Planning
I had ridden an unplanned double metric in July and had felt fairly strong afterwards. So that got me thinking of doing an even longer ride, but where to? The bank I work at is purchasing a branch at Shelbyville Kentucky. I looked on Google maps and saw it was around 91 miles one way. But it was in Kentucky. That meant I would have to ride up both of the very large hills on either side of the Ohio river in Madison, IN and Milton, KY. Plus ride through the hills of Kentucky once I got there. I have often considered riding to downtown Madison just to see if I could ride back up the hill, but I have always been well, a bit chicken. Now I am considering riding up both hills on either side of the river on a 180 mile plus bike ride? My wife is right, I am a nutcase.
I checked the weather for the week and decided that Thursday was my best bet, it was predicted as the coolest and driest day of the week and had the least amount of wind at around 5 mph. The wind also had a bonus though, it was blowing from the SSE which meant that I would have a tailwind on the trip back.
Looking at the Google maps biking option I saw the best route was to take highway 421 from Greensburg to Bedford Kentucky then take highway 42 and some other roads until I magically appeared 30 miles later in Shelbyville. The route was complicated enough that I decided I would need to setup my trusty Garmin 705 to show me how to ride the last 30 miles.
Mapping tool
I found a great website that lets me map a route then shows me an elevation map of the route and convert the route to a garmin course that can be loaded on my 705 This is great! I won't have to try to remember all the turns and get lost in Kentucky somewhere.
This is the site: http://bikehike.co.uk/index.php it also lets you easily reverse your route so I can put in the return trip as well, a very cool tool.
Options and Goals
My primary plan was to get up early and cross the river and head to Shelbyville, KY and back. In case I didn't feel that great once I got to Madison I would simply head back home and make this into a Century ride. In case I chickened out and didn't want to go down the hill since it meant I would need to climb back up the hill on the other side, my next plan was to head towards Hanover and Scottsburg then up towards Columbus and Shelbyville, IN before heading home. That would be around 150 miles but no big hills. I also of course had the option to head back at any time if I started to have any problems. I had a bonus option in case the primary objective was completed: after getting back home ride on to Shelbyville Indiana to make this a Shelbyville Indiana to Shelbyville Kentucky ride, now that sounds neat, a Shelbyville to Shelbyville round trip. That would add an extra 40 - 50 miles to the trip.
The ride
Sunrise was at 7:15 on Thursday so I set my alarm clock to 6:00 to make sure I had enough time to eat, drink and poop before I rolled out. I waved goodbye to my wife at 7:30 into an overcast and slightly chilly morning. There was only a 10% chance for rain both at Greensburg and Shelbyville. I took it easy as I headed towards Madison planning on keeping my average speed at under 18 mph.
At my first option point at the top of Madison hill, I felt great and didn't even take time to weigh my options, I was speeding downhill towards the river before I could change my mind. Turns out they are doing some major maintenance to the bridge across the river and had an alternate route through a temporary ramp. The very tall and large steel bridge looked very intimidating. Dang this ramp is steep, I already have the bike in low gear just getting on the bridge and I haven't even seen any of the real hills yet.
I stopped at a gas station in Milton to refill the water tanks, empty the bladder and grab something extra to eat. Once I was back on the bike I called home to let the wife know where I was and where I was heading next, I did this at all the stops along the way. That way if I disappeared they would at least have some idea of where to look for me (assuming my wife wanted them to find me). I had a handful of Powerbars on hand to eat along the ride but would also grab something extra like pop-tarts at the water filling stations.
Google maps recommend cyclist take the School Hollow road up the hill instead of US 421. This is the hill I have been the most concerned with. It started off OK then hit a long 10% grade, I started walking when it switched up to a 13 percent grade. I'm not too proud to say I had to walk up this hill, it is a very challenging climb.
Once up the hill the road turned back to US 421 which I followed to Bedford. At this point I headed down US 42 into all the various roads and highways that would lead me to Shelbyville. At first I tried to simply use the GPS find option to lead me there but it was wanting me to go down 421 instead of 42 and didn't seem to eager to recalculate a different route. So I loaded up the course that I had imported from the web tool I used the night before (as mentioned above). Then started the timer. I didn't know it at the time but when I started the course timer it created a new TCX file which meant I now had two separate rides instead of one long ride. I ended up with three separate rides total for this one single ride since I also used the course option for the return trip, that's why there are three separate rides linked down below.
An hour and a half later at 1:30 I was in Shelbyville, I can't believe I made it! I stopped to refill and call the wife then rode around the bank branch that was the inspiration for this ride. Then I headed back home. I was expecting a rough and more uphill battle on the way home. Surprising it was actually a very nice ride, I think mostly due to the tailwind that I had.
The ride down the School Hollow ride was very fast I had to ride my brakes since it was a narrow and very curvy road. I decide not to stop at the Milton filling station, I still had 2 full water bottles and plenty to eat with my next stop at Versailles only 25 miles away. I was starting to get concerned with the time, I wanted to get back before nightfall. I have lights but I prefer not to use them since I always fear that I would hit something that would take me down, it's sometimes hard enough dodging obstacles when there is plenty of sunlight. The Indiana side of the river had a lot longer climb then the Kentucky side If I have to walk it could cause me a good 40 minute delay walking up 3 - 4 miles of hill. The bonus side of such a long climb was a lot lower grade climb, the max grade was around 7% for a very short time. It started with a very long 2% grade then escalated into a long 5% grade then near the very top it briefly hit 7%. Then there I was at the top, I couldn't believe it! I rode all the way up the hill without a problem even though I just rode 130 miles. I maintained a speed around 7.5 mph up the hill.
Flat tire
I'm doing great on time, I would defiantly make it home before dark and could possible add enough miles to make this into a double century (200 miles). Then I noticed something didn't feel right. The bike seemed to be very wobbly for some reason. I stopped and discovered as I suspected the rear tire was flat. Great, this will only add to the adventure, although I could definitely skip this part of the adventure. Inspecting the tire I found a small piece of glass stuck in the tire and had poked a hole through to the tube. Now I remember seeing a beer bottle smashed along the road as I was climbing the hill. At least it waited till I was finished with the hill before it went flat. It probably took around 15 minutes to swap out the tube with a new one, I didn't feel had enough time to try a repair. This also took up some of my valuable bonus ride time.
Finish:
Between Madison and Versailles a moped started following me I wasn't sure what he was up to but then he yelled that he was riding behind me so "I wouldn't get hit" I wasn't sure what I thought of that comment. I wonder what he would have thought if he knew I was finishing up a 186 mile trip across two states? He finally turned off to whatever his destination was.
My last stop was at the filling station at Versailles. The attendant said something about how I looked very tired, which I thought was strange, since I didn't feel tired at all. Twenty miles later and I was pulling into Greensburg still feeling great and strong. Dusk was falling as I pulled into the yard with all my lights flashing.
All in all this was a great trip and I am actually looking forward to another long trip, but perhaps not as hilly. This has really helped my confidence for doing longer and hilly trips.
First section of ride details:
Second section of ride details:
Third section of ride details:
Ride Summary:
Since the ride was broken into three sections I will have to give a manual description of the summary Riding time: 10:42:50 hours
Distance: 186.95 miles
Avg speed: 17.45 mph
Total time: 12:05:59 hours
Elevation gain: 7844 feet
This image is for the return trip only with the elevation map, can you guess where the river is?
Here is a video of me crossing the Ohio river valley on the return home. It Starts from the School Hollow road in Kentucky and finishes with having a flat tire on the Madison Indiana hilltop.
