This last weekend was the first of the Quad City Randonneurs brevets, it was a 200K distance leaving from the Quality Inn in Eldridge, IA, with a turnaround in Nichols, IA. Similar to everything else that I seem to do for road riding, it was a very windy day that started off with a temperature of 34. Nothing I like better than being cold and riding in the dark, which is how we started out. Not too long into the ride Joe and I missed a turn with a couple of other guys. Bummer, we had to turn around and ride back, look for it, and resume the course. When the mobile check point, read VW Van, found us, the informed us we were now one person shy of DFL, no big deal right, this is not really a race, just a long training ride with Casey's checkpoints.
The rest of the ride out went pretty good, I was surprised, we started to see guys from our group on the road, and then we met the lead pack coming back at us, a pretty large group of guys, about8 miles before our turnaround.
Joe and I took a little break, sat around in Nichols, ate some food, got more water, talked with other guys out for a nice long Iowa ride and then turned around and headed back. All day I could hear that "against the wind" song in my head, the return trip was pretty brutal with the wind in some sections. Then it started to happen again, we continued to pass guys, and I don't know why that makes me happy, but it does.
Joe and I finished in 10 hours, 5 minutes, with 134 miles, and happily went to Hardee's for some large hamburgers, and curly fries!
Results: QC Randonneurs 200k Brevet - April 2, 2011
