Well, the distances are getting longer, but the weather is getting better. Right? Well, mostly. It spit rain for most of the daylight hours, but that just helped keep me at the right temperature. This would be my longest ride ever. My previous record was 244 miles at the 24 Hour National Challenge.
My experience with prior brevets and night riding had convinced me to buy a GPS. I was always paranoid about riding alone at night and missing a turn. In fact, the groups ahead of me on this ride both missed turns and got lost. But I, with my new Garmin eTrex Legend with the cue sheet directions programmed in, never missed a turn.
Before the ride, I was worried about how tough the climbs would be. And they did not disappoint, especially Freedom Road heading towards Baraboo. Once across the river on the ferry at Merrimac, most of the climbing was done. The next hurdle was the mostly flat ride into a headwind from Lodi to Columbus. All that riding into stiff headwinds on the 200 and 300 km earlier this year definitely helped keep this section in perspective. Once in Columbus, I rigged/dressed for night riding and just kept the pedals turning.
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