New Year's Blowout

Posted Dec 31, 2008
2,052

Happy New Year!! A story about the road, the gravel, the trail and a gunshot?!?

Last year I did the New Year's Day "Degree Ride" hosted by Paul Black of the Des Moines Cycling Club. The distance you ride is the number of miles equal to the temperature at the start of the ride. In the event of a temperature below zero the distance will be the miles equal the ‘Absolute’ temperature (That is if the temperature is 10 degrees below zero, the distance will be 10 miles. As zero degrees is not defined it will be designated to be 100. If it exactly zero the ride New Year’s Day will be 100. In 2008 I believe the temperature was only 12 degrees so we rode 12 miles. either way, it is a nice jump-start into the new year by getting a few miles in and a way to burn off some of the beers from New Year's Eve... Fast forward to 2009... My plans were to do the ride again for 2009. I was up earlier than expected, but dinked around long enough that I was running late by the time I got everything loaded up in the van. Away I went. Four miles from home I was deafened by the sound of a gunshot. I was Iiterally stunned by the sound and pulled off to the side of the road to see where the sound came from (I know.. thoughts from a bad horror movie...). Turns out my front tire on the cross bike blew. You have NO IDEA how loud the sound of a tire blowing in an enclosed van is! My ears are still ringing and that was 3 hours ago! The tire was blown clear off the rim and I could see a good 6 inch hole in the tube. Now the strange thing is, that I just aired up the tires before I left and put in 60psi. Only 60psi... I was running some ultra cheap ($6 each) 42c fatty tires on my cross bike just as a winter tire... It was definitley louder than a 120psi blowout I had last summer, but it was not in the confines of a van. Decision time. I was already running late. It was 9:50 am and the ride started at 10:00 am and I was still about 6 miles from the start and I would have to change a tire. I knew the ride would probably not leave right at 10 so I thought I was OK, but then I looked back at my tool kit that I brought. I was from my mtn bike and it only included a 26 inch tube. The cross bike was running 700c. My decision was made. I turned around and headed for home. At the next stop light I saw Paul Black in his truck with his bike in the back. He was obviously running later than I was. We nodded and parted ways. My own Degree Ride. I got home, changed the tube and since I was all dressed for it, I decided to get my own Degree Ride in. The temperature was 29 degrees when I took off. I really didn't have any goals in mind, so I headed north out of Ankeny until the pavement tee'd. I continued north on gravel until it tee'd. I could see the Sheldahl watertower to the West so that is where I headed. I didn't realize how much tailwind I had until I turned west. I just thought I was still in awesome shape from the 2008 season! ha! I got to Sheldahl and my "adventuresome-side" kicked in and I decided to take the new Ankeny to Woodward trail back toward Ankeny. I know it would be icy in spots, but the black asphalt looked like it had soaked up enough sun to melt lots of the snow and ice. Away I went. Less than a quarter mile outside of town, after almost wiping out 6 or 7 times on the ice, my "sensible-side" kicked in and told me I had made a bad decision... A 180 degree turn and I was making my way back to the dry ice-free pavement. I took all pavment back into Ankeny, and "enjoyed" headwinds all the way home. Road, Gravel and a little trail! Total ride distance was 29.5 miles! Not too shabby for Day 1 of the new year! That's my "News Year's Blowout" story. Did anyone else get in a New Year's Day ride? HAPPY "flat-free" NEW YEAR!! Ride Safe! Ride Lots! A few photos from today's ride.

(btw - this is the new photo gallery BIKEIOWA will be using for the new site. Viewers will be able to upload their own photos into BIKEIOWA.com's "group". Pretty cool! more to come soon!)