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First, I have to say I feel bad that Greg was unable to ride with us. And had to abandon the ride due to a broken spoke. But, at least he made theeffort to get there, despite problems with his alarm clock. Greg, chalk it up to a learning experience. We have all had issues with alarm clocks, and for important events, I would recommend two or even three alarm clocks. As for your spoke, that’s just one of those things.
Next, I want to say Jane and Ace rock. They both rode strong, and hung in there given the fact we had a side/headwind until we got to Verona, the halfway point. Those who rode the Sudden last year, and the Scary had to contend with wind, but that was easy compared to wind we had yesterday. I almost got blown off my bike a few times. Eric got blown into a ditch, but put a leg down to stop from going down. The wind speed was easily 35 mph, with gusts to 50. And it was pretty cold at the start (37°), until the sun started to come out around 9:30am. I think it hit 53° around 1pm. My bike computer said 63° at one point, but with the wind it felt colder.
So, here’s the 200K report.
Ace arrived around 6pm Friday night. He gave me a beer, while he was unpacking in his room. It was Miller Lite, but hey. Then we drove over to this Italian restaurant for dinner in the rain. It was really nasty Friday night.
Then early to bed. I got up Saturday morning, to find the roads dry, but the wind was howling at 20-35mph. I turned on the Weather Channel, to find it was only 36°, oh well. At around 5:30am, my cell phone rings, and it was Eric. He was on the road, and he told me Greg wasn’t with him.
At 7am, there were about 50 riders (from what I heard from Frank) at the start. Eric, Jane and Moo did not leave with them, as Eric got a call from Greg. Ace took off with them. Since Greg was running late, we took off too. This meant, Greg would possibly be riding alone, but a lot of folks do ride alone on Brevets - like Ace did. Anyway, as we were heading out, about a mile or two away from the start, we saw Greg.
About 10-15 miles out, we caught up to Ace. We rode with him for awhile, and at the first control stop, we saw Ace again. The first stop, is gas station, about 31 miles out.
Eric, Jane and Moo took off. About mile 40, the wind was really getting on your nerves. But, it seemed we were going to have a tailwind on the return from Verona, so everyone tolerated the wind, hoping that would be true. As we were approaching Verona, the fast group passed us, heading back. Some of the guys in that pack, have done RAAM, and of course PBP. They use the Brevets as training rides. Shortly after leaving Verona, we saw Ace, and we had the wind at our backs. There was still side winds to contend with, from time to time, but mostly it was a very strong tailwind. At one point I wasn’t even pedaling, and I was doing 18mph.
When we got to the last rest stop, which is also the first one, I was really running out of fuel, so I went and got a Big Mac, and fries, across the street. The last leg of the ride is always a good feeling, and we got back around 4:55pm. After getting our control cards stamped, we had some beer, and waited for Ace. Ace showed up around 5:50pm.
Highlights:
This year, they did a really good job marking the route. You really didn’t need a cue sheet.
There was this guy, who rode a fixed gear Litespeed. He has eight of them, and that’s all he rides now. This was his first 200K on a fixie, but has done centuries before on a fixie.
Good beer at the end.
Dinner with the gang afterwards.
Ride Stats:
Mileage – 129.7
Riding Time – 8:23 (because of the wind)
Door to Door Time – 7am – 4:55pm
Average Speed – 15.4mph
Max Speed – 34.5mph
Elevation Gain – 4,621
Average Grade – 2%
Max Grade – 9%
Finally, since this wasn’t a PBP year, GLR folks said the route was made to be easier. I don’t know what they’re talking about. Because last year we climbed the same amount elevation gain. Though, last year there was one big climb, which we didn’t have this year. Only a bunch of small 9% climbs.
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