Short after work spin, pictures are of the Mississippi river and Minnehaha falls in Minneapolis. Recent rains have increased river levels almost to flooding.
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eMTB ride with a buddy in Sugar Land, Texas. As we rode back into the neighborhood we saw we have a new visitor catching some rays. (Heâs on the bottom right of the pic with the House)
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Didnât know you had gators 
in TX. I saw a lot of them in FL, sometimes very unexpectedly.
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AAACK! I love animals but those guys creep me out!
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Today was going to be an epic ride of 70mi and 10kâ of climbing on the gravel bike. Was going to take the train to the start of the route, climb over a hill that I couldnât last year because it was blocked by snow at the end of May (May 29, to be precise⊠and a moment after I took this pic a skier can around the corner, confirming that I couldnât not just hike through it).
This is a four-day weekend here with Thursday (Ascension Day) and Friday off. They were magnificent, sunny days. I climbed the target climb in 2020 â Muotathal â which is after the above in my route for today on Ascension Day in 2020, which was May 21. It was glorious and this pic is from then, 2020. (Note the black dot on the trail, itâs a cyclist descending the trail I just came up.)
My approach for 2020 had been from the northwest with the first few hours on trails Iâve posted here before. That approach is also the one I was a couple of weeks ago but abandoned because the destination looked cold and wet.
This time, looking at the weather beforehand and live cams in the Swiss weather app, a light drizzle in the target area was to end by the time of my arrival, but the temp was forecasted to be around 10ÂșC / 50F and completely overcast as in riding inside a cloud. Itâs sunny there now, 6p, and warmer at 12ÂșC. Today was the last convenient day to get in this ride as I have a gran fondo up Stelvio in two weeks, Haute Route Alpe dâHuez two weeks after that, HR Pyrennes two weeks after that, a buddy visiting from the US for cycling here the week after, then off to the US and eventually Maui. (Hopefully, my legs wonât have fallen off by then. I should start to trainâŠ) The weather didnât make the trek look fun, so I abandoned the idea and went for a road ride around Lake Zurich.
Today was notionally Mary Austin -2 but traffic and the noise didnât really help me adhere to the plan very well. The road ride was also to figure out whatâs up with my bikeâs rear. A couple of weeks ago, an annoying noise came up that sounds like plastic rubbing or something. It seems related to the rear wheel and related somewhat with torque. It begins about an hour into a ride and a pause, long enough to inspect the bike, also pauses the sound which take a bit of time â 5 to 10 minutes, -ish â to return. My bike shop loaned me a new wheel to see. I took video/audio with my GoPro but right now weâre still perplexed.
Hereâs a vid taken at the top of the route as I pass through ZĂŒrich. The initial views look south and the dark clouds over what was to be the start of the ride, though I took over an hour after I wouldâve been in that wet and cold place as I delayed my start since I was no longer embarking on an 8+hr adventure. My ride wouldâve started beyond the mountains in the distance and thus deeper into the darkness. This look toward the destination made me glad I didnât proceed with the plan. Also noteworthy here is we do have a problem with abandoned e-scooters⊠It is sunny here, but down the lake at the far end it was noticeably cooler (I was wearing long sleeves and an insulated vest) and had clearly rained recently. (The video, as usual, is in 4K.)
Where was I Thursday since I wasnât cycling? I was getting ready for the hunger games, or more precisely, at a 3D archery tournament (International Field Archery Association) south of Luzern. 18 rounds, 2 arrows each round (two shooting positions at one target, or one position and shooting at two targets).
This â a bear, the lone target, center right, the people to the left walking down are in the previous group â was the longest range target,
No alligators or crocs here.
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stay in .ch, forget beantown!
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My car is in the garage but a mate kindly offered me a lift down to Guilden Morden for a TT. What a difference a year makes. I was 3mins and 21s faster today compared to last year and 71s faster than 2017. There is still room for improvement though, I sat up through every rough bit and through a lot of the sharp bends and downhills so I wouldnât aggravate this elbow too much again. Its still sore but no sorer than it was pre race.
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Prince William County, VA, USA
I attempted to turn this into a bit of an outside workout with 1 x 2 @ VO2, 1 x 16 @ SST, and 2 x 20 @ SST. This route has a lot of long, uninterrupted roads and was great for these longer intervals. You can clearly see the harder efforts on the Garmin map (I think thatâs kind of neat).
Interestingly, I saw four people parachuting. I couldnât get my phone out quickly enough to capture all of them - just got the last person.
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Up in Maine for the Memorial Day weekend! Itâs nice to get a change of scenery. Got about 38mi in before the rain today, and have some big rides planned for the next few days.
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I rode my first century in 8 years. Iâve been a casual recreational rider for 15 years, but just started w/TrainerRoad in late December 2021, building towards this first big event and others like it throughout this summer. Based on listening to the podcast, I was shooting for 155 to 170 watts and secretly hoping to finish under 7 hours. It wasnât a race to me, but rather a challenge to be completed. It seemed like hundreds upon hundreds of other riders passed me: old, young, men, women, everybody! But as Jonathan and crew kept saying on the podcast, itâs about the process, not the result. And as Ivy (?) said, prepare for the unexpected: I had 2 mechanicals: chain slipped twice. This has never happened to me before, but I figured Iâd give it a shot to get it back on by myself. I was able to turn the steed upside down and get the chain back on without calling the SAG wagon. Still, Iâm very pleased with the result for the Horsey Hundred just outside of Lexington, KY in the USA. This was the most elevation Iâve ever completed, it was rolling hills the entire ride. (horses in the distance)
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Nice work, and you met your power and time goals!
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Where in Maine? Iâll be heading up that way in July and August. Inland, though, south of Rangeley Lakes.
Not far from Portland. Iâve been a few different spots in ME and theyâve all been great! Lots of good riding for sure.
An easy spin with the kids in Ridgway, Colorado. Beautiful backdrop of the San Juan mountains. This weekend wonât offer any good opportunities for training rides, but riding with my kids is a different kind of reward 
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Yesterday we visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. No ride pics, but this is a spectacular 2000ft deep canyon so felt I had to add a gratuitous pic to show it off. The picture doesnât do it justice.
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Post while resting after the ascent which was more walking than riding with grade upwards of 40%.
Snow hindering further progress so guessing 3 weeks of good weather should open the remaining 450m elevation ascent to the proper view.
Now to the fun part.
Surviving the descent. 
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My family has vacationed in Franklin County just south of Rangeley Lakes since my mom was a teenager. We drive through Portland on our way up there. Beautiful country.
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A mate asked me if I would like a nice relaxed ride with his club cafe ride. After yesterdayâs TT and my ulnar problems I thought that would be a good recovery. It was up to Stamford and back to Peterborough but 3 of us decided to recce a sporting TT course and lol I canât do TT courses/hills slow. I wasnât flat out but it wasnât the ideal recovery either 
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A mixed surface roll today to be in the saddle and decided to re-explore an area I rode often in the past but havenât been to in a couple of years. A fair amount of pavement, generally one-lane but two-way paved roads, some forest tracks, and some single tracks. Itâs cooler today â around 10ÂșC / 50F to start â and I wish I wore gloves for the first half of the ride.
First, some idyllic pavement.
Actually, first should be wild non-wildlife spotted in the river closer to homeâŠ
Some of this, though a bunch was much darker under a thick canopyâŠ
Going through farms⊠just beyond this is a -20% segment called âDeadly Descent.â The concrete surface is cut for traction but itâs rough and curving and not fun when the temp is near zero⊠from personal experience.
A moment to take in the riverâŠ
Rejoining the river, see the âtunnelsâ video belowâŠ
Along the riverâs sideâŠ
Good trafficâŠ
And two examples (of several spotted today) of honor system groceries or hiker refreshments. The first, the blue cooler, is farm fresh eggs at 60 cents (basically, or 50p for the Brits) each. Cash or electronic payment (TWNT). Second pic has several food items, cake etc, plus drinks, and usually cash but maybe they now take TWNT, I didnât look closely. This is on a very popular walking / hiking / cycling segment. If you donât have exact change, the cash box is just there so you make change. There are loads of self-service flower stands and fields (which provide clippers to cut your own) on the same honor system here, one is less than 100m from home.
Three videos today, all 4k. The first is some single track I used to ride frequently a couple of years ago but I rarely go this way now. The refreshment table above is at the building just down the road at the end of the video.
And then a moment of chasing two mountain bikes that skipped a single track section I came off as I spotted them. The first got away. I turned off the instead of pursuing because straight ends with a choice of a technical descent I havenât done yet and wasnât in the mood to today or stairs.
And finally, tunnelsâŠ
@poweredbybacon, well done on the century.
Yeah, well⊠here isnât bad. Stelvio is a 3.5hr drive. Alpe dâHuez is a bit longer at 5.5hrs by car, but thatâs certainly easier, quicker, and cheaper than by plane!
Oh, and, re my comment about the hunger games and archery, my familyâs gonna starve. I havenât been at the range nearly enough 
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