August 08 Dirty Century

Headed out from Johnston at 7AM on Sunday with Scott Sumpter (LeMond Poprad), Rick Blackford (Bianchi Axis), and myself (Surly Karate Monkey) in the group. We met Tom Anderson (Specialized Stumpjumper) on the way and headed west with no particular route in mind. After passing by some gas pipelines north of Redfield and brief foray into adventure racing courtesy of a bridge construction project, we were in Panora for lunch around 11:30 with about 60 miles under our belt. I had been looking at a number of these roads from the bike trail on rides to Panora, and I was happy to have finally gotten to ride on them. After lunch we stopped briefly to let Sumpter fix a slow leaking tire. Tom wasn't feeling quite like himself after lunch so he told us to go ahead to Adel and he'd keep on at his best pace. Rolled into Adel, snagged some drinks at the Casey's and rested in the shade next to the bike trail. 15 minutes later, Tom called to let us know he was at the Casey's in Adel and feeling better. A couple of minutes later, Tom rode up with a Gatorade in hand and a smile on his face. We took the trail for a bit, and then ducked down through a ditch and took some gravel that paralleled Hwy 6. We took a bit of shoulder and then headed south and east into Waukee. After a bit more time on the trail, we rode by Tom's house quick. Tom followed us up north for a bit to get his mileage in, and then Scott, Rick and I finished up the ride. Sumpter left to sit in as a guest on an abbreviated Kim West Radio Cycling Show, while Rick and I drank a beer. It didn't take any convincing to have Rick order something off the chinese take out menu and have it show up at my house for dinner. 103 miles in total. 7:40 ride time.

I need to get a new rear cassette from the shop. My existing one is an unknown number of years old and with the new chain on the bike, it really did nothing other than skip when the chain was put under any sort of load. A few miles before Panora, I found that a small/small combination wouldn't skip, and allowed me to maintain a reasonable pace on the flats. If there was no significant slope to the road, I could move to the middle ring to bring my speed up. Either way, misbehaving hardware makes a good ride bad, and kills your bike karma. Time to get it fixed.