pulled the Red Robin balloon he got for mini-aham-ia - I was busted.

Oh well....she made me go to Hooters for the second round.
I am psyched for tomorrow. I will not be able to walk this week for sure.

CyLowe97

Yeah, this is where everyone finally chased down cyclpsycho...













BTW, Uphill Grind is this guy's pride and joy. Bike Forums own CPclydesdale


Yum. Giant recovery cafe au lait.

Chances

I'm the one in the Mt. Borah jersey, and Stahr is the one making sure everyone knows which state he's from.

It was a fantastic ride, thanks for putting it on, CyLowe. The weather was just about perfect and you managed to hit almost every good climb in the area.

My ride report starts a few days before today. On my regular commute into work, I managed to partake in some 'free protein' which lead to a pretty irritating cough. I decided to take care of this problem by performing the Greatest Cough Known to Man (GCKtM). One deep breath and a wholehearted effort later, I had accidentally developed the Least Manly Way to Crack a Rib. (LMWtCaR)

Fast forward to this morning. I had decided that I was going to bike out from Madison, do the ride, then bike back home, cracked rib be damned. The ride to the Uphill grind revealed that getting out of the saddle for climbs and pulling up on the handlebars was a very painful affair. Had I not just installed a 12-27 cassette (the better to spin with, my dear) I probably would have turned around.

All things considered, the first half of the ride was fairly uneventful. I got to ride some of my favorite roads, and the group was staying together pretty well.

I ended up flatting at the top of Lakeview. A huge thanks goes out to aham23 for lending me his pump. At this point I thought for sure I was going to be riding solo for the rest up the trip, but thanks to that amazing geological formation we call Blue Mounds, I was able to catch up right as everyone was about to roll out from the rest stop.

That was -probably- where I started to lose my motivation to ride fast. I took it easy on the way back, making sure to hit Barlow right before the end. A quick rest at the Uphill Grind and then I tooled my way back to Madison. The Garmin is reporting 106 miles for today..

Things I learned:
- Nothing starts a ride like chocolate covered rice crispy bars
- Replace your CO2 cartridge immediately after using your last one
- When you're a sissy that can break bones by coughing, don't add more challenges to a challenge ride.

czwhite

Hey, this is Caleb. I was riding the Celeste Bianchi and had the MIT jersey.

That was a great ride, thanks everyone. It was nice putting names to faces. Two things made my ride easier, Recursive's rear wheel, which I drafted off for many miles (except the downhills where he dropped like a rock), and my triple, which had previously been feeling unappreciated.

cyclpsycho

Excellent ride Cylowe!

It was an awesome adventure! I think I liked the climb on . . . or was it the climb on . . . or maybe the climb . . . oh, it was all good

I think I need to move

recursive

Welcome to the forum.

Scummer

recursive, your socks are.... inspiring.

I wanted to join you guys for the ride, but it wasn't meant to be this weekend. Great pics as well and it sounded like a great ride!

CyLowe97

He only goes with that professional look. The argyles must have been at the cleaners.

recursive

I'm so white. I mean, I'm really tan.

Must be your camera.

John Wilke

BUT ... he's styling in his new 'Gear Grinder' sun glasses.

(where did you find those**********???? )

recursive

My sunglasses were from the novelty rack at the grocery store.

Don't know about dave's.