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!

The "We have no other option" ride

MMR road south of Lincoln

Well, the title of the post tells the tale of the riding situation in Lincoln right now. With the lack of sunshine (saw a glimmer of sun today for the first time in two weeks) and the incessant fog and 100% humidity coupled with a few days of modest rainfall and temperatures above freezing, the gravel roads around Lincoln, and probably Eastern Nebraska for that matter, are un-frickin'-rideable. I made a foolish attempt to hit some gravel North of town on Wednesday evening and got so bogged down in the soupy mess I had to get off and push up a few climbs. Not fun.

Wet gravel

So, without any other choice, a group headed out today for some road miles on cross bikes. The wind was brisk and the shoulder was wet and gritty. Lot's of pee gravel and crap on the shoulder which is great for drive trains! Fenders were a great idea, but still didn't keep you dry with all the melt from the snow banks.

Rural Hwy into Adams, Nebraska

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good road ride, but this time of year I really look forward to the gravel. The gravel roads offer so many different routes to get to a destination. The road is a different story. It doesn't seem as adventurous or as scenic.

Cheesy pose time!

Troy and I broke from the group and ventured to Cortland via Hwy 77, and then on past Adams and up to Bennett before heading back to town via Hwy 2.

Throwbacks for a limited time! No high fructose corn syrup, just good ole sugar!

Not again!

I ended up riding the SS cross bike today and spun my arss off keeping up with Troy cuz my geared cross bike is out of commission again due to a cracked crank. This is the second time in less than a year a FSA Energy drive train side crankarm has cracked on me. I noticed the crack last week while cleaning up after a ride. This crank is a brand new warranty crank after my first one cracked. This crank only lasted about 1,000 miles. The crack is in the same exact place on both sides of the crank where the crankarm meets the spider, just like the crack on my previous set. If you own a FSA Energy crank, take a close look at your crankset.

More gritty road miles for tomorrow! Probably head up to Valpo. Time is yet to be determined.

Recovery Sunday

Graffiti underpass west of town

Darn rural Nebraska gangs

Honor Vodka from Lawrence, Kansas

Thanks Zeke, Jeb and Jones! Mmmmm....I sense some vodka and tonics in my future.

KC Sprints vid!

KC Sprints Lincoln, Nebraska Saturday January 16, 2010 at Duffy's Tavern from Cornbread on Vimeo.

It was a cold one this morning

The fellas looking at something in the morning sky - weird

No way. Butch tried and only got about 100 feet

Some of the gravel is still snow and ice covered which keeps it interesting

Butch with the best frost beard in Cortland

The fog rolled in after the sun came up - it was beautiful

Jim and Troy rollin' back to town via South 25th

Wills is awesome!

Homestead Trail ain't gonna be ride-able for awhile

The ride today was cold, beautiful and humbling. The temperature was a lot lower than any of us expected. No one had any frozen digits, but a lot of us came close. The stop in Cortland really helped warm us back up.

The dark gravel experience was really fun. Gotta have a good light, but it's definitely doable. We didn't get to see the sunrise because of cloud and fog cover, but were treated to some very thick fog. I've haven't seen a lot of winter fog. Cool stuff.

After taking essentially two months off the bike I've learned that I've lost a lot of fitness and got dropped more times than I wanna mention. Butch on the other hand was crushin' it today! Look out 2010! Here comes Butch! Troy and Jim were also in fine form.

Hopefully we'll get out for another ride tomorrow. Need to get those miles in! Great riding with you guys!

Ridin' early tomorrow

Ride leaving D Street at 5 AM tomorrow morning. Yep, early bird gets the worm! Besides, sunrises in the winter on gravel are beautiful. I'm sure I'll have some pictures to share tomorrow.

I'd like to get to Wilbur if my legs will take me there. Need to start getting the miles in for the upcoming events this Spring.

Dirty Kanza registration!

Last minute DK registration from Wilderness

Got in! Last night I registered at 11:03 PM. I forgot my Bikereg.com password, so there were a few frantic moments as I had to reset it, but ended up getting in without a hitch (well, kinda). Lincoln will be well represented again in 2010. At last count there were over 15 Lincolnites!

James was convinced to sign up after Troy chatted with him a bit. So we stopped on the trail in the middle of Wilderness Park during the XC ski session this morning and had Kevin bust out the iPhone. It was an awesome moment! James, I'm super stoked to have you on board!

Dirty Kanza registration has already closed! James was one of the last to get in!

Frigid ski!

Regrouping and waiting for stragglers

Record turnout today! Probably fifteen plus. Had some new faces too. James, John L., and Christian, and Aaron joined the crew! Great to have you guys along.

Ended up going beyond 14th Street and then turned around after running into Matt, Matt, Jim, Butch and Jeff. Snow was awesome.

Textbook herringbone

Troy demonstrating how to get up those steep inclines at the 14th Street entrance to the park. Definitely doable both directions.

Facebook profile photo of Jeff

Regroup and snack time

Everyone busted out some goodies at this point. Troy with Holly's peanut butter brittle which was amazing, Jeff with some type of hippie almond that was mighty tasty, and Jim with some awesome Bourbon fudge made by Monks or something. Snack time was fun, but the break was a bit too long and the digits really got cold.

Aaron with baseball cap

Aaron, you're a tougher man than I for wearing the baseball cap. My ears would have been frozen solid by the time we finished if I did that. Great seeing you out there.

More of the same tomorrow, but we're starting a bit earlier. 10 AM from the Old Cheney parking lot.

What are you doin' tonight at 11:01 PM CST?

I'll be registering for the Dirty Kanza! If you wanna get in, you better register early!

Get while the gettin' is good

Night ski!

Dead Rabbit

Freshly killed rabbit. Wasn't there 10 minutes ago on the way out. Owl? Bobcat? Or maybe 19th century Irish gang from NYC.

Alright, who's taking credit for this?

Face plant pics courtesy of Troy

This hill is way bigger than it looks...honestly

At least I still have a smile on my face