Nixa bike ride recap

Today didn't start well.  I planned on getting up at 5, having a nice bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and arriving in Nixa well before the ride's 7am start time.  Those plans fell apart when I jumped out of bed a little after 6, dressed as quickly as possible, mixed my perpetuem, made a cup of coffee, loaded the bike and was somehow on the road by 6:35.  I arrived at the staging area about 10 minutes before the start; plenty of time.

There were TONS of people there for the ride and during the slow roll out, I met up with Dennis Rathke, spoke for a bit with Cale McAninch, and generally stood out being the only person on a mountain bike.  I stayed in the lead pack for the first few miles but once we got on the rolling hills of the highway, I started drifting back.  My legs weren't warmed up yet and I was feeling it in my hamstrings.

A little later I fell in with a couple other riders and was able to draft and build my speed back up.  There was a rider that wrecked on a curve right before the second aid station.  Dennis had stopped to make sure the wrecked guy was okay and that allowed me to catch up.  I rode the rest of the day with Dennis.  We'd pick up another rider from time to time, but we worked together and I had a really good time.

The ride took us to Aurora where we turned around and doubled back quite a ways before turning and going through Republic and back to Nixa.  For most of the ride I had NO IDEA where I was, but Dennis has been riding those roads for years and gave me a heads up whenever we were approaching a sharp turn or big climb.

I got a great workout and we finished the 70 miles in just over 4 hours.

The post-ride Buckinghams BBQ was great and really hit the spot.

It was a beautiful day for a ride and I'm really glad I went.  The aid stations were very well stocked and staffed with friendly, helpful people.  Good job St. Johns!

Now I've got to put some knobby tires back on my bike so I can hit the trails tomorrow.

A&B is having a demo day and BBQ at Sac!