One hundred!

After nearly eight hours in the saddle, former neighbors Wayne, Sue and Colin and I crossed the finish line of the 2010 Jesse James Bike Tour Sept. 11 in Northfield, Minn. 104 miles! A century!

I’m not going to candy coat it: The ride was brutal. Take a look at the map below and you’ll notice that a huge percentage of the route points west and/or north. All day long, an 18-20 mile per hour wind blew in from the northwest, making those legs a painful grind. Nothing says headwind like pedaling down a steep grade at 15 miles per hour.

But once we crossed the finish line, all that was forgotten (well, that might be stretching it a lot) because we had accomplished the 100-mile feat we’d been eyeing since  we rode the JJBT 60-mile route last year. It was my seventh overall, but my first since 1993 (and by far my slowest). So it feels like a first ever.

Here’s the route …

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