Spetember 21st Rides

[Triskeliongirl]

So, today was our annual club century. DH set off to do the 100 miler with the fast men, and I set off to do the 70 miler (bit more than a metric). Unfortunatley the attendance was very poor, so I was the only one doing the 70, although quite a few folks did the 51.

I actually made pretty good time on my own, although the heat was beating down (90 degress). I had a stretch of road with a great tail wind, but then turned and had to battle a head wind alone for the last 8 miles, and I had to dig deep for those last 8 miles. But, I finished with quite a few of the 51 milers, so I was feeling pretty good about the ride. But, I was expecting DH in at around 5 hours, 6 hours max. When the fast men were still not in at the 6 hour mark I phoned to find out that they went out so fast they missed a couple turns, and their 100 mile route turned into a 125 mile route. These are guys used to doing a fast century, so not used to being out there for 7 hours in the hot sun.

DH asked me to run a sweep with the car (no support on the ride) cuz there was a fellow that he thought wasn't doing so well. He got dropped from the main group, but then a couple guys went back to ride in with him, but by the time I got to him (he had done ~115 miles at that point) he had bonked so bad he lost concentration and took a fall that damaged his wheel, so his bike wasn't even rideable. He had some nasty road rash, and while there were 2 guys with him, no one had reached anyone with a vehicle so they were just all on the side of the road. SO, I was able to give him a ride in, and fortunately I had some bananas and gatorade in the car, so he could rehydrate and eat something while we drove. The other 2 fellows were feeling strong and wanted to ride in, but I made sure they had fluids and food before we set off.

Then I felt like a race support vehicle, as I held fluids and bananas out my car window (DH was driving at that point) and passed them to the other guys that wanted to finish.

So, that's the first time I ran sag after completing a 70 miler on my own. I was pretty hungry and tired, but we waited to have lunch until we were sure everyone either got in safe, or had what they needed to finish.

But then we went to our favorite outdoor restaurant, and had a nice cold draft beer with buffalo wings, hmmmm good.