Dave’s Good Stuff

The most curious thing about this 80 mile ride is, at the end, I really didn’t feel all that tired. It took a few hours, almost 5, but in spite of the wind and the rather long and arduous hills, it wasn’t that tough. I had energy enough at the end to all-but-sprint from 31st and Louisiana to South Park on Mass Street. You can see the ride here.

Organized by the Lawrence Bicycle Club, with support from Sunflower Bike Shop, the 38th Annual Lawrence Octoginta was held on Sunday, October 7, 2007. I was in Lawrence already, so making the 07:30 registration time was easy. Once I left the house, that is… of the whole day, just getting everything together and out the door was the hard part. The keys weren’t in the locked trunk, they were in my pocket the whole time. No, I don’t feel like going into details. I made it. That’s what matters. A buddy of mine, Jon, drove in Kansas City and met me then at South Park. Coming in from North Kansas City, he showed some determination just getting there. We got through registration in no time and geared up. The weather was cool but not cold, cloudy and low on the humidity scale. All in all, a fantastic way to start.

I love mass starts. There is just something about being surrounded on all sides by all manner of cyclists on all manner of rides that fills me with a sense of belonging. There were Soft-Rides, tandem recumbents, classics with ape-hanger handlebars and disconnected analog speedometers. There were big riders, small riders and everything in between. Pros, weekend warriors, Dads with trailers on $100 vintage bikes, kids with $2,500 carbon bikes. Guys in tennis shoes on fixies, and I think I even saw a wooden bike. Once the announcer gives the go-ahead, hearing the cacophony of *clicks* as everyone locks in their cleats never fails to bring an ear-to-ear smile to my face. In this case, I believe somewhere between 600 and 1,000 people were lined up on Mass. St., just south of Downtown by South Park. That’s a lot of clicking and clacking. It was fantastic.

As is typical of mass starts, it was slow going at first before people spread out. We took Mass to 19th, to Iowa, to 23rd/Clinton Pkwy, and out to Clinton Lake and beyond. Maybe it’s because of the extra riding I’ve been doing lately, or b/c I was excited to be part or an organized ride again, but I kept waiting for the hills on Clinton Pkwy to show up… they never did. They were there, mind you. Don’t get me wrong… it’s not as if someone decided to cancel the hills or anything. I just didn’t notice them like I expected to. I’d made it to the dam before I knew it, and then over the hill at the south end of the dam soon after that.

I wouldn’t call it a perfect route. The road surface, in a few places was less than ideal, reminding me of K and V on the Plattsburg Sucky Century. Those were my least favorite letters that day. In fact, I’m still not overly fond of them. However, aside from that, the route really was very well planned out. The SAGs were well spaced, and even seemed to account for not only distance, but the effort required to traverse said distance. Where there were lots of leg busting hills, the SAG was there. Where the roads were smooth and easy, the SAGs were spaced farther apart.

Overall, the SAGs were typical. Gatorade, sammiches (PB&J or ham), GORP, Fig Newtons, etc. However, the first SAG, thanks to Sunflower Bike Shop and some bread company local to Lawrence, had a really nice breakfast with eggs, French toast, bread, orange juice, coffee, plenty of water. Orange juice! I wouldn’t have thought that would taste quite so good as it did that morning. Fantastic! Coffee, too. I’m definitely a coffee drinker, and that stuff rocked. It was probably just some nasty Folgers drip or something, but it really hit the spot.

After that, it was just hit the road and keep pedaling. Honestly, I don’t remember much of the ride. 80 miles on my bike, and I don’t remember that much. I remember fighting the wind heading south on the Clinton Dam Road, and thinking that the hill at the end really wasn’t that bad after all. I remember Jon taking the lead after the second SAG and beating me by many minutes to the halfway mark. I remember finding my stride and leaving him behind. I remember admiring the determination of the fixie riders along the way. I remember the long and steep hills and one hellish wall between SAG #4 and SAG #5 back on the west side of Clinton Lake. I remember spots of rain and worrying about my bottom bracket again. I remember meeting a fellow Torelli owner. Hers was an older steel frame roadie with (yes) vintage Campagnolo components. No, I don’t remember her name. I remember racing back to the park, wanting to make the most of the last few miles, and being unable to help the fact that the roads were wet. I remember enjoying the soup and conversation in the park afterwards, and learning a little about attitudes towards Shimano vs. Campy.

All in all, it was a fantastic day. I do so love organized rides, and am pleased to see that every ride sees me doing a little better, a little farther from last place. :)