Bike Forums - RAIN Ride Report

Yesterday was the big day- RAIN (Ride Across INdiana). It's 159 miles from the Illinois border to the Ohio border.

My goal was to average 20 mph and finish under 8 hours. I wasn't so sure I'd be able to reach that goal because I didn't have a group to ride with and I was going to have to try to find a strong group out on the road.

The first few miles were crazy. There was a huge group (I think over 1,000) and I was pretending I was in the TDF or something. I've never seen so many bikes in one place. I made my way towards the front of the whole thing and found a good group to hang with. Around mile 25 or so I hit a few bumps and lost my computer (cheap piece of crap). I stopped to try to find it to no avail. I spent too much time trying to find it, so I had to chase real hard to try to catch back up to the group. I never caught up, but I found a smaller paceline of 4 guys who were going at a pretty good speed. The whole thing was a blessing in disguise because we eventually passed up a bunch of people who had been in the group I was in, so that group eventually fell apart. Our group of 4 grew and grew as the day went on, which was pretty cool.

The ride isn't a race, but all of us started racing with 5 miles left. I had been feeling good all day and there are actually a few hills in that area, so I felt like I had a big advantage. I ended up beating the whole group to the line to cap off a great day.

I lost my computer, but I stole some data off of a guy I'd been riding with since mile 25. I definitely beat my goal and finished with an average of 21.7. Not bad. Then I went home and won a water bottle on the Lucky 7 game. I'd say yesterday was a pretty good day.

My legs hurt like hell last night, but so far today they don't feel too bad. Right now I have 755 miles for the month, so I'm going to take a few days off and push for 1,000.