GLGA

Good Life Gravel Adventure.

These guys I know...CG, and TK and others, came up with a Pirate Cycling League adventure that drew in people from a few states to get a taste of the Nebraska Good Life Gravel surrounding Lincoln. Yep - 140.0 miles of gravel around Lincoln. The course was basically a rectangle around our capitol city, hitting a few of the surrounding communities along the way. We started and finished at our trail head of MoPac -an abandon railway converted to a recreational trail that will eventually be continuous to Omaha Nebraska.

JT was at my house @ 5:10am on his bike and we made our way to the trail head of of MoPac for the start...We got there and a large crowd of folks on bikes with blinky rear lights appeared out of the early morning darkness all ready to go.

After some simple instructions from CG the group of 40 something took off at 6:00am heading East on the trail. The rules are simple = you are self supported, you must obey all rules of the road, and you must get a Nebraska Power ball ticket at each of the 4 check points along the way to prove you got there, and you ride at your own risk...simple enough. There was a Cue Sheet that dictates the way you are to go to complete the prescribed route...

A group wasted no time in establishing the pecking order with a gaggle of 8-10 riding off the front in the dark conditions. I can only liken this to trying to swim in cold dark water...floundering around on the loose gravel, white knuckled hanging on the handle bars trying not to hit the loose gravel, while inches from the wheel in front of you...knew I should have grabbed a light, would have helped...most all others were prepared per the instructions to be prepared for such conditions.

I quickly found myself in no-mans land in between the group off the front and the splintered 30 something behind. First heading was North skimming by Waverly and continuing North to Branched Oak Road. It's hilly and the gravel was loose across the road with a smattering of white rock...(did I mention I was riding my road bike with road tires?) The top of every hill as we headed into the North wind provided for an experience in perseverance where I found myself searching the upper cogs of my cog set with a 23 being it. Hind sight - a 25 would have saved my knees a bit from wear and tear.

First Check point was Valparaiso Ne. I rolled in and Chris Hansen (?)was there on his single speed. He had dropped me as would be the case all day. Shortly after a group of 10 rolled in as Chris and I prepared to roll out, later this would be the group I would end up chasing all day...Chris said the front group had just rolled out as he got there..already 10 minutes up. (Did I mention I had no intention to finish when I Started?)

Chris and rolled before the group and again he dropped me, my head wasn't in it, especially since the course had us going North into the wind out of Valparaiso...I actually stopped took a tug off my coke bottle I grabbed in Val. and put in my pocket and contemplated my desire to continue...(If I rode home from here, I'd have 85miles for the day..more than enough.) As I contemplated, Jeff Bonsall rode by on his Surly Single speed I rolled and chatted with him and soon Mike from Florida caught us...Pleasant enough I thought, the course turned South and speeds picked up, and the gravel got a little more hard packed. Next stop Malcolm (home of Darin Schlake) 23 miles due south...Of course the Planners had some hills in mind and we made our way back and forth across the hills East to West many times on our way South...It was here I made an error. ( did I mention I lost my Cue sheet somewhere before Valparaiso?) Yep, I rolled out in front of Jeff and Mike and missed a right turn adding about 4 miles to my ride. By the time I rolled into Malcolm I was back in the next group of folks.

Serious decision...to finish or not to finish? While in Malcolm I took some time to get some food - Zebra Cakes baby and another Coke -which near as I can tell, can get you out of nearly any funk -nectar of the gods. It's hear I hooked up with James Blake. Yep, Mr Blake was putting himself into self prescribed walk about- only on a bike. It's also here that Aaron challenged me to a run...I did decline. I also got another copy of the cue sheet - Thanks guy from KS.

James and I rolled out of Malcolm and got the tail wind groove going - finally some solid dirt. James did good considering his training was all of three weeks riding back and forth to North Star School where he's a teacher and basement build out he did for his Mother-in-law to live with them and help with the kids during the school year. All along I was feeling better and I wanted so bad to catch the group in front of us in Denton 15 miles later. And we did catch a nice size group there and it's also here I had to decide if I wanted to go for the long haul. Truth be told, the plan all along was to turn into home right there in Denton - Yep 10 miles and I'd be home and close to the Hundy for the day...plenty of miles. But darn it, I was having such a good time with Mr. Blake and enjoying the nice 70 degree day that I decided heck with it I'll go to Cortland and finish this sucker up....knowing full well the head wind coming into Lincoln from Cortland would be more than a handful.

Again, James and I along with another Single speeder from Omaha...have to look him up later, took to the hills South of Denton and make the dash to Cortland south of Lincoln. This push was 25ish miles.

When we got to Cortland the lady there at the gas station said she was surprised we didn't the see the group in front of us, they were just there. Darn - Looks like James and I will have a long grind into the wind coming back to Lincoln.

I didn't let James get to comfortable there in Cortland..."Dude lets get going and see if we can catch those guys."

We did good, I was able to motor pretty well until about Wagon train but started to feel the effort of being out there all day. James started getting the barn door open syndrome and was able to start taking some pulls. Ahhhh. That helped, especially when we started getting close to Lincoln. I was starting to bonk. Luckily James had a GU which helped seal the deal for me as we approached the 7 miles to go mark.

We rolled into the MoPac Trail head of MoPac 10.25 hrs after we started for 12 and 13th place. 140+ miles. TK was the victor he cruised!...finishing some 2 hrs a head of us. I think there was a very high percentage of folks that finished which is just awesome...Good Job guys!

I still had to ride home adding to my total. The ride including the ride there and back, put me 162 miles for the day. Ka Ching.

Thanks guys of PCL!