Ride Report

One broken spoke at about 15 miles. We stopped to wait, but there was nothing we could do so went on. He turned around, went home, got another wheel and salvaged an absolutely gorgeous day.
The remainder of us rode to Jordan and picked up a perfect tailwind out of Prior Lake. The pace line broke up early as BK was putting on a clinic. He was all over Lydia, even providing his own lead out. A couple of rollers later there were 7 of us, a couple of Synergy boys, and some Nature boys rotating at about 30 mph. We maintained that effort all the way into Jordan. Just as we got there I cracked, but fortunately it was several hundred feet from a stop sign so I could make it look like I was slowing down for that. We rolled into Jordan pretty pleased with how hard and sweet that felt.
The group got back together to enjoy some great Holiday gas station food. My choice was Lime Gatorade and a Snickers bar.
Some of the more insane of the group opted for 100 miles, while others, with an obviously much higher IQ, chose an 80 mile option. The five of us more mentally challenged riders headed for Belle Plaine and some nasty climbing. We climbed out of the river valley and straight into a headwind that lasted for about 7 miles, then turned west toward Belle Plaine and enjoyed a refreshing tailwind for a few miles.
Just as we got got into Belle Plaine I heard the sound that all cyclists fear. The clank of metal on asphalt and a thud along with an involuntary yelp as the body hit the ground. Somebody had gone down. I stopped and looked back. He'd gotten up already and was standing, his bike was up too, but he was bent resting the weight of his body, using his bike as a crutch.
He looked good, no blood. He knew where he was...knew his name. Nothing broken. Right side dirty. Right jersey shoulder ripped. He had a headache. We knew what that meant.
He'd had a mechanical failure that caused him to go down. We got it all fixed. We got him riding again. Charles Parsons rode with him, kept talking to him, making sure he was doing good.
These are extraordinary cyclists that I rode with today, and Charles showed that they are even better human beings. Charles shepherded him home and the three of us continued on.
We hit Lime Street hill at about 70 miles, which was just excruciating, and the hurt didn't really stop until I got off the bike.
It's awful that a friend got hurt today. I heard from him as I was writing this. He's home and is going to be just fine, thanks to Charles and a helmet.
That's three friends that went down this week. All of them are home, and will be fine because they had helmets on.
One of the riders I was with for the entire 100 sent me some info from his Garmin.
3380 feet of climbing
97.6 miles
6284 calories burned
4hrs 55 mn ride time
My computer showed 98/19.5