09.Pumpkin Pie Ride, 2013

Pumpkin Pie Ride, 2013 ride report:

I find myself sitting at a bar, in my underwear, electric blues playing on the stage. I try to not draw attention to the fact that the beer in front of me is Bud Light, while the guitar is belting out a sweet solo, loud, louder and louder still. So loud I'm starting to  hunch over and cover my ears, and suddenly...I'm awake. Interesting dream. Love the GLT blues on the weekend, but that was a rude awakening.

Time for a quick weather check, the forecast for the Pumpkin Pie Ride had been iffy. It looks acceptable, so I hit the shower to wake up, and shave the legs. I pull on my BCF kit, and head into the kitchen for a bowl of cereal and some coffee. Turning on my phone I see that neither of my riding companions, Jenny Keen and Thursday Gervais, remembered my address. I send that info out quickly and open the garage and turn on the lights so they can find me. Three people, three bikes, rack room for two. My wheels need to come off and Maude is snuggled into the back of my car. My helmet, shoes, and change of clothes go in (remembering my Garmin this time!) Thursday pulls up claiming she is running late, but she's early as usual. She graciously offered the use of her bike rack, and I remove it from her truck and install it on my car. Her riding gear is stowed in the car, and bike put on the rack. Jenny rolls in now, with her bike and gear, and a cooler of refreshments. We load all this and it's time to hit the road at about 5:18, not far from the planned departure time of 5:15.

North toward Ottawa we go, me driving and my cohorts yawning. With nothing to guide us but our wits (dangerous) and our smart phones, we find the ride headquarters after only one wrong turn. We step out of the car...hmmm, chilly and cloudy, and proceed to registration. We run into Robyn Walter and exchange early morning pleasantries. Checked in, bikes unloaded, shoes and helmets on, ready to rock and roll. As we saddle up I see Mark Tank and Brad Reid going in to register, I figure they'll catch up to us soon enough. Haven't started yet and we see Lana and Mike Bernico pull into the parking lot. Nice representation from BloNo!

It's chilly (48 degrees) and overcast at 7:15, Thursday is shivering, time to roll. And we're off, with Thursday in pursuit of her first "official" century and Jenny chasing her first ever 100 miler! We cruise through town, getting stopped by a red light...no cars in sight, it's chilly, I say let's go. Out in the country now we see the eastern half of the sky is cloud-covered, delaying the much-needed sunrise and its accompanying warmth. The road is rolling for the first leg of our journey, to the small village of Sheridan where the central food/rest stop is located. 22 miles in, and the sun peeks out from the clouds, hot-ish coffee and cookies. All looking good at this point. Our next leg takes us along the Fox River, about a 20 mile loop. Mostly flat until we are routed up what looks like a long steady climb, but about half way up we are directed to turn left, up a pair of *ahem* challenging hills. This breaks up our party (at this point it was Robyn, Thursday, Jenny, Chad Sanders, Lana, and me), so I back off to regroup. Back towards Sheridan we now roll, where we are greeted by more coffee and cookies. The coffee feels as good for my hands wrapped around the cup as it does going down. In fact, I'm tempted to take my shoes off and dip my toes in it!

42 miles in now, and the 62 mile riders bid us a fond farewell as they turn back toward Ottawa, while we take on the challenges ahead. At this point the sun had warmed us up a bit and the sky was clear, sadly this was quite temporary. A flotilla of small fluffy white clouds began to appear as the sky to the west started showing solid cover. This would have been acceptable, if not for the accompanying winds. Brad and Mark had joined up with us at the rest stop and thankfully helped with the long pulls into the rising winds. We traveled to the west now, into the mounting gale on a loop that spent entirely too much time on busy state/county highways, and when we were on rural byways, they were freshly chip/sealed. This was far and away my least favorite stretch of the ride. Another 20 miles and we made our way back to Sheridan for the last time. The final two miles into town were playtime! A blistering fast sweeping descent followed by a longish but not too steep climb. Brad and Mark, followed closely by me, flew down and we all hit the climb close together. I won't bother with the details, but suffice to say it was a very spirited ascent to Sheridan.

Last food stop, about 35 miles to go, a couple peanut butter sandwiches, and top off the water bottles. By this time it was fully overcast, with dropping temps, winds at 20 mph, and the sky looked to be threatening rain. Of course this last leg was almost all into the wind. Somewhere on this section I sensed a disturbance in the force, my team was becoming less jovial, less talkative. I’d find out later they were both near the breaking point dealing with this wind. The going was slower now, I told Brad and Mark to go on ahead, we'd be in eventually. Thankfully most of this was relatively flat and on decent pavement. At around the halfway point of this we came to a water stop and pulled over for a drink and short rest. There was a group of about 5 there ready to roll out. As we were remounting, they hit the road with our group of three right behind. I saw that their pace was just a bit above ours, so I urged  and pulled Thursday and Jenny forward to the tail end of their peleton. I showed my partners where to ride for the best draft, and they both seemed okay there so I rode to the front of the group. I rolled up next to the leader, a young lady, and asked if they’d like another locomotive for their train. She was happy to have me there and I positioned Maude on the front and started setting pace. (I’d find out later that the young lady is the daughter of a former Mack teammate of Brad and Mark.) I settled in to a rhythm, watching the back of the pack to confirm Thursday and Jenny were still sitting comfortably there. I picked the pace up a bit and watched to see if any of the other group was interested in sharing the load, no dice. Ah well, I sat on the front for about 7 miles until we went up a quarter mile hill, not so steep, but this late in the ride I knew it would cause problems. I looked back and the peleton was splintered. I pulled off to see where my crew was and as I hit the brakes Thursday flew by me with an evil grin. This aggression will not stand, I thought. I jumped out of the saddle and sprinted back past her grinning as I went by. I had to laugh when I actually heard her growl at me as I overtook her. I settled into the second slot for a mile before glancing back. The elastic had snapped, nobody in sight. I stopped to wait on Thursday and Jenny. They were both quickly upon me and we continued our way back to Ottawa. Over the next few wind-blown miles we passed several stragglers, all of them looking defeated and downtrodden. By now we were in sight of town, a very welcome sight to these weary travellers. As we rode the overpass at I-80 my Garmin indicated 100.0 miles, I drifted back to congratulate Jenny on her first ever century!. Another three miles back to the start and we can climb off the bikes and relax. Into the ride headquarters to change into dry clothes and a piece of pie. Did we really just brave the chill, wind, hills, miles, poor roads, angry drivers, etc for a friggin piece of pie?

Back out to the car we go to re-hydrate. As we stood there waiting for the car to warm up a light drizzle began. Well, we managed to miss the rain! We climb into the car for the drive home as we unwind from the long day in the saddle. The fatigue takes its toll on Thursday as she nods off for a bit, about the time we get back in range of WGLT and the weekend blues are still playing and I wonder, is she dreaming?

Congrats to both Thursday and Jenny! Great ride!