Gran Gable - 60 miles - 2015

We signed up to ride the Gran Gable with our friends Jill and Steve. Steve ended up in Japan for work so Jill let us tag along with her! The fellas were planning on dominating the 100 mile ride and with the absence of Steve I don't think Andrew was sad to scale back to only riding 100 miles. It was supposed to be around 95 degrees before noon so we had plans to start before the 7am start time. We didn't quite make it out early. 

Here's our pre-ride selfie. We look fresh and happy.  As the milage increases the selfies/smiles decrease.  

Waiting for the pre-ride announcements and Dan Gable to give us some inspirational words of wisdom before embarking on our journey. I love this woman.

Drew and I pre-race and pumped up.

Jill trucking along around mile 20.  Everyone is still happy at this point.  I was able to show off my multi-tasking skills by riding my bike and taking pictures.

 First stop. Around mile 15.

 Jill and Andrew dominating the roads.

 Me, Andrew, Jill. We weren't able to ride three wide for much of the ride.

I blew these two out of the water :) It's hard being as awesome as me!

Stop #2. We saw Dan Gable and asked for a picture b/c we weren't sure we were going to see him again.  We never did see him again. He rides around in his fancy Convertible until the end of the ride. Then he rides in the last few miles looking all fresh and happy where the rest of us are miserable and exhausted.

Our friend Lonnie, who is the organizer of the Coe RAGBRAI team, rode and we ran into him a couple times on the roads and at rest stops.  They rode and talked Coe sports I presume. It's a favorite topic by both. We were riding into the Amana Colonies on this leg of the trip. The ride out of the Amana Colonies almost ended in a phone call to someone to come pick us up. It was miserable. Absolutely miserable. Head winds, a lot of traffic, sun beating down, heat radiating off the pavement, and a never ending gradual incline!

The Amana Colonies rest stop was the second to last stop. It was at approximately mile 38. The next and last rest stop was at mile 56 (of a 60 mile ride). The last stop felt like it was never going to come. It came. We found shade. We refueled our body. My tire popped.