Velo Distractions

20080405_KY300K

On April 5th, 2008 I rode a 300K Brevet in my home state of KY. This Brevet is an out and back route from Shelbyville, KY to Stanford KY. As with the KY 200K Brevet event earlier this year, Steve Rice did a great job of hosting this event!

I love KY in the early spring when everything is coming to life after a cold winter. Makes me wonder why I decided to move to Ohio! Anyway, I did enjoy this ride and I came in DEAD LAST! (Not that brevets are a race…). However this was due more to my novice night riding skills, marginal lighting system and missing a Dan Henry arrow in Lawrenceburg, then a desire to be slow.

KY was a “little” wet this year, heavy rains and saturated grounds caused widespread flooding, Steve Rice anticipated the flooding and included alternate routes on the cue sheet if needed, luckily they where not.

Like the KY200K, my favorite area of this ride was the area around Oregon Road near Salvisa, definitely the most scenic part of the trip (It also had the most intense hills!). Oregon road has to be absolutely beautiful during the later spring and fall when everything is in bloom.

It has waterfalls, and beautiful creeks, and much more!

But then again, KY is beautiful all over.

However, like in the KY 200K earlier this year, Union Pacific likes to play jokes on brevet riders, handing out time penalties while blowing it’s whistle (laughing) at us.

Holding true to tradition, I always have one major “event” that occurs on every brevet. On the March 1st, KY 200K, it was severe cramping and forgetting my cash for controls. On the Ohio 200K, it was a bent chain ring, for this brevet, it was getting lost in the dark.

Besides being my first 300K, however it also became my first “Double Century” due to getting lost in Lawrenceburg on the return route. That little mistake cost me 11 “bonus” miles and 50 “bonus” minutes to get recovered from.

Still made it, that is all that matters to me, I really don’t care how fast I did it.

Congrats go out to everyone who made it. Besides the ride, I also enjoy socializing to, best way to meet some great people!

• Ken Priddy from Chicago (Which is where I am right now, on business.) who drives a trolly and has some good stories about it.

• Steve Rice who hung out until the last minute for me to come in, and then put up with me in my exhausted/brain dead state.

• Mark Schopper and Lige Hensley who I rode with on the 200K, who where doing the 300 also.

• Steve Godbey, who also rode a Giant OCR2 like mine, but his came with the “4 flat tires” option!

• Everyone I passed near Stanford coming the opposite way who took the time to yell out “Good Job!! You are almost there!!”

Final Stats:
191.3 Miles
10.1 “Bonus” Miles
4 minute time penalty given by Union Pacific
1 Mad Motorist
1 Worn out rider (me)

Bon Route!