It’s also National Bike to Work Day, and Bike To Work Week, so I hope everyone who can is celebrating it on two wheels. There are prizes, so keep it up, Lincoln. Go to Lovetoride.net/Lincoln to sign up or to see what’s happening. Invite your co-workers to join you.
As you’ve likely already read, we’re crushing the competition, so congratulations Lincoln riders!
We want to keep making Lincoln a better place to ride. You can help by giving your input for the The Long Range Transportation Plan for Lincoln-Lancaster County. Phase one public outreach is underway. Go to https://lrtplincolnmpo.com/ to learn more and take the survey. You can write on the public wall and see what others are saying about the issues, and you can identify areas of concern on the comment map. They need to hear from us on a wide range of issues. I took part in a focus group. They are trying to figure out how to make transportation work better in Lincoln as we move toward 2050.
More riders also means that more cyclists are looking for fun things to do on their bikes, and this means more events. I know I probably talk a lot about riding gravel here, but more people are discovering it’s charms, including less traffic and more remote locations. This past weekend Beatrice was the center of attention, as it hosted both the Homestead 100, featuring the Chief Standing Bear trail, and the Solstice Gravel Grinder- Equinox edition. In the Spring when many races and events were getting pushed back to fall, we all hoped that Covid would have become history by now, but no. We’re just figuring out how to live with it. With time chips in the racer’s numbers, a mass start can be avoided and more space given to each rider.
It was an especially beautiful course in my opinion, featuring hills and a few minimum maintenance roads that are the northern most extension of the Flint Hills of Kansas. Had I not been actually trying to race, I would have liked to have taken photos along the way. Steele City was having their Flea Market, and we rode past the entrance to Rock Creek Station, so there was a lot to do in the area for non-riders as well. Also, the weather was better than it would have been at Solstice.
Next Saturday is Randy’s Last Ride, a commemorative re-tracing of Randy Gibson’s last ride three years ago before he was killed by a drunk driver, 61.22 miles. If you would like to know more about the event go to Pirate Cycling League on Face Book for details.