June 6th we arrived in Lexington, Kentucky for our 3rd edition of the Tour de Kentucky Bicycle Ride. Our hosts for this years tour were Jack and Pat Deacon. We met at their house Wednesday night for a “meet & greet” affair with all the riders present. This meeting gave us an opportunity to prepare all the paperwork necessary as well as enjoy a glass of wine and a delicious meal.
Thursday morning we had a short 35 mile warm-up ride touring some of the Horse Country around Lexington. We met at Berries on Bryan Station Road, an organic farm owned by two of our fellow riders. The route had beautiful countrysides, lots of horse farms & mares with foals born earlier in the spring. We had lunch at a local cafe, Windy Corner after the ride.
The Tour began on Friday. Our route took us to Georgetown with one group leaving from Lexington and another group leaving from Versailles. This route provided us with more horse farms, lots of mares & their foals, hayfields being cut and baled, and just more beautiful country. Lunch was in Georgetown. After lunch we rode on to the Country Inn & Suites, our home for the night. Each night before dinner we had a group meeting to discuss times to load luggage in the 3 sag wagons that support us and start time for the next day’s ride.
Day 2 we travelled from Georgetown to Carrollton and the General Butler State Park Lodge where we spent the night. This day gave us our first look at the Kentucky River. We had lunch at a very interesting cafe in Gratz, Kentucky. While there we met the local State Representative who was telling the locals about improvements to be made there to attract tourism. After entering the State Park we met one very tough steep hill (about 15-18% grade) to get up to the Lodge. Some of our riders had to walk this hill. Dinner and breakfast were at the restaurant in in the Lodge, a pretty good buffet with a large variety of food.
Day 3, from Carrollton to Shelbyville, started with a ride across the bridge of the Kentucky River. This was a very scenic route along the river and then out in the country. After riding through the country on relatively flat to rolling roads we saw in front of us a wall. The route went up this hill, roughly 600 yards, with grades from 5-10% then near the top it went to 22%. Only two of our group made it to the top. The rest of US walked it.
We were concerned about lunch since it was Sunday but a Marathon Station/Deli was open and saved the day. After lunch we rode into Shelbyville to the Holiday Inn Express. Dinner that night was at Claudia Sanders Restaurant, an icon in this town. Claudia is Colonel Sanders’ ex-wife.
On day 4 the rain came. After a council meeting at breakfast we decided to take several people into Lexington to pick up vans capable of hauling all the people back to there cars or homes. Only two people chose to ride in the rain back to Lexington. That night, many of us met for dinner at Fazoli’s and reminisced the 2012 edition of the Tour.
For more photos of our trip, just click on the link "2012 Tour de Kentucky" on the right side of the page under Links to Cycling Pics.
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