Today’s ride started out beautifully the weather was cool my music was blasting and I was feeling it. It was a great turn out just like last year and I just had that warm fuzzy feeling because I still love riding just as much if not more then I did last year. Here was my chance to see my progress and spin out a bit. Lets rewind a bit first to cover some background for those who haven’t ready any of my other posts.
This ride though not a race was a way for me to kind of see where I stood a year later in my year in a half cycling life so to speak. I kind of let everyone take off and waited a bit to let the big swarm get going. I mainly did this for a few reasons with the main reason being safety. There are all types of riders and mileages being ridden at these events. This of course means different skill levels. Second being I knew I was going to ride kind of hard (to me) and didn’t want to come off like I was racing for the gold.
About 10 miles in I notices my aerobars were probably not as tight as I would have preferred. It seems over time they had come a little loose from the vibrations of day to day riding. At around 40 miles they were real loose and one of the bolts actually bounced out allowing them to swing side to side while I was riding. This was awkward and dangerous to I just (all while riding lol) keep moving them until I worked the other bolt free and tossed them into the ditch 
. (Problem solved)
I also though for some reason I was going to ride straight through I skipped the first SAG stop and then right around 40 miles I bonked real, real bad. I hit the next sag to rest and refuel when I noticed my brand new behind the seat dual cage was missing a cage. This means I lost it somewhere. Seems my bike was getting lighter the farther I went . Anyhow after that I hit all the SAGs and braced for the wind on the way back in. We had 30mph gusts which to me seemed basically just a constant headwind. I recorded my ride with GPS but I don’t know if I lost signal at the SAG stop or what but I only recorded 40 miles 
. I was able to hold 18 average for almost 42 miles but like I said I bonked and had some wind so if I had to be realistic I bet my average was 16 or 17 for the entire ride. I still felt good about the ride because last year I almost collapsed once I got back lol. This year it just seemed like another ride, I’m not saying I wasn’t tired but I personally feel much stronger.
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Contraband
Cubby
Set out today for a pretty good journey with my youngest. We probably got about 25-30 miles in total but we had plenty of stops including two naps lol. We started the morning off with a stop at the Kansas Grown Farmers Market at the Sedgwick County Extension. One lady was kind enough to give my daughter an extremely tasty peach. She tried a few bites but that was it I ended getting the best out of that deal.
After the Farmers Market we cruised over to Sedgwick County Park and made time for a little picnic. It was great to see so many people making use of the bike paths riding bikes, running and walking. Then we stumbled onto a pretty cool event and some even cooler bikes that had been modified to allow some very eager children the capability to get a ride in themselves today. After our picnic we jammed over to downtown where they had a crazy car show going on. It pretty much took up the majority of the area. After the car show we headed over and had some noodles at my favorite Vietnamese joint My Tho. We binged out for a bit and cooled off as well. Then we headed home but not before she had to squeeze in another nap. Going to post a few photos but I took a bunch so to see them all watch the slide show.
Well like I said previously in my post after getting back from BAK I was anxious to do something else cool. I had heard about the Death Ride and didn’t really jump on it until I seen a few friends were going to sign up for it. Eric Benjamin of Adventure Monkey and the machine himself, Kevin Collings.
Big thanks to Kevin for driving and Eric and Jen for letting us crash their packing party and feeding us for the night.
Having problems with my hand I was hesitant to ride too much and was kind of babying it but felt I would be more then fine for the mileage considering it was a one day shot.
What I didn’t know and either missed it or it wasn’t talked about on the official site was that if you didn’t hit the sag stops by certain times you would be redirected on a shorter route thus not getting the full ride in or a medal. I of course was the only one out of our group that didn’t get the full ride in because I missed a turn that I swear was not marked. Of course I was not paying attention to my map so I had no idea where I was. I popped out my phone and was just going to head back to the car when I found the party again. Unfortunately too much time had elapsed and I was redirected.
It was crazy I was rounding the end and skipping the last muddy turn and here comes Kevin’s crazy ass!! Asking why we weren’t turning … haha he found out. But he caught me and I had a 20 mile shortcut. Needless to say he crushed everyone else in the full distance ride.
None the less I probably rode a good 60 miles considering, which is nothing to laugh at in those conditions of the hills and the mud. Yes mud there was plenty of it thanks to the rain the night before. There was also an element of danger due to the farms in that area being open range. I seen some guys almost get run over by some startled cattle.
Over all I had a decent time, because well I just love to ride no matter what. I love it!
Picture Time
the Following images copyright Eric Benjamin
Click photos to see more of this ride and many others. Truly amazing photos!!
The following images well hell lets be honest who would steal them
Pics I took with cellphone / some of these images are Kevins also!
