...is all the time I had to ride today,
HAD to be home by 4:00!
Kanza is 2 weeks from today & we were looking to get something big in , "bordering" on historic. I had my cue sheet & my "all day" money, lets do this...
6:00 am-ish roll out from D St., sorry for the crappy picture but that's all I got. That's a piece of my
T.I. number still stuck to my helmet...
The pace down the Jamaica was surprisingly high with Butchie & m-dub pounding at the front. I have been stressing about my time limit & was pleased the group was rockin' it from the gun. As the Jamaica neared 38th we jumped on gravel. I forgot to mention that we had been promised really high winds out of the South today & the warmest temps of the year, humid as hell also. Wind was already blowing in the upper teens with gusts in the mid 20's & it only got worse. The group blew up once we left the safety of the Jamaica &
Cornbread, Craigio, & myself settled in to a methodical rotation to cheat the wind. We rolled the first section of dirt we found but felt like we got lucky & only mudded up slightly, we passed on the next 2 miles & detoured...
As we paused to consider our next move A-ron & Shawn rolled up with Scott B. not far behind. This would be the last we saw of these guys, including Craigio, as they opted to head for Adams instead of beat there heads into the wind. Thanks for the help Schmidt-dog! Made those miles into the wind almost tolerable...
So hears the scenario...C-bread & myself have approximately 40 more miles to go, straight into the wind, to reach our destination. So what did we do? We just ground it freakin' out that's what!
Mile 55 pit stop was the town of Wymore, this town has definitely seen better days. I'll leave it at that. We actually stopped here again on the way back up but went to the other store in town. These folks were in the store on the way down, mud racer or something...
If you live in the Midwest, or at least around here you go to a lot of Casey's on rides. I hate Casey's...
We pushed on South as the wind ramped up to all its fury as the air temps climbed. Steady in the low 30's with gusts into the upper 40's (I looked on
www.spc.noaa.gov). It was no joke, the wind was fierce. So we eventually reached the Kansas border, I would soon find out climbs like these have a nickname. Our route had been essentially flat up until this point, it was like this climb was making us pay for entering KS, it wasn't necessarily long just a slap in the face with the wind torturing us...
So if the climb was the border here's State Line Rd., the real border? No idea. Dude, better check your chamois for tics...
The route I had picked looked like it had a sweet twisty approach to our destination, it did but we turned left here by mistake only to realize our error & turn around quickly to find the correct path...
Correcting our wrong direction on State Line Rd., we only detoured a 1/4 mile...
Took time to represent on KS gravel...
Yep were in KS, flint in this hillside & we would see a lot more along the road a bit later...
So C-bread quoted Woodman who calls a climb right before your destination a "dicker", enough said. This was our second "dicker" if you count the border climb...
Our destination, Oketo, KS. 73 miles into the wind & amazingly we managed a 15.1 avg, stoked about that...
The turn, 11th Rd. You know a tailwind normally is a welcome event, but as we turned with the wind at our backs we realized how hot it really was. Core temps quickly started to climb & I realized it was going to be a tough one with quite a bit of miles ahead of us. The maintainer was scraping this road a few miles ahead of us, not sure if it made it better or worse...
Explored some MMR double.
Apparently they don't want you to use Big Indian Creek resevoir...
Like I said we looped back to Wymore, refueled & carried on. I took this picture because I saw a lot of this. The main reason he was this close was because I had the route, not that he couldn't get back to Lincoln, but we had a route man...
Finally we hit a point where I yelled to him, "11 mile straight shot into Cortland". C-bread lit the afterburner & I didn't see him until right before Cortland. If you look real close you might be able to pick him out up the road, way up the road...
I'm going to leave out a lot of the ugly part, but bottom line was that the day was taking its toll & I reached deep into the discomfort locker to get back to Lincoln. C-bread, kicked ass
all day. Excellent riding man, great day on the bike. Historic for sure. 144 miles - 17 avg...bam!
Back to the 10 hour time limit, my wife's out of town & I had to leave the dogs home by themselves. There supper time is 4:00, had to respect that, yeah? These two knuckleheads were fine. Let them out when I got home & they chased a squirrel up a tree and hung out underneath before they even went to the bathroom...
This is what shelled looks like...
Back end of the "all day" pile...
You know they were crit racing in Lincoln today & a small part of me wishes I had been participating. More races tomorrow but I would be useless...
Mission accomplished today, exactly what we/I needed. Long hard day in the saddle. Hot, humid, windy...nasty.
DK is going to be a throw down. Some old big guns & some new big guns, can't wait...
Later,
TK
chattin'...
mopac goodness...
wabash...
a few b's...
payoff...
dk...
hobo camper...
mod & anne in the house...
omaha (& malcolm) represented well...
lincoln...
bipartisan...
rafal always makes me smile...
business meeting...
goodbyes...
wild rose...
thanks everyone for a really great day...
road closed - bullshit...
Just like DK...
bridge closed - bullshit...
Wednesday I flagged down the Red Bull sales guy at a gas station, told him it was getting harder & harder to find the cola's. He described it as a niche market but rewarded my loyalty with a six 8 ouncer's from the back of his van. Thanks bro!
Heard A-ron rolled down to KS today, righteous!
Grassy double reminiscent of the Gunbarrel section at last year's DK...
That goodness ended after a 1/4 mile & opened up to a field with young corn. I hate turning around & besides it looked like if we hug the edge we can stay off the crops & proceed. The remaining 3/4 mile of this section turned into a bushwhacking adventure through shin high grass & corn stuble from last year's crop. Disclaimer: no crops were harmed in this escapade...
Our reward for keeping off the fields came shortly after our departure from the section, first me with a front...
Then Kidooo with a rear...
6:00 am-ish roll out from D St., sorry for the crappy picture but that's all I got. That's a piece of my T.I. number still stuck to my helmet...
The pace down the Jamaica was surprisingly high with Butchie & m-dub pounding at the front. I have been stressing about my time limit & was pleased the group was rockin' it from the gun. As the Jamaica neared 38th we jumped on gravel. I forgot to mention that we had been promised really high winds out of the South today & the warmest temps of the year, humid as hell also. Wind was already blowing in the upper teens with gusts in the mid 20's & it only got worse. The group blew up once we left the safety of the Jamaica & Cornbread, Craigio, & myself settled in to a methodical rotation to cheat the wind. We rolled the first section of dirt we found but felt like we got lucky & only mudded up slightly, we passed on the next 2 miles & detoured...
As we paused to consider our next move A-ron & Shawn rolled up with Scott B. not far behind. This would be the last we saw of these guys, including Craigio, as they opted to head for Adams instead of beat there heads into the wind. Thanks for the help Schmidt-dog! Made those miles into the wind almost tolerable...
So hears the scenario...C-bread & myself have approximately 40 more miles to go, straight into the wind, to reach our destination. So what did we do? We just ground it freakin' out that's what!
Mile 55 pit stop was the town of Wymore, this town has definitely seen better days. I'll leave it at that. We actually stopped here again on the way back up but went to the other store in town. These folks were in the store on the way down, mud racer or something...
If you live in the Midwest, or at least around here you go to a lot of Casey's on rides. I hate Casey's...
We pushed on South as the wind ramped up to all its fury as the air temps climbed. Steady in the low 30's with gusts into the upper 40's (I looked on www.spc.noaa.gov). It was no joke, the wind was fierce. So we eventually reached the Kansas border, I would soon find out climbs like these have a nickname. Our route had been essentially flat up until this point, it was like this climb was making us pay for entering KS, it wasn't necessarily long just a slap in the face with the wind torturing us...
So if the climb was the border here's State Line Rd., the real border? No idea. Dude, better check your chamois for tics...
The route I had picked looked like it had a sweet twisty approach to our destination, it did but we turned left here by mistake only to realize our error & turn around quickly to find the correct path...
Correcting our wrong direction on State Line Rd., we only detoured a 1/4 mile...
Took time to represent on KS gravel...
Yep were in KS, flint in this hillside & we would see a lot more along the road a bit later...
So C-bread quoted Woodman who calls a climb right before your destination a "dicker", enough said. This was our second "dicker" if you count the border climb...
Our destination, Oketo, KS. 73 miles into the wind & amazingly we managed a 15.1 avg, stoked about that...
The turn, 11th Rd. You know a tailwind normally is a welcome event, but as we turned with the wind at our backs we realized how hot it really was. Core temps quickly started to climb & I realized it was going to be a tough one with quite a bit of miles ahead of us. The maintainer was scraping this road a few miles ahead of us, not sure if it made it better or worse...
Explored some MMR double.
Like I said we looped back to Wymore, refueled & carried on. I took this picture because I saw a lot of this. The main reason he was this close was because I had the route, not that he couldn't get back to Lincoln, but we had a route man...
Finally we hit a point where I yelled to him, "11 mile straight shot into Cortland". C-bread lit the afterburner & I didn't see him until right before Cortland. If you look real close you might be able to pick him out up the road, way up the road...
I'm going to leave out a lot of the ugly part, but bottom line was that the day was taking its toll & I reached deep into the discomfort locker to get back to Lincoln. C-bread, kicked ass all day. Excellent riding man, great day on the bike. Historic for sure. 144 miles - 17 avg...bam! 
This is what shelled looks like...
Back end of the "all day" pile...
You know they were crit racing in Lincoln today & a small part of me wishes I had been participating. More races tomorrow but I would be useless...