Hi yourself.

The Tour was my first century. I have fully intended to only start out with my friends and cut the course short to do about 70 miles but got caught up in the excitment and kept going. It was a surprisenly easy century.

Just some advice for this particularly ride:

1) wear mountain bike shoes and use MTB pedal if possible (if you don't use a pedal system then ignore this). At the time I rode with Speedplay pedals and after the first long sand crossing was never able to engage the pedal again. I rode 80 miles on top of that small cleat - OUCH!

2) Do stop at all the sags of which there are many. Why? Because the ride has no other stops. Since the police control the traffic there is just no reasont o stop and you ride forever and ever. Normally I would be stopping here and there for street lights and stuff. I fond myself getting tired without having stops.

3) Learn to ride in a paceline. When the "Teams In Training" come by, get on the back. They helped me pace at least 40 - 50 miles of the ride. Espcially helpful on the long downhills.

4) Talk to as many folks on the ride as possible. I had a ball meeting folks from all over. Also take lots of photos of that awesome ride start. Also wave back at all the folks that come out and watcht he Tour. I felt like I was in the real Tour (TdF)!

Good luck - enjoy the ride!