We Made It!!

I’m happy to say that Gary and I completed the 22-mile course at the Germanfest Bike Rally. The course was down a country road to a rest stop and back. The trip down was “a breeze” – literally, since it was windy and the wind was on our backs. There were a lot of hills, but they weren’t a problem on the first leg of the course. The way back was another story. That was tough. I think I could have done just the hills or just the wind, but both of them together made things difficult. There were several hills on the way back that I had to just get off the bike and walk. Gary did much better than I did, he didn’t have to walk at all, but he was nice enough to stop with me when I needed a rest.

So… it took us 45 minutes to the rest stop and 1 hour, 15 minutes to get back. I believe I averaged 10.5 mph, which isn’t bad since there was some walking involved. Maximum speed (down a hill) was 30 mph. That was fun… however we did see the aftermath of an accident on the very first hill. A cyclist was apparently taking the hill a little too fast and wiped out. They were loading him/her in the ambulance when we got there. I assume that was someone in the group that was doing the 63-mile course, because they staggered the start times for the three distances.

The event itself was very nice. There were 1400 cyclists. They had everything well organized. The rest stop was stocked with fruit, cookies, and Powerade. They had sag wagons for support that were very attentive. And we saw several ambulances. (We only saw the one “in action”, but others went by with lights on, so I assume there were other accidents). It was a bit chilly – around 55 degrees when we took off at 11am. I wasn’t quite prepared for that. I had worn my short sleeve cycling jersey. Thankfully, I had a sweatshirt, but I just didn’t look as *cool* as most other cyclists. :-)

We were pretty beat when we finished, so we didn’t actually go the Germanfest. Maybe we’ll check that out next year. :-)