C.O.G. 40 Report: Part 2

Leaving The Park:

 With the lunch rest stop out of the way we were ready to head out East and finish off the ride. We'd stopped for maybe a half an hour or so. Not too bad, and I wasn't stiff or cold when we left, which was a good sign. 

My fears were allayed by my good form coming to Union Grove State Park, but how would the lunch and rest affect me?  When would my legs get tired and quit on me? I pushed all these questions down and kept my head up and pedaled onward. 

The wind wasn't too bad going East. No worse than it had been going South, that was for sure. Then we hit a short Northward section of the route, and it became readily apparent it was going to be far easier going North. We had a long stretch to go North, but I would have to wait a bit on this. First, we had about three or four miles to go East again, and it was hilly. 

We hit one particularly steep hill in this Eastward section which made me really work hard. My legs started to feel like they were asleep and I knew I was running out of gas at this rate. I had to stop and rest, just before the top of the hill. 

One of several cemeteries we rode by on the route. 

 

Beers At The Bridge: 

Oddly enough, I only had this one time on the road back where I felt I needed a rest. I ended up riding pretty well after this for a while. We had Ben and I and then a large gap back to David and Tom. At one point we had to stop when I noted Tom was missing, but he caught back on fairly quickly and we were back at it again as a group. 

Ben had told us about a cooler he had stashed near a bridge which we would com up on once we turned North again. It was at about Mile 35. We reached the wood plank bridge and stopped. Ben got off, scrambled down a ditch by the end of a guard rail on the bridge, and struggled up again with a blue cooler in his hands.  

Ben retrieving the cooler from its hiding place. 

Ben had cold Hamms beers and Pringles stashed away there. Those Pringles were gold! They hit the spot with their salty goodness! We chatted for a short bit here on the bridge, but I think the sense amongst us was to get going. We had seven miles to go to Reinbeck and David, in particular, had a long drive back home to accomplish. So, we didn't dally and before too long we were back climbing rollers and coasting down hills toward Reinbeck again. 

Finally the Sun came out. Kind of. 

 

At least there were some pretty Fall colors in Reinbeck!

 The Finish:

Ben led the way into town. He must have "smelled the barn", because he was way up the road on us. I tried to come back to him, but since he had a geared bicycle it was tough to do without some big downhills to bring me closer. 

We rolled up to our cars by about 1:40pm, so we smoked that last half of the course and made some good time.  Ben was excited about stopping at the Digg Inn, a bar/record shop right across from our cars. David bowed out, since he had to get home. Tom's girlfriend met him there and while they did not indicate what they might do, eventually they must have slipped away and went home as well. 

So, it was just myself and Ben at first until his wife joined us. Ben bought me a drink and we chatted for a bit. Then around 3:00pm I bade them farewell and headed home. The group started a chat before we all left and went our separate ways, and those guys have a ton of great images. I will share those tomorrow and also I will have a special "Barns For Jason" post from this ride. 

Epilogue:

The riders declared this a very fun and successful ride. While the group was small, it did allow for us to ride together at different points and get to know each other better. This was always a hallmark of a good gravel event back in the beginning of gravel grinding.  

As for myself, I was very happy I rode through the opening miles of funk and came out the other side with a decent ride. I was not totally exhausted, worn out, or lacking in power. Those hills in Tama County are no joke, and had the course been littered with them I would have been in big trouble on the single speed. But fortunately it wasn't too gnarly as far as big hills and I was happy with my ride. 

I'm glad we did this. N.Y. Roll and Kat knocked the pierogie stop out of the park, and Ben's contribution was a pleasant surprise. Yeah, it was a bit disappointing that we did not have a few more riders show up, but then again, it was small enough we had a chance to talk to each other over the miles. So, I'm not mad about it. 

I should mention that we may have had only four riders in attendance, but we had four others "in spirit". Near Lincoln, Nebraska, Matt Gersib, Matt Wills, and their friend Noah rode single track for 40 miles in solidarity with us. One other rider in the Black Hills, Craig Groseth, also did a ride on his single speed being inspired by the C.O.G. 40. So, it was kind of like the Virtual Turkey Burn ride. Hey!

Maybe we should open this up in that way in the future. Something to think about....  

Next? Probably the Virtual Turkey Burn ride in a month. (!!!) Then Winter and next season. Thanks for reading and remember to check the photo dumps tomorrow.