Cass-Morgan Fall Cycling Classic 130

The group leaving from Jacksonville... Dale mean muggin



The entire route was a big loop along these roads right on a bluff, very scenic



Our biggest group of the day consisted of 8 riders...not bad for a start up ride in November



Cutting the wind



Caseys for a quick stop

So, a long time customer and good friend of the shop: Nathan Carls, decided to have a nice metric century in November and invited us to all come to it. I spoke with some friends and invited a lot of people. Jason Fergurson "Ferg", who lives in Jacksonville and calls the shop nearly every day responded and said that he wanted to join and that we should ride out from J-ville to Beardstown where the ride began. I thought this sounded like a wonderful idea. The ride from J-ville to Beardstown was about 25-35 miles depending on the route. He gathered some chronies including my good friend Dale, new friend Jason Embry and Rob Delaney. We met up at 8 a.m. ( I left my house at 6:30 a.m.) and cruised North with a light headwind. I had ridden in Jacksonville once or twice but there are some really nice rollers and very peaceful roads out that way. Dale had to flip before Beardstown to head home and the rest of us made it to Beardstown in about two hours with 35 miles in before the ride. We met up with the Beardstown group: Nathan Carls, Travis Schroll, Jeremy Alcorn, and a very hungover Steve Graves "The Gravemaker". We said our hellos and then started riding back out towards the bluffs. A very steep initial hill got the legs burning and I was looking forward to many more hills. The route was awesome and we all enjoyed each others company and cracked jokes as usual. A brief gas station stop was pleasant and thanks to Nathan for picking up the tab! We got back on the bikes chilly from the stop but the hills soon warmed us up again. The headwind from the north began to pick up a bit towards the end of the ride and the group was feeling it a little bit. We ended the ride in Beardstown, said our goodbyes and Ferg, Jason, and I made the trek back to Jacksonville. We cruised with a nice tailwind and our conversations began to die down as the legs got heavier. I was very pleasantly surprised from Jason Embry's ride. He has put 4000 miles in this year as his first actual road season, dropped a lot of weight, and was keeping up with seasoned riders on his longest ride ever! Great ride Jason! We stumbled into Jacksonville with a sprint finish to burn up what little energy our legs had left. I felt good to be on the cross bike and still have energy left in the legs. 130 miles total for the day. We cleaned up and regrouped at Jason's beautiful home for coffee and whiskey. A great time was had by all and was thankful to ride some new roads with some new friends and get a long ride in towards the end of the year! Thanks Nathan for putting this together!

- JB