
Last weekend I cooked up a little homebrew for this years post ride. I haven't yet graduated to being an all grain brewer yet, so I purchased a brew kit that seemed appropriate to for this years ride. The kit was a session beer called "Lucky Man's Pale Ale." I'm a huge fan of Pale's and IPA's, and I figured a beverage with a slightly lower alcohol content that still had all the redeeming flavor of a regular Pale Ale would be great for an after ride session. Plus the title of the beer seemed appropriate. We are pretty "lucky" to be able to get out and ride. On an added note, the beer was actually named after a quote by Lou Gehrig when he says that he was the "luckiest man alive", and $10 from the proceeds of this kit purchase went to ALS research.
Last weekend spring teased us a little with it's warm temperatures. It also brought with it strong winds that grew stronger as the weather grew warmer throughout the day. I did both some riding and driving of this years course, and my biased opinion is that it's going to be a fun one. Barring any more necessary tweaks, this year ride will come out to be 82 miles long. Yes, it's about 4 miles longer than last year route, but some things can't be helped when you are connecting gravel roads. The bigger kicker is that there will be about 800 more feet of climbing. This may sound like a lot, but the scenery on the hilly roads that will get you the extra climbing, is well worth the effort. There will be one check point along the route where you can refuel your liquids (and perhaps grab a burger and beer if you choose? I'll keep you posted on that. ), but the route doesn't take you through any towns or past any convenience stores. As stated on the website, this truly is a self-supported ride, so come prepared.
The rider list is steadily filling up. There are now less than 30 spots to fill before registration is closed at 100 riders. If you have any friends who are on the fence and would still like to ride, now's the time to have them commit. The postcards and kind notes I've received from people have been awesome, and I'm excited to see the ride growing. I'll try to post a little more frequently during the next 7 weeks, so check back to see what you need to know as the ride grows near.
The rider list is steadily filling up. There are now less than 30 spots to fill before registration is closed at 100 riders. If you have any friends who are on the fence and would still like to ride, now's the time to have them commit. The postcards and kind notes I've received from people have been awesome, and I'm excited to see the ride growing. I'll try to post a little more frequently during the next 7 weeks, so check back to see what you need to know as the ride grows near.