Jealous Again

Look at that, sports fans. Less than a year between posts!

So I'm throwing another hilly route together in Wisconsin for sometime in July. I use the word hilly in a serious, yet fraudulent, way. You see, the flatlander BFNIC crew get to savor the wonderful riding west of Wisconsin a few times a year, yet just when we think it can't get any better than that, we see a post like this over at BikeForums.net.

Hilly in our world somehow seems kind of flat.

This is what we think is a tough climb (really, 900 feet of climbing in 3 miles is no joke for most folks).

This is Blue Mound in Wisconsin.

Then we see someone who has just done this insanity in Italy.

This is the Passo Stelvio.

Very jealous.

Back. Century style.

Well, it was only something like 15 months ago that I last posted here. Anyway, I look to keep this a bit more updated going forward, as others I know have been blogging away contentedly and I'm slipping behind the curve.

Quickly. Today I rode 102.2 miles, 99 of which were with a few guys from the bikeforums.net BFNIC crew. Psimet and Rowdy and me headed out a bit after 5:30 am from the Forest Preserve near my place. Psimet looks at the dawning sky and says, "Red sky in morning..." to which I finished "...sailor's warning." Yep, we got rained on, but not for a while.

First off headed back to casa de CyLowe because Psimet forgot to pump up his tires. No big deal as it wasn't far off the intended course. We did take note of skies off in the distance to the northwest where it looked like rain was coming out of clouds, but we were headed west and then south, so holding out hope that we'd stay dry.

After a quick rest stop in Maple Park, the raindrops started falling. Miles 55-65 or so were soggy wet, but it wasn't a storm. More of a gentle rain that got the roads wet enough for us to be rooster-tailing water on the person trying to draft. The rain relented and the roads dried up, but the crud was on the bikes and the shoes were waterlogged. Ugh.

We finished in sunny, but increasingly muggy weather and the others did a quick ride through the subdivision to top off their odometers at 100 miles. Gotta get that C-Note!

Good ride. My odometer says 1042 miles for the year.

More if I get around to it. If not, wait another year.