Super fun, sketchy and sopping wet Super Bowl Sunday ride

Nice pile!

Great crew this morning for the ride. Several new faces (Ryan, Emily, Kim, and Lis) and several familiar ones that we haven't seen in awhile (Sydney, Jay, and Dane). Welcome and welcome back!

Dane rockin' the 52 x 17 fixie with slicks!

Traction was an issue today. Just like yesterday, on departure the temperature was below freezing, but as the ride progressed the melt ensued and things got interesting.

Moment of Zen

Got another dusting of snow last night or early this morning. More snow forecast for tonight and tomorrow. Enough already! I wanna ride my cross bike.

Rolling to West Claire Road via the Bison Trail

Bike trails were good, but will probably be slick for tomorrow's commute to work. Studded tires highly recommended!

Almost to gravel!

Darn snow kept coming down for most of the ride. By the time we got to Cortland most of us were soaked from head to toe, but on the bright side, we're complete bad asses for riding our bikes today.

Cortland refuel

Rolled out of town via West Claire Road to SW 40th to SW 42nd to West Apple Road on into Cortland. The ride to Cortland had the wheel sucking icy ruts claim several victims. Luckily no one got seriously hurt.

Regroup!

Most of us rolled back to town via S25th with a few folks opting for the highway. The highway was probably the smart choice. Gravel got slick and sloppy as the temperature rose.

Frickin' Ouch

On the ride back to town Troy hit a rut and had his front wheel wash out on him. He hit the dock hard. Real hard. I saw it coming and had enough sense to punch it and get out of the way. After getting a safe distance ahead I looked back to see Troy rolling over to his stomach in that familiar "this one really fookin' hurts" position. That was a bad one. Glad you're alright buddy.

Rocket Fizz!

Hit up Rocket Fizz on the way back through town and picked up a couple Sprecher Cream Sodas. My new "thing". So good.

Coach!

Ran into Coach on the ride home. Snapped this FB profile pic for him. Good seeing you out Coach! You need a War Axe fork for that bike.

Prune hands!

Five hours with wet gloves = prune hands! Anyone else get prune hands? I'm betting on yes. Great ride everyone. Thanks for riding your bike today. Be proud. More of the same craziness next weekend.

Slippery and sloppy

Rollin' on gravel North of town

Great crew for today's Saturday morning ride. Temperature was below freezing on departure, but creeped up above the melting point as the ride progressed. Super slick and sketchy getting out of town to gravel. Even the gravel was sketchy. The studded tires really hooked up well on the gravel, but weren't so awesome on the pavement.

Regroup

The best part about riding with the Lincoln crew is we always regroup at some point. There's always a few folks who go off the front, but eventually someone stops for a nature/safety break.

Beautiful morning in the country

Had to stop and get of pic of this road. The melt over the next couple of days will get most of this snow, but more snow is forecast for Monday. Damn it!

Malcolm General Store

Hit up the General Store in Malcolm for day old donuts (3 for a buck!) and a soda. Things were starting to get really sloppy by this point.

Post ride Yia Yia's

Butch, Fob and I got some extra chamois time by hitting up Cycle Works for an hour or so to fix my bike (BB completely f'ed!) and then onto Yia Yia's for a recovery slice and beverages.

Post ride post Yia Yia's Meadowlark coffee

Riding again tomorrow at 8 AM from D Street. Expect another slippery and sloppy ride. Gonna freeze tonight. South wind tomorrow. Probably Cortland.

Good dog - Round Two

Troy and I hit some gravel tonight and while chattin' about Troy's dogs I spotted a dog running next to us in the darkness. Another case of a dog just wanting to go for a run. We eventually stopped after getting a mile or so from it's farm. We got lots of love from the pup when we stopped. We each took turns petting and scratchin' it's ears. What a great dog!

After unsuccessfully trying to out run the dog and not having much luck with telling it to "Go home!", we turned around and headed back to the farm in which we thought the dog resided. The owners were a little surprised to see a couple of lycra clad cyclist ringin' their doorbell with their dog in tow. Ha! Good times.

This dog definitely gives the Border Collie from Sunday a run for the money on the coolest dog I've encountered on a gravel ride. Well, those two and the Messerschmidt Farm dog on the way to Ponca.

Valparaiso Ride or also known as the "Valley of Paradise" Ride

Rollin' out of town via N 27th

Wind shifted to the North yesterday afternoon so Valparaiso was on the docket for the day. The slight breeze really had a bite this morning. Didn't really warm up until around noon. Hands and feet needed a warm up by the time we hit Valpo.

Lots of rollers up North

Hit the some of Bohemian Alps on the way to Valpo. Great interval training. Pin in up the climbs and recover on the downside.

Tvrdy's in Valpo

Hit the convenience store in Valpo for a day old donut and a cup of coffee for 90 cents. Ah yeah.

Picked this fella up from a farm on NW 112th

Crushin' it up a climb

No barking or aggression. He/she just wanted to go for a run. Followed us for a mile or so before we stopped and gave it some love. The dog ate up the attention.

Good dog

We tried to get the dog to head back home after we stopped and regrouped, but it kept chasin'. So we opened it up on a downhill to try and drop the pooch, but the darn thing was still keepin' up at 26 mph! At this point we started to get worried cuz we were 3 to 4 miles from it's home and it didn't appear to be tiring out one bit and it also didn't heed our proclamations to "Go home!". Was it gonna follow up all the way back to Lincoln? Eventually a minivan crested over the gravel roller ahead of us. We stopped to get the dog out of the on coming traffic cuz it was running all over the place and we didn't want to see the dog get hit. As the minivan approached the dog immediately stopped and laid down on all fours. Wow, that was cool. I've never seen a dog do that when a car rolled up on it. Well, luck happened to be on our side today cuz the minivan driver was the dog's owner. The owner laughed and told us the dog belonged to his family. A youngster in the back of the van opened the door and the energetic pup jumped into the van with the rest of the fam. Awesome. Happy ending for everyone.

Great rides this weekend! More next weekend!

Saturday!

Butch, Wills and Bonsall, you guys need to be STIMULATED!

Rode to Cortland today with a good sized crew via Claire, S 40th, S 42nd, Gage, S 27 and West Apple. Hit the convenience store and spotted this little ad gem (see pic above). Classic. I heard the Republicans are upset about the cost of the sausage stimulus.

Crushin' it today

Chris was crushin' it today on the SS. Definitely put the hurt on us. Great to have ya along Chris! Hopefully we'll see you more often on the weekend rides.

Dane the Destroyer

Dane set a personal distance record today! Plus he was hammerin' all the way to Cortland on a 52 x 17 fixed gear. Craziness. Congrats on the PR Dane! Keep it up man!

Refuelin' at Cortland

CVO, DK and Jim arrived in Cortland shortly after Chris, Dane, Aaron and myself. We definitely needed the break to warm up extremities, refill/thaw bottles, and get some calories for the ride home.

Hi!

Cruisin' home

Wind shifted on us on the way back. Doh. Still made pretty good time. Legs are definitely feelin' it, but that's exactly what we needed. Most of us have big rides planned for the upcoming year. Gotta get those winter miles in.

More tomorrow. 8 AM from D Street.

Almanzo 100 - Another gravel grinder on the docket for 2010

Image pilfered from the Almanzo 100 blog

I'm very excited for my first Almanzo 100 experience. Signed up earlier this month via the postcard route (details on the Almanzo blog). The event is a 100 mile gravel grinder staged out of Rochester, Minnesota and put on by Chris Skogen. May 15th is the date of the event.

The most recent post on the Almanzo 100 blog is regarding the Almanzo 100 mission statement. Yep, the event costs nuthin' to enter! You gotta love that. Definitely fits the PCL mantra.

Chris has been putting this event on for three years now and it's definitely gaining momentum. As of this morning there are well over 200 people signed up. By the looks of the Almanzo blog and previous race reports, Chris does an outstanding job with the race prep, logistics and pre/post ride fun. Should be a great weekend up North.

There's still time to sign up! Troy, Schmidty and I are in. It would be great to get more Nebraska folks up there too. Show your support of the Midwest gravel scene. Send a postcard in by the end of January and you're in!

Hello, sunshine

Assemble the posse

A good sized crew met up today for a jaunt up North to fight the wind. We were greeted to sunshine as we gathered in front of D Street prior to departure. I can't remember the last time we started a ride with clear skies and the sun shining down.

Nebraska State Capitol

Aaron had some bad luck today. Flatted a few blocks from D Street next to the State Capitol. Changed it out and the valve core broke off as we pulled the pump off. Another tube and we were off again.

Number 3 flat for Aaron while still within the city limits

Aaron's flat problem continued and after a bit of investigation we realized his tire was shot. He was riding on borrowed time and had to bail. Sorry dude...major bummer. Hope you were able to get a ride in later in the day.

Gravel...not so bad

Surprisingly the gravel wasn't too shitty to ride after all. The overnight freeze and wind firmed things up just enough to allow us to hit a short stretch of gravel goodness.

Deep ruts

Yeah, the ruts are gonna be gnarly for awhile. The ruts were abundant on North 27th street.

Hey, I can see my shadow!

Rollin' into Raymond

Meow...

We fought the wind into Raymond and then rode pavement to the Corner Store off of Route 79. After a quick refill we headed out in the wind for Malcolm. Jim, James and I headed by Pawnee Lake to Emerald and then back into town via Van Dorn. Not a bad ride. The tail wind was really nice, but tough on the SS. Great ride everyone!

The forecast is looking pretty darn good for riding this week. It'll be cold, but the gravel should stay frozen!