Tour of the Mississippi River Valley
First of all, TOMRV is organized and hosted by the Quad Cities Bicycle Club. They do a FANTASTIC job! This was the 29th year, and the experience they have gained over the past 28 years is obvious in every detail. Putting on a major one day ride encompasses a lot of logistics. Hosting a two day event, with an overnight, takes it to a whole new level. I cannot say enough about the great job the QCBC and the volunteers do to make this a thoroughly enjoyable event.
Before we even arrived in Bettendorf for the start of the ride, the QCBC website provided a wealth of information covering everything we would need to know before we got there.
We arrived at Scott Community College a little after 7:00AM on Saturday morning for the start of the ride. A lot of riders had already started, but with the cold, rainy weather we weren't in any hurry. We picked up our registration kits and dropped our overnight bags off at the trucks for transport up to Dubuque.
We started riding at 8:00AM. The temp was in the upper 40's with light on and off rain. The first several miles followed the Mississippi River through the towns of Le Claire and Princeton. At that point we headed north into the farm country and the terrain started rolling - our first taste of hills.
At mile 27 we hit our first rest stop. We hadn't been drinking too much, but the bathrooms were very welcome (a common theme at ALL rest stops). It was raining and windy, so we thought it was nice to get off the bikes for a few minutes... However, it didn't take long to cool off, and suddenly a chill set in. By the time we got back on our bikes we were down right COLD! We set off a good pace to warm up, but a mile out of the rest stop Scott's rear tire went flat (remember, it was windy and raining).
Back on the road, we rode pretty hard to get warm. The hills got a little bigger and most of the riding was into a head wind, so eventually we warmed up. At the second rest stop we felt a little warmer and thought maybe it was warming up. Wrong! Within 5 minutes we were cold again. We were dressed correctly for the hard riding we were doing, but were not dressed for standing around in 50 degree, windy, rainy weather. We made the decision that all future rest stops would be fast = bathroom, food, drink, leave.
At the town of Sabula we crossed the Mississippi River on a steel deck bridge. Given the fact that the "steel" was wet, riding across the bridge was scary at best! Once on the Illinois side of the river, we continued north to the town of Hanover - 65 miles into our ride. At that point we turned onto Blackjack Road and the remaining 42 miles would be a series of ascends and descents.
The first climb was Chestnut Mountain. This was by far the biggest hill we had ever climbed, although, it wasn't too bad. Once on top, we followed a rolling ridge line for several miles to another rest stop. Immediately after leaving the rest stop, the road drops into a 15 degree descent. It would have been fun had it not been wet and slick. As it was, it was a nerve tester of feathering the brakes and avoiding the slick tar strips.
The ride then went straight through the town of Galena. Many of the riders stopped to eat, drink and meet up with family and friends. Based on our previous experience of getting cold very quickly, we kept going.
At mile 92, the route sheet gives you an option: Turn left for a ride on a country lane, or turn right to ride up "The Wall". Guess which one we did... It wasn't very long, but it was steep. It was about 200 feet of elevation. I was in my 39x25 gear and giving everything I had to turn the crank! We passed several people going up, but they were spinning away on the granny gear of their triple cranks. When we crested the top we were devastated to see that it was a false summit and there was more hill left! Once on top, we felt great. We were 15 miles from the end of Day one, and the big hills were behind us, and it was all down hill to Dubuque... Well, there were a few more climbs...
While we had been riding hard, we felt that our average speed had to be low. We had had a lot of long climbs, head winds, and the wet conditions prevented high speed descents. When we checked we were surprised to see that our average to that point had been 16.7 MPH.
Eventually we descended into Dubuque and we were almost done. However, we had to cross the river back into Iowa. Unfortunately, the only bridge is the freeway... and it was raining again. So, with semi-trucks whizzing past at 70MPH, we rode across the river in the rain and the truck spray. After winding our way through Dubuque, we were within a half mile of the finish when we turned a corner... and looked up... ONE LAST HILL! A half mile long. Oh, the cruelty! Cresting the top, we were at Clark College and our riding was done for the day.
The design of the route is great. It was challenging but ridable by most people. It provides a great deal of self accomplishment. The adverse weather conditions only added to sense of achievement.
Demeterius reserved a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom dorm suite at Lorus College. We checked our bikes into the overnight storage at the tennis courts, and took the trolley over to Lorus College. The hot shower felt great, but putting on dry clothes felt fantastic! Later, we headed back over to Clark College for a huge, all-you-can-eat banquet. It was great, and every calorie was earned and appreciated!
By 9:00PM we were asleep and day one was over.
We started day two at 7:30. There was no rain and it stayed dry all the way back to Bettendorf. We left off where we started - riding pretty strong. Although, I will admit that our legs were a little sore at first, and our butts a little tender. Within the first 20 miles, there were two large, long climbs that definitely tested our legs. I felt that these two climbs were the most challenging of the whole event. At that point we were 20 miles into day two, 68 miles to go and we were wasted! Fortunately, while there were more hills, they seemed to get a little smaller the closer we got to Bettendorf.
Although there wasn't any rain on day two, it was still cool, so we kept to our day one strategy of quick rest stops to avoid getting chilled. When we arrived back in Bettendorf, we loaded up quickly and headed straight to Starbucks.
In the end, day two was uneventful, and we rode at an average of 17.5 MPH. The real story was riding 88 hilly miles the day after riding 107 hilly miles. The combination is one of things that makes this a very special, challenging and rewarding event. As I stated before this ride provides a great deal of self accomplishment - I can hardly wait until next year!
