Hilly Hundred 2024 Day 1

Mike and I shared one room and Phil and Erik were in another at our hotel. Mike had told the boys to be ready shortly after 8 AM. The morning of the Day 1 54 mile ride, it was barely light at 8 AM. Mike and I had both already had our breakfast, were dressed and ready to drive over, but the boys made the case that it would be warmer and sunnier at 9 AM. By 9:30 AM, Mike had finished prepping the Trek I would ride with my own pedals to match the clips on my bike shoes. He had Phil’s bike all pumped up, and Erik had done his own bike. We made our way uphill (preview of things to come) and got someone to take our picture for our glorious start.

Even though it is meant to be a 2 day x 50 mile excursion, there are options to the ride. Over enthusiastic riders can go for a metric century of 100 km (62 miles) or for those less enthusiastic, they can back it off to a 35 mile course. Before the first rest/snack/entertainment stop in Stinesville at 12 miles, Philip and I got ahead of Mike and Erik. I followed some volunteers’ directions to make a turn. after a few hundred yards, I did not see Phil, who had been ahead of me. I waited 3 minutes for Mike and Erik to catch up with me, but they never showed. I tried calling him, but cell service was spotty and I got his voicemail. A pack of young, fast women riders went by me and I headed on thinking I was on the right course given the speedy riders that had just gone by.

A few minutes later I got a call from Mike and found that he was at the first rest stop. I had made a wrong turn before the first rest stop. When I finally caught up with everyone, I found that my wrong turn had saved me a little under a mile of riding. We all got our snacks and listened to the bluegrass band. Erik had noticed a leak in his rear tire. He had gone tubeless and needed some more sealant “goo” to fix it. Although he had a spare tube, it would be a faster repair to simply get more goo into his tire. We had to wait in line for Erik to get more goo from the bike mechanic at the stop. Erik was 4th in line and each repair of the other bikers took 5-15 minutes. It made our day a little longer and warmer as the day went on.

There was hardly any wind as we went up and down the beautiful back roads of Southern Indiana. Around mile 26 we came to the lunch stop which had fried chicken, pasta salad, apple cider, bananas, and other snacks. Not to mention a killer Blues band.

I was never sure if it was by design or just dumb luck, but it seems like you always have a big climb right after any rest stop. The donut and cider from the first stop and now the fried chicken were reminding us how good they were as we carried them on the second half of the ride. It was pretty uneventful, but the series of hill starting at mile 49 was a brutal way to finish the 54 mile “50 mile” first day. As our exchange student from Italy, Edo Pariani used to say, “the hill was unyielding”.

Between a rather late start and the mechanical delays, I was worried my son Pat was going to be waiting on us after today’s ride. Pat was planning to meet us after the ride and I had told him to get there between 3:30 and 4 PM. It was at least 3:15 by the time we all made across the finish.

We got our ice cream treats, then headed back to the hotel where we would meet Pat and go to dinner. Mike and I were cleaned up by the time Pat arrived. Phil had gone to his room, collapsed on his bed and was asleep within 5 minutes. Erik cleaned up. We had dinner without Phil and still had a good time getting caught up on each others lives and stuffing ourselves at a Mexican restaurant. After a few hours, Pat headed back to Louisville. Later that evening, I went outside to call Becky and review the day’s adventure. As I was talking, Erik and Phil were returning from a trip to feed Phil. So ended our first day.

The Not So Lone Rider