A few guys on my team did 4-days-of-pain Saturday-Tuesday, essentially riding between 70-100 miles every day, in an attempt to prepare for Elkhorn. I rode with them Saturday and Sunday, and since I don’t have spring break, decided to do my own ride last night after work. The basic route was Hilldale-Council Crest-Humphrey-Skyline-Old Cornelius Pass-Germantown-Laidlaw-Thompson-Skyline-Humphrey-Dosch-Home! YOW! That was a long, hilly climb. Also a wet one, as 20 minutes in the ride it poured for a solid 10 minutes, then cleared, leaving me soaked.
I hadn’t ridden out on Old Cornelius in a long time, and I forgot how quickly it turns into farm country. It is simply beautiful out there, and I can’t believe I can ride out there during the week. The one cravat to that, which I was worried about, is that those farm country roads have no lights on them, and the speed limit is 45mph. By the time I got out there, light was falling fast. I tried picking up the pace, but I was tired, not expecting all the rollers, and hit with an intermittently strong head wind. I reached neighborhoods and street lamps before dark–but just barely. By the time I reached the top of Thompson at Skyline, it was pitch black.
My plan, if this was the case, was to ride down Thompson/Cornell to downtown and go up Terwilliger, so I’d at least be in somewhere with bike lanes and street lamps. However, when I reached the crest, I saw another riding just heading down the other side of Thompson, and a group of 4 riders resting, getting ready to head South on Skyline. They were covered in blinky lights and pretty visible, so I figured strength in numbers, right? I rode behind them back on Skyline, and I think only 1 car passed us the whole time. They ended up way out in front of me once we started descending, because they were going breakneck speed down towards Burnside. I, however, value my life a little more, and went slowly. I have a hard time going past 30mph when I can only see about 20-30 feet in front me. What a hard, but great ride. Only a 17mph average, but with all those climbs, and taking the downhills slowly, not too shabby.
