Bicrobrew 2016

Another week, another ride. This week I participated in Bicrobrew 2016, another Trailnet sponsored ride. The agenda was very aggressive, ten breweries in about five hours with no more than 20-25 minutes per brewery, That meant only five minutes to ride between stops. That would work, except it took the team I was assigned to a lot more than five minutes to ride over four miles to our first stop on the circuit.

Earthbound Beer was a small brewery nestled between two buildings and sat about 30. We had 20 in our group. The beer was good, but it took a lot more than 25 minutes to get us all in, served and time to consume. The next stop was about an eight minute ride.

Civil Life Brewery was a lot bigger and had food, so we all stopped here for a lunch break as well. A lot bigger with a second floor loft area, dart boards, and an outdoor seating area. The beers were excellent, but it is cash only here.

The next stop was supposed to be Urban Chestnut Tower Grove, The team easily acquiesced to my request that we skip it and move on to Modern Brewery since I did have a time constraint and we were also going to stop at Urban Chestnut Midtown. So on to Modern (riding right past Urban Chestnut Tower Grove).

Modern Brewery does not have signage rights along Manchester, so they park a pickup truck with their logo on the door at the end of the entrance to the parking lot. We all missed it and had to do a u-turn. Modern Brewery opened just for this event. Normally they open at 4:00 pm on Saturday. The brews there like all the others were unique. I loved the rye cask aged ale. We were there for 25 minutes and another team joined us, so we moved on to Urban Chestnut Midtown.

The trip to Urban Chestnut took us past the St Louis Science Center, through a corner of Forest Park and past Barnes Jewish Hospital. We also went through part of the campus of St Louis University. The last hill was too much for me and I walked it. Once at the top is was downhill almost all the way to Urbane Chestnut. I spent a few minutes there and then broke off from the group to head back down Washington Ave. to my car.

George Nelson just emailed a thanks, apparently the group stopped at Morgan Street and the Four Hands Brewery before heading back to Alpha Brewery.

I had a surprise when I got back to my car. My keys were not in my pocket....they were in the ignition and it was on accessory. I remembered putting them in there to put up an open window and got distracted by another rider. OnStar could not open the doors since there was no juice in the battery.
So they dispatched someone to open the door and give me a jump. I got home an hour later than planned, but still with enough time to get to my evening event.

Here is a link to a 12 minute set of arrival scenes for the Bicrobrew.....Bicrobrew 2016 - Short Video


Next week it is the Giro Della Montagna Bicycle Ride. Until then...

I'm Back!

Okay, after a two year hiatus it is time to start blogging again. I may not write every day, but will whenever something is going on. You also can follow my escapades on Facebook (click the link to the right) and my rides on Strava (also a link on the right)

Sunday I did the Bottle Neck Bridge Ride sponsored by Trailnet. There were four routes ranging from 10.7 miles to about 63.4 miles. I chose to do the "short" route of 21+ miles. In one of his emails Steve listed the route as "rolling hills" but I should have known better....there was a lot more hill than roll.. The climb on the 21 mile route was listed at 1305 feet.

I got started and getting through town was fine, I was able to easily navigate the streets including the cobblestones (my bike is designed for this type of route and absorbed a lot of the shock).  Then I had to turn left on Eighth where the short route went off in its own direction. I looked in my mirror and saw several riders back about 25 yards, pulled to the center line and signaled my turn. As I was beginning to turn I heard a loud "ON YOUR LEFT" and nearly cut off one of those riders trying to pass me who actually cut off my left turn. I have it all on video. I said "I am turning left" and he said "Gotcha". I guess he forgot what hand signals look like, and he always probably passes on the left when someone is turning left.

Then the hills started....I walked up about three hills, pushing myself as far as I could then walking. In most cases I had enough downhill momentum go get up high enough on the the next hill to make it over. But sometimes, there was not enough downhill to help me. About a mile from the first rest stop (Villa Antonio Winery) the road turned to freshly laid gravel. That was slow going and again on a long grade I got off and walked since the resistance of the gravel and the grade got to be too  much for me. The winery grounds are beautiful, but except for the restrooms and the rest stop water (snacks were gone by the time I got there and more was on the way) the winery was closed we could not enjoy the wines.

After a short break for nature, water and nutrition (I brought my own snack bars and a banana just in case). I started back on the route and after about a quarter mile of gravel had to get off and walk again for a long grade. Riding was easier after I got to the top.

Finally!, after about a mile from the winery a paved road again. It was a grade, but I could do it. I went another 3/4 mile and another hill loomed ahead of me with no way to get momentum, I pushed my way almost to the top and walked the last 50 feet.  My legs were about gone and what I saw up ahead convinced me that it was time to throw in the towel. What I saw was a gradual grade leading to...another hill! It was time to call SAG, my trip was over having covered 14.5 miles of a 21 mile route with 928 feet of climb in 1:46, my slowest ever for 14.5 miles. I sat in the shade of a tree and waited to be picked up. Contributing to the problem was probably that I had only about 5 hours sleep the night before. Next time I will do better.