August has been a busy month. I had a ride each weekend. The month started off with a 1000 km Brevet (last Blog), followed by a 100 mile charity ride called Muddy Waters, a 200 km Brevet and another 170 km charity ride over 2 days.
Muddy Waters 100 started about 25 years ago as a fun Century ride put on by a local club. You paid a small amount of money and you got a Tee shirt and some coffee, drinks and some snacks at the beginning, one check point and at the end. You rode 100 km or 100 miles. It was an unsanctioned road race to most people. It was cheap FUN!
About 5 years ago a Charity took it over and it got very big. They offered a 20km, 40km 60km, 100km and 100 mile (160km) distances. It went from less than 100 riders to over 500 riders. The cost went up along with no free tee shirts. The 100 mile still remained a race to most of us. No trophy, just bragging rights. Last year I had leg cramps. This year I am in better shape.
We started off at 7:00 am. There was no wind at all. The one large group soon broke up into 3 groups. I moved up into the front group for a while. Nobody could draft off me so I stayed off the side and the back for a while. I got tired of having to slow down and speed up so I passed everyone and pushed the pace a bit. For the first 120 km I stayed out front until I got passed on the uphill section of a tall bridge by a small group of really fast riders. After that, I fell behind a little bit as I stopped at all stop signs that they rode though. I finished about 10 minutes behind the fast guys and 30 minutes ahead of the next group.It was a fun ride anyway. Muddy Waters Garmin link I finished in 4 hours, 53 minutes and 04 seconds.. Not my best time, but better than last year.
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| Some of the Recumbent Group at Muddy Waters. |
The following Saturday was our August 200 km Brevet. It was a slower ride with some new members. I had lots of fun riding with a couple of fit ladies. For one of them it was her first time to complete a 200 km Brevet., and the other was her second.They rode at a steady pace, where I would speed ahead and wait for them where ever we might have to turn. No one got lost that day.
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| A couple of the new riders at the first control. |
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| Another of our first time riders! |
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| Checking out the COW between controls. |
The next weekend was the MS charity ride. It's called Biking to the Viking . The reference of the Viking is because the town we ride to was settled by people from Iceland. It's a fun ride from the town of Stonewall to the town of Gimli, and back the next day. Just me and 700 close friends? It was a wet ride with a strong head wind too. The start was divided into several groups and I was in the back of the second group. There was a lot of people in front of me to pass. I recorded some video at the start, but with the rain it's not the clearest.
After I passed the first two groups of people I shut off the video camera to save the battery. I even passed a few cyclists that left 20 minutes early. I realized I was at the front after I passed a slow moving motorcycle and I had the lead car with a flashing light on top of it. I had the route loaded into my Garmin, and 4 liters of fluids aboard so I didn't need to slow down or stop at the many rest stops they had along the course. Having an motorcycle escort was different and an front escort vehicle gave me lots of protection on the highway from high speed traffic. I tried to keep my speed over 45 kph, but I had to slow down for turns and sometimes my escort vehicle got in the way. It took 2 hours and 24 minutes to cover the 85 km. I guess I was too fast as I got to the finish they were still setting up stuff. I helped out carrying in stuff and setting up tables. The next guy to show up was about 25 minutes later and he was one of the group that left early. He was complaining about the head wind. I grinned and asked "What Wind?"
The next morning we woke up to a 70 kph wind and a downpour of rain. My tent poles were bending in the wind. They decided to cancel the rest of the ride. It was the first time in 25 years that they had to cancel. Buses and a couple of trucks were brought in to transport people and bikes to the start in Stonewall. My sponsor Woodcock Cycle had a van with a mechanic helping out, so the Quest had a private ride. Of course the van was yellow.
August was busy. I rode a total of 2304 km. I got to ride with a lot of great people and see lots of our country side as well. And that was a lot of FUN ....
