Cubsfan

I start the Tour De Kota on Sunday. Haven't done quite enough miles, but I think I'll be fine.

I'm excited to start, can't wait until Sunday. I'll be posting updates on facebook and twitter if anyone's interested.

I also am amassing a pretty good collection of items which I'll only use next week Didn't realize all the gear was going to cost quite this much.

cheapie

nice! have fun.

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smeakim

Have fun.... I am starting the Bike Ride Across Nebraska on Sunday as well. Its 454 Miles.... Cant wait....

Cubsfan

Yeah, I thought about doing that one instead. Surprised they're doing them the same week. Looks rainy that week. Great.

Cubsfan

Done! I intentionally rode a mountain bike with normal tires since I was doing it for exercise, but it's not something I'd recommend doing I did quite well really, but it would have been a lot less effort on a decent road bike!

VTGreg

Congrats. I just finished up my first MS 150 today. It sure is a great feeling to be done!

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smeakim

I'm done with BRAN as well 454 miles... It was a long week 10-20mph head winds each day and the route was situated that we went into the wind alomst every day. Also it rained most days so camping was a bit of a drag. One day I even rode 35+ miles in a downpour. What a week....

Cubs how was your ride... Were the towns nice, people, what was the atmoshphere like. I am thinking about dowing SAGBRAW next year I hear its nice....

On to the Blue River Century Next 110 miles this coming Saturday.

zippyjuan

Congratulations to everybody on their rides! I don't have the large goals you did but the marine layer (cloudyness) is finally breaking here in San Diego and I am mentally much more ready to ride. In the last ten days I have been on the bike nearly every day and been on three rides of at least 40 miles. My road bike is SO much easier to ride than the mountain bike I have been commuting on. I think I use slightly different muscles too- my saddle is a bit lower on the mountain bike. When it is cloudy it is easier to put things like that off. Now I want to get out. Today is a rest day so I am catching up a bit here.

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smeakim

Good job Zippy keep it up you will be up to 100 miles in no time.

zippyjuan

Did 30 after I got off work yesterday. I am trying to alternate easy days with longer ones- depending on my schedule which can change all the time.

Cubsfan

We had the same weather up in SD. It was cold and rainy through Wednesday, an the wind was pretty severely against us almost every day. Overall though, it was an experience. You're right, camping really sucked though.

How many people did BRAN? I think the count for the whole Tour De Kota was like 350, so it was a little more desolate than I was expecting. The little towns were all a blast. It's amazing what the really small (150 people) towns will do when the ride is coming through. I had a TON of homemade pie, so that was the highlight of the trip. I think it was last 2 days where the towns were really spread out, so most of the rest stops were really more of just tables set up in random places.

VTGreg

Did either of you do the ride with anyone else? If not, did the ride stay grouped together pretty well or did it string out?

I didn't ride the MS150 with anyone and was really surprised at how strung out the ride was. I ended up riding the majority of both days by myself which was a disappointment.

Cubsfan

Same thing here. I was by myself, and most of the time I was lucky to see one guy ahead of me and one guy behind me. Now to be fair, I did leave first thing in the morning so I was usually out toward the front, but it still seemed pretty lonely. I guess I'd imagined the ride being a lot more crowded, but 350 people over 80 miles is pretty sparse.

smeakim

BRAN had about 600 riders. However, in the small towns with people doing personal sagging it was more like 900. I did ride mostly by myself because I average close to 16-20MPH for a day and most people cant keep that pace. There were two days where I rode with people I knew and that was by choice. If you want to ride with people you can and people enjoy talking. I on the other had dont like spending 6-8 hours in the saddle for a 60 mile day so I left later, passed most, and got in within the first 30 riders each day.

Thinking of doing SAGBRAW next year or Naches Trace on my own. I do a ride here of 3500 (very spead out becuase its all climbing) so the 600 riders is plenty a test of my patience. Thats why I will never ro RAGBRAI.

The one thing is after this being my second BRAN you meet so many cool people and to come back after not seeing them for the year was really cool and fun.

VTGreg

Yeah. I rode alone because I wasn't interested in riding 12-15 mph for about 8 hours. I was surprised that there weren't more people that were riding in the 16-18 mph range but I guess that shouldn't be surprising on a charity ride.

smeakim

I did a metric century for Banner Health in CUBS neck of the woods and was first in and averaged 19.7mph. That was a quick day since I rode it all alone. Yeah most people dont ride that pace I am finding. I also dont stop at most of the SAGs for shorter rides as when I do 60 miles two bottles of water and a protein bar will get me through if I eat breakfast.