New Roads!

Went out for 3 hours this morning on a great tempo ride. Took some new county roads I had never taken before and ended up being a great loop. A stretch of about 5-8 miles of gravel had to be taken to connect roads I found, but the gravel was pretty much non existent and yielded instead pavement. The scenery around the area was awesome, could look forever in any direction and then when I descended into the Upper Iowa river valley, great winding roads. Ended up coming out on Iowa Highway 76 and encountered a long/steady 2.5mile climb or so, not the steepest until the end but enough to put some pressure on the lungs/heart.

Overall it was a great ride, made up for not having any of the guys to ride with.

July 5th is the Iowa State Criterium Championships. This is in downtown Cedar Rapids, a .7mile course, very flat and fast. It goes over the 2nd and 3rd ave. bridges, two of the very bridges you saw underneath the wrath of the Cedar River, just 1 year ago. Check out the website for details on a big weekend. Enter more than 1 race and take home some good cash with a 7,500 dollar cash payout for the day. One of the bigger races in Cedar Rapids, and help to celebrate the downtowns rebuild from the floods!! Could even come a day earlier and experience the July 4th Taste of Iowa celebrations!

It is also the Iowa State SINGLE SPEED Championships, so bring your fixie/single speed!

Thats the area of the race course, while under water last summer!