My First Century Ride

There were no races on Minnesota's cycling calendar this weekend, so I headed out for a long training ride. I'd never done a century ride before. Not that 100 miles is all that challenging, I've just never had the desire to do it. RAGBRAI includes a 100-mile option every year, but when that day comes along, I've always thought it sounded kind of boring. Given the choice of hammering out 100 miles or sitting on a curb with 50 of my friends drinking warm Coors Light, I've always gone for the beer.

It's about time I put the beer aside and got a century ride under my belt.

Saturday 10 Birchwood racers headed to Red Wing, MN for a century ride along Lake Pepin. I have no idea why Red Wing seems to be the go-to place for long rides. The riding in the Cities is nothing less than wonderful (Minneapolis is ranked the #1 most bike-friendly city in the nation!), but I'll admit it can get boring riding the same routes all the time.

We were promised 75 degrees and sunny skies by local meteorologists. Unfortunately, this summer sucks (can you even call this "summer"?) and we were left with mid-60's, clouds, and 20 miles in a driving rain. Not ideal, but the humor in the group still made it a really fun day.

We left Red Wing, climbed the infamous Bay City climb, cruised through Maiden Rock, Stockholm, Pepin, Nelson, Alma, and then climbed a monstrous hill to some overlook outside of Alma.

A quick stop in Pepin to refill water bottles at about mile 35:

Ryan and Jim

Wendy, Scott, and Adam

Mile 49 - The top of the cliff outside of Alma:

Due to the rain and a 20-minute lunch break that turned into a 60-minute lunch break thanks to the craptastic service at the cafe in Pepin, we ditched our plan to climb out of the river valley a few more times, and headed straight back to Red Wing.

We reached our cars with 97 miles on our computers. No way was I going to leave with less than 100 miles on my computer, so we all rode back and forth on a frontage road until everyone's computers showed a 3-digit number.

Mission accomplished!