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| Escape Route: Blocked! Had to take a detour... |
I hate to even think about how I'll be at the ride itself. I just have to let it go and understand that I will be doing what I can, and that's all I can do. This weather, this head cold, have really put the binders on my plans.
The good news is that cold broke this past week and I have been getting incrementally better every day since. Also, this particular ride wasn't done in a driving gale force wind. So, those are some positives to put in the bank for now.
I have been putting in time on the Twin Six Standard Rando v2 which is the rig for this ride. I've got everything dialed in with the minor exception of touching up the chain with some more SILCA Super-Secret Lube before the ride. I noticed that the chain was getting a touch noisy on this particular ride. I have even put the Sigma ROX 4.0 computer on there. Despite the fact that techno-computers on bicycles drive me bonkers, I am going to try it out as it kinda works.
On the way to Evansdale via the local bike path network.
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| The Cedar River at Evansdale. |
In fact, I let the Sigma guide my route choice since I had a route uploaded into it which I could then navigate from. Well......kind of. It doesn't tell you via a sound or any other indication other than a weird 'bread crumb' route guide where to go. If you aren't constantly checking the bread crumb line on the screen, you can miss a turn, and then and only then, does the gol durn thing beep!
What?!!
Who designs these things anyway? Gah! Oh well.... I figured out what was going on, and since I knew the route well enough, I did not really need the GPS bread crumb trail. But if I had to rely on that? I could easily get lost. That's because this GPS computer's rerouting is pretty sketchy, at best.
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| McKellar Road. One of the few Level B Maintenance roads in Black Hawk County. |
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| Weiden Road. These roads are amongst the last to be maintained in the county. |
My route would be taking me through the two other Level B Maintenance roads in Black Hawk County besides Petrie Road's one mile section of Level B. Not many riders go out this way, and honestly, not many people do either. These roads are little used and are usually not that well maintained as a result. This left me with some remaining "Winter conditions" roads to ride on which hadn't been graded or had any new gravel on them yet this year.
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| Rottinghaus Road |
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| The Standard Rando v2 on Weiden Road |
The route has a 'lollipop' section which ran me by Washburn and then down Weiden Road's dirt section which was severely rutted out from car and truck traffic trying out the difficult early spring mud. There were sections where the ruts were probably three feet deep.
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| Here you can see how torn up the dirt road was. |
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| Headin' back to the 'loo. |
The Sun was out, it wasn't very windy, and the roads were fun, if not hilly. In fact, one of the reasons I chose this route was that it was pretty flat, just like the Gents Race course is. I was pleased with how everything went, but I still need more work.
I'd like to put together a 3+ hour ride next. That would make me feel a whole lot better, although it is far short of what I need to be having in the bank. But that is water under the dam now. I just have to keep doing the little things I can do now.
Gents Race- Here I come, ready or not.
3 comments:
Team motto for this year (courtesy of Rob V) - "If you're not having fun, lower your standards". We'll all stick together and have a good time. :)
@S. Fuller - Sounds good to me!
I had my first "real" gravel ride on Friday up here in MI, too - it was frozen when I started so the damp sections weren't muddy. Everything went well until I came upon a section where the road was being graded! After we (the road grader and me) crossed paths, I was able to stay in his tire-track and get back to the "good stuff" that was still hard packed. It may have been a less than ideal mile or so with the loose freshly graded gravel, but it was still WONDERFUL to be out on the bike. As we like to say here, "this is the year!"
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