Appleton to Madison

I've toyed with this idea for a while. What if I rode from Appleton to Madison? A one way ride? Just to say I did it? My wife could drive down separately and bring a change of clothes and meet me at the hotel. Me, I'd get in a full day of riding, a long day (130 miles) of riding, and a true randonneur experience. If all went well, I could event submit the route to RUSA to be a permanent. It is an idea that has been swimming around in my head since last fall.

On Saturday, I finally made that idea a reality. I had booked a hotel and packed the car with all bag for a change of clothes in Madison. I'd finalized my route and printed up my cue sheet. So at 7:15 AM Saturday morning when I rolled out of my driveway, there would be no coming back. This was a one way trip.

I used the fairly conventional route to get out of Appleton--Prospect Avenue to American Drive to Shady Lane. Then Clayton Road to Larson Road to County G and on and on into Winneconne. I've been on these roads lots of times before, so this was all very familiar. What I could tell, even early in the morning, was that today was going to be hot and muggy. So I was trying to make sure I consumed enough fluids, even early on in the ride. I did a minimalist stop in Winneconne at the Kwik Trip, refilling on Gatorade. And then back on the bike.

From Winneconne, you are on Highway 116 for a brief bit, then Quigley road and O'Reilly Road. O'Reilly Road is really nice for about a mile. Tall trees on each side form a virtual canopy. I was thinking to myself it would be nice to ride on roads like this all day. Quickly though, you are out of that and down to Edgewater Road. The surface on Edwater Road is pretty tore up. It is what one of my friends would call slow pavement and you need to watch out for the rougher spots. But you are up on a ridge, so you get a nice view of the valleys to the south and east. Lots of green fields and trees below.

After Edgewater Road, it is County Road E, through Eureka and into Ripon. About the only thing notable on County E is that in most places, the pavement is in good shape. Then it is into Ripon. I stopped at the BP, refilled fluids and had an energy bar and was off again. I tried to keep my stops short today.

I have been to Ripon before on the bike, but after Ripon, this was all new. And seeing as Ripon was at the 51 mile mark, it truly was the point of no return. I saw another rider in Ripon coming back from his ride, so we chatted for a couple minutes until he turned off and I continued on. I was pretty much heading due south now on County Road A and then County Road N. County Road N was some more of that slow, rough pavement. I hate that stuff. But it is also what we ride on a lot in our brevets, so it is suitable training. On County N, there are 3 or 4 good rolling hills, probably about 150-200 feet in elevation each. The last one comes just east or Markeson. It isn't overly difficult, but you get to look at it for a while before you go up it, so it plays on your mind a little.

The next stop was Randolph, so after skirting Fox Lake, it was a quick couple miles into Randolph. I stopped at the Shell station in town. It would have been better to stop at the one south of town as it is larger and probably has more of a selection. But the Shell in town met all my needs. By now, it was about 12:30, and it was really getting hot. So more fluids were in order before setting off for Columbus.

Soutrh of Randolph, I got onto County Road G and then County road DG. I really liked County DG. Curvy so it had some visual interest, and a few small hills to climb too. The hills were not bad, but now I was feeling them. It was hot, and I had 85 miles in my legs. I got through the small town of Fall River (no services) and turned off to head into Columbus. I remember just south of town, there was this nice Creek, very pretty and all wooded. I especially enjoyed the shade. The temp was in the mid 80's by now, humid, and sunny skies, no clouds at all. The shade felt nice, and I kept hoping a cloud or two would roll in, but no luck on that all day.

At the north end of Columbus, they have a statue of who else but Christopher Columbus, so I stopped to snap a picture. Getting into town, I stopped at the Kwik Trip. This Kwik Trip is the same one that was one of our controls on the GLR 400 km brevet last year. And across the street, the same Burger King where we all chowed down dinner. No Burger King for me this time, but heading into the Kwik Trip, I did plan to stop a little longer and eat something more substantial. I did not have much of an appetite at this point because of the heat, but I knew I had to eat something. I did down a soda, have a Chicken-Monterey Jack Tornado (rolled Chicken and cheese thing) and a yogurt smoothie. It would have been good to eat more, but in such hot conditions, it is hard to eat more.

Leaving Columbus, I was now on my last leg into Madison, about 33 miles. This is when the ride got really tough. Up to Columbus, my average speed had been 18.2 mph. When I got to Madison, it was 17.7 mph. Maybe a little bit of that was due to stop and go in Madison, but some of that was I was just plain tired. The heat and distance were starting to take a toll on me. My legs didn't have the same zip. For whatever reason, the terrain just seemed more desolate too. Maybe because I was struggling for about 10 miles and it was hot. Just everwhere it seemed like I was in the middle of a cornfield. And, the wind had come up from the southeast, so I had a it of a headwind to go into.

At mile 117, I crested a small hill that had some trees at the top and stopped to take a 5 minute rest. This helped a lot. Sure, my legs were still tired, but I was able to catch my breath and regroup a little. What really helped too was that in about 6 more miles, I was on the outskirts of Madison. It was great. I was here. I was on this 4 line boulevard that had nice wide bike lanes on either side. Hooray, hooray. Sure, there would be Madison traffic, but a bike lane, I am happy. I worked my way over to Monona Road and started to head south to the hotel. No bike lane here, but cars seemed to be fine with me there. Madison is used to bikers after all. And sure enough, at mile 130.5, the hotel. I had made it.

I checked in, called my wife to let here know I was there (she was shopping at the mall) and got a drink to try to cool off. A shower felt good. So did some good Thai food. As did a swim in the pool later that night.

A ride of 130 miles is always a big effort. On a ride that long, you are going to have some rough spots. I did, between Columbus and Madison. What I think people also fail to realize is that you aren't just battling the distance on these. There is always something else that makes things hard. Often that something is the weather. Today it was heat and humidity. It wasn't Texas or Virginia hot, but it was up there. And after being in it all day, the heat will take the energy out of you. I did a good job of drinking and staying hydrated. Still though, I probably could have done even better. Having some water to douse on my head during the ride would have been nice too. Hate to devote a whole bottle to just water to douse on myself, but it may be something to figure out how to do.

The final stats were 130.5 miles, 17.7 mph avg speed, 8 hours, 30 minutes of total time, 6 hours 20 minutes of ride time. Overall, I think that is excellent. Some of those roads are pretty rough, so they really slow you down. Under 9 hours of total time is very good. I'll try to improve next time, but today, I am happy to say I have actually done it. I've rode from Appleton to Madison.