What is the furthest you have ever ridden on a long-distance cycling excursion? Well are you up for a whopper of a challenge; Lance Armstrong style? If so have you ever considered the journey between Springfield MO and Wichita KS as an endurance challenge? After considering this for many months, I have indeed some advice for you; when we make this ride we will indeed pick a day when there is little wind, as the winds on the flats of Kansas can get a little tricky indeed. A 20 to 30 knot headwind is not uncommon and of course we all know the area as Tornado Alley. Once we pick a really good day for this ride we will go for it; some 262 miles in all. Yes it is very much downhill from Springfield onto the Kansas flats. We will need to start at just prior to sunrise to make it good and beat the traffic out of town and get a jump on the day. We head out of town on Hwy 266, which turns into the 96. We follow the 96 to Carthage. We then take the diagonal cutoff on the 171, short clip and dangerous narrow road, but only about 8-miles or so, which makes a hard left and ends up the Kansas 400 Highway to Wichita. Now then we must maintain a 20-mile per hour average and that should be quite easy on the first 65 miles until we hit the Kansas flats. The first 50 miles in Kansas are rolling hills and then the rest is flat. Nevertheless this ride is not for the non-conditioned novice, as an intermediate rider might be able to make it, but a novice needs to break it into 2 or even a 3-day ride. Consider all this in 2006. |
