Thursday night I drove up to the Pleasant Valley police academy, no I am not changing careers. A fellow cyclist from team "In-A-Tub" is a police officer and was given permission to open up the training course for our use. That's right, we get to race on a closed course where they train the officers to powerslide and other cool stuff. The course is like regular city streets being two lanes wide, many turns, and an actual blinking red traffic signal. If all that wasn't enough to make this the best venue, it is also free. Imagine nice pavement, no traffic to worry about, and no cost to you. We had a good turn out, around 20 riders of all skill levels. We also all start the race off together and try to hang on for as long as you can until eventually you find yourself in a smaller group racing against 2 or 3 other people. We did 3 different races on three different routes for a total of close to 2 hours of racing. The races are open to whomever would like to come and join so please plan to attend and invite a friend or two, but make sure that the people you invite are cool because I would hate to see this go away. Start time is 6:15pm. It is a perfect training tool and gauge on how well you are doing, as I found out. If you do decide to show up, make sure you go to the bathroom before you leave home, nowhere out there for you to go. Once you arrive go around the back of the facility to the left of the building, you will see a parking lot on the side. Park there. The address is 6885 NE Pleasant Valley Road Kansas City, MO 64119. This link shows the front view of the buildinghttp://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=pleasant+valley+police+academy&ie=UTF8&ll=39.212039,-94.404144&spn=0,0.88028&t=h&z=10&layer=c&cbll=39.216589,-94.49975&panoid=PHIuvB9teflOJXBLXrRwbQ&cbp=12,141.79,,0,16.85
Saturday morning most of the guys were in St.louis racing Tour de Grove. A few of us showed for our weekly ride, I think 6. I suggested we try and get 50 miles in and everyone else was willing. We headed north over the Heart of America bridge. Up to Parvin road and west through Briarcliff on to 9 into Parkville and continued west on NW River rd for several miles past Waldron and that is where my sense of direction goes a little screwy. I know when it was all said and done I got about 48 miles in. Lots of rollers out there. Up and down, up and down.Things seen on the side of the road were anything from a dead snake to some highschool cheerleaders begging me to get my bicycle washed. Cool and Windy day but over all lots of fun. I need to put in more milage like that. My legs felt it for the rest of the day.
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