We didn't finish the ride.... not because of the terrible tragedy that happened at the beginning, though. The ride starts out with a loop to the south for 18 miles, and then you ride past the start and head north, along the water in NH. When we were about half a mile from completing the loop, we saw all of the riders stopped (maybe 200) and flashing lights. Apparently, a woman just veered over into the left lane of the bridge and hit 4 cyclists. Two or three died. We didn't know this at the time; we turned around before we saw anything (I knew better). I had a bad feeling about some of the riders and the ride in general. But, we took a very long detour around the Hampton River, onto busy roads, strip malls. Rt.1, which sucked. We finally turned onto Rt. 111, which took us back to Ocean Blvd., in Rye, NH. Beautiful views, and we were going fast. We went through Rye, and were in New Castle, just about into Portsmouth, when DH slowed because there was a turn with no street sign and riders were acting all confused. He was confirming with his GPS. I was sprinting about 20 to catch him when he slowed and I crashed into him. I'm fine, with just road rash on my elbow and a smallish bruise on the side of my leg. But, DH's bike needs the wheel trued. First, he thought the frame was bent and was quite upset, but we figured out it's the wheel. And, my bar tape is trashed. A really nice guy came out of his house and talked to us for most of the 30 minutes we waited for the sag guy. We were only about 10 miles from the start, so we were glad to get back. The sag guy told us what happened.
This ride can be done on either Sat. or Sunday. Last time we did it on Sunday, and the weather was iffy both days. Rain is forecast for tomorrow, so there were 1600 riders today. I just am not comfortable with that many people close to me, even though you can start at any time (no mass start). Because we started early, we were with mostly the racer types, and not people doing the 25, 50, or metric. I think if I ever do an organized century again, it will be one from my own club, where I know most of the people. I've never had so many people pass me. Once we found out what had happened, we didn't feel so badly. This ride has been going on for years and it's the first time there's been a death.
But, I did ride 44 miles, with an average just under 16, so that's not nothing for me.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/09/2...in-hampton-nh/