Throughout the spring, Kevin has been keeping his eye on the weather and planned a route to give us an opportunity to complete a double century. By Friday, the 20th, he had found 5 more folks up for the challenge: 3 Pedalers - Keith Clark, Dan Schultes, Randy McDonald and 2 other friends: Dwayne Senn and Bruce Decker.
On Sunday morning, I got up at 5 and biked the short distance to Kevin's place by 5:50, where Keith, Randy, Bruce, Dwayne and Kevin were finishing their breakfast. By 6, we had activated our lights and put on any additional biking apparel for the 49 degree weather and were on the road and on are way to an adventure none of us had attempted before. I’m sure our convoy of 6 bikes with headlights and taillights was a sight to see on Bison and 3980 as we made our way through the dark at a pretty high rate of speed. I was thinking we had a tailwind so was wanting to get to Caney in a hurry so led the group to Road 900, west to highway 75 and north towards Caney before Bruce led us the remaining way into Caney. In Caney, I wasn't sure of the turn, so Bruce, Dwayne and Randy consulted their maps while I took off my battery pack and headlight.
Soon, we were all biking together and proceeded north of Caney, where we saw the bridge was out. After Keith investigated going through the construction site, saner minds prevailed and we went back a mile east to highway 75 and took it a few miles north to the Havana county road exit. By that time, Bruce and Dwayne were in virgin territory and I guided them north through Havana and the road north to Elk City a few miles after Havana. Soon, Bruce & Dwayne were leading the pack, but right before Fredonia, I caught them and we all decided to take a break in that friendly town.
After stopping at a C-store, Randy, Keith & Kevin soon passed us and continued on to the next C-store in town, thus minimizing any bathroom and check-out lines. Kevin had given us pointers in the past week to minimize our break times to complete the ride in a reasonable time and so that was uppermost in our minds as we made almost every stop of the day. Ask Kevin about making and withdrawing bank deposits if you’re interested. In Fredonia, Bruce’s asked if we were ready to go as I walked by his table for a 2nd time and soon I was on my way, just a bit ahead of Bruce and Dwayne and soon got a call from Keith as they were back on the road ¼ to ½ mile ahead of us. About 5 or so miles out of town, the Bruce/Dwayne train passed me and I realized I wasn’t going to be able to hang with them for long on this stretch and they were soon on to catching the others. We were now contending with a strong southwest wind, riding partially into it as well as a strong cross wind on this 19 mile stretch to highway 169. After a few miles more of solo riding, I was glad to see Kevin & Keith come back to ride with me. I took advantage of some drafting behind Keith at this time and also was glad to have company on the 19 mile easterly stretch, the toughest of the day. A driver with a bike on top slowed down to ask where we were going, wished us good luck and you could tell he wished he had an opportunity to join us. We were soon through Altoona and all were glad to get to highway 169 where we convened for the ride north. Just before reaching Fredonia and on our 19 mile ride east, the big southern tailwind we had planned for had arrived.
We started on highway 169 with a great tailwind and I remember Dwayne commenting ‘this is what we came for’. We all stopped in Chanute (about 95 miles into the ride) and Kevin, Keith and I stopped in the next town of Humboldt and then we all met for lunch at a Subway in Iola. Keith’s not a fan of Subway, so he went to check out a buffet, but it was closed, so he had to bike against the wind to join us at the sandwich shop. The sandwich and cookies hit the spot, we stocked up at the C-store across the street and talked with some of the folks in the town. Many people asked where we were going and were shocked at our intended travel.
Throughout the day we generally had very good roads (thanks to Kevin for great route planning!) and I recall at least 2 roads that had a nice strip of smooth road (sometimes in the middle of the right lane and sometimes along the shoulder) that helped make the ride less bumpy and smoother – a big plus when you’re traveling for so many miles on a bike. We had two other significant easterly rides of about 7 and 8 miles which challenged us with the significant cross winds and partial headwinds. We had to lean to the right into the cross wind and were glad the winds were not any greater or it would have been dangerous. One of us began cramping at about mile 90, several of us used a few Advil and for Randy, this was an especially big challenge as he had never ridden even a regular century before. To avoid leg cramps, I drank over 200 ounces of PowerAde (about ½ carbohydrates free and ½ regular) and also took some electrolyte tablets that Kevin was offering us. My continuous glucose monitor really helped my blood sugar control and made my ride much easier.
We continued biking through Colony, Garnett and Ottawa and made a couple more stops as the day progressed (Garnett & Ottawa, about every 20 miles). No one was too excited when we ran into a very big hill at about mile 180. Kevin, Keith & I stopped in Baldwin City (I put my light system back on and wanted to heed Kevin’s advice to not stop eating towards the end of the long ride). Randy stopped across the street at the McDonald’s and biked with us the remaining time as we all used our lights and Bruce & Dwayne continued without stopping as Bruce was having troubles getting back on the bike after stopping so wanted to keep going.
We arrived at our final destination, Lawrence, just before 7:30 – we had made it – 206 miles ! We then ate at the IHOP where we concluded our ride. After ordering our food, Bruce & Dwayne joined us and we all passed around thanks and congratulations before they headed home with Dwayne's daughter. We were all really pleased to have completed this accomplishment and it was apparent riding together made it much easier with all the conversations, encouragement, etc. After eating, Katrina and her friend arrived, we loaded our stuff in the vehicle, changed clothes, the ladies finished eating, and then Keith and Kevin took turns driving us back to Bartlesville.
Keith dropped me off last at 12:45. I put most of my stuff away below going to bed pretty exhausted. The next day, I drove to work in the morning for an 8am meeting. Driving to work broke a streak of 25 days of biking to work in a row. The 8am meeting was our 1st Steering Committee meeting of the new project I’m leading and I hoped I would be mentally awake enough to do well – I guess no one noticed any difference J
It was a great ride! Thanks to Katrina for coming to pick us up and Keith for use of his van and his bike loading/unloading service. Congratulations to everyone - I enjoyed riding w/all of you to Lawrence!
If you’re interested, here are links to:
Ø The route we took (added a couple of miles to this due to bridge out north of Copan): http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ok/bartlesville/985254370551
Ø Weather history for Bartlesville, Chanute & Lawrence for the day: http://bartlesvillepedalers.com/gallery/album14/Mar_22_NWS_histories
Ø GPS summary of each 5 mile segment: http://bartlesvillepedalers.com/gallery/album14/Kevin_D_Mar_22_data