Century & Crash

On Saturday July 12th three of us, Cory P, Ben D, and myself, rode out to Beatrice in hopes of completing Cory and Ben's first century. We met at 27th and Hwy 2 at 5:30AM (yes, that's right) and rode south on the Jamaica/Homestread Trail at a conservative pace as we had a tailwind and didn't want to burn ourselves out for the ride back into a headwind. We almost got caught in a thunderstorm along the way but got lucky and only experienced a few light drizzles on our way to Beatrice.

We arrived in Beatrice and ended up eating Breakfast at McDonalds, as the local breakfast diner had no windows for us to keep an eye on our bicycles. I ate a few Nature Valley bars and had a hashbrown and an order of scrambled eggs from McDonalds. After we were finished and looking to leave we realized it was raining heavily outside. I first called Katie and then Pat to get a radar assessment as it was pouring and didn't look like it would let up anytime soon. Pat said if we took off after it stopped and we hurried back north, we'd probably be okay. 10 minutes or so later the rain stopped and we decided to take our chances and take Hwy 77 all the way back. The pace we set was pretty good. We averaged ~18mph from Beatrice to Lincoln with a stop in Cortland to refuel. The storm that came through gave us a slight tailwind back to Lincoln, which was much better than a 10-15mph headwind that we were anticipating.

My achilles was okay but my left knee was buckling at very bottom of the pedal stroke. It only did this after an extended length of time on the bike, so if I stopped and rested for a few minutes the knee would be fine for an hour. We stopped at 14th and Pine Lake after getting back into town to rest my knee and I commented how I was feeling pretty good and I was hoping that after another week my injuries would be a thing of the past...

We decided to ride the Rock Island downtown and stop at MWC and then CW to get additional mileage to complete the century. As we got started and rode by the South YMCA and park, there is a nice little incline with a curve that I decided to ride hard up. My knee was feeling good after the rest and I just wanted to go. Then disaster struck. As I was riding and swinging the bike back and forth out of the saddle, the rear wheel came out of the dropouts and proceeded to lock up as the tire rubbed against one of the seatstays. I ended up crashed pretty hard and skidding for ~15 ft on the pavement, mostly on top of the bike. I got some nice road rash on my arms, the worst being on my left arm, and a nice bruise on my left thigh. My chest was a bit sore at the time but now that 10 days have passed, I'm pretty sure I cracked a rib as it continues to be extremely tender when I move/sneeze/cough. I was able to get up and with the help of Cory and Ben (thanks guys) and get the bike rideable again. The only immediate mechanical problem resulting from the crash was the rear brake cable housing was trashed, which was quickly fixed by Nate @ MWC when I rode there, thanks Nate! At the time of the crash Ben and I had a bit more than 80 miles, so I decided I was in good enough shape to continue on. Adrenaline from a crash is an awesome thing.

We stopped at MWC briefly where my rear brake housing was replaced and then on to CW for Ben to get the spoke in his rear wheel fixed, which broke shortly after Cortland on the way to Beatrice. Thank goodness for 36 spoke wheels. The three of us ended up riding to the Mo-Pac trailhead at 84th and just south of O st and then turning around. Cory split off at 19th and Vine and Ben and I headed back south on the Rock Island. We hit the 100 mile mark just north of the Sheridan underpass on the Rock Island.

It felt good to complete the century and I felt a lot better during and after this one than my previous one early last year on the Karate Monkey SS. I think the weather ended up being perfect for us, with it never getting too hot and the double tailwind. The Mamasita was great, but the riding position on it is a bit aggressive (It is built to be a race bike, not touring) so I was a bit sore after the ride.

Both Ben and Cory rode incredibly well and I look forward to riding Dirty Kanza with them next year.