bike junkie: Bike MS Utah ride report

As promised, although a little later than I planned, here is the ride report from the Bike MS ride.

The weather couldn't have been better. Temperatures were in the mid 80's for the entire weekend. I drove up to Logan after work on Friday so I could get registered and find a spot to set up camp - I decided to camp in the back of my van to cut down on costs, and because I thought it might be fun. Even after checking my bike over thuroughly before leaving Friday morning, I still somehow found my rear tire flat half way between Salt Lake and Logan. Fortunately, there was a bike shop right off the freeway not too far from where I made my discovery. I was in a hurry since I was meeting the rest of my team at a local restaurant for a pre-ride dinner, so I ran into the shop, asked for 2 tubes, paid and left. This will come back to haunt me later.

After a great dinner, I headed back to the fairpark where the ride was starting from to claim a spot, and change my tire before going to sleep for the night. It's at that time that I discovered that I didn't have one flat, but two! It was fortunate that I bought two tubes earlier.

Here's where my haste in getting back on the road earlier comes back to bite me in the butt. I finally looked at the tubes I bought, and the girl at the bike shop gave me tubes with a 36mm tall presta valve. With my rims, I can't use anything shorter than a 48mm! With two flat tubes (one had a hole at the bottom of the valve stem - unrepairable) and two tubes that wouldn't work with my wheels, I was feeling a little anxious. Fortunately there was someone at the support tent still that evening, and I was able to trade them for some 48mm presta tubes.

Saturday morning came, and we rolled out for a beautiful 100 mile ride. I'll tell the rest of the story with pictures. Unless specified, the photos were taken with my cell phone, hence the stellar quality.

Home sweet home

Found my name (photo by Donna Bernstein)

Casey, Meghan, Emily, and David pointing out our team name on the board.

Breakfast line, Saturday morning.

David and Donna. This was Donna's first century

Waiting for the start...

Team FredCast ready to roll! L-R Me, David, Donna, Emily, Meghan, Casey.(Donna Bernstein)

David, Donna, and I split off from the kids - who did the 40 mile route. Like I said, the weather couldn't have been nicer.

David and me (Donna Bernstein)

Group shot! (so surprised this turned out as good as it did, since I was holding my phone at arm's length to take it.)

If rolling hills and green fields are your thing, then you would enjoy this ride.

The northenmost part of the ride took us into Idaho. Here we are coming back into Utah. If you look at the road ahead of David, you can see the state line. The roads in Utah were so much better than Idaho's

cool old bridge.

100 miles done! Like I said earlier, this was Donna's first century.

A well-deserved dinner Saturday Night (Donna Bernstein)

Sunday was the last day, and had options for 45 or 75 miles. The 75 mile route included a climb up Blacksmith Fork Canyon to Hardware ranch. David and I decided to tackle the 75 mile route, while the rest of the team did the 45 mile route. Blacksmith Fork Canyon was absolutely beautiful. And thanks to team Saddle Soar, who let us latch on to their paceline, we flew up the canyon.