Hotter'n Hell Hundred Report

Well, we just made it home from the HHH. We averaged 16.3mph. Our total ride time was 6 hrs. 15min. Total time from start to finish was 8 1/2 hrs. We had zero flats this year. Which was a great improvement over the 6 we had last year.
The newspaper said the high temperature was 97. I never felt hot as long as we kept moving. The heat bothered my husband a little more. We went by one rider that was down and saw 2 carried off in the ambulance.
The rest stops were great as always. At one stop you could get free ice cream and watermelon. One had free hotdogs. I think I drank a gallon of pickle juice. Yum Yum.
We saw a huge turtle crossing the road at one point. I think a few cyclist had to dodge it.
Now we are off the Yellowstone in a couple of weeks to do some backpacking.

p.s. - There were 11,260 riders this year

I rode the 100k in 3:59. I saw a few accidents, and my husband reported that one man had a heart attack. I had no flats or mechanical trouble, for once. My husband, doing the 100 miles, had less luck. His entire tire blew after Hell's Gate. A passerby good samaritan took him to the next rest stop, but no mechanic there. The sag wagon took him thru the next two, but no one there could fix it either. He came home on the sag wagon. Bicycles, Inc., God Bless em, fixed his tire for him and this morning I drove him back out to the 60m. mark and he rode the rest of it. I looked a little odd sitting in my chair at the finish line, reading my book, waiting for him, but I cheered for him as he came down the street. He was bummed, but philosophical.
Fun!

Rode the 100 miler, time on the wheels was 5:52. Had a nice ride, took a little more time to stop and smell the tumbleweeds this time, and still shaved about 20 minutes off last year's time. No flats or mechanicals, stopped to help a fellow with a flat and no pump out around the 85 mile marker, and didn't realize until we were saddling up again that the was #452, and I was sporting # 453.

Good ride, and good company...

Tom

MMMMM gotta love Pickle Juice! I must say I would never buy the packaged stuff but I will take it at a rest stop. Sounds like you all had good luck, I hate the wrecks on the large rides.

The Wichita Falls paper didn't say anything about a heart attack. It said minor injuries with a few broken bones(which I wouldn't consider minor). We did see them load a rider in the ambulance at the start line before the race ever started. I wondered at the time if maybe that was a heart attack?

Hello all ~

This was my first HHH and I have to say it was great. My girlfriend and I rode together (it was her first century and she did fantastic). Here are some of our times -

We made it to Hell's Gate at 11:08 averaging 18.5 mph! :eek:
We finished averaging 16.6 mph
Ride time was right around 6 hours
Completed time was 8:23

We had a blast and will definitely be back next year.

No blowout this time so I was able to complete the 100 mile route this year. My ride time was 6:09 and my total time was 7:57. We had one flat which seemed to take awhile to change. It didn't seem like we were taking a lot of time at the rest stops but apparently we were. There were just so many people that it took awhile to get your water bottles filled. I had such a good time. I'm already looking forward to next years HHH.