The April Alaska Century ride had few takers. Just a few faithful from the Ronsse velo-garage showed up early the morning of April 23 for the century ride. It was a crisp 36 degrees at 8:00 a.m., but clear skies were above and we were looking forward to the radiant heat of the sun! A marked change from the rain/snowshowers of the previous day, when Janice Tower and I competed in a local Arctic Bike Club 10 mile TT. I had an inch of new snow at the house that morning I left for the TT, on top of the four foot drift still sitting in front of the house.

The April Alaska Century ride had few takers. Just a few faithful from the Ronsse velo-garage showed up early the morning of April 23 for the century ride. It was a crisp 36 degrees at 8:00 a.m., but clear skies were above and we were looking forward to the radiant heat of the sun! A marked change from the rain/snowshowers of the previous day, when Janice Tower and I competed in a local Arctic Bike Club 10 mile TT. I had an inch of new snow at the house that morning I left for the TT, on top of the four foot drift still sitting in front of the house.

We headed out from Bartlett on the bike path that paralleled the main highway with five riders, four of whom were going for the century.  We were all bundled up to stay warm and Dennis Ronsse had the obligatory Alaskan bunny boots that were fitted with MTB cleats.  Needless to say it looked pretty funny to see someone riding clipless pedals with bunny boots on...  Hey, you gotta stay warm to be able to enjoy the ride!

Not far along the path we encountered one of the "rats of Anchorage", a young moose wandering along the fence which lines the property of one of the military bases. Unfortunately the moose was penned in by the fence and us approaching on the bike path. We wandered over to the highway to distance ourselves from a potentially charging moose. We rode on the shoulder, against traffic, hoping to not agitate the moose too much to where it would dart out onto the highway (and potentially get hit by a car). after stopping many times as the moose started to make a run for the highway, we were able to get around it and re-connect with the bike path out to Eagle River.

We made it to Eagle River and negotiated town traffic as well as a rooty (extremely rough) bike path to the other side of the town and on to the lovely two lane Old Glen Highway. Some sections had a bit of ice that all of us made it across without incident. Then we were got back on the main highway and on out towards Palmer, negotiating through all the winter gravel on the shoulder.

We lost one of the riders at the Eklutna exit as he had other commitments in Anchorage. We four rode a good pace line on the highway into a headwind.

The skies were a lovely shade of blue and it felt good to ride in the sun, albeit still pretty chilly. All of us had at least two layers of clothes on and some had up to four layers. Once we got to the Palmer hay flats we saw a wonderful spectacle of geese on their migration path. Tons of birds in the skies in huge V-formations, all heading towards Anchorage or wherever food might be. Wow, that was an amazing sight. Tons of birds in the air and the beautifully snow capped peaks in the background. Great day for a ride!

We made our first stop two hours into the ride to take a break and empty out the morning coffee. Some shed a layer as the temps were rising. We were finally above 40! Now Dennis was sporting knickers with his bunny boots! What a sight! We headed out and stopped not far off at a gas station water and Andy Pohl just had to have a Taco Bell Gordita to fuel him for the rest of the ride to Sutton.

We passed through Palmer without any traffic incidents and worked another good pace line out of Palmer to a really fun down hill section. Luckily there wasn't too much gravel in the 90 right hand corner at the bottom so I could keep my speed up. Then it was a slow, steady, rolling climb into the wind to the town of Sutton. We stopped at a local five & dime store where Janice Tower got some good homemade banana bread. Then it was on the road back to Palmer, and back up that lovely down hill we had fun descending.

It was a fun and quick ride back into Palmer as we were now riding with a good tailwind. We hammered back to Palmer! Oh what fun! We stopped at a nice little place called the Vagabond Blues Café and each got a little something to eat and drink. We chatted outside, enjoyed the radiant heat of the sun and wondered how much more chaffing Dennis’ bunny boots were going to do to his shins (his socks were having a hard time staying up).

We had a good pace line back to Anchorage until some of us stopped to remove more layers — it was above 45 degrees and the sun was feeling so good! We made it safely through traffic and gravel back to the bike path from Eagle River to Bartlett high school. Then it was a mission of negotiating all the people out enjoying the lovely weather on the bike path (joggers, roller bladders and other cyclists of all levels). WOW! Talk about a maze of people! All Alaskans have been anxious for this great weather day! I know we took full advantage of it!

No flats, no mechanicals, just good tired legs at the end (and sore butts). A fantastic early season century ride in Alaska! And to think, I said I wouldn’t ride outside unless it was above 50 degrees! I guess I’m getting tired of riding these centuries inside!!! :) Thanks to Andy, Dennis and Janice for a wonderful early season century ride! Woo Hoo!!! :)

UMCA Year-Rounder Challenge

Preparing for and riding centuries