Welcome to the Minnesota MS150 Pre-Team Norske 1996 ride report!
Welcome to the Minnesota MS150 Pre-Team Norske 1996 ride report!
Jeff Hernes
Jeff Hernes
Life takes some twists and turns whenever it wants. The day of writing this,
a neighbor has died from yet unknown causes. A massive heart attack is
suspected. He was 65.
I met a fellow last weekend working to prevent such a thing from happening to himself. He'd been told by his doctor a couple of years ago that he wouldn't see the age of 42 if he didn't make some major changes in his life. He picked up bicycling as a result and was participating in the MS150 ride from Duluth to the Twin Cities.
Yup, I was on the same ride. It came up rather suddenly. A week before, Warren, a co-worker of mine, and I were told what the dates were for the ride, and I jokingly told him that if he got the necessary pledges lined up for me, I'd do the biking. He called my bluff and had double the amount needed six hours after starting the search late Monday afternoon. Friday afternoon found him dropping me off at the Blaine High School. I was hoping the commuting to work on bike would get me through the weekend.
I registered and was number 2809. Our bikes were shipped to Duluth in ten semi trailers, and we road countless busses. We stayed at a ski lodge on the south end of Duluth--a few of us in tents, many in one of the big rooms, and another group roughing it in various hotels throughout the city.
Saturday morning my neighbors started discussing bodily functions about 5am, so I gave up and got up. I was a little irked at the available breakfast, skipping the scrambled eggs, sausage, and hashbrowns, opting for slightly better french toast and Cheerios. A good bowl of granola would have been perfect.
I was on the road by 6:30, the sun was up, and there was no wind. The first rest stop was only eleven miles down the road, and was well stocked with decent food. I'd have skipped breakfast if I'd known that ahead of time. Another surprise was that there was no wait for the porta-potties. I'd been told to skip the first stop because the wait was generally half an hour. I figured I must be well ahead of the sausage crowd. :-)
Most of the day was on a paved bike path following an abandoned railroad grade. It was also rather, uh, dull. There were trees, and more trees, to see pretty much the entire way. One place the trail came out of a hill into a shallow valley of farmland, but someone had decided to plant pine trees six feet apart on both sides of the trail. :-/ I never knew claustrophobia could last 70 miles on a bike ride. Actually, it wasn't bad at all, but I'm glad it isn't my normal bike route.
Lunch was at the halfway point, about 9:15. We were cruising, as the wind
hadn't picked up. That held true almost all the way to Hinckley. I pulled
in at 12:15, and had the rest of the day to myself. I set up camp under a
tree as the temperature was in the mid-80's, grabbed a shower, and "hung
out." I really enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of the tent city.
People rolled in all afternoon, and many unfortunately sporting some serious sunburn. Again, several jumped on shuttle busses to hotels, and others headed to the high school gym where they'd be staying. Overall, tent city wasn't much bigger than North Dakota's CANDISC ride's, with 300 cyclists. The only clue that this was quite the event were the rows upon rows of bikes filling up 1 1/3 baseball outfields.
Supper was a pasta affair, followed by some live music entertainment. I got in quite a bit of reading, and topped off the evening with a visit to the local frozen dairy establishment. The camp was pretty quiet by 10.
Ahh, the neighbors this night were two sets of late-teens, early-twenty year olds. Fortunately they had their conversations while getting ready for bed, and were still sleeping when nature forced me to get up about 5 again. Others were stirring so I packed up, had a big stack of pancakes, and left about 6:10.
At the first rest stop, I overheard that there were about 15-20 riders ahead
of me. That meant there'd be no waiting for supplies along the way. Lunch
was in Cambridge, the halfway point, and again about 9:15. I didn't get out
of there until 10, at which time it felt well into the afternoon. The sun
was high, and again the wind wasn't a factor. Everyone was cruising. The
worst conditions we'd hit so far was a stretch of rough road. At that
point, a couple of us were feeling a little envious of those on the mountain
bikes with suspensions.
There were no bike trails today. It was all farm country and county roads for the most part. We were on so many backroads over the course of the 81 miles I'd really be hard-pressed to follow the same route this weekend without help. They got us back to our starting point. I pulled in about 12:20 amidst a group of volunteers cheering us on. I was probably in the first 100-200, and I was surprised how many familiar faces there were. It took a while to find a phone to call Linda, and while I waited for them to come, I took in the final event--more food.