6 Pillars Century Ride recap

[wawa]

I feel like it's been forever since I've written a recap.  So why the heck not. 

First things first - my watch failed to sync.  So i can't slice and dice how the day went in numbers, and that's driving me absolutely batshit. I have riding time minus breaks from MH's little cheapo bike computer.  But that's it unless I can get my watch to cough up the goods. 


Setup of this one is a little odd in that you just park on the street in a residential neighborhood of Cambridge, MD, check in at the Y, but not actually inside it (so you can't use their bathrooms) and then roll a few blocks down the road to actually start. It was a little humid, 60's climbing into the 70's. forecast was that it'd be cloudy all day, but that was lies.



We started at 7:30. We were holding a pretty steady 16 mph. Occasionally there were other people around, but not anybody going our pace so it was just the two of us for a while.  Typically when I ride with MH he just leads and I draft and that's how it goes.  But he can't tow my ass around for 100 miles on his own, so we decided to try 5 mile pulls.  After a a few turns of that decided 5 miles was way too long, and switched it up to 3 miles.  First three rest stops were pretty quick, grab snack, refill bottles, pee, carry on. Somewhere after the third stop we passed a lady who said hi as we rolled by, and then latched on behind MH. I heard her call out after about a mile and say "hey, hope you don't mind a caboose!"  I dropped back at the end of my 3 mile pull and she dropped back to let me slide back onto his wheel. Then I took a turn again, and behind me as he slides back in I can hear her talking but can't quite make out what she's saying to MH. And then she pulls up next to me and was like "hey, if you don't mind, I'll take a pull." and I was like, 'PLEASE DO!" So she motors past and pulls for about a mile and we get passed by two guys. She says to me, "I have an idea..." and steps on the gas a bit to bridge the gap to those guys, we pick up their back wheel and are just cruising along at 18 mph. The lead guy drops back and sees us and our new friend says to him, "hey, we're up for working if you don't mind." and he says that sounds amazing and drops back behind the three of us and now we're a 5 person paceline cruising along at 18 mph. Or 19. Or occasionally 20. It was AWESOME. Pace lines are FUN it turns out. We rode with that group for the next 15 miles or so. we were about 2 miles from the next rest stop when suddenly I used up way too much in my legs on my pull (got cocky...didn't want to be the one who dropped the pace from 20 to 18, but really 20 is waaaaay overcooking it for me) and fell off too far when I dropped back, and then just didn't have it in me to catch back up. But MH was now pulling, so I just held on as best I could and waited till he fell back and realized I wasn't there anymore. He turned to look back at me and I gave him a big shrug and he just fell back to me and we rolled in that last little bit easy.


We chatted with our new friends at the rest stop, and the two guys were going to keep on keeping on at the faster pace, but the woman said 16 was more her speed and if we didn't mind she'd love to ride with us. So we did the rest of the ride with her, doing 1 mile pulls until we hit another headwind and dropped to half miles. Got through the 80 mile rest stop and took kind of a long break. ate a bunch because my stomach informed me that I could drink all the skratch I wanted but it wanted something solid to digest.  (Like I didn't feel like I was running out of energy, but my stomach was growling?  Shot blocks held it off for a while, but chips and a pb&j went down NICE at the rest stop) And then to the final 20 miles.  The wind had picked up, our pace was starting to nose dive and I was just feeling like I'd give my left kidney just to GET OFF MY BIKE with 5-6 miles to go. So after my pull (at like...12 mph) I said as I fell back, "hey, at the next shady spot, want to stop for just like 1 minute?"  So we turned right and stopped under a big tree to stretch and gulp some water. And then we realized with that turn we had a mostly tailwind, and suddenly we all had a shitton more pep, and finished those 5 miles back up at a 16-17 mph pace. New friend and I chatted the last 3 miles or so, she's a member of the same bike club as @vtcupcake (she wasn't sure if she's ever met her in person, but she's eaten her brownies.  LOL) and lives not terribly far from my office. So I might see her around one of these days, the small world being what it is. I told her she should try triathlons.
LOL


So all in all that was pretty awesome. Riding with 2+ people and actually taking structured turns makes shit SO MUCH EASIER.  (apparently every bike group ever is on to something)  If the wind sucks you know you only have to suffer for x amount of distance. it breaks everything up more because you're really only working for your pulls. and since you're rotating regularly it's easier to stay together because as soon as the lead drops back you notice if the rear person has lost contact. So that's heartening! It really does help! turns out people do it that way on purpose!
  LOL


The whole ride was FLAT. like, flat flat. no false flats or little rises anything. Just flat. (+2 small bridges) It's also very pretty. Lots of scenic and quiet watery areas. The roads start out pretty smooth and get a little shitty toward the second half. Some bizarrely washboard asphalt, a section where the road was sinking into the bay, etc.  A REALLY special wooden bridge.  Then back on the nice smooth but slightly busier roads for the last few miles when they feel like freakin' heaven.
  The shorter route of this event is the same loop as Eagleman, and it ran together with the 100 for a chunk, so I guess now I know how that route would feel.  I can see the wind being BRUTAL on that course without drafting.   And the sun if it's a hot one.  It was only mid 70's and I was still dumping ice in my bra at 80 miles.  


Our goal for the day had been an moving average of better than 16 mph with a total time under 7 hours.  Turns out keeping the breaks that tight is HARD, so we ended up with 7.5 hours total time.     But we managed the 16 mph rolling average, so that was cool!  

[sadlebred]

Sounds like a fun ride, and 16 is great for a pancake flat ride!

[jwright]

Great recap! I don't post here much but I always enjoy reading about posters' race experiences.

[shauni27]

I loved seeing your pictures from this ride--looked (and sounds!) like a great day!

[labbie]

Sounds like a beautiful day, congrats on a century ride!

[sassystace]

I was waiting for disaster to strike but sounds like an overall great ride!

[mysticmuffin]

Sounds like a beautiful day for a century ride!

[wawa]

May 7, 2019 8:20:43 GMT -5 sassystace said:

I was waiting for disaster to strike but sounds like an overall great ride!

It was!  I just had to re-read my post...my tone in the opening does sound a bit like I'm foreshadowing some terrible shitshow.  LOL, nope, really great ride overall!