| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
103.29 miles
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Altitude Gain:
5,795 ft
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Avg Speed:
19.62 mph
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Route:
Candor-Owego-Elmira
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Avg Grade: 146 %
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Max Grade: 167 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Rolling
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 55 F NW wind @ 19 mph |
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Weather has been cold and windy again with temperatures at night dropping into the thirties and only getting into the fifties daytime. Took a few days off from outside riding but did spend some quality time on the Computrainer. Had scheduled a group ride century for today. Ideally we would have done the Race 4 Hope in Borodino today, as in years past, but it has either been cancelled or at least delayed. So we had planned on going out today but I wasn't sure if anyone would show as instead of a fast late May century late May the weather forecast seemed more appropriate for early April. Winds in the mid -twenties had been forecast with the temperature at start time being barely forty degrees but would rise to near sixty by the time we finished. Forecast had improved overnight though and we would only be facing a northwest wind at twenty miles an hour. The humidity would also be dropping during the day so at least it wouldn't seem as raw as the past couple of days. We had four at the start-IronDoug, Mighty Young Joe, and Prughmiester Dave. Plan was to climb up Odessa Hill at a relaxed pace then go into a cooperative paceline at the top of the hill and hammer off the miles. Goal was to work together and finish in five hours. We had a good following crosswind for the first thirty miles and everyone was pulling fast and hard and after fifteen miles we got the average speed up to the goal of twenty. All we had to do now was hold it for eighty-five more miles. We kept the speed in the mid-twenties for the most part and flew through the rollers err Van Etten. Legs felt great up until I rolled into Candor when I started feeling their age. Backed off a little bit on my pulls as really wasn't getting much rest as my heart rate was staying near max even when I was in the draft. Had a little trouble holding on when IronDoug pulled as he was pulling a couple of miles an hour faster than the rest of us. Settled in though and soon we picked up a huge tailwind between Candor and Owego and speeds occasionally crept up into the low thirties. We sailed into and through Owego with the average speed up into the mid-twenty-threes but playtime was over and we faced another fifty miles of nasty crosswind and brutal headwinds ahead of us. We hit the second climb of the day and it broke us up a little with Iron Doug cruising up the rise with Dave and I not far behind. Mighty Young Joe was starting to show some wear but it was kind of expected as he planned on not eating on the ride in an effort to lose a little weight. I had been feeding almost continually throughout the first fifty miles. We collected back up after the climb but we really couldn't get a good rotation going as a few us had reached our limit and had difficulty getting any relief as we really couldn't ride echelon to take advantage of the draft without taking up the entire lane. Line broke up for good on the third climb out of Waverly. Doug again went over easily with me surprisingly not far behind. Both Joe and Dave had dropped back and had I some concern that Dave might bail as he was very close to home. Doug turned around and went back down the climb and I used the opportunity to take a nature break behind a tractor trailer in a layby. Turned out to be a serious error though as when I came back to the road there was no one in sight. I was unsure whether they had passed or had had a flat or cramps and were still on the climb. Rolled back down the climb and didn't see anyone so figured they had passed me and hopefully were waiting at the planned stop in Chemung. Got to the store in Chemung and found nobody there. Called Joe on his cellphone and found he was up the road a mile and a half. He said Doug was up the road ahead of him and Dave was somewhere behind. Asked him to wait and pedaled up to catch him. It turned out to be a bad decision by me as had planned on topping off my water at the store but didn't. Got up to Joe and didn't see Dave. Tried to call Doug on his cellphone but got voicemail. A couple of minutes later Dave rolled up. Turns out he was at the store when I stopped but had his bike on the side opposite me. The three of us rode together, but we were no longer working together against the wind, we were riding together to survive and share the pain. The course had changed this year and instead of going over Jerusalem Hill and dropping into Elmira we continued up CR 1 to Breezeport and cut back across to Horseheads. We suffered on the small hills that the wind had turned into killer climbs. Joe bonked pretty bad and he swallowed his pride and asked me for a gel pack. We got over the last climb and stopped at a gas station so Joe could get some food. Neglected to fill my water bottles again. We spun to Horseheads and now had fifteen miles into the twenty plus steady headwind left to finish off the ride. The average speed had dropped down to nineteen seven at this point and it was doubtful but not impossible that we would reclaim the twenty average. Once Joe refueled he started to feel a little better and did most of the pulling form Pine Valley to Montour. I tried to pick the pace up during one of my pulls and had severe hamstring cramps and had to remove my foot from the pedals to get some relief. We stayed together until two miles to go when Dave must have decided he was close enough and fell off the back to finish alone. We never saw Doug again and his car was gone when we got back to the start. Wind turned the ride into a sufferfest which wasn't the plan, but we finished it in a little over five hours and everyone seemed content that the ride was over.
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