tbp century ride

Saturday, a peloton of The Bike Project's volunteers completed a century: 100 miles in a loop from Champaign west to Clinton Lake, southeast to Monticello, then back to Champaign.  It took us 11 or so hours, albeit only six and a half in the saddle.  We stopped pretty frequently to ward off heat exhaustion; the weather advisory even suggested this was a bad idea:

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LINCOLN IL
308 PM CDT SAT JUL 17 2010
HIGH TEMPERATURES IN THE LOWER TO MIDDLE 90S WILL COMBINE WITH
HIGH HUMIDITY LEVELS TO PRODUCE AFTERNOON AND EARLY EVENING HEAT INDEX VALUES OF 100 TO 105 DEGREES.

Plus, we had to ford a river near Monticello...

...after Google Maps lied to us about a washed out bridge.  But I'll give Google Maps a chance to redeem itself; here's our route:



We made it back safe and we all learned something.  I, for one, learned that my saddle sucks.

Congratulations Carl, Michael, Vince, Chris, Joel, Emma, Emily, Phil -- and me! -- for making it back alive!