Hilly Review

ByAllan Edmonds

The Hilly Hundred for 2010 is over. I know lots of BBC members took part. For some it was a long family tradition; for others it was a new family event; for some it was the culmination of a year of training; for others it was another ride on familiar but crowded roads. The weather was unbelievable...well, really too hot, don't you think?

In the rest of this post I'll share comments I received from club members in response to my request for personal stories, plus a few observations of my own.

The first to respond was SW who somewhat gruffly complained that Day 1 was 57 miles, not 50, and that the total for the weekend was going to go well over 100.  "If they're going to call it the Hilly Hundred, then it should be exactly 100 miles!"

DH, who didn't ride, participated vicariously.  He was one who loaned a bike to JA who was having something like 20 family members coming to town for the event, honoring her late father who had ridden it many times. He wrote to say how moved he was by their story.

TB rode along with her husband who road a tandem with their 5 year old on back. She wrote:

"It really was fun to experience this ride from a 5 year old's perspective.  She was happy and smiling seemingly regardless of what was going on.  She loved the music at the stops and we spent lots of time just watching her enjoy the time off the bike. She was in a 5 year old heaven at stop 3 on day 1 when there was a slide and swing set to play on!  

"For both days the only real complaints we heard from her were about 30 miles in on Day 2, the road was a bit rough, she was tired, and she was beginning to hurt.  We convinced her to go the long route so we could stop at rest stop 3 in Stinesville. When we got to the stop we laid down under the sycamore tree, listened to the music, and watched the hawks circling high overhead.  After a good LONG stop we finished with Jessica smiling and happy once more.  She has been proudly wearing her Hilly cap the rest of the day.

"It really was a great weekend!  I would not have changed a thing."

At Tuesday's OWLS ride we had a small group of just seven coming out for our ever shorter rides. I was amused that five of the seven had done the Hilly. All 5 had those neat helmet mirrors that one can only easily get at the Hilly and three were wearing identical souvenir socks.

For pictures and more personal commentary from another Indiana rider, see the blog by Helen Steussy.