A Century On the Ground

Fallon, NV. (Oct. 6, 2012) Today, I finished the No Hill Hundred, a pretzel-shaped ride through the paved byways of the high Nevada desert. It was sponsored by the Churchill County Cyclists and the Churchill County Parks & Recreation. Fallon is the home of a Naval Air Station (famous for its Top Gun school), and deems itself the "Oasis of Nevada". It's located at the junction of US routes 95 and 50. As you can tell from the satellite image, they have a good nickname. This is anything but barren desert.

The terrain delivered as promised: there were truly no hills. Of course we did ride mile after mile in the same gear, but that was a small price to pay. The route was well-marked, and the rest stops well-stocked. This is their tenth year running a century in flat Fallon.

Fallon is at 4000 feet of altitude. I think that took a little edge of my riding pace. I found myself out of breath if I took too long a drink while riding. It's hard to get acclimatized when you fly in two days before!

October is a comfortable time of year to ride in northern Nevada. The temperature peaked in the 70s, but the ride began at about 40 degrees. The air was so dry, however, that you could ride with just a light covering. There is even some color-shifting foliage here. The brush turns yellow and the trees get some color. There is one plant that gives off a delicious smell, but I could never identify it. That's one of the benefits of riding a bike instead of driving a car.

Of course, being able to smell the environment can also be a disadvantage. Livestock stink. And, cattle seem to stink the worst. I remember pedaling a little faster to get out of the plume!

Horse farms abound. There were stables, horses, and trucks with horse trailers. What I never saw, however, was a single person riding a horse! As we rode past the corrals, the horses would watch us enviously.

This is Top Gun country. You are greeted by an A-7 (carrier-based attack aircraft, no longer in use) on a high pedestal. The course in fighter tactics, made famous by the Tom Cruise movie, was originally located in Miramar, California. It moved to Fallon Naval Air Station  in 1996 to become part of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center. East of Fallon, the Navy operates an instrumented "range", where the airspace is digitally monitored. I think we passed several of the monitoring stations along the way. There are only four courses a year, so the chances of seeing any combat aircraft on an October Saturday are slim. In fact, even though we circumnavigated the Naval Air Station, we saw no activity at all.

On the day of the ride, Fallon becomes home to a completely different kind of  'gunslinger'. The Cowboy Fast Draw Association runs the World Championship - Fastest Gun Alive contest in Fallon on the same weekend as the century. So, the hotel lobby was an interesting mix of people dressed in old western gear (gunslingers need realistic townspeople in the background!) and colorful spandex-clad cyclists.

For those of you who have lost count (and who hasn't??), this is state number 47. Three more left to go!

I only put the best pictures on this blog. I will add to the Webshots archive of bike photos, including a picture of the rest stop under the A-7, the sluice gates for irrigation, the only hill in town, and the start and finish arch, later this week.