| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
101.62 miles
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Altitude Gain:
4,944 ft
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Avg Speed:
18.15 mph
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Route:
Tour of Chataugua
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 160 bpm
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Avg HR: 134 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Hills
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Bike: Look Blade RS 795 Iconic Ltd Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 79 F S wind @ 5 mph |
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It was up at four AM for another three-hour drive to Westfield, NY for the forty-first annual tour of Chautauqua County. Fortunately, the ride started at nine AM, so I didn't have to get up any earlier. The local recreation department puts on the event, and they have a different course each year covering different areas of the county. I've made it to the ride a couple dozen times over the years and think I am the only rider remaining that had done the first one back in the early eighties. This is the first year that I have known which course it would be before arriving as they produced some GPS files of the different length courses. Turned out to be one of the hillier sections of the county riding east of Chautauqua Lake for the first half of the course then climbing west to Sherman for a hilly loop in the southwest corner before descending back to the finish near Lake Eire. Goal again was to not get dropped on the climbs if possible and hang on as long as I could. Last year I was dropped on the first climb and got to ride about seventy-five miles of the hundred alone and in a heavy rain. This year it looked like at minimum I would stay dry. There were probably sixty or seventy riders at the start of various abilities with four or five terrains and lengths to choose from. The first fifteen miles of the course was fairly flat with a few rolling hills before hitting the first five-hundred foot climb out the from the lake shore to the plateau. The ride had a brisk start with a police escort out of the village. One rider a fairly local crit rider originally out of the Midwest immediately opened a gap on the main group in the first mile. I bridged up to him and took a couple other riders up with me. We mostly drafted him for three or four miles before he decided to take a break. Ended up there were only four of us remaining and we started to work a paceline. A fifth rider bridged for a while but then quickly disappeared. The crit rider started complaining about my riding and the riding of a strong nineteen-year-old that was with us. He said I was pulling to hard, and the youngster wasn't riding close enough or something. I told him that I was riding comfortably for the flats and that he need not worry about me as I would most likely be dropped when the climbing started. He told me that is the reason I get dropped as I should just draft and save effort for the climbs. I thought the reason I get dropped on the climbs was I was getting old and too heavy. Anyway, he didn't endear himself to me. We continued on to the first climb and I was hanging in quite well when the nineteen-year-old attacked halfway up the climb. I believe something was said to tick him off from one of the other two, but I couldn't hear what was said. I was able to stay with the crit rider over the top, but the fourth rider was dropped. The crit rider and I pursued and caught up after a few more miles of rolling hills and we bypassed the first rest stop. We rode a paceline to the next five-hundred-foot climb where I met my end. I was climbing well for most of the way as we all made various attacks and countered attacks as the hill was hotly contested. There was only about fifty feet of elevation left when I cracked and lost a good amount of time as the other two went over the top. I was able to catch back up on the long descent back to Bemus Point on Lake Chautauqua as the other two had really backed off the pace. We rode slowly through the town as the other guys wanted to wait for other riders to catch up. We stopped at the fifty-mile rest stop briefly. I was pretty much a beaten dog and headed out alone on the next climbing section to Sherman while the other two waited. I kept fairly good time on the next section and pushed the climbs trying to stay ahead of the following group and keep my average as high as I could as it was still near twenty miles an hour. The two other riders had only waited for the fourth rider to catch up at the last rest stop before restarting but had dropped them again pursuing me. We stopped at the rest stop in Sherman and waited for the fourth rider to rejoin. The three riders left together, and I left soon after, but my legs were spent, and I watched them slowly drift away. I then went into survival mode through the hilly loop and my speed dropped into the fifteen mile an hour range. Kept telling myself I needed to save my legs for another metric tomorrow and didn't want to cramp do any damage. Survived the loop and returned to the rest stop in Sherman again and talked a bit with the promoter. I was told that there was now a group of eleven in the loop that were about twenty minutes behind but didn't think they would catch me with only one climb and a four-mile downhill section remaining. Enjoyed the last ten miles of the ride as the long downhill to finish off the ride was an old friend and very welcome. Ended up finishing up with an eighteen average that I was happy with. The crit rider finished twenty minutes faster than me and the nineteen-year-old took ten minutes off me over the last thirty miles. It was actually a satisfying ride for me although I had been thoroughly thrashed. I had contested several hills though won none of them but at least had been competitive for a while. I had ridden about as hard as I could but in retrospect, I am older than the nineteen-year-olds grandfather. It was a challenging ride on a beautiful day and maybe I'll be stronger next year.
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