How did the ride itself go you, ask? Well, I'll just leave you with a few pictures to give you sense, but let's just say the weather conditions (a raw, low 40's, driving, hellacious wind & rain and riding on mostly dirt and gravel and very, hilly, roads turned to mud) were less than ideal for such an endeavor.
So, I'll fess up that I fell about 20 miles short of finishing the full 100, finally bagging it with my buddy after about 80 miles (and piles of caked, clay-like mud all over us and our bikes) under our belts. Not finishing was initially a pretty big disappointment for me, considering how much I trained for, and looked forward to, the event, but I didn't feel quite so bad when I realized that many cyclists far more experienced than I bagged quite a bit earlier than we did, some at mile 30-40 or so at the first checkpoint. I'd be surprised if even half of the field of 700 or so finished, the conditions were truly that hellacious. The most unfortunate thing was not getting any pictures of the course and surrounding scenery itself (due to the horrendous weather), which was just gorgeous. Lots of scenic (and VERY green) rolling hills, alternating from woods and streams to open prairie and farmland. Very pretty.
Ah, gotta love "springtime" in Minnesota. Unreal. All in all, a very "interesting" experience trying my first "Century". I'm already looking forward to trying (and finishing) others, in addition to trying this one again next year. Meanwhile, I spent about a couple of hours trying to clean the caked mud off of my bike and all of my clothes and think there will be remnants of that ride on my person and around the house for a long time in several hard to reach places.
Here are some pictures from my day Saturday and the following day Sunday at a couple of state parks that we hit on our way home (we are truly lucky to have so many great state parks here in MN):
Wow - Very impressive Manny! 80 miles is still incredible. Looks cold too!
ReplyDeleteAh!
ReplyDelete"Reminiscences of a Mud Season Survivor"
Maybe that title has been taken, kind of.
I hope you didn't get deerflies too.
Mannwich - At least you got 80 miles in and you will also know better what to expect next time, which is far more then you would have done had you at least not tried.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on make it as far as you did.
Mutt
Thanks guys. It was VERY quiet on the ride, for the most part, which tells me that most were as miserable, if not more so than I was. All in all, I feel pretty good about it, although I was pretty pissed about the conditions at the time during the ride, especially the grueling latter stretches. I'm quite sure that I would have finished it in about 8-8.5 hours in decent weather conditions. Physically, I actually felt pretty good, but the conditions just broke me and my buddy about halfway through. I can see why people eventually just leave places like this for better climes like LA and FL, if not better places to live from other standpoints(and elswhere around the world) Although it was a bit cool and windy, the very next day was sunny and clear and 60 or so and the rest of our week looks very good. Of course!
ReplyDelete@Mannywich,
ReplyDeleteGreat feat! Feet.
Congratulations on your accomplishment. Good to be healthy.
ICan
Another news, higher inflation in India. More rate hikes?
ReplyDeleteWD40, Think you'll need a couple of cans.
ReplyDelete@Todd: Yep, got my greaser ready to go and actually started re-applying yesterday after cleaning up the bike. Will continue doing that today and as necessary. Even with all of my clean up efforts yesterday, I still couldn't get all of the clay/mud/gravel/dirt remnants off of my poor, abused bike though.
ReplyDeleteMany people had bike malfunction issues with all of the crap in the gears. Overall, my bike held up like a champ, although the chain came off once on a wicked hairpin uphill turn that I wasn't expecting and it gears started changing on their own after a while at times. Just terrible conditions all around for biking. My buddy had to ride for at least half the time with only one gear after his shifting wire broke.
Morning folks!
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else feel like stagflation may finally be upon us? Seems that way to me.
ReplyDelete@Mannwich:
ReplyDeleteI remember my Hog. Every Sunday, it would come up on the porch to be simichromed.
Man oh mannwich am I glad I don't have to do that anymore.....
@Mannwich:
ReplyDeleteYour 10:13; Bloomberg has had a bunch of vignettes on it, and all their conclusions say we're there.
Now Bloomberg vignettes are beginning to say that with the ending of QE2, the "Stag" may convert to "woah". So we may see "woahflation".
Or maybe that's "woeflation"
@Rock: I'm liking cycling but I don't like a couple of aspects of it: (1) like golf, it's a VERY expensive activity, and (2) can't stand having another thing to constantly maintain. It complicates life.
ReplyDeleteSoft commods are up and so is POT. Don't understand why wheat should be up other than too much liquidity.
ReplyDeleteICan
SP500: Support may play its role for the third time today. I'm talking about a significant up trendline that can be best seen on the daily chart: it's been the support for this 2 month long up trend.
ReplyDeleteWe've touched it twice, on March 16th 2011 and Apr 18th 2011, which sessions printed a bottom in the pullback, hence the beginning of the next leg up.
In case this scenario plays out, we can imagine a third push up, the last one in my opinion, as we've discussed before on the blog.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more, if we assume a "perfect" repeat of history, the top for this last leg up would happen around June 16th.
Kind of the "DSK's last leg up", so to speak.:D
Sounds too easy ? well.. you'll draw your own conclusions.:) Gotta go. Take care.
ReplyDeleteNew York manufacturing gauge drops sharply in May
ReplyDeleteThe pace of growth in manufacturing in New York state slowed in May one month after reaching the best conditions in a year.
@Thor: Stagflation?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI still like the IMF website for research.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, I've never in my life been in the position of working for a pervert. I will bet the morale at the IMF is lower than a snake's belly.
Held without bail.
I heard Mariska got his confession......
Greetings from Lisbon!
ReplyDeleteI have just a minute between getting home and dinner, very busy every minute!
Today we saw the National Palace in Sintra and the Cabo De Roca, the western most point of continental Europe.
If I have time tonight I will try to make a post about the trip so far. Depends upon when we get back from dinner.
Portugal is more beautiful that I had imagined it would be and the city of Lisbon is filled with ancient buildings and sites.
Tomorrow on to Merida, Spain.
Not missing home at all but definitely out of the loop news wise. I did see that the IMF chief was arrested?
Manny, those pictures bring back some memories!
Manny,
ReplyDelete80 miles is about 79 more miles than I would have done! Congrats on getting that far!
Manny - Yes, looks like stagflation is on it's way. Did you read the Andy Xie article from the other day? He talked about stagflation as well.
ReplyDeleteJ
Damn, markets all over the place today. Oil can't seem to make it below $97 either. I was seeing full service premium gas for $4.99 out in the desert this weekend.
ReplyDeleteDenise - Glad you're having a good time in Portugal!
ReplyDelete@Thor: I did not see that but will check it out. I believe that without saying as much Barry had previously been comparing this time period from a markets standpoint to the '70's, no? If so, then he might not be that far off in the end.
ReplyDeleteManny - I could see that, only thing though, is that in the 70's, the inflation rate was what? 10 points higher than it is now? So far we're just seeing inflation in commodities, not so much anywhere else right?
ReplyDelete@Rock,
ReplyDeleteYour 12:39 - Human follies. With all due respect to the victim, sad to see someone's life finish just like that. But apparently this is not one time screwup.
All kudos to the NYPD.
ICan
Ruh Roh?
ReplyDeleteLowe’s cuts forecast as sales drop unexpectedly
Bad weather and absence of a year-earlier federal appliance-rebate program lead to a surprise decline in sales for the home-improvement retailer’s first quarter.
Re, screwflation -
ReplyDeleteCRB index is down to the mid feb level. TSX, EEM, SSEC all down. So inflation expectations may have peaked.
Here is Cam Hui's take on it. He lives in Vancouver.
"Ursa Major or Ursa Minor".
http://humblestudentofthemarkets.blogspot.com
ICan
Softs maybe up because of the floods.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think that things are starting to teeter a bit in the real economy, Thor, as the mass strategy of "extend & pretend" is getting into its latter stages where neither can go on for much longer.
ReplyDeleteManny - Same here, especially the next few months - there are SO many needles to thread!
ReplyDeleteManny - but then there are stories like this that make me think. . . .
ReplyDeleteWindfall revenues for California surge to $6.6 billion
By Evan Halper | 11:46 a.m.
The governor's budget says the leap in revenue, which erases a substantial chunk of what had been a $15-billion deficit, is not enough to put the state in the black.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2011/05/unexpected-state-revenue-leaps-to-66-billion.html
Talked to my buddy and he said his bike shop peeps told him that 80 miles was better than any of them (6 of them) did and two didn't even show at all. Apparently most of them bailed at 40 miles or so and last year's women's champ bailed at around 38-40 as well. Makes me feel a little better.
ReplyDeleteManny - I would think that biking 80 miles alone would make you feel better ;-) I'm still impressed!
ReplyDeleteEspecially since I drive 100 miles every other weekend and know exactly how far of a bike ride 80 miles would be!
It was also buddy's 35th century and 6th all-gravel century and the FIRST time he didn't finish. A truly "special" even this past Saturday indeed. Wow.
ReplyDeleteI know, Thor, but I was really looking forward to doing the whole thing. Sucks to set a goal and not reach it, but that's life, I guess. I'll keep trying and will crack a century or even a few by the end of the summer.
ReplyDeletewoohoo - there goes 97 on oil!
ReplyDeleteMutt - can you pass the word on up to Alaska to stop sending us these freak storms? It's supposed to rain for two days, feels like October outside. 58 degrees outside. It's MAY!
ReplyDeleteReally liked this post from Barry:
ReplyDelete"The Grand Delusion".
And these two from Al Arabiya:
"Mubarak to apologise to Egyptians and plead for amnesty as prosecution imminent". http://english.alarabyia.net
"Bin Laden Played Host to Taliban Leaders, Arab Fundraisers". At his compound in Pakistan.
ICan
Manny
ReplyDeleteWell done. You practice already for more than 100 miles preparing yourself for this event.So you already did it.
Now if you have to deal with your buddy riding in one gear for 40 miles, the mud, the rain, hell, that counnts a lot more than 100 miles under normal conditions.
Congratulations again.
Dan