Two weeks and counting

Yesterday was our last team ride before the big JDRF ride in Lake Tahoe. It's 72 very hilly miles around Lake Tahoe, so in preparation, yesterday we rode 72 very hilly miles in West Michigan. It was a good ride with over 25 of our team mates participating in two loops that started on the shores of Barlow Lake. The first loop was just shy of 30 miles and featured the rolling hills of Parmalee Road. 

The team assembles before the start of  30 mile Loop 1.

The second loop was considerably longer. It clocked in at 42 miles, which gave those who did both loops the 72 we needed to match Tahoe. This loop started with a long flat stretch of Patterson Road going north. We may have even had a tail wind considering our group was riding along at 20-23 MPH.  Once we turned east and then south the existence on a southerly wind was confirmed as our speeds dropped by almost 10 miles an hour. We also hit a few more hills and our cohesive group got splintered all to heck.

Our pace-line jamming along at 23 MPH.

Eventually our team ended up in groups of 2s, 3s and 4s as we took various routes back to the cottage at the start/finish. Even though it was a difficult ride I felt good and the reward of swimming in the lake and a big cookout afterwards made it all worthwhile. When it was all done we packed up our bikes for the trip to Lake Tahoe. The bikes leave this week, we leave on September 7th. And on September 9th we conquer one more challenge on our rode to find a cure for diabetes.

The lead pack on the Paul Henry Trail, about 10 miles from the finish.