Northwest IL. Century Ride

Greetings everyone,

Is there any interest in doing the Northwest Illinois
Century Ride again in September, this year?

The ride has been the 3rd weekend in September.
If we continue to follow "tradition" that would put
it on Friday September 17 for the traditional get together
dinner; with the actual ride being Saturday morning the
18th, followed with the post-ride dinner at an Italian restaurant.
Do we still want to include the Sunday breakfast
and recovery ride??

How many are interested in participating this year?
This does not have to be a definite commitment.
I just want to know if this is a possibility to
'go ahead and start planning'.

Past attendees have enjoyed the ride so much it has
become an annual event---this being the 4th year!

Any comments or suggestions are welcome. Should we try
riding the routes backwards? (You know what I mean)

This ride is on (mostly) low traffic roads, which are
scenic and hilly. Wouldn't you love the challenge
of climbing Binkley Hill?

This ride takes you through a few small, quaint towns and villages in 3 counties:
Stephenson, JoDaviess and Carroll counties.
There will be a winery along one of the routes and also you
will ride near the windfarm. These roads are mostly low-traffic
and some a little hilly! One of the routes has a total of 5,300 ft.
of climbing! How's that for a challenge? Oh and speaking of challenge--

Binkley hill is one that is very challenging which has a 15% grade.
There are some spectacular views to enjoy. For those of you who
do not want to do a century, there is a 70 mile route option available.

The ride begins at the YMCA, located at the Highland Community
College Campus 2866 W. Pearl City Road in Freeport Illinois.

The sign up page is listed in Bikejournal.com

Thanks,
Trekn Teresa

Teresa,

This sounds like a great ride but we already have a commitment that weekend. Wouldn't you know it?

My son lives in Ogle County so I would have a good excuse to travel north. Maybe we can join you next year.

Hey Bike Chick,

Okay- sounds good to me. I will be looking for you next year!
Oh, and if you are a member of bikejournal.com; you can find
out all of the details in there and check out some of the pictures
from previous years, to give you an idea of the ride and what
others have said about it.
But, you may have to do a "search" for those posts,
and I'm not sure how well the search thing is working?
So far it has always been the 3rd weekend in September.
Anyway, I wanted to post it here like I did one other year
in hopes of getting more females to the ride.
There is usually only 2 maybe 3 females (not enough estrogen) :)
and the rest is men!


Anyone else interested?

Trekn Teresa