Tour de Nebraska 2023

The Tour de Nebraska is a five-day SAG-supported ride. This year's ride is in southeast Nebraska with 350 riders and includes Columbus, Albion, and Norfolk as host towns.

Columbus Arrival

Day 0: Travel day. Camping check-in was any time after 3 p.m. I arrived around 3:15, found a space in the shade and got set up. Then I went over to the hotel to check into the ride. We got a t-shirt, bandanna, and a small pack of road goodies.

Dinner was a cheeseburger and a bowl of mixed fruit. They had a live band that seemed pretty good, but no beer, so few people stayed to listen.

After dinner I walked over to the river. Water levels are very low this year. They could use some rain, but there's currently nothing in the forecast before Saturday.

Temperatures are warm. It was 90 degrees this afternoon and is still near 80 in the evening, with a low in the upper 60s. We're somewhat near the train tracks. It apparently requires eight whistles to go through town. It might be a long night.

Columbus to Albion

Day 1: 51 miles, 900 feet of elevation gain. It was a long night. Between the six or more overnight trains and people driving through the park with loud music, there wasn't much sleep to be had. That made being up early easier. We were essentially all awake at 5 a.m. and packed up. We had breakfast at the hotel and hit the road right around sunrise. The weather forecast was for a chance of rain early and then a high around 90.

Most of the day's ride was very well marked with signs and arrows painted on the street. I don't remember getting lost at all and no GPS issues. My cell phone battery is only holding a partial charge, so I can't use the phone during the ride if I want to save it for emergencies.

The first half of the ride was what I typically think of for Nebraska, quite flat and mile after mile of corn fields. But in early summer with the corn knee high, even that is very pretty. The second half of the ride was much more rolling hills, streams, and a variety of agricultural land uses.

It looked for awhile like we were going to get rain, but the storm moved north faster than we did and it missed us. Speaking of missing things, there were SAG stops in two small towns along the way, but I never saw anything. So I just kept going.

We got to the lunch town about 45 minutes early. I say we. I picked up a riding partner. Travis and I have similar gravel bikes and a similar pace. He rode this ride before and knew where lunch was, or we would have missed that stop, too. It turns out we and another rider were the first three in town. They welcomed us in and we had a nice lunch. They were sponsoring a trip to the east coast for a small group of high schoolers, and most of those planning to go were there helping, somewhat unenthusiastically, to make lunches. We suggested some of them go out in the street to wave passing bikers in and they got more riders coming in after that.

The rest of the ride was rolling hills on a fairly busy highway. There was a good shoulder, and most drivers moved over when they could. The exciting part was when two hog transport trucks were coming in opposite directions. But we survived without any close calls.

Camp is on the county fairgrounds. I found a nice place next to the show barn to set up my tent. It should be much quieter this evening. It rained briefly as I was getting everything set up, but no issues otherwise. Once the rain cleared I went to get a shower. They had a RAGBRAI shower truck, eight stalls, pull the cord for a light stream of lukewarm water. It had stayed cloudy all day. Good for riding, but not as good for a brisk shower. So it was a brief shower.

Then we took a short trolley ride into town for a welcome reception at the local bar followed by food trucks and music. The beer was good, the food was okay, and the lines were slow. Then we headed back to camp and almost everyone turned in early.

Albion Loop

Day 2: 61 miles, 2,350 feet of elevation gain. It's nice not having to pack up this morning. There were some late arrivals to camp last night with cars driving in but otherwise a good night's sleep. I got dressed and headed into town for breakfast. After breakfast, I started trying to follow the GPS. Nothing was marked and there were riders going in all four directions. I followed the GPS track and it brought me back to camp. So I asked at the registration tent which way to go. With a firm grasp of the obvious he told me that I had crossed the trail and I had to get out on the right direction first before GPS directions would work. Then they looked at it and sent me out on the trail - in the exact wrong direction. As I started to head out of town I checked the map again and realized the error and then used Google to find a waypoint in the right direction. Past the camp one more time and I was on my way.

Lots of rolling hills today. Lots of them. The first leg of the journey is 14 miles down a fairly busy road with only a slight shoulder. Most drivers were safe but there was one idiot in a pickup who decided to pass a car while the car was passing riders. The pickup went off the left shoulder and kicked up dust and gravel everywhere. I passed another biker who said if she was their mom, they'd be grounded for life. Fortunately, all survived without injury.

After 14 miles we were able to turn onto quieter roads. It was a very pleasant ride with rolling hills and nice views. Several towns welcomed us along the way. In the lunch town I stopped twice. Once for a homemade breakfast burrito, or at least a Nebraska version of one, and also for a potato bar that I took to go for a second lunch later.

It stayed partly cloudy for most of the morning. It didn't get hot until the last 12 miles or so. Those were on another busy road with lots of hills. At one point I saw ten cars and trucks lined up behind four bikers trying to get up a hill. I just pulled off and waited for the traffic to pass. But at least everyone was patient and there were no more incidents.

I got back to camp relatively early. This time I went to the local community water park for a shower. That was nice. Warm water and good pressure. After checking email I headed into town for a beer. I ended up meeting new friends from the previous night and we had dinner and listened to music. The food options were better this evening. I got a double slice of apple pie from a high school group planning a trip to Spain.

We met a local family there and got to know them. Very nice family, the daughter is going to be a high school senior this year. A very typical and very pleasant small town experience all the way around. 

We headed back to camp and arrived just before a small thunderstorm went through. It blew the host tent over but everything else was good. After that, we turned in.

Albion to Norfolk

Day 3: 61 miles, 2,000 feet of elevation gain. I signed up for the gravel ride today. Weather was questionable last night but seemed okay this morning. So we headed north out of Albion and turned onto a dirt road. Then we turned down what would best be described as a farm path. Washed out, washboard ruts, etc. There were several miles of this, ending with a hike-a-bike around a 100 yard mud pit as a result of irrigation the day before.

Shortly after the mud pit, another rider had his chain slip and bend between the two front cogs. I got out my Leatherman pliers and he was able to fix it enough to at least ride up the remaining hills and limp into town.

We got into town and stopped at a cafe with good pie. They had at least 10 kinds of pie. I had cherry. While we were there a local metrologist who was on the ride said not to leave because of an incoming storm. So we waited out the storm for about an hour. It was nasty on the radar, but mostly dissipated by the time it got to us.

Anyway, the wait put us well behind the rest of the riders. The SAG stops were gone, packing up, and/or essentially out of food for the rest of the ride. The sun came out and it got hot (mid 80s). I passed a rider who was out of water. Fortunately, I was carrying an extra bottle and was able to share. After lunch there were still 20 miles to go. It was hot with wind in our faces most of the way.

We did get to ride the Cowboy Trail into Norfolk. It's a very well maintained gravel path, and continues on as a concrete bike path in Norfolk. At the last rest stop I realized I left my cooling towel behind somewhere. And then I left my extra water bottle behind at the rest stop. Tired, hungry, and probably a bit dehydrated. I'll have to do a better job keeping track of everything on future rides.

I went to Subway for dinner, got a Mike's Harder Lemonade at the local convenience mart and then sat with new friends until sunset. Then we turned in to try and get some sleep before storms were expected to roll in overnight.

Norfolk Option Day

Day 4: 31 miles, 400 feet of elevation gain.

The police woke us up at 3 a.m. to move us into the field house with severe thunderstorms on the way. We waited until after 6 for the storms to pass, had breakfast, and went back to our tents for more sleep. Fortunately, the tent was dry and I was able to get back to sleep for awhile.

There were planned options for a 42-mile ride and a 101-mile ride today. Unfortunately, I was exhausted and just not up to it. Instead, I decided to ride back to where I left my spare water bottle, and then continue down the Cowboy Trail. The water bottle was gone, but I rode the Cowboy Trail for 8 miles. The distance choice was simply to make it a total of 200 miles over four days. And to enjoy the farm views along the trail.

After returning to town, I stopped at Domino's Pizza and had a Pasta Primavera Bread Bowl. Heavy on the carbs was just what I needed, and I started to have more energy after that. One of the other options for the day was a kayak ride down the Elkhorn River. So I put my swimsuit on and boarded the van to the river.

The water level was quite low. The previous day it was very low. But with the heavy rain overnight, water levels were deceivingly higher. The problem was, once I was on the river, I couldn't see where the channel was. A good bit of the river ride included either dragging the kayak over sand bars, or doing knuckle drag / sitting push ups to move the kayak along the sand. Water temperatures were good, and there were no beasties hiding in the sand, so it was fine, just more work than a typical kayak river ride.

The river was very pretty and very quiet. And there were clear remnants of the awesome power of the river during the spring melt and in wetter seasons.

The end of the fourth day includes a dinner celebration with food trucks, music, and several awards and recognitions. There was also a marriage proposal. She said "Yes!" Then we returned to our tents and had beer and good conversation with new friends. We turned in well after dark and were probably a bit of a nuisance to those around us, but no one said anything.

Norfolk to Columbus

Day 5: 61 miles, 2,100 feet of elevation gain. Wind started to pick up as we went to sleep. We had 25mph winds with gusts well into the 30s overnight and the temperature dropped into the low 60s. I woke up and put on my merino wool and went back to sleep. It was the best night of sleep I've had in a week, despite the constant wind blowing and tent flapping.

I slept a bit later than planned and got on the road around 6:30. We had 25 mph sustained winds with gusts to 45 mph. Fortunately, that was tailwinds to start the day. It was amazing. At one point I ran out of gears and looked down to see I was hitting 26.5 mph. Not downhill. Just flat out riding the wind.

As much fun as that was, it wasn't to last. We then turned across the wind and the gusts became more concerning. For some reason, the wind catches my front wheel and pushes it to the side. So I had to hold on tight whenever the gusts came up. Just before lunch we turned into the wind. That lasted for two miles before lunch and more than six miles after lunch. It was so windy there were white caps on the lakes.

Fortunately, we then turned south again and were able to ride with the wind the rest of the way into Columbus. There was also a nice pie stop half way down. I had apple. Then we finished the ride back to Columbus, packed up, and got showers at the local water park.

Since we were in by noon, I thought I'd be able to make it back to Illinois by evening. It turned out I was much more exhausted than I realized. I made it about three hours down the road, stopping at multiple rest stops along the way. Then I got a hotel room in Iowa, picked up a turkey wrap and a beer, and slept for 10 hours.

Epilogue

265 miles over five days and 667 miles over the last 15 days. That's a lot of miles.

This was a really interesting contrast between the self-supported Illinois ride the week before, the Le Tour de Shore ride last weekend, and Tour de Nebraska this week. I found out I do a much better job of knowing my ride when I do the planning. When someone else plans the ride, I trust my GPS too much.

I prefer the Le Tour de Shore approach of including food at the SAG stops. The Tour de Nebraska was much more hit-or-miss. Some of the stops were wonderful. Interestingly, the stops that provided food for free and just asked for a goodwill donation were exceptionally good. The stops that had a fixed price for food were mostly overpriced and the quality was usually lacking. For example, I got to pay $10 for a plate of spaghetti and another $10 for a baked potato and a few toppings. But most of the other stops were better.

What was also surprising again on this ride was, even when riding with 350 other people, how most of the riding is alone. Few people ride at the same pace, and for any who do, if you set out at different times, you never see each other. So you do have times early in the ride where others pass you or you pass others. But after that, you're pretty much alone until lunch. Then again, a few miles after the lunch stop and you won't see many people until the next SAG stop.

So I had lots of time to think about family, friends, life, etc. One thing I realized was how much these rural rides remind me of my grandmother's community in southern Pennsylvania. Almost every town gave me that "I've been here before" feeling. It just happened to have been in a different state.

For the most part, the Tour de Nebraska is well-organized. The town of Albion was amazing, well-planned, and very welcoming. Columbus was noisy. Norfolk has good potential, but we were too far away to enjoy the town itself. I'll consider riding this tour again in the future, particularly if any of my new friends want to go again next year.