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Saturday 05/05/07

It's hard to believe this is the 4th year that our club has participated in this ride. We were hoping for a big show from the club roster but too many little things crept up on people. Despite all of the little distractions we still had a great showing at this years event. We prepared for it and had a good time.

We started out about 7:45 am and headed for the hills of Sun City Lincoln. This is the second year the route starts you out through the hills and it's a much nicer route this way than to have it done at the end. On our way through Sun City a few of us picked up on a fast moving Cannondale Tandem. With the wind already starting to kick up it would be a nice relief to have something blocking the wind. Soon enough we found ourselves coming out of Sun City and heading through Lincoln. Then we were on our way to the hills Ophir. This is where we would meet up with the infamous Bald Hill. But before that we would wind through the gorgeous hills of Virginia Town Rd, Gold Hill, and then Ridge Road. All familiar territory for us from our many training rides.

Soon enough we were at Rest Stop #1 and ready for a nice break. Sharp Bicycles was manning the maintenance booth and keeping busy. At the food table was plenty of fruit and other nice snacks. After a nice rest we mounted and headed back out. After a fast descent down Lozanos Rd we became the climb. Once again we paused at the bottom, cranked all the way down, and climbed until we reached the top. Upon reaching the top it's you look over your shoulder to see who is walking up, then it's time for another screaming descent to Mt. Vernon Road and then down Baxter Grade.

Rest Stop #2. This is the half way point for those taking on the Metric Century. For those riding the 40 mile route it's the last rest stop. More fruits, snacks, and liquids to fill up on here. From this point out it will be difficult with a head wind coming from the north. Up until this point it hasn't been that bad because we've been pretty sheltered by the hills and the trees but now we'll be out in the open fields heading to Camp Far West. We make a few calculations and estimate that we'll have about 8 miles of headwinds and then we should have at least 15 miles of a tailwind to bring us back to Lincoln. While it sounds good on paper we still had to ride it.

After a few more strawberries it was time to head out. Up only a mile or two was the fork in the road were the 40 and 65 separate. Chris headed back to Lincoln while Robert, Connie, and Devin heading towards Camp Far West Reservoir. Robert was in a blast mood and continued on ahead. We didn't even try and keep up because we would have never made it. Instead we settled into a nice pace and enjoyed the ride. We switched back and forth on pulling through the wind and did just fine. After coming up to the Reservoir we made a left and started to wind through the small hills. After a few more miles we were at the point to make another left at Porter Road heading South with the wind. In no time at all we were doing 25 mph.

Rest Stop #3. This is the most difficult rest stop to enjoy. For starters you need this rest stop because you've just done a good 20 mile segment, you're usually in need of liquids, and a bite to eat. However it is at a cemetery, why do they always put a rest stop at a cemetery. Most important is that you can't eat too much at this rest stop, the finish line is only 8 miles away and if you eat too much here you'll be too full when you get back for lunch. So you fill up with what you need on liquids, have a few strawberries, and then you get back on the bike.

We continue the last 7 miles with the wind for the most part. Every now and then we have to turn into the wind and then we get back our tailwind. It's a quick route back to the beginning. We don't really have time to work up much of a sweat. We head down the main street and before you know it were back at the stop light to take us over to McBean Park. We load up the bikes and head for the lunch line. We find out that Robert has already beat us there by a half hour. Dan has been there about an hour and David rolled in about 10 minutes after we did. We found out that Robert had somehow missed the last rest stop and so did David.

All in all another successful ride at the Tour de Lincoln. We'll be back again next year.

Copyright © 2003-2013 Devin Holmes