Monday, July 28, 2008

RAINSTORM

Rd to Abe Martin LodgeAfter last years bike tour, Bicycle Illinois, I definitely wanted a tour with more varied terrain. The miles of endless corn fields was enough to drive me mad. This year I rode in the inaugural edition of RAINSTORM, a touring ride through southern Indiana that culminated in the Ride Across Indiana (RAIN). RAIN is a "one day, one way, 160 mile" bike ride from Terre Haute to Richmond.

RAINSTORM preceded RAIN with 5 days of 100+ mile riding through the beautifully rolling Indiana landscape. Road conditions were superb, the drivers were unbelievably courteous, and the ride organization was near perfect. We stayed in state park lodges/inns or hotels every night, which really helped with the recovery, and recovery was the name of the game.

Other than couple of brief showers, the weather for the 6 days of riding was excellent. Dogs were the only nuisance on the trip, with at least a couple of chasers every day (though no bites!) It was as near perfect a bike trip as I could have ever hoped for! Hope to find something similar for next years tour.

1 comment:

Marcus said...

Just finished RAINSTORM 2009. This is a fantastic ride... challenging - but I made every mile. We had a little rain one day, but otherwise a great ride. And the RAIN ride was incredible - we FLEW across Indiana.

I blogged each day at http://rainstorm-09.blogspot.com

Amazing ride, great organizers. Would I do it again??? Uh - I need to rest before answering that :).