A Ride out in the Great Corn Desert

Not much in the way of hills, but in Illinois the wind is your hill.

Yesterday the Fox Valley Bicycle &Ski club held its Swedish Days Ride in mostly rural Kane county, west of Chicago. Like many invitational rides in recent years, it was a Fredfest, with fully half of the cyclists present turned out in full Tri kit. It was an interesting sight to behold a paceline comprised of aero-barred riders.

In attendance were not one but two World Champions:

Bet that bike's a bear in a crosswind...

A Rainbow for... which event?

(Just kidding.)

We had some rain...

It was refreshing, actually. Wish it'd lasted all day.

i believe i had the only bike that day that had mudguards... but no one wanted to sit on my slow wheel. i saw a lot of ruined jerseys.

We rode past a Buddhist temple,

i wonder if they'll be filling in that blank page there on the left.
 i'll be checking back in a month or three.

And lots of cornfields...

And soybeans...

It turned hot and windy later in the day; it started to really take it out of me, and i hobbled in as possibly the last rider on the course, where the great people who ran this ride treated me to lots of ice cream goodies and the last of the watermelon.

Many thanks to the organisers of this great ride. i look forward to returning next year, hopefully in better shape.