Machka 

Where did you cycle this weekend? Did you see anything interesting ... meet any goals? Got pics?



Saturday - Rowan and I rode our September Century on our tandem - 161 km. Total time: 7:45. Ride time: 6:40.

Today was a lovely spring day - high of 23C, light cloud, and (surprisingly) tailwinds most of the day. We did have about 50 km into the headwinds, but not bad.

The route was one we had done before, except that we did it the opposite direction and we exchanged one road for another, quieter, one ... now that an old bridge there has opened again. It's a nice route ... quiet roads, a few little hills to keep things interesting, and very rural.

And we were in a race ... briefly. We almost kept up with the slower bunch up front.


Minor roadside repair ...


Kirwans Bridge - a historic bridge which was closed for a while, and needs repairs, but they decided it was all right for now and opened it in March ...


Machka ...

Rowan

Yep, it was the most fun I've had on a bicycle for quite a while. The tailwinds helped, but we were still able to keep a good pace back into it.

It really was about the perfect century ride -- weather, road and traffic conditions, bike and... of course... the company.

Machka 

Who's out riding today ... or canoeing ... or swimming ... or ..... ??

StephenH

I've got the Texas Time Trials coming up on Thursday, so I've been taking it kind of easy. Today, I rode with the local bike shop ride (30 miles or so at leisurely pace), and afterwards, got my bar tape replaced. I'll go ride around somewhere tomorrow, too. Come to think of it, there's a balloon festival...wonder how far that is...

banerjek

I set up a short ride, but everyone wussed out except one friend. Along the way home, it started raining while we were at a hopyard that had a tasting room. Dumb luck that.



The place was great as was the beer. It's possibly the most dog friendly establishment I've ever encountered as they even have a canine menu and water bowls lying around. Curiously, they also have dozens of chickens running about. While I was there, 5 dogs belonging to customers were on premises, none of them on leashes. Amazingly, none of them opted for an off menu chicken entree...



After 4 pints, the ride home was slow. Note to self -- you score no points with the wife showing up at 3:30 in the afternoon with loads of beer on your breath...

Machka 

Just got back from a lovely 3 hours or so of canoeing on the lake. It was beautiful out there ... bright sunshine, blue sky, light wind, and a temperature of about 22C.

Good recovery exercise from yesterday's century.

Machka 

Did you ride to the balloon festival? And is that balloon, like hot air balloons?

dstrong 

Ride report from the Waco Wild West Century

danlikes

Down the road from my house a train jumped off the bridge.

danlikes

Oh and it rained in Texas, neither incident happens often.

Machka 

You were cycling past when it happened?

StephenH

It's the Plano Balloon Festival, biggest such event in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I set my alarm for early this morning (It's 18 miles up there, and the mass launch was at 7:00), but when the alarm went off, I decided to sleep in.

But, I did get a 100k in this afternoon. Rode one of my normal routes down to where it connects with the Mesquite Rodeo Ride routes, then followed their 75k route around.

jamesdak 

Well I did a nice 40 mile ride yesterday which included a climb up one of our local mountains. The road I used is closed in the winter normally and with all the damage it took the spring they've left it closed. Great ride through the trees but the scenery is so distracting that I find myself looking around more than concentrating on a workout. Now with the trees changing colors it is even harder to stay focused.

Today was another 40 miles but I stayed in the Valley. Doing my first TT trial next weekend so I am taking it easy this week. I fully expect to get blown out at the race but since it's for a charity I just don't care how badly I place in my slow ol' road bike propelled by my slow ol' legs.

fogrider

about 60 miles...a combo of road and climbing in on mt. tam...(the birth place of the mountain bike) but I was on a cross bike.

MikeyBoyAz

I think the striped one is a turkey... pimp ride.

My weekend ride was around the block, wife works weekends so I stay home with kids :\

Chris L

I managed a couple of decent rides, 85km and 65km, which isn't too bad considering I'm just a week into a comeback from three broken bones and I'm still riding the heavy MTB. Saturday I did a circuit through Urliup and Tomewin in Northern NSW. Tomewin was my first decent climb (6km at almost 6% average, with an 11% stretch in the middle) in almost two months, I surprised myself by absolutely slaughtering it. I'm still trying to decide whether that means I'm fitter than I think I am, or whether it was just the frustration at the weeks of inactivity coming out.







Sunday I took a quick ride into Tallebudgera Valley. I wanted to go further, but I wasn't keen on all the smoke haze, and I'm still a little out of condition. I encountered some magpies out here, one of which I'm sure hurt himself a lot more than he hurt me. That's springtime for you. There were quite a few flowers blooming in the valley. The temperature was 33 degrees C from quite early in the day, but that's hardly surprising at this time of year.







The new bike is due for it's debut next weekend if all goes well.

bbattle

I did the AYCE (All you can eat) century ride on Saturday. It was actually 109 miles. I had gearing trouble all day; chain would not stay on a couple of gears at first but towards the end of the ride, it wouldn't stay in most of them and on the last little hill the chain tried to shift into the spokes and I broke the chain. Coasted down the hill and Fred Flintstoned it the rest of the way in. Luckily, it was only about a mile and there was a slight decline.

https://springcity.org/century/2011-AYCE106Route.pdf

Over 460 riders started. I left early to beat the rush; still got passed by plenty of fast riders. At mile 45 began the 3.5 mile climb up Skyline mountain. It took me 8 hours to finish including time spent at rest stops.

Machka 

I lost count of the magpies that dive bombed us ... but all were half-hearted about it. I don't know if maybe us riding a tandem threw them off.


And your spring looks beautiful.

chuckstyl5

Machka 

And where was that?

hyhuu

On Sunday I did my first century Backroadcentury in VA. It's parts of the State that I haven't seen before and it's beautiful. Since getting on the road bike for the first time this summer, I get to see part of the country that my car doesn't get to. Next time it would be even more fun to have a small group of friends to ride with but I like going solo too. At the rest stop they have this Powerbar Power Bite so I grapped one and it didn't take long to figure out what they call it Power Bite - you need some serious jaw muscle to chew on those suckers. And the hard cookies, they are terrible food on the bike. It's like eating chalk.

StephenH

I didn't see any hot air balloons, and not many flowers, but I did see some cotton: