Today was the last ride of the Conoco-Phillips training series. Last year, we drove all the way out to New Ulm and turned around and came back home because it was raining. This year, we rode…and while it wasn’t exactly pretty, we did it.
It started at 4:15AM when Stephen’s alarm went off. Our goal was to be out the door by 5:15AM. Eventually, we lined up and took off up the first of many, many hills around 7:45AM. This ride was billed as having three of the four toughest hills in the area on the route and the one that wasn’t on the route was near enough that you could CHOOSE to ride it. Of course, those three hills mentioned were only the tough ones. There were a couple dozen less challenging hills intermingled amongst the three tough ones!
We’d had all the bikes inspected this week. Nathan’s outgrown his bike, so we decided to not have some specific repairs done to it on Tuesday, and planned instead to perhaps have a new one that fit him by the weekend. We did not, in fact, find one to buy, so we made an adjustment to his seat post and he rode his little bike today. This may not, in retrospect, have been the best plan.
The shop replaced my chain and Stephen’s chain and re-taped my handlebars, as well. I’ve been working all season on my cadence, and I’ve finally got it down. I know what gear I need to be to cruise and I know what gear I need to be when I’m climbing or heading into the wind. I’ve become a much more efficient rider – and in the past few weeks, I’ve accomplished some personal bests in speed.
But, the first four times I tried to shift into my “granny gear” to take on a hill today, my chain slipped off the sprocket. (Did I mention that there were three, really tough hills on this ride??) I developed a pretty efficient albeit greasy method of re-sitting the chain and I limped the bike into the first rest stop where the Sun and Ski crew made some adjustments to it. Shortly after that, I shifted successfully to begin climbing another hill only to hear Nathan’s chain drop off its sprocket ahead of me. Remember those repairs we’d turned down? – one was that he needed his chain and his cassette replaced. Now, his chain was wedged between the bike frame and the derailleur. Stephen and I fiddled with it and looked at it carefully – only to realize that Nathan’s chain would probably never again ride that full cassette…and certainly not for the rest of this particular day. So, that left Nathan with 7 of his usual 10 gears…and none of his easy ones. Good thing he’s young.
So, it took us 4 hours to go from start to finish. Our average speed was abysmal. But! All three of us made it up every one of those hills with our feet on the pedals, not on the pavement! We ended the day with a barbeque chicken lunch at the VFD park in New Ulm. When I got off the bike at noon, I swore I’d never do this ride again. But, the afternoon has mellowed my mood enough to want to conquer it next year!
