There was some conversation over the last year about cycling to Kickback. Kickback is our annual High School church group (Highlife) escape from Lancaster to Reedley. As a group we talked about this 200 mile ride for some time. We would do two 100 mile days. The longest I have ever rode up to this point was 108 miles in one day, so I know this would be hard. Two days of back to back riding would be much harder. As the date got closer it was down to two riders, a young man, Brendan Patz and me. He is 17 and very strong and for me, will as you know I am the middle-aged-man.

We did two training rides prior, the first being a 44 miler, and second of a 66 miler. The day arrived to leave, so on Sunday June 20th at 6:15 am we left Brendan house and started leg 1, which would end in Tehachapi. The ride started across the Antelope Valley up to Backus road was nice and cool. After a rest at Backus Road (20 miles), we headed up to Tehachapi. This started the climb segment. We were well into the slow moving part, when one of my work friends Dan Dunn and his wife drove next to us and we stopped to chat. I showed my maps and he made some changes. He drove off to go home and change to ride with us. We then did the death march over the top (elevation of 4,802 ft.). Overall the elevation gain was 3,045 feet. Dan caught up with us riding into town on Dennison Road. The three of us cycled in to beautiful downtown Tehachapi for some lunch. We eat sandwiches and many glasses of ice tea.  Leg 1 was finished with a moving time of 3:50, and an average moving speed 9.8 MPH.

Leg two was from Tehachapi to Bakersfield. Leaving the lunch restaurant Brendan, broke a spoke on his bike, we rode to Dan’s house where he had a spare bike. He sized the bike to Brendan. Let me say, Bredan’s old bike was 25 years old, Dan offered him a pretty new Klein, just been tuned up (Dan’s daughter rides it, but she was out of state). I think it was valued at $3,500, my guess. The three of us rode down Woodford-Tehachapi road to Keene, where we rode Highway 58. Dan rode with us for a few miles and looped back home. We continued up on the Hwy 58 for 10 miles, and exited from the fast lane ( a little scary), on E Bear Mountain road, and started riding on Bena Road. This was the best part of this leg. It was downhill (after a moderate climb). It was winding and flowing. I would love to ride this in the spring time, when everything is blooming. We ended on the flats and rode where Bena become the Edison Highway. We rode to our hotel, showered and eat. We were a sleep by 7:00pm. Distance for this leg was 43.86 miles, with an average moving speed of 14.8 MPH.

Leg three, up at 5:00 am, prepare and eat. We were on the rode at 6:30 and road out of Bakersfield up to Earlimart. This leg as flat with lots of open areas of farmland and this leg was around 49 miles. It was getting warm and windy. No real events to report, except our butts were very sore. It is hard to sit on the saddle for two days. Moving time was 3:28 at an average moving speed of 14 MPH. We eat and got more fluids in a small restaurant in Earlimart.

Leg four the final leg, was flat and windy. I expected the roads to be bad condition and they were for the first 2/3 of the trip. We crisscrossed the back roads, paralleling the 99 freeway, until we got to Visalia. We chatted about stopping in the park. We were on a nice segment of bike path, smooth and winding through the park and golf course, when we hear a metal pop sound. Brendan, thought it was me, I him. When we stopped to rest our butts, he noticed another broken spoke on the loaner bike. He had tape to secure it, and I followed him, to evaluate whether it was going to wobble. It looked good and we continued. We made a rule, if another broke, we would call it off. We were 22 miles from Reedley and we wanted to finish. We rode up a freshly repaved part of Hwy J19 to Dinuba, turned left and rode into Kelly’s Beach in Reedley to finish. This leg was almost 60 miles with an average moving speed of 12.6. We arrived at about 5:00pm.

Sore and tired, we just rode 197 miles in two day with an average moving speed of 12.5 MPH. However, we were not really that tired, as least compared to day one. I managed to do well, I eat, I did the events and went to sleep around midnight. I got sorer after the next couple of days. I had two fingers that were numb for two days. My knees were sore. It was long ride, but I can’t wait to do it again next year.

Me, Dan Dunn, and Brendan Patz