Night Bison 2016
Gravel riding. At night. On a tandem?
Yep. Decided that the tandemania was the best bike for the adventure. The folks over at Axeltree recommend tires over 30c and both our road bikes won’t take a tire that wide. Kyle has his mountain bike, but that’d be pretty annoying for the rest of the regular hard packed gravel. And since my Mosaic is still in production, I thought about borrowing a bike from the shop. Eventually we decided putting knobbies on the tandem sounded like the most fun solution. Bobby brought some tires for us to borrow and Kyle got the bike ready all day on Saturday. Fenders off, tires on. And new bar tape. That’s all we need, right?!
How about a sense of adventure? Me relinquishing control? Chamois cream? Caffeine?
{seriously though, here’s the setup: 33c knobbies, 400 and 650 lumen Niterider lights on the bar – reinforced with yoga mat spacers, 1200 lumen mtb light on Kyle’s helmet, 2 led wheel rope lights and two blinkies on my seatpost}
Loaded up Long Tall Sally and headed west. For $35 we got at shirt, water bottle, beer, dinner, and the ride!! Checked in and finished final prep on the tandemania and we were off!
The ride was awesome. 54 miles, 95% gravel and a couple of deep fresh gravel sectors including right off the bat. That, combined with the 200+ riders and the grupo compacto in the intial miles, let’s just say my legs and heart were a bit hesitant. Kyle was raging however, which meant we were on our way.
We crushed the next soft gravel uphill sector but Kyle was beginning to fade. 12 miles in. I began the encouraging words and feeding {guess which one worked best} but we had to stop and make some adjustments. A couple more miles of chill, and our friends caught up to us. Then it was more pacelining work with a couple low spots. This was an un-supported ride, but we had heard of an oasis around mile 40. At mile 36, we couldn’t have been happier to see a bunch of blinkie lights and people stopped.
Wow. That was the best and most stocked unsupported aid station I’d ever seen. They had the coldest New Glarus south of the WI border. And #scotchshots. Ride food, candy, cookies, waffles, jerkey, water, and so much more. All provided by the awesome peeps of Snowy Mountain Photography. So much awesomeness and that oasis became an essential motivational boost to kick it in those last 18 miles.
Que the synth music. How the race was won: Paris>Roubaix 2013
#Tickettoride ala #Tandemania was on a rampage. We were slaying those last miles. Thomas, Bobby, and the WillsDynasty were flying past riders like they were going backwards. The red flash of our wheels must have been a blur. We heard afterwards that the folks we passed thought a truck was coming; turns out it was a tandem hauling ass!
With a sprint finish and tapped kegs awaiting our arrival, we had finished. Under 3 hour ride time and over 18mph average. On a gravel roads on the tandem. Who knew?
Long ride back and a well deserved/ necessary shower and we were in bed before 1am. I set my alarm for 6:38am with a small glimmer of possibility to wake up for the donut ride.
Labor Day Donut Ride
Preface this with: the last donut ride on the 4th of July was with a chill crew. That’s what I thought I was showing up to. Getting out of bed was tough, but I just had to get my legs rolling and I’d be okay. Or so I thought. It’s amazing what I’ll do for sugar.
Showed up to the coffee shop with a couple minutes to spare, saw the powerhouse crew, and knew I was in for a rough ride.
20 minutes of chill. 60 miles of hang on for dear life. QOM’s were coming down and PR’s were set. On dead legs being drug behind the crew. The tailwind on the way up didn’t make it any easier {only faster} and the headwind coming home was rough. Less places to hide!
Donuts + Coke + Banana = ride savers
Spent the rest of the day relaxing! Kyle had to work in the morning but joined in for the couch surfing activities.
Suffice to say, today was a recovery day after riding Friday-Monday!
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