Cycling SW Kentucky and the Horsey Hundred - May 2011

We rejoined some of the friends we made last year at the Ohio River Rendevouz ride hosted by Pat and Jack Deacon for the Tour de Southwest Kentucky. This year the tour was hosted by Gary and Cathy Hamby. About a week before the ride start, we received an email saying to change our reservations. Due to the flooding in the surrounding areas, Gary and Cathy were forced to change our routes. We thought this worked out great because we now had a homebase in Madisonville, KY, and only changed hotels one night.

Our first day was a 45 mile loop around Madisonville. The early morning was misting rain and the temperature cool but the sun came out just before we started riding and the day was beautiful. The ride took us down to Nortonville where we stopped at the Dixie Pan Café for lunch before returning to Madisonville. We passed a lot of Kentucky farm land and the route was moderately hilly.

We started cycling day 2 with leg and arm warmers and vests again. The route today was a very hilly 45 miles and took us from Mortons Gap to Hopkinsville, where we stayed at the Best Western. We passed more farmlands and beautiful scenery. We were told there was 2700 ft of climbing in that 45 miles. However, Kentucky hills are not like they are in Texas. They are long descents and long climbs; you can not roll these hills. In fact, at one point on the ride, Paul stated that he was starting to dread the long downhills. Yes, it meant we would have a long climb coming up.

We made it to Hopkinsville so that meant we just retraced our route for the return trip to Mortons Gap the next day. The return trip, however, didn’t seem as hard on us as the trip down. Someone said it was a couple hundred feet of climbing less than going to Hopkinsville. Maybe that ‘s the reason or maybe our legs were just now getting accustomed to the climbing. Either way, it was a very nice ride.

Day 4, we are back in Madisonville and cycling a loop north of town. The temperature has warmed and we are all shucking our arm warmers and vests before we get 5 miles out. Another beautiful route today and one extremely steep, but short, hill near the end of the ride.

This was a great trip. We had 22 participants, a smaller group than last year, and this allowed us to get to know everyone a little better. We are hoping the Tour de Kentucky continues and are able to join the group again next year. Great people! Great scenery! Great cycling!

After visiting kids and grandkids in Ohio, we returned to Kentucky for the Horsey Hundred ride. This ride started in Georgetown, just 14 miles north of Lexington. Saturday, we opted for the 59 mile route as we had friends working one of the rest stops and another friend that was driving one of the SAG vehicles. As we rode up and down the many hills, we passed beautiful horse farms and saw many new foals. We used every gear we had available to us on our bicycles. Sunday, we rode the 30 mile route as it was going to be hot and our legs were pretty tired from all the hills the day before. Both days, the Bluegrass Cycling Club fed us lunch. There was also a small party in Georgetown on Friday night and a really swinging party Saturday evening in Midway. The Horsey Hundred is one of the best supported rides, not to mention their well-stocked rest stops, we have ever done.
We are hoping to get a group of friends to come to Kentucky with us next year for the Horsey Hundred. Fun! Fun! Fun!