Bob Lebow century, Nampa, Idaho

[Tater]

Well first off, I remembered my water bottles, unlike last weekend at the LRRH when I left them at the hotel and Mr. Tater had to run back and get them. This ride is a part of a series here in the Treasure Valley that includes a couple century rides and a few others thrown in for good measure throughout the summer. Okay, pretty much the only organized rides we really have. Sad, I know.

Anyhoo, we started at Nampa High School, all 123 of us century riders. When we were allowed to start, I think 115 of those riders were off like a shot and beyond my meager eyesight three miles in. Well...I guess I will be bringing up the rear. Ten miles in I caught up to a nice pair of muscled and shaved calves, er, another rider. Turns out, he was not a hammerhead and was just out to have fun. Right on! My kind of rider. We ended up riding the majority of the ride together, talking away the miles. We rolled through the small Idaho towns of Marsing and Homedale, then crossed the Idaho/Oregon border and sped through Adrian before heading back to Idaho. He was a bigger hill slug than I, so he'd draft me up the hills, then I'd latch onto his wheel for the spin down. What with the 18-21 mph southeast winds we had all day, we ended up taking turns pulling just to get a break from the wind. I lost him for a five mile stretch around the sixty mile mark. What a lonely feeling that became. Check out the road ahead: http:// Nope, nobody on the horizon. Behind me? http:// Nope, no one there either. Not a problem, as the majority of my rides are done solo, now instead of having someone to talk to, I'll just have to talk to myself! But, this is the time of year when the crops are growing fast and at different points on the ride onions, mint and hay could be smelled strongly. We even rolled by some hops fields and I thought the way they grow the hops with the support structure was pretty cool. The hops will grow up the supporting string. http://

The mile 73 pit stop was a welcome sight and we munched Fig Newtons and bananas. Again. Those items seemed to be quite popular at all the stops on this ride. So much so that if I see another Fig Newton anytime soon, I may barf! But, they did go down nice at the time, as did the chips and salsa. Salt, woo-hoo! Here's a shot of that stop: http://

The rest of the ride from that pit stop on was pretty much a blur of rolling hills and the relentless wind, around Lake Lowell, a few more hills then back to the start at the high school. A pretty ride through southwest Idaho and a bit of Oregon that I wouldn't mind doing again next year.

Just rolling down the road...http://

[Starfish]

Thanks for this great report! I need to consider coming over for that next year. (1) I have a friend in Nampa I could visit, whom I haven't seen for years, (2) your description made me SOooo homesick for the inland empire. The sunshine, the fields, the smells. I'm glad you had a great ride! Thanks for the report!

[yellow]

Tater...I like those small rides. Sounds like a nice day! Is it worth the drive from SLC to do this ride, you think? What was the climbing like (that is, was there any? I really don't like totally flat rides all that much...)?

Slight Hijack:
I'm considering the Tour de Vins 60 mile ride in Pocatello in the fall (Sept 30; Shiraz has me all talked into it). Did you do that one last year?

[Tater]

Yellow, the hills were just rollers and most of them were in the last third of the ride. Nothing too scary, but enough to get one's butt out of the saddle a few times. A good portion of the ride went along the Snake River, then wound back through the crops to the starting point. The traffic was pretty much nonexistant until we got back around Nampa, so that was nice. One thing I didn't realize until I was talking to Mr. Tater at the end, was that there were only three females that did the century.