2012 Wear Yellow Ride

This was my second Wear Yellow ride this past Saturday and it was much better than last year's. Last year's took place at Chalco Hills and somehow I missed the group leaving and that was a really big bummer. Ended up riding around the lake over and over just to get some miles in. This year, the ride took place at SAC Museum and took to the highway. I was sure to be there with plenty of time and successfully left with the 22 miler group. They also had 34 and 47 mile routes. And boy was I glad that I chose the 22 mile ride!!!

It was a good turnout for the 22 miler group

It didn't even occur to me to wear yellow until I got there

For those of you not aware of Wear Yellow Nebraska, their goal and vision is, "Uniting Nebraskans in the fight against cancer through advocacy, awareness and fundraising."

Fine. There's yellow in my Jawbones!

Why am I glad that I chose the shortest route? Those rolling hills have those climbs that seem to go on for miles. Kind of like those gravel grinders we do in the winter time, but longer. Now if I had a road bike or an actual hybrid, then sure it would have been easier. But come on, on a fat bike doing fundraiser rides? Heck yeah!!! That's how I roll! Got quite a few words of encouragement from fellow riders telling me how awesome it was that I was doing the ride on a fatty.

The pitstop at around 10 miles

The 20mph winds that were blowing were intense. Shortly after turning off of Church Road and heading back towards Park Hwy, the wind finally turned to a tailwind for a measly 3 miles or so. I've never seen my fatbike go so fast before (a whopping 28mph, chuckles)! It was actually the first time that I've used the big ring on that bike and I've now ridden the Mukluk for over 600 miles? The other 19 miles or so, the wind was either in my face or it was blowing me sideways. Those oversized tires catch the wind like crazy. Chris and I have discussed this before during a gravel ride. Feels like your bike is tipped at an angle just to keep yourself upright. And those gusts of wind just push your bike sideways on the road. Kind of freaks you out when you are approaching 20 plus mph on the highway and you are leaning against the wind to stay upright.

This was the 9th annual WYN ride and I plan to do it again next year. No luck getting my raffle tickets drawn this year, last year was much more fruitful. But its all good. They had at least two dozen jerseys they were giving away, shirts, Lucky Bucket and Scheels gift certificates, Twin Six, bike parts, donations from Bike Way, HDR, UP, amongst many other. Grand prize was a Yellow Saris Bones 3 rack. It was funny because one of the raffle winners didn't know that it was the grand daddy prize and started walking away with it. Had to return it. Whoopsie! Over $3500 in prizes were given away! Including door prizes which Jena somehow won without even being present! Nice!

Pancake Man was there serving up pancakes and sausage. Good way to refuel after that wind beat the crap out of me on the ride. Good times and what better way to spend a Saturday morning than to ride for cancer awareness! It also included free admission into the SAC museum. Wow, I can't believe I never walked through that place after it moved. What an awesome place! I felt like a kid again at an airshow with my parents. Anyway, can't wait till next year to ride again! Who knows what bike I'll bring next year...

Very cool to have it at SAC museum in the restoration hanger. Place is huge!

A quick reminder, the Rollin to Colon ride is next month. It's the sister ride to the WYN ride. Starts in Valley, goes out to Colon for the long haulers, then back. It takes place Sunday, June 17th. Psycowpath racers, think of it as your cool down after racing at Ponca the day before!
http://www.rollintocolon.org/





The route brought back many memories of an also windy Tour de Cure ride last year. Actually, much of the same route was used.