2023 In Cycling

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I spent a lot of time on the bike in 2023, riding around 6800 miles, which is over 2000 more than I have ever ridden before. I completed 250 rides, climbed over 400,000 feet, and spent about 400 hours on the bike. One of the reasons for this big increase is that this was my first full year having a bike trainer, and I rode a significant number of rides indoors on Zwift. Compared to infrequent rides on rollers in previous years, this helped maintain my fitness through the winter, leaving me much better prepared for the early riding season, including BCETS and the Dairy Roubaix.

Dairy Roubaix

The highlight of the year was the Dairy Roubaix, an unsupported gravel ride in April in the driftless area. I chose to do the long route, and rode by lots of places with personal meaning to me, and several of the roads were duplicated from on my Homestead Tour. I deviated from the route slightly in Viola to ride by my grandparents' house. Somewhere between Viola and Viroqua, I really started hurting, but a lone rider passing me gave me encouragement that kept me going. A couple of pieces of Kwik Trip pizza helped a lot,too. The weather was not great, and we started the day with light snow, which turned into sleet as the day warmed up slightly. As I passed my Uncle Odean’s farm on the ridge outside of Viroqua, the sleet and the wind combined for very challenging riding, and I know at some point my lips were bleeding from the sleet, and I couldn’t feel my hands. In spite of the challenges, or maybe because of them, the Dairy Roubaix was my favorite ride of 2023, and I look forward to doing it again in 2024!

Horribly Hilly

The Horribly Hilly, one of my favorite rides of the season, was a bust this year. I unwisely started the ride with a tire that had been punctured several weeks prior, and which I thought had been adequately sealed by tubeless sealant. About forty miles in to the ride, I heard the telltale hiss of a puncture, so I stopped, pumped it up, and kept going, even though it was apparent that I had lost a lot of sealant. I made it back to the rest stop, and a bike mechanic tried to put an innertube in it, but he didn’t have the right tube size and was unable to seat the GP 5000s without puncturing the tube. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any tubeless sealant, so I couldn’t just pump it up and keep going. That forced me to abandon the ride, much to my disappointment.

Other Notes

  • During the summer, we had quite a few days of poor air quality from wildfires in Canada, which forced me indoors several times.
  • I only did two centuries in 2023, the Dairy Roubaix and the BCETS Century.
  • I watched all three grand tours. It was an unusual year in that the same team, Jumbo Visma, won all three. The highlight for me was Sepp Kuss, an American rider, winning the Vuelta!
  • Even with all of the miles, I didn’t lose any weight. I must have eaten more!

Resolutions for 2024

  • More centuries and more gravel!
  • Take a bicycling trip. I’d like to climb a mountain pass.
  • Watch some women’s cycling to support parity in sports.
  • Go bikepacking! I bought some equipment during the COVID pandemic and haven’t used them yet. I’d like to do a loop from my house to the Kickapoo Valley, but I should at least start with a trip out to Blue Mounds.