Ride description:
There are 13, 32, 50, 62 and 100 mile rides all named with cow motifs:
13 Mile Li'l Calf Tour
32 Mile Milk Cow Ramble
50 Mile Happy Heifer
62 Mile Mad Cow Metric Century
100 Miles of Bull
This years ride started early at 7:30. Since there was a recent hurricane that hit the East coast, the weather had chilled down quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, making this a chilly morning. I wore both my jacket and long bike pants. The rest stops always had plenty of snacks, water, Gatorade, etc. They also had some live bands. The main rest stop was at the Hope town square, where they served a hot lunch and a live band. You should never go hungry on a Hope ride.
Bike adjustments:
I made a major mistake the night before the ride, I made some big bike adjustments without testing them at all. I changed the post length and added a 2" foam pad under my seat. I added the foam pad since sometimes my right leg will hit the center bar, causing it to ache a bit. I figure that if my leg was higher it would be less likely to come down onto the center bar.
When I stopped at the main rest stop halfway through the ride my legs were aching plus I had a pain in my left leg, it felt as if the femur was rubbing or twisting against my pelvic bone. These were all new pains and aches that I have never felt before, I blame them all on the changes that I had made the night before. Once I completed this ride the femur pain lasted a couple of days.
My experience:
I usually see a lot of recumbents and trikes on the Hope ride, this year I only saw two trikes and only a few more recumbents, very odd. Perhaps with the chilly weather forecast not as many showed up.
I felt powerful in the first half of the ride, although I was passed by a group of 6 riders. They actually passed me twice, once right before the main rest stop and once after. I must have taken a shorter lunch break then they did.
Pranks:
Someone thought it would be funny to change some of the road markers. Around the 65 mile mark there was a marker pointing straight and one pointing to the right. The one pointing straight had been crossed out. It was easy enough to see that I should go straight since there was a second (confidence)marker pointing straight a few feet down the road. So I ignored the right turn marker.
A few miles down the road there was another pair of markers pointing both straight and to the right. This time the confidence marker was a few feet down the right turn street and there was not one pointing straight. ( I later found out I should have went straight) So I turned right. three miles later there was a marker pointing down a gravel road which I knew was not right. So I ignored it. Luckily I knew the area and also knew the ride was going to the town of Adams. So I ended up making my own route to Adams.
Oh, did I mention that I had left the route map in my truck? I ended up going an extra 6 miles. Which came in handy later in the ride.
Finishing the ride:
This years ride actually hit my own home county of Decatur. It went through the recently rebuilt covered bridge in the town of Moscow. A couple miles before Moscow I hit a road that had been turned to gravel! I couldn't believe it, but this road had at least two inches of gravel laid on top of the Asphalt. Very bad for my very thin tires Another biker came up and showed me the map, it looked like the ride went about 2 miles then came back on itself. I had been noticing the double markers on the road for both directions for the last couple of miles. Since I already went an extra 6 miles and didn't want to ride through this gravel mess, I decided to turn around and follow the return markers.
I didn't feel too strong on the second half of the ride although the last 20 miles I went pretty quick. I later discovered through my Garmin that the last 20 miles were generally all down hill. It also had some good sized hills on the second half and I did good on these hills even passing a couple of bikers going up.
Bike and car collision:
I heard there was an accident on the hill after the Moscow bridge. From what I heard from the biker riding with the one involved, it went like this:
As they were riding together up the steep and curvy hill (not sure if they were side by side) a truck came flying down the road on the wrong side (The truck was power driving to the inside of the curve) His partner was hit headlong and went flying while his own leg was barley missed by the trucks bumper. An Ambulance came and picked up both the rider and the bike. Allowing his partner to finish the ride. I haven't heard anything else about the rider that was hurt.
Musashi vs horses:
On the way back towards Hope I came across a couple of horses and riders (unfortunately my camera battery had died by now) The first horse was very spooked by my bike and reared up on his hind legs. The spooked horse was ridden by a teen. The other older rider directed the teen to ride into the field. I had slowed down to stop, but the other rider told me to not worry and keep going. They both then rode into the field where the horses were calmer.
A few yards later there were around 4 more horse and riders. The lead horse was again spooked by the Musashi. I stopped the bike. They ended up riding into the same field the first two riders were in.
I guess the Musashi is (or perhaps I am) very scary to horses.
Conclusion:
The Hope ride itself was excellent as always, the ride always ends with a free root-beer Ice cream float. There was plenty of rest stops and with the exception of the pranks and Decatur county turning another asphalt road into gravel (see my Tree City Metric Ride) this is one ride that I will look forward to next year.
Going into this ride, I had in the back of my mind the idea to complete my 200K goal by riding to Greensburg after finishing the century. It never happened, since I was very achy and ready to go home after the ride. This ended up being my slowest Century so far this year.
Ride detail link
Ride summary:
