Hot Biking Weekend
Saturday was the first time for riding the Wheeling Wheelmen Lake Geneva-Fontana 71 mile club ride.  The ride started at McHenry Community College thru the hills of Bull Valley and the first rest stop in Hebron.  The half way point is Lake Geneva-Fontana near the Abbey.  There were 4 riders including myself in our group and we had lunch on the shores of Lake Geneva.  The temps were in the mid-90's and with a light west wind, so for me it was perfect biking weather.  This was a good test of the conditions for RAGBRAI 2007 and I should have no problem with the heat of Iowa at the end of July.  Paul said he averaged 18.5 MPH for the 71 miles.  Somehow my cycling computer got reset at Lake Geneva so my stats where a little off.  Best ride of the year so far.

Good week for biking

Looks like the weather is finally going to be good for a full week.  

Did the Udder Century in Union, IL on June 3 and the weather was almost perfect.  No wind, sunny and mild temps.  Rode the 62 miler with Chad Niec.  Most of the Wheeling Wheelmen who rode the ride were doing the 100 miler and Chad and I wanted to do a fast ride and be finished by noon.  Near the end of ride, we could see thunderstorms building to the south and by the time we finished at 11:35 AM it had started to rain and by noon it was pouring.

 Only 6 people showed up at the Wheeling Wheelmen Wednesday evening ride, but it had rained about an hour before the ride started.  I had a breakaway at the 10 mile mark and nobody caught me.  I did the last 25 miles by myself.  I figured I take off and push the pace and get caught on the major hills, but no one wanted to push hard to caught me.  I only averaged 19.1 MPH, but was averaging above 20 MPH for most of the ride.  I let my pace slow at the end because I wasn't being chased.

Did a different type of ride Saturday morning.  Saturday morning was the Lake Trek Bike Tour which went through Marengo.  So I decided to do the reverse route of the tour and biked to the start of the tour at McHenry College.  I saw only about 40 people doing the tour and I talked to one of the ladies at the start and she said only 150 people had signed up to ride.  The riders on the Lake Trek tour had about a 20 minute head start on me but I passed most of them by the time I got to Union.  The weather was perfect for riding and I had to be finished my 10:30 AM to head to Indiana for the weekend so it a quick 40 miler.

 This weekend if may be Swedish Day ride in Burlington or maybe I'll just do the 71 miler with the Wheeling Wheelmen at McHenry College.

Near the end of June

The biking weather seems to be hit-and-miss lately.  A week ago, the Arlington 500 in Barrington was a cold cloudy 44 degrees. Did the ride with a group of the Wheeling Wheelmen but it was decided that with the weather conditions an easy 40 miler would be nice.  Then, for the Wednesday night Wheeling Wheelmen ride the temps were back up to around 85. It was an interesting ride because we ran in a movie shooting in Barrington Hills which closed down the road so we had to reverse the route.

 

For Memorial day weekend, I did the Triple Deerpass with the Wheeling Wheelmen out in Union, IL.  The starting temperature for the start of that ride was 54 and cloudy, and there were only 4 riders. We were going to do the full 66 miles, but it looked like it was going to rain so we cut the ride short for just over 45 miles.  As soon as we got into Union it started to rain.  Sunday, I had time for a quick 35 mile ride in Hoffman Estates. The weather was great; sunny and 64 degrees. Just did the normal Wheeling Wheelmen Wednesday night route as a training ride, but another rider passed me on Penny Road after I had passed him but had to stop for traffic so I just cranked the speed up to the 24 MPH range for 3 miles and he became a dot behind me.

This week's weather is looking good.  The warming the better.  The Udder Century is this Sunday and I'm thinking about doing the 100 miler if the weather is good.   I just have to remember RAGBRAI 2007 will be here shortly and the goal of doing a 100 miles a day for 6 days.

Tom Paulauski's Blog is now open

Today's the Wednesday 35 Mile Wheeling Wheelmen Ride weather premitting.  The Wednesday nights ride's speed is picking up.  Averaged 19.6 MPH last week.  Not too bad since we've had to slow down at the stop signs in Barrington Hills because the police are issuing tickets to bikers for go thru stop signs.  Soon we'll be up to the 20.7 MPH average of last summer.

This Sunday is the 70 Mile Arlington 500 bike ride in Barrington, IL.  Should be a fast ride with the Wheelmen.

Last Saturday was a Wheeling Wheelmen club ride at McHenry College.  Did the 58 miler.  There was a strong North wind that got stronger near the end of the ride.  Rode up to Harvard then to Union.  Only averaged 18 MPH for the 58.  Not to bad an average for the conditions.

RAGBRAI 2007
Leave for Iowa and RAGBRAI 2007 on Friday afternoon. There are 6 Wheeling Wheelmen doing the tour and were staying in a RV for the week.  Should get to the start of the tour at mid-day Saturday with the tour starting on Sunday.  On Monday's ride, there's a loop to do a 100 miles that day and I'm planning on doing it.  This tour easily will be the best week long bike tour I've do so far with the other guys being a lot of fun and strong riders.  Will be keeping a daily log and will post the info on this blog when I get back.