SYSCON | Syscon Double-Century (Almost)

Our first stop was for breakfast in Oswego, IL. Here Chad looks relaxed a comfortable. Hmmm, that might change in the next 60 or 70 miles.

South of Oswego, we have a water break. Here is Chad who trained with us last year but did not get to do the ride and Tim who is new to biking.

Below is Larry (with a few ominous clouds in the background.)

Pete was our SAG van driver. He was fabulous - staying ahead of us and providing us with fresh water and food. At the end of the ride, he greeted us with cold beer at the hotel.

This is the rest stop in Morris, IL - about 68 miles into the ride. Joe is mugging for the camera and looks nice and fresh because he hasn't ridden a single mile yet! (Remember - he is the one recovering from a "broken" ankle.)

Loading up on water for the last 40 miles of the trip. There was cloud cover, but the temperature was in the low 90's. It was hot and we had to drink continuously.

This is on a great little bridge on Old Stage Road between Morris and Seneca. This is one of the best stretches of road on the trip. It is a small two-lane road that winds along side the Illinois river, although there are only glimpses of the river here and there.

Matt had a little trouble with some dog poop stuck in his shoe cleats. Here he is just west of the bridge trying to clean them out. We still all tried to ride upwind of him for the rest of the day

A half-mile further west from the bridge we came upon a car accident that had just occurred. A Chevy Impala had somehow flipped over into the roadside ditch. Although the emergency response had not yet arrived, another motorist had extracted the young woman who was driving and she looked OK. I suspect she will slow down in the future. It was Matt's claim that if he hadn't had to stop to clean his cleats, the driver would have taken a few of us with her.

We have arrived in Utica!

Joe - who rode the fewest miles of the day - was the first to make himself comfortable at the Willow Inn... (Not a pretty site.)

Ironically, Joe, who rode only 37 miles on this day, and Pete who rode only the van on this day, were the first to head to town for dinner.

Duffy's Tavern - best darn Prime Rib in the state. At least, that is what it tastes like after 100 miles of riding. They also have an impressive collection of beers to wash it down with.

Joe seems to know somebody everywhere! We walked into Duffy's and the table next to us was one of Joe's old tennis buddies

We were in quite the mood - boisterous and hungry when we came in to eat. The server was gracious and joined in the fun.

Here we are heading out for Day 2 - sore butts and all.

The conditions were fabulous for the first 65 miles of the ride home. The wind at our back, the sun was out, and open road. Unfortunately, we were hit with very severe weather just outside of Oswego and had to get rescued by Larry's wife, Cathy.

Following the ride on Sunday night, Joe and his wife Sheila graciously offered to host a reception for the riders and all the Daybreak people at their house. Here, Joe is telling Matt how difficult it was to ride for 37 miles on a broken ankle...

Tim, a new rider with us this year, is a runner and clearly in great shape. However he discovered a few muscle groups used in biking that are not used in running.

The end of the day - Matt and his wife Pam head home with many more stories to tell from this years ride.

2007 Double-Century Picture Gallery

from left to right is Kurt, Matt, Larry, Joe, Louie, and Peter. A pretty motley crew, if I have to say so myself.

Louie topped us all in terms of the "pro-biker" look. A far cry from last year when Louie went on his first ride with us. He has taken to biking like a brick to mortar and is now leading the pack when we ride.

Usually, the training rides shake out all of the odd little quirks and tweaks we have with our bikes. The first few rides are typically filled with noisy gears, flat tires, and such. However, on this ride, we had our fair share of mechanical trouble.

Here we are passing the Zion nuclear power plant. That was good for about 15 miles of "glowing in the dark" jokes and chides for everyone.

Water was a problem on this ride. My route had some logistical mistakes including not having

adequate stops for water along the way. It is hard to remember that 30 miles between towns on a bicycle is an hour-and-a-half of hard riding instead of 20 minutes in air-conditioned comfort of a car. This was a perspective we were reminded of several times along the way.

Joe was the big motivator of the ride. The general consensus is that Joe will talk to anyone anytime and if there is no one strange around to talk to - he will pepper the other riders with questions, jokes, and comments.

Peter is still smiling here as we enter the part of the route we were not all that ready for. Most of our training was within 50 miles of Chicago - probably one of the flattest spots in all the mid-west. A "hill" to us was going over a major road on an overpass. Once we got about 50 miles west of DeKalb, the hills started... and kept going and going - just continuous rolling hills. Some of them pretty substantial. After a few miles of this, we knew we were in for an interesting afternoon.

And yet another flat tire. This one was more serious and actually ruined the tire rather than the tube. We were prepared for blown tubes - only Peter was prepared for a blown tire and had an extra. Points for Peter...

We called Joe the "Energizer Bunny" but he was out cold on this rest stop. We were at the 80 mile point and waiting for my son, Chris, to show up with more water - we had run out.

We figured we had another 20 miles to go, but another unfortunate aspect of my route was that it was actually 114 miles to our destination instead of 100. Good thing we didn't know it at this point.

Entering Savannah was a relief. It is hard to read, but the first sign we saw as we rode into Savannah was "Poopy's - Motorcycle Parts & Service" and if that wasn't enough, Poopy's also offered "Live Entertainment," "Free Tent Camping," and, of course, "Tattoos."

We were darn tired at this point, but we still had another 6 miles to go to the other side of town and our hotel.

This is the picturesque view from our motel. The proprietor wanted to make sure - after she heard what we were doing - that we had a great view from our room. Of course, this had to be at the top of a steep hill! Our last after 70 miles of hills. More than one of us walked up (I won't tell which ones.)

As picturesque as this was, there were trains about 100 yards away that leaned on their horns all night making getting a good night sleep a challenge for some of us. Not me - I sleep through anything.

The next day, we took an alternative route home which Joe said had no hills. We'll...he was wrong. Still, we made it back minus a couple of riders who took their leave a little earlier in the ride.

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2008 Picture Gallery - Syscon Double-Century (Almost)

2007 Double-Century Picture Gallery