July Century Riders!

[Aggie_Ama]

Yes, it's one day. Starts west of Terre Haute, just over the Illinois border, at 7 a.m. Follows U.S. 40 (the Old National Road) across Indiana, except for a detour around the southern edge of Indianapolis. Must be to the finish line at Earlham College in Richmond on the eastern side of the state by 9 p.m. to be counted as an official finisher.

Wow! Hope the weather cooperates and you have a fabulous ride. Please post a report on this one!

[Aggie_Ama]

Look for a group of NWCC riders passing on the left! Last year I averaged over 20mph! I'm hoping for the same this year.

Well if the winds are right, I have averaged 18-19 mph on Day 1 of the MS150 two years running. I am in as good of shape as I was for those, albeit a little heavier . I anticipate this being a fast century, but you may still pass us. Have a good ride!

[rabidgirl]

Good luck on your ride. I completed my first century on Saturday (07-07-07, lucky seven day). I did a ride in Ottawa, KS. It was 92 degrees. Luckily, the wind wasn't too bad and there were only a few f-word caliber hills. Be sure to drink plenty of sports drink AND water. I wore my 3-liter camel back full of gatorade and brought a 20 oz water bottle. The bottle was good for drinking and dousing my head. I am by no means a fast rider, but total riding time was only 6.5 hrs. If my spouse & I can do it, anyone can!

Oh, another handy tip... carry a bandana along. You can wet it down & put it on your neck while you ride. It'll keep you cool.

[jobob]

I joined in on a 2-day, 100 mile/day club ride that went around the San Francisco Bay. The first day was June 30 and the second day was July 1st.

Trouble was, I developed a cramp in my calf near the end of the first days' ride, which was still bugging me on the second day so I pulled out after only 25 miles So I've yet to do a century this month.

[SJCzar]

I did 3 in June, but this month has too many other events going on ... family wedding, baby shower, work, etc.

I'm hoping to get one in towards the end of the month.

[Aggie_Ama]

Kimmyt- How did your century go?

Ours went awesome! The morning started with pouring rain and a thunderstorm (just thunder no lightning), I was so worried they would call the ride off. We had to ride in rain for the first hour or so, that meant an average speed for the first 5-10 miles of about 11 mph. This century was flat so that is really slow. A lot of people were just too nervous and/or inexperienced in the rain. We saw a couple wrecks and it was pretty nerve racking. We have been caught in the rain lately, so I felt pretty confident but the others were scaring me!

After the clouds rolled back we got a nice tail wind and an even nicer DH pulling a huge paceline. At one point I swear there was 10-15 riders grabbing on and he is just chugging along at 22-23 mph. What can I say, he is a biking stud. Miles 40-60 were difficult, after taking a rest stop for fluids and potties we hit a headwind. The NUUN I drank before the stop was not agreeing with me, I had a nasty taste in my mouth (sorbitol) and felt bloated.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful though. Stopped at 63 miles for more fluids, this stop had ice. I am not sure why but the ice water was just heavenly. Ran out of water at the 88 mile rest stop, so we had to get some more. At about 95 miles I was ready for the ride to end (it was getting hot), so I let an older gentlemen pull me (I thanked him later). Then at mille 99 I bumped DH's back wheel and surprisingly did not eat it! Pulled in to free snow cones- YUMMY.

Stats:
101.16 miles
17.7 mph (this is great but I know it would have been over 18 if not for the beginning)
5 hours 37 minutes, ride time. With three rest stops 6 hours, 10 minutes.

[Kimmyt]

Sounds like you had a great day!

Mine was... okay. The weather was gorgeous, supposed to be warm to mildly hot. We figured we'd be done by 1pm so wouldn't be in the heat the whole time. But, the direction the route took us from Philly to the Jersey Shore, and we had a quite windy day of it on the flats in Jersey.

We started out pretty fast, with three of us in a line, averaging around 21 but I knew I couldn't hold it like that for 100 miles. there were some nasty accidents near the start, too many people trying to go too fast down the bridge and one poor lady wiped out on her bike. Saw her lying on the pavement with medics around her, her face was bleeding and it looked like she might have had neck/back injuries. It was really sad, we think she must have jammed on her brakes and hit the front one too hard and gone over her handlebars. Really hope she's okay...

Avoided some accidents ourselves from inexperienced people not calling out when they slow down, before the route finally cleared out. Slowed down by this point (actually, got in a fight with The Boy and ended up pulling myself the entire way to the 50-mile mark, so my speeds here were pretty slow especially with the headwind). Made up with The Boy at the rest stop and we continued on our way, got to average a pretty good 17ish pace I think and even cought up to our fast friend who had dropped us earlier.

ended up finishing 20 minutes faster than last year, perhaps an average of 17-something? And it wasn't quite a full century, only 95 miles.

Afterwards the heat was really brutal and we all felt blasted by it, almost all of us felt like we were going to be sick, despite that we'd hydrated and taken in lots of calories. We loaded in the car and headed down to a nearby beach and soaked our leg muscles in the freezing cold ocean and felt like new people. Laid in the sun and had dinner before we headed home. All in all not bad, considering I've ridden all of 300 miles this year, and The Boy hadn't even ridden 100 beforehand! (I think the fast guy had ridden maybe 150, so we were all pretty poorly trained).

K.