| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
63.21 miles
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Altitude Gain:
3,373 ft
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Avg Speed:
16.66 mph
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Route:
Unhilly Hundred
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Avg Grade: 0 %
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Max Grade: 0 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Flat
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Partly Sunny\Hail 45 F W wind 24-38 mph |
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The weather forecast had not been very good heading into today with the temperatures anticipating to be in the forties, some possible showers, and a killer west wind that was predicting a steady mid twenties wind with gusts into the forty miles an hour range. I got to the registration in Hertford, NC and was a little disappointed in the turn out, as it appeared that no more than thirty people had showed up. I had registered for the hundred miler but changed to the metric as I had no desire to push several hours into a wall of wind. All but one of us were bundled up with only one odd man having his knees exposed. Ride started very slow and I got a little anxious as I wanted to go a bit faster at least for the first hour as the wind was only going to be in the teens until after nine. Picked my pace up to around eighteen in a cross wind and thought it was a nice steady pace. After two miles by myself, three racer guys blew by me. I increased my pace enough to shadow them though I didn't want to join into any killer pace line with the forecast getting tougher later in the day. Two of the three riders, one in grey and one in red were trading pulls while the third man in green seemed to be just riding the bus. I kept up for three or four miles but as the course turned into the headwind I fell off their pace until they were out of sight. I kept the pressure on the pedals started seeing them again once the course turned back into a crosswind. I saw that the green rider had been dropped and a good gap was between him and the other two riders who were still riding together. Put some effort into catching the green rider and some time checks had him about a minute ahead of me. Slowed and chatted with a rider from one of the shorter loops that had converged with the metric and missed my chance on catching the green rider as he soon pulled into a rest stop near the thirty mile mark. He was still getting off his bike as I rolled by. I wasn't able to see if the red and grey riders were at the stop or not. I took it fairly easy in the next ten miles of tailwind to recover from my chasing and couldn't see anyone ahead of me. I thought maybe the two other riders might have turned onto the hundred mile loop when the course split after the rest stop. The course was definitely unhilly as I didn't encounter anything over two percent the entire day. The area appeared to be mostly farmland that didn't seem to have much growing yet from the amount of dust the wind was kicking up. I was surprised around the forty mile mark when the red and gray riders blew by me for the second time of the day. I again shadowed them for the next dozen miles which wasn't as hard this outing as they were mostly riding side by side and chatting. I drifted off a couple times but was able to close the gaps by making a uncomfortable though short efforts. As we turned back into a thirty plus wind for the last ten miles of the day, the gray rider stopped and got off the bike to stretch his legs. I kept on plugging into the wind and would often have to stand up just to keep moving forward. I was able to look back on occasional corners and could see the two riders working together and they were gaining every time I saw them. I kept pushing forward and eventually got clear of the headwind with two or three miles to go. I was passed by the grey rider as I went through an intersection and even though he blew by me again he didn't open up much of a gap. I was able to quickly close with him and went into wheel suck mode. I thought he tried to pull away with a couple of bursts, but I was able to match them and stay on his wheel. Felt pretty good over the last mile and started riding beside him when the rain and hailstones hit. I thought I would do well in a sprint if it came to that but we just rode in together over the last mile. Wasn't much at the finish and just rode to my truck to get out of the rain. Free ice cream came with the entry fee but I passed. The organizer reported that the winds actually got up to forty five miles an hour during the ride but that might have been later in the afternoon. I had a good ride with a average speed a little under eighteen for the first fifty but the average really dropped over the eight mile section where I was hammering at a painful eleven miles an hour. I was glad I only partially wimped out and did the metric as when the forecast called for a cold rain I really considered just picking up my T-shirt and heading home. The metric though was doable just not much fun.
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