Palindrome

today's ride all started with a visit to the bikeshop on friday. i ran into my friend wade and he asked if i was doing the pando 8hr on saturday, as he was going out for the loop-a-thon. nope, not going racing, but i was planning on doing a long ride to test out some new strategies and see some new sights.

so i spent friday night screwing around and staying up until 1am flip-flopping around about my route and getting things ready for the morning. *shrug*

up at 8, out the door by 9:30 and en route to ionia, which is about 2hrs due west of where i live. ~4hr later, i was rolling into pando. 60 miles, with a nice tailwind all the way.

i spectated the race for a bit and stole some shade from steve kinley and the scurr's. thanks guys! wade rolled thru the pit and had 10 laps done at the 1/2 way point. go wade go! i skipped a loop on the trail and hit the road back to home.

nice headwind the whole way. ugh. i also missed a turn and ended up riding down m-21 for about 10 miles. double nickel yukky. at least when the semi's rolled by, i would get a little boost from their wind.

finally i was counting down the roads that i was familiar with. as i neared home, i realized that if i would go just a little farther, i would end up with 121 miles, which would provide me with an apt title for my blog. 8 hrs of riding, 9 hrs total time. it was a great day riding in the big ring! ;)

North to the High Country

ahh, another classic weekend of road tripping and biking. a week after going to the mohican 100, alex and i loaded the bus and ventured up to the hcp summer solstice ride for a go at some trails less traveled. less traveled indeed. although we only did the 45 miler, it was a rough and generally unimproved trail. we're not at island lake anymore toto...

saturday started off with the gentle pace of sleeping in and missing the 80 milers start off at 6:30am (so we heard). after getting ready and driving to the start, we were off!

the start was twisty, muddy and fairly flat with a few wooden planked bridges thrown in for good measure. we yo-yo'd along with the group for the first hour or so until everyone started getting warmed up and people started going off the front here and there.

after a quick stop and regrouping at one of the aid stations, where i was disqualified for accepting pretzels from another rider, the climbing started and the pace hastened. two other riders, doug and todd, came riding up behind us and with gusto, todd took the lead. oops. the chase was on with alex riding his wheel and me deciding to hold my pace. in short order, they were out of sight.

by the rattlesnake aid station, i finally latched back on. after a quick bite to eat we were back on the gas. it was at this point that the climbing really came on strong and it was all alex leading the way back to the finish line at the campground. he even lead out his own sprint down m-33!

some pizza, some beers, a fairly mellow campfire party later and i was all lids until sunday morning.

my ability to ride again on sunday was deterred by the wrath of the hcp upon my rear derailleur. it's amazing that the ability to shift is severely hampered by losing part of one of those little pulleys and twisting the cage all to hell. oh well, i waited until i got home and then went out on the road bike (hardtail).

next up: the lumberjack. wow, three road tripping party-down biker weekends in a row! pretty soon i'm going to need a vacation from my vacations.