Ride 12 - Going to the Sun... Prairie

A pair of sandhill cranes. 6/14/24 dwm

 Riding to Sun Prairie is difficult. There are only a few ways to get over or under the interstate and many of them are on heavily-traveled streets.

 Washington Street is literally a highway when it passes under Interstate 39 - 90 - 94. I've used Cottage Grove Road a few times but it is south of Sun Prairie several miles. The road I've used is busy and doesn't have a bike lane.

 Third best is High Crossing Road but getting to it requires busy city streets. Second best is Hoepker Road. That requires riding around the north side of Truax Field (Dane County's airport) and crossing U.S. Highway 51.

My favorite route is a new one, that I first used last fall. Portage Road goes north to where it was cut in half by the interstate. After construction, Portage Road turns right on to a bridge and then wraps a round-about continuing on its way. Right now it's pretty quiet but as a large medical clinic is built next to a new hospital, it will get busier.

The turn-around point. 6/14/24 dwm

I used familiar streets to reach Portage. There was a tunnel under East Washington Street, then passing
through Madison College and a city park before joining Portage. After its bridge, I passed through the American Family campus to reach Kwik Trip for a pit stop and a snack. 

I was nearly finished with the second hour of the ride and trying to keep my average speed at or above 15 miles per hour. At a stoplight, the ride clock said 1:59:15 and I needed a quarter mile to reach 30. When the light turned green, I got a good start but just missed, it was 2:00:03 when the odometer read 30.

Breakfast and first lunch. 6/14/24 dwm

 Heading to the third hour, it was much the same. I hit the 45-mile mark at 3:00:29. That third hour I battled some wind and the most hills of the day. To get a 15-miles per hour average, I needed to get moving right away. This time it worked, I reached 60 miles when the clock was at 3:58:35 and had 60.2 when it hit 4:00:00.

 That wasn't the whole ride, but it was close. I has 62 miles when I stopped to eat., then rode 6 miles to a bike shop and then home. City riding makes it tough to go fast very long with stop lights and traffic. I finished the day with a 14.9 miles per hour average over 68.

 I got started on the ride not long after getting home from the gym. Five miles down the path I made my first Kwik Trip stop to grab a small bottle of chocolate milk and peanut butter and jelly (grape) sandwich.  Four hours later I stopped at another Kwik Trip for lunch as I completed the ride. There was a third stop in between, where I grabbed a small pack of crackers with cheese for quick energy.

The second lunch was the stop at McDonald's in Verona. I wanted something more filling and needed a break, it was nice sitting in air conditioning a few minutes before finishing the ride. My new total, 472.5 miles.