108 Miles - June 27, 2009

The last brevet of the year for the St. Louis area was scheduled for this past weekend, June 27-28, 2009. For the 11 days leading up to this ride, we were locked into a nasty heat wave. Temperatures in the mid 90’s with high humidity were seen every day. Saturday, would see 100 degrees in St. Louis with highs around 97 and 98 degrees all along the route. The official high temperature at Lambert Airport was 98. However temperatures around town did top 102 and 103 degrees.

I had riders calling and emailing me almost daily cancelling their plans to ride. I could certainly understand that desire. I certainly didn’t want to ride when it was near 100 degrees. I can only imagine what the temperature was baking off the black top roads. Since I already had my 600K completed, I really did not need to be out in the heat, especially when there was a heat advisory saying don’t be out and don’t do anything strenuous if your are out.

The only rider to show up for the ride was Ralph Rognstad from Springfield MO. He had emailed me saying he was still coming, but did not want to ride solo. Two other riders, Dennis Smith, who I rode the 600K route with two weeks ago came out with one of his friends, Hardy. Neither had any plans for a 600K, just a 60 mile ride before the heat began. Hardy also showed up two weeks ago, but I did not allow him to ride then due to faulty lighting. This time his lights worked fine.

Ralph and I decided to get in 100 miles or so before lunch and call it a day. The four of us pulled out of the Edwardsville parking lot a little after 4:00 AM.

The pace was a bit strange in the dark. It would undulate between 13 and 14 miles per hour then pick up to 17 and 18 miles per hour for a while. Ralph and I slowly opened a small gap on Dennis and Hardy. After an hour I need to answer a call of nature and pulled over, Ralph continued on and Dennis and Hardy passed me.

In these early morning hours we were blessed enough to see one of the pretties sun rises I have seen from the saddle of my bike, and definitely the prettiest one this year by far. The deep reds and purples of pre-dawn, followed by lighter colors slowing filling the skies as the stars and planets faded into our memories. The thin layer of clouds which shot rays of the sun in all directions was just glorious.

With a little effort I caught up with Dennis and Hardy and chatted with them until we pulled into Pocahontas, mile 25. Ralph had been here a few minutes but was patient while bottle were filled, and bathrooms used.

Dennis and Hardy were still doing their thing when Ralph and I headed east towards Greenville. My average pace into Pocahontas was just 14.4 mph. Nice and leisurely. I told Ralph that we could start our time trial riding when we reached Greenville. I was just kidding, but Ralph decided he wanted to get in some miles and a workout. He pulled around me and started pushing the speed up. By the time we reached Breese, mile 52 our average had jumped to 16.4 mph, so we must have averaged something near 18.7 mph for miles 25 through 52.

With no brevet cards and it being 7:20 AM we took our time before heading back out. I kidded Ralph about the speed of the last leg. He had no idea how fast he was riding as he does not use cycling computers. He told me to take the lead as we headed 21 miles east to New Baden.

I tried to hold the pace up, but was only able to manage 17 mph most of the time, bringing our overall average up a notch to 16.6 mph. We pulled into the Shell station in New Baden, mile 73 a little after 9:00 AM. With only 35 miles remaining, I was getting hungry and decided to have a sandwich and an ice cream. Ralph too decided to have a sandwich. After a 20 minute break or so, we got back on the road and headed north.

I looked at my compute when I hit the 100 mile mark; I did the first 100 miles in six hours, and 27 seconds, averaging 16.8 mph. The last eight miles Ralph and I soft pedaled in. When we turned the corner by the bank, the temperature was reading 91 degrees. In all, I rode 6 hours 32 minute covering 108 miles averaging 16.4 mph, and had less than one hour off the bike eating, etc.