May 29/30 Vienna Hotel

I have had several riders inquiring about sharing hotel rooms in Vienna for the 600K this weekend. If you have a room in Vienna, and are willing to share with another rider or two, please give me a call or email me and I will pass along your name and contact info.

600K Cue Sheet Updated

Thanks to Dennis Smith who pre-drove the 600K route last weekend. Several updates have been made. The only changes from the previous map are as follows:

At mile 128.3 "Turn left on Fairfield Rd (stop light). The road name sign is missing. However, it is the ONLY stop light you encounter as you head south on Harmony Lane.

At mile 150.4, there is road construction on Frisco Lane a little before Ewing Rd. The road crew is replacing a few culvert pipes across a low area and the road, for about 100 feet is currently dirt. There is a sign saying the road is closed, but Dennis was able to drive across it, and you should be able to safely walk your bike, or pedal carefully.

At mile 257.6 The road name has been updated to reflect IL-127/Old Hwy 13.

Updated maps has been posted to the registration page of my website.

The weather for Memorial Day is looking good. I hope to see you there.

May 8th Brevets

Edwardsville hosted three events on Saturday May 8, 2010. We had four riders enter the 200 kilometer ride, three riders entered the 300 kilometer event, and 11 riders entered the 400 kilometer event. Of the total 18 riders who started, 15 finished within the respective time limits. Results will be posted to my website and submitted to RUSA by the end of the week.

The real story of the day was the weather. Basically, the weather was an instant-replay of 2009. We had morning temperatures around 46 degrees and warmed up to 60 degrees with mostly sunny skies. This isn’t really too bad, but the wind…. The wind… Winds were out of the north, north-west and west-north-west all day long. According to official data, winds averaged 14-17+ mph all day with maximum sustained winds between 25 and 27 mph and gusts to 32 mph.

This gave a wonderful tailwind most of the way south, but nasty winds to fight all the way back to the finish. Personally, I think the 200K riders had the worst winds, followed by the 300K riders. I was glad to be on the 400K event as I could continue south with the wind, and hope and pray the wind would die down at some point. With the sun setting, the winds did indeed die down.

I have not heard of any problems with riders driving home as yet, and hope that everyone took my advice to get some rest before heading back out.