Lemond Rolls over 14,000 Miles, or Bring Your Fast Bike

Last weekend was the West County 100k.  Susan O posted that the weather would be clear and sunny (and seriously cold), and we should remember what it was like before we started doing rando rides, and bring out our hot bikes, which have neither fenders nor serious luggage.

So, the Lemond Zurich had its flat tires pumped up, and I made sure there were basic supplies on the bike (Detours High Tail to carry things).  Found a pathetic little battery light (a Cateye LED light) to be a headlight for the 30 or so minutes before the sun rose on the ride to the start.  I was surprised that it worked right out of the drawer - I haven't used it in a very, very long time.

Also new on this ride were new homebrew reflective ankle bands from my expedition to Rose City Textiles and their awesome reflective trim department.

Seriously cold.  Not like the polar vortex, but still, it was 26 degrees when I headed out.

Found Susan and Kevin at the Jackson's Convenience Store.  Kevin had his Rawland Stag, and he said he'd have to work extra hard, because I was on the Lemond, and Susan was on her carbon fiber Sweetpea.  And right at 8am, off we went.

I will say right now that there were no pictures, because it was too cold to change to camera-friendly gloves, and I was working pretty hard to keep up with Susan!

We zipped around the route.  First timed control at the Shell Station just west of Gales Creek Rd on Hwy 6, where I bought a snack and ate it while waiting in line - they could scan the wrapper.  There was a Latte Perpetuem-Coffee-Hot Cocoa concoction in the thermal bottle, with tons of calories, so I was mostly working on that.

South on Gales Creek Rd, then onto Stringtown - no cute little pack of barky chihuahuas today.  Next timed control at the Gaston store.  Couldn't find the Red Bull, but I did get a bottle of grapefruit juice, plus ate some snacks from my bag.

It had finally gotten above freezing.

Heading out toward Hillsboro, I was starting to hurt.  Well, ok, I had been hurting, but it was getting beyond annoying.  The Lemond has a much more aggressive posture, and I had been for a run the day before.  Ow.  Kevin came to the rescue with some ibuprofen, which kicked in a few miles down the road.

And then done.  More snacks - it was a good day for peanut butter crackers and cheesy crackers and a packet of tasty mixed nuts.  Kevin offered me a ride home.  I caved and took it.  He seemed surprised that I could lift the bike up to the roof rack, but when we got to my house and he took it off the rack, it all became clear :-)

for the 100k, 5:04 total elapsed time.  Much better than all those Dayton Flyer excursions.
for the day 69.5 miles total, avg speed 14.12 mph
Lemond's odometer - 14007.3 miles