Consolation 86

For the first time in 4 years I will not be participating in the Ragnarok 105.

I was lucky enough to get my card in early in 2010 and got on the roster right away. In 2011 I was 18th on the wait list and got an email a week before the race that enough people had dropped out and that I was now in. In 2012 I was on the starting list right away. This year I am not even on the reserve list. I was pretty bummed for a day or so, but then Josh suggested that we do our own thing, and I wondered why that hadn't occurred to me before. I haphazardly put together a route starting outside Prescott, WI but after thinking about it for a night decided that there needs to at least some gravel. So this morning I started thinking about where we could get some good climbs in that would not tread on the Rag course. At first I was thinking about starting in Hastings and working our way towards Cannon Falls, over to Welch, and then back to Hastings. The roads didn't connect up the way that I would have preferred and I didn't think there was enough climbing either.
So then I remembered that there were some hills that I wanted to ride in the Wabasha/Nelson area and that a Lake City start could minimize the drive time.
So I put together a course that I am pretty happy with. It starts out at Patton Park in Lake City and heads out towards the gravel. This is the section of the Rag course that you come into Lake City on. With a 8 o'clock start I am confident that we will not cross paths with any other racers. The course snakes up and down the valley until we hit Wabasha around mile 35 where there is a gas station/Subway if need be. We will then proceed across the bridge and into Nelson, WI for the biggest climbs of the day (There is also a gas station here {mile 40}). That will loop around and bring us past the same gas station (mile 60) and across the bridge and back into MN. From there there is a grocery store that we will go past just before we hit 3 more big climbs. After this its an almost straight shot back to Lake City. There is one .5 mile spot that may be in this year Ragnarok, but I don't think that we'll cause too much trouble. Back in Lake City you'll ride along Lake Peppin and back to Patton Park.
Total mileage is 85.6 with about 4,600ft of climbing. There will be about a 50/50 gravel/pavement mix so bike choice is up to you.

I'd like to do this as a quasi race. We'll have a sign in sheet at the beginning and end where you can record your time.

Please feel free to pass this along to others who may wish to ride.

The link below will allow you to download the course right to your Garmin and I will have written directions available as well.

Garmin Connect - Consolation 86