OK Freewheel

If I had to choose one word to describe today’s ride, it would definitely be flat. However, with a crosswind, it still wasn’t exactly an easy ride. However I still really enjoyed it and it was without any mechanical difficulties. The high point of the ride was the spontaneous creation of an 30 person paceline made up of mostly Oklahoma Bicycle Society members. I don’t ride in pacelines very often, but when I can find one I can keep up with, I will certainly join in. We kept up a good pace for about 10 miles and while it certainly took a bunch of energy out of me, I had a blast doing it.

Today was the perfect day for everything to go wrong. Traditionally, the third day of Freewheel is Crazy Day where riders don the silliest costumes they can, if you don’t consider our normal spandex wear as silly. :) After two years of failed costume attempts, I had high hopes for this year. I was planning to cover my bike with pinwheels and go as an out of work wind farm with a cardboard sign reading, “Will generate for food.” Unfortunately, my pinwheels hadn’t survived the first two days well and I barely made it out of towns before one-by-one the heads of the pinwheels started flying off and I just didn’t think I had the time to perform the necessary repairs.

Today was much shorter and flatter than the previous day, but for some reason it was much more tiring. Maybe it was because it was a route that had been extended from about a 28 mile direct route out to a 63 mile scenic one. For some reason my transportation mind can’t always happily accept the long route. However, it was a nice ride through some rolling hills and some pretty sights.

Up really early to drive back to Frederick one last time before heading back out towards Elgin. It started out nice and flat with a great tailwind, but we all knew that once we got into the Wichita Mountains, things would get tougher. However, the ride in was beautiful with the prairie, wild flowers and the mountains all around.