Message #16460

[bushwacka]

Thanks for all the kind comments.

And yes, LP, we felt your spirit with us along the way.

The winds in the first half of the ride were mild in comparison to what followed in the afternoon.
Jim and I tried to play it smart and take it easy the first leg (23 mi). We found a group of 3 guys whose pace was compatible.
They were consistent and smooth. The oldest fellow, John, had recently completed the "America By Bike" riding across the US in 50 days. He was kind enough to let Jim and I draft a bit!.

Other groups we tried to hook with were of varying bike skills. Lots of irregular cadences and understandably, that became more the case as fatigue overtook riders. One amazing father on a tandem with his tweener son just kicked the asses of Lynn and Jim while we tried to draft. We  succeeded in hanging with them, until we realized they were dragging us along at 19-20 mi/hr. Too fast for the second leg of the ride. We let them go. Saw them later at rest stops, I don't think Dad was able to keep that pace up either.

There were 4 rest stops at 23, 44,64 and 84 miles. Bathroom lines were always long and time consuming. The last 2 stops, we headed for a nice spot in the woods instead .

I spent about 10 min each rest stop doing a few yoga stretches. Really helped keep my back from "dying". The neck still is the most painful part of biking for me. Okay, sometimes my butt feels painfully numb too.

As mentioned, the wind was pretty brutal the last 1/3 of the ride. Literally pushing the bike sideways. (uh, really should have another set of wheels besides the Zipps, next years upgrade along with new ergo handlebars). Taking even one hand off of the handle bars during some of the gusts would have resulted in loss of control of the bike.

All in all, Jim and I are glad we did it, finished it feeling pretty good too. Not sure I feel the need to do another century ride.
Time will tell. The time investment in training for it is significant.

Let me rephrase that. I am NOT doing another century unless there's a RS posse!! I know a group of us could have SLAYED this ride!!

Lynn

congrats to all of you who did this!!

tandem bikes kill in the wind! and slight downhills! Literally one of the most fun thing I have ever done in a charity event was passing a tandem and its 20 plus train of riders at like mile 90.  The tandem was going sub 6 hours of riding time they were averaging 22-24mph. 

 I tend to ride better in the wind especially when i am working for other people. I actually do fight it and push harder single speed mountian biking has given me enough power to deal with weird/strong wind.