Alex, oh Alex – Part 1

A long list of pictures to tell the story of a long ride in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin

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Unloading prior to the start under the shelter of the Spring Valley Inn and Suites, the Almanzo headquarters

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Dan and his high tech rain gloves which lasted till the end of the race

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Chasing Dan and Lindsay

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Winding through the country side of the Minnesota, the rain made the roads softer making for more difficult riding conditions

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Improperly sealed cue sheets, 11 in total for my system – they were spot on (thanks Chris) and were all you really needed for the race. At first it was easy to read and remember the name and road numbers for each turn. It became harder to remember them after 30 hours in the saddle, you would read it, forget it, and then read it again and again.

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The selection of roads was awesome

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This is Lisa, Lisa is a monster. Here she is one legging it because of a broken pedal. She waited to get a new pedal from the race organizer and the next town (2 hour wait) and continued on, catching and passing by dinner time the following day.

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Should have filmed Lindsay trying to pour cream into his coffee at breakfast, he was shivering so much I was amazed that any of landed in his coffee

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Lindsay buying a used golf shirt at a consignment store, it was the only shirt that was close to a technical garment to add another layer of insulation which he needed to continue the ride

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Riding around the bride washout

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Already having soaked feet we just walked through the creek with our shoes on

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Roller, miles and miles of rollers

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Somebody did not like the Iowa sign, or just the rural sport of sign hunting?

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Lunch

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Pavement connector

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Dinner in Lansing. Part of the restaurant selection involves good sight lines of your bikes

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The bridge out of Lansing. We left Lindsay in Preston (golf shirt) and he caught up to us in Lansing.

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Day two: sunshine and heat.

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We walked many a hill in the two days. You could have grunted it up many of the hills we walked, but the energy cost would have been prohibitive for us. A triple up front would have been awesome

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30+ hours of riding, rain, hills, gravel, and heat

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Did I mention rollers. Getting some water before we tackled yet another set.

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Many many bombing sweeping downhills which were alway followed by long grinding uphills

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More evidence of rural sign hunting

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Bikes getting a rest as the riders fuel at a bar and grill in Decorah Iowa before heading into our second night of riding on 3 hours of sleep

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The thousand yard stare

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About 2.5 hours from the finish a thunderstorm began to brew

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We took shelter in a picnic shelter in Cherry Grove Minnesota. We eventually took out the bivy sacks because it was just too cold lying there in just our cycling clothes

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On the road again

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This lovely climb (partially walked) greeted us at mile 370 or so

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At the finish, and yes, that is a smile

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Dan always has a smile

All pictures here

A Girl and Her Bike and Sundays with Dan

Missed last weeks update, catching up this week.

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Anneke’s last dilemma was her bottom bracket, it was pretty seized and we could not get it to budge

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Anneke made arrangements with Tim to see what he could do. First we tried to drill holes in the cup to see if a better purchase could be made for the spanner. The only thing this did was burn out drill bits

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Heating to try and expand the bracket was tried next

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The combination of the heating and a week of penetrating oil did the trick

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Someone was happy

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Back to the shop to cleanup some of the mess that is created by years of old grease and rust, Anneke chases the bracket (under the tutelage of Adrian Alphonso)

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Now it is time to take the frame home and sand and prep it for painting

In the meantime Dan and I have been spending some serious hours in the saddle as we prepare for the Alexander ride in the Almonozo from May 17-19 with Dallas and Lindsay. Unfortunately Dallas and Lindsay’s schedule has precluded us from riding together during these weekends, we’ll soon have the opportunity to ride together for many many hours.

Some pictures from the last two weekends (204 kms on the 27th and 271 km on May 5)

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One of our early and poor choices of roads on the April 27 ride

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Mike joined us for a portion of the ride, here we are forced to ride beside the road

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One of the many food and rest breaks we take on our ride

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The Icelandic cemetery

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Dropping into the valley

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Low maintenance you say

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Field run off, no wonder the rivers flood in Manitoba

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5:00 start on the May 5th ride. Okay a 5:30 start because Dan had bladder issues (hydration system).

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Sunrise south of LaSalle

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On the way to Brunkild

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Brunkild now has a lake

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Again, what looks like a gravel road on the map is not necessarily that in reality. At least this road was rideable, but it did take a fair amount of energy to get through

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Another gravel road adventure another cemetery

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Finally a day that was warm enough for shorts and a jersey

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Dan chasing the pace bunny. We came upon what we think was the same jackrabbit on the way back that we already chased down the road for 4 kms on way out (exact same spot of the ride both ways).

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We started before the sun rose and ended as it was setting. 271km takes the better part of a day, especially when you throw in a group ride with your teammates and hot dog BBQ in the middle

April 13 – 21, a Girl and Her Bike, Two (3) Guys and a Ride

My niece Anneke asked if I knew someone who had a bike for sale that she might buy, I asked her if she was interested in building up an old frame, Anneke said yes.

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Anneke working on the bike she got from her friend Paul. I am providing the workspace, the tools and the very limited knowledge I have, Anneke is doing all of the work

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Stripping of the old parts

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At the shop where they have more tools and way more expertise. Nothing more can be done at the moment as the penetrating oil does its work to see if Anneke can get the bottom bracket out and the fork and stem out

The Girl and Her Bike story to continue.

Dan and I continued our training rides in preparation for a summer of awesome rides. It started with his Bradness’s gravel invitational throw down on Saturday. While the weather was not what it should have been the good times definitely were: 72km ride/race with friends, sunshine (although cool weather), dogs and keg beer.

Sunday was a completely different day….

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6:45 meeting at Tim’s, only because better coffee places and even Starbucks are not open at that time

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Trying some aero bars to take some of the pressure off the wrists and hands

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Just outside the city, cold but no snow yet.

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We met Pete along the way. Huddling against the wind trying to figure out where we need to go next

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The wind (and snow) was from the south in the morning

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Snow and ice build up as we travelled west

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We got to Brunkild and checked to see if the wind was blowing – we came to the conclusion that it was. Pete turned back home shortly after this as he was only able to commit to part of the ride.

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The plan was to go south from Brunkild on 332 and then west on Mollard. This is Mollard and the sign says “Impassable When Wet,” we had to change plans. 

 

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Here is where we started to find ourselves in the weeds, our on-the-fly navigation got us deeper into trouble as we went from gravel roads to dirt (it did not look like dirt as we rolled onto it), to the point where our wheels and frame got so packed with mud that we had to clean them with tyre levers and walk in the ditch back to a road that we could actually ride on

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Rather than head home after the mud we decided to press on to Carman on Highway #3. Could not see much because of the stinging snow and ice in our eyes

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We finally made it to Carman and had some lunch. During lunch someone’s truck started to burn (the cigarette that they thought they had thrown out the window blew back into the cab and landed on a jacket which finally ignited), Dan and I could not be bothered to get up because we had food in front of us.

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By the time we left Carman the wind had shifted to coming from the West, the sun came out, and we cruised home on Highway #2 at 40 kmph

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210 km and 12 hours and 42 minutes later one bike in need of some cleaning and attention

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The best part at the end of a long ride – coming home