TOMRV, the Tour of the Mississippi River Valley, was last weekend and what a great ride it was.

I have done this ride a few other times, but that was in the late 70’s, and early 80’s. In other words, a long time ago. The route was a little different from way back then. But then, so was I. In spirit though, it was essentially the same ride.

Personally I thought it was a challenging ride then and I still think so. On the first day though, we were blessed with fantastic weather. The temps were cool – starting off around 50 degrees at 6:15 in the morning – and later warming into the 80’s. We had light winds most of the time and what little wind there was at our backs or a cross wind. Not a bad way to start things off.

The morning of the first day was pretty flat, going by huge flat, fields of corn and beans. By late morning though we’d crossed over onto the Illinois side and things started to get rolling, then downright hilly. There was really only a few big hills though. The big one on the first day had a reputation that preceded it and was called “the wall”. It wasn’t really that bad though and Kem, who took the “country lane” alternative said that option was probably just as hilly.

The challenging part of the ride was mainly just the distance. By the time it was all said and done we’d ridden 107.7 miles (according to Kem’s GPS) on the first day. And that last hill up to Clarke college at mile 106 was just plain mean.

Sunday started off through some wandering tree covered roads. (See the upper right picture.) Very pretty countryside. Then it was up and down through one hill after another. The 2nd day’s hills were more interesting/challenging than the first day’s. Not really steep, but just long and they were plentiful. By lunch time we had gotten to Preston and I had really worked up an appetite for lunch. It wouldn’t be an Iowa ride unless somebody was selling pork chops, would it? And not surprisingly, the Lions club in Preston was cutting up some great chops at the lunch stop on Sunday.

In general, the food on the ride was awesome. Every rest stop (“sag stop”) had plenty of fruit, liquids, and snacks of all kinds. I loved those bagels and peanut butter & banana snacks late on the 2nd day. Perfect timing. The buffet at Clarke on Saturday night was massive and plentiful. All you wanted and more.

It seemed like not all that many people fully finished out the ride. Lots of folks seemed to bail out at the lunch stop on the 2nd day in Preston. Maybe there were more people doing the shorter alternate ride from Preston than I imagined. Anyway, the riders got pretty sparse toward the end of the 2nd day of 88 miles. My guess was that had more to do with the headwind we faced on the ride south of Preston and all the way to Bettendorf. We knew we had 40+ miles remaining once we left Preston and it was all into the wind. There was little or no cover either since this is the part of the ride through mainly open country. Just fields and not many trees.

All in all, a great ride. It’s a little out of the way for me, of course, but I’d certainly do it again some time.

It seems like I’ve been reading way too many of these sorts of incidents of violence against cyclists recently. What’s going on? Short of taking up mountain biking instead of road riding, not sure what any of us can do to avoid crazy, evil people.

You don’t have to be a cyclist to be the object of crazy, evil people. You just have to be particularly vulnerable. Like the 91 year old guy in Detroit that was widely reported on and that got beat up and car-jacked while people stood around and watched.

I always like the Armadillo Ride. I can’t remember how many of them I’ve done over the years. Several. This year’s was blessed with some great weather and a nice showing of wildflowers. And, as usual, a really large turnout. Opted for the 61 miler, though my computer showed 62 when it was all said and done.

Things at the start seemed a little chaotic. The routine jam-up of cars trying to park and then a start that didn’t seem like it had any orchestration to it. Perhaps we just got over there too late and missed it. Though I preferred not having to wait anyway.

Rest stops were great. Lots of PBJ’s, animal crackers, fruit, and lots of other goodies. That stop at about 30 even had some sausage on the grill! Not bad. Though the sausage and dill pickle at that point might have been ill advised, they were tasty.

The back side of the 61 mile route was great. I think that area over by Oatmeal and southwest of Betram is the most scenic of the riding up in that area.

No surprise, things thinned out quite a bit toward the end of the ride. The picture of Kem here makes it look like we were the only ones out there. Just good picture timing I guess.

Lot’s of buzz today regarding that cyclist in Toronto that got assaulted. Made the top of Digg. I’m glad it was caught on video. Maybe that guy will get charged/convicted.

That kind of confrontation is something cyclists have almost come to expect. Over the years I’ve endured all manner of verbal abuse and other confrontations. A slap on the back from someone going by on a motorcycle, beer bottles thrown at me, drinks thrown, apples thrown, and even a steel pipe once. Thankfully none of these has connected. All scary though.

Then I see this story posted about a guy who assumed he was going to have the worst kind of encounter and found exactly the opposite. Quite a difference. Glad it turned out like that, but based on my experience, I would never assume or trust that it would.

The Breezer, which was wounded last week, has been repaired and is once again cruising the streets of the city, so we got out for a pretty good ride around town on Saturday. Kem decided to replace her Biria with the Bianchi Milano “Cafe Racer” you see pictured here. It’s a very cute little bike I think with its classic Bianchi paint job and she’s finding it more comfortable to ride than the Biria.

It was a nice change of pace from recent road bike rides and our afternoon ride turned into something of a wine tasting outing. We went by the Austin Wine Merchant early in the afternoon. They have great tastings on most Saturday afternoons. Then later we pulled into Vinosity near Kem’s place for a sandwich and their usual Saturday afternoon tasting. Not a bad way to while away the afternoon. And lest anyone wonder, no, our meager tastings we were not enough to lead to any BUI (‘biking’ under the influence).

Round the corner from Vinosity is Pasta & Co. where this picture was taken. We loaded up on fresh pasta & sauces for a dinner later that night we were planning with S & C. All in all, a fun afternoon of tooling around the city by bike.

Just a little over a month till TOMRV. I think the ride may be pretty challenging. Been trying to log a bit more time in the saddle in prep. For a ride as long as this one, half the battle is just making sure you’re ready to sit on the saddle for 100 miles.

For years I’ve ridden the Specialized saddles that have the split down the middle. They’re pretty comfortable as far as such things go. Since the start of the new year though, I’ve been riding a Brooks saddle on my Waterford.

When you first get it, the thing is truly as hard as a piece of plywood. It even sounds like wood when you rap your knuckles on it. But as I’ve ridden it, I’ve found it does have some give to it. Just enough, and not too much. And now that I’ve been riding it for a few months, it’s beginning to conform a bit better to me. I can see the shape of it has changed a little. I can’t really say it’s any more comfortable than my Specialized saddles though. At least not at this point. My Trek still has a Specialized and I switch between bikes enough that I can say it just doesn’t make that much difference. When it comes to how it looks though, it’s a lot cooler looking on the classic lines of the Waterford than the Specialized could ever hope to be.

By the way, I would link you over to the Brooks web site, but it’s a horribly annoying site and breaks like half these rules.

Picture by abre/tus/ojos.

Occasionally a bicycle picture from http://popurls.com/ hits the top of the charts. I like this one this morning.

Saturday was the Red Poppy Ride here in the Austin area. I haven’t done this ride before and in fact haven’t really done much riding up around Georgetown over the years, so I wasn’t sure what I’d find. For being only their 3rd year, turned out to be a great ride.

I have to hand it to the people that put these rides together. While at $35 it’s kinda pricey to do these rides often, these folks really turned out the volunteers and the rest stops were great. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and homemade cookies even. The map was great. The 62 mile route was practically traffic free, portable toilets where you needed them and they were just some friendly people. And with good weather and a flat route, what more could you want? They even had the school cheerleaders out.

The rest stops were trying to outdo one another with various themes and they seemed to be having quite a bit of fun with it. My favorite was the “Set a Spel Cafe”. They had set up tables and put out fresh cut flowers. Wow! Not only that, someone had made a whole lotta snacks they called “Cajun Crackers” too. (Cue Andy Griffith: “mmm, good cracker.”) Turns out they’ve posted the recipe online here. Might have to try that.

The 62 miler was about as flat as you’re going to find around here. Looong stretches of flat, open, quiet roads. Fantastic for last Saturday’s practically windless day. Had the wind been up, might not have been so many shiny happy people out there. Seemed to be only a small percentage of the riders that were doing the metric century though.

If I had any complaint, it would be a general one. I wish ride planners in general would just make the T-shirts optional and charge a little less. Or just sell them at the ride or on a web site. The T-shirt in this case and in most cases is great, it’s just that there’s only so many a person needs or wants.

Great ride. Would do it again next year.

Sunday was just not a good day for me to be anywhere near bicycles. First, my Breezer fell off the back of the car (last post), and later in the day I was actually pulled over on City Park Rd for “running a stop sign”! Just a bad karma day or something. Lights, siren (woop woop) and everything. Unbelievable.

Now, if you’re annoyed by whining, then feel free to stop reading now. ‘Cause I’m going to whine. Getting an actual traffic ticket for not coming to a complete 100% stop and putting my foot down – which is supposedly the law according to this fella from the Travis Cty Sheriff’s dept – is in my humble opinion completely frivolous.

Now I’ll grant you that it makes sense to stop, look and listen, but IMHO, the issue should primarily be one of actual safety. The reality is my right turn was not unsafe. I was just coming up a very long hill and since City Park is generally a busy road, I was going at most somewhere in the 3 – 5 mph range and watching closely. Probably going no faster than your average jogger. I was not blowing through the stop sign at full speed. I had ample opportunity to see traffic and easily had space and ability to fully stop if anything was coming. A ticket just seems a little excessive. Given that he was just sitting there down the road a few hundred yards attempting to snare speeders, I think it’s more likely he was just out to write a few tickets that afternoon.

A little searching suggests I’m not the only one out there that thinks there ought to be some latitude on the subject. From an interesting post on bikeportland.org:

In Idaho, the law allows a bicyclist to slow down before a stop sign and then make the decision to continue through if there is no traffic, or to stop if another bicyclist or vehicle has the right of way. The stop sign law has been in place for over 20 years and has been shown to work very well.

Seems to me these folks in Idaho are practical folks. Read the statute yourself.

And as long as I was searching, there’s nothing in the Texas Transportation code that I can find that seems to suggest that putting your foot down is actually required. It just says you have to stop. Maybe it’s there, but I didn’t find it.

My daily commuter and coffeeshop ride is, this afternoon, at the local bike shop. In for a little corrective surgery. Kem and I were driving down the road this afternoon and my bike fell off the back of the car! Oh nooo! What a nasty surprise that is when you hear it.

I had actually checked the rack at least twice. It seemed solid. It’s one of those Thule rear mount types that you set the bike into. No need to remove a wheel or much of anything. It’s very convenient though apparently not idiot proof. The part that engages the front tire apparently was just not placed at just the right spot on the front wheel and it managed to slide down and the bike fell over. The rear tire stayed in though, so it just dragged down the street for a bit on the Tekno brake levers and handlebar ends. So, those are shot. The handlebars are a little out of alignment as well but that seems like it’ll be easy to resolve.

I could have probably just ordered some parts and fixed it, but I opted to bring it over to Sport Shop. They’ll fix’er right up – and no doubt faster than I’d get to it. Of course, I’ll get tagged with a parts & labor cost of $70. Sigh.

Though I can’t say every post here is or will be about cycling, it seems most have been and are likely to continue to be. To that end, I’m now listed on http://www.blognetlife.com/cycling/. Check it out. There’s an amazing number of people that are writing about cycling out there.

A couple of Austin area rides are coming up. This weekend 4/28 is the Red Poppy Ride and then on May 12th is the Armadillo Hill Country Classic.

I don’t know anything about the Red Poppy Ride. I’ve never done that one. But then, this is apparently only their 3rd year, so I guess that’s not surprising. I don’t generally ride that much around the Georgetown area and it’s a shame they didn’t include a map of the ride on their site. Though the Sun City Cyclists have an excellent collection of ride maps around the area on their page here.

Are there really more red poppies growing in Georgetown than other areas? Hmm. Can’t say as I’ve seen any growing around here so I must admit, I completely stole the picture of the red poppies along with this post. The http://www.redpoppyfestival.com/ site says they’re the red poppy capital of Texas though. Cool. Who knew.

The Armadillo ride is, though, one I’ve done a number of times. It’s up in the Liberty Hill area and always a favorite. Get there early. Parking’s usually a bear.