Tuesday Rides with BACN

The past two Tuesdays have been AWESOME after work rides with the Billings Area Cycling Network, or "bacon" as they are referred to around these parts.

Tonight's edition was a spectacular ride to the top of the "Rims" then out to Molt, MT and back to town via Buffalo Trail Rd. I took the cyclocross bike as it's been my main ride this year. I have been commuting to work with it and the boys from Missoula Bicycle Works can be proud to know that this baby has over 2K miles on it since I bought it last November. Thanks guys.

I rode out to the meeting point, Phipps Park, at the edge of town. Here I met Wayne and Randy, two great guys that I met last week on the Pryor Ck loop (another great ride). Last week we hammered it out, but this week was just a smooth ride of 32 or so miles for the loop.

Let me tell you that I was glad that I had about a six or seven mile warm up before we started, 'cause the first 4 miles or so is the stair step climb up to the top of the rims. Thankfully we had a nice tail wind to assist us which gave us time to chat about Mick Rogers' winning of the Tour of California. I gave a shout out to young Teejay VanGarderen from Missoula, the 21 year-old that was instrumental in pulling Rogers up to the top of Big Bear. If you missed watching it, que lastima!

Randy climbing

Once on top, the three of us turned it up a notch.

Wayne pulling us into Molt, MT

I don't know if it was the Pro Tour talk or the tail wind, but we were feeling good and we pushed it up to 30 mph. For a few minutes we could've been in the Pro Peloton. Nice!

Me riding west into the "Old West."

We blazed past Buffalo Trail (our return route) so that I could see Molt. Motlt, MT has an "almost famous" cafe that is known for playing some killer bluegrass music on Saturday mornings. Susan and I have been wanting to get out there to have breakfast. I hope we can do it once before our time here is up!


Our route home turned us into a cross headwind, forcing us to echelon and take short pulls. I'm sure glad that I had two Amigos to share the workload. It's times like these that more is better, but we did just fine. So far, I have noticed that these Billings boys (and probably girls, too) can ride!

Back at the bottom I said, "Adios" and made a bee-line back home. I guess I put in about 50 miles total for my pm ride, plenty to work up an appetite. Thankfully, my totally awesome wife had dinner ready...a great end to a busy day.