| Ride Stats |
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Distance:
53.35 miles
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Altitude Gain:
3,739 ft
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Avg Speed:
19.02 mph
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Route:
Tour de Perry
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Avg Grade: 145 %
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Max Grade: 169 %
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Max HR: 0 bpm
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Avg HR: 0 bpm
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Terrain: Road: Hills
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Bike: Look 585 Carbon Road
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Club: Schuyler County Cycling Club |
| Weather Conditions: Sunny 75 F S wind @ 3 mph |
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Have been looking forward to riding the Tour de Perry for quite awhile now as though the course isn't terribly challenging it does have a very scenic section that descends through Letchworth State Park. The price is right too as for less than twenty dollars you get a t-shirt with the Silver Lake sea monster on it, a jar of Once Again Organic peanut butter and a couple of Cliff Bars. Couldn't tell how many people were there for the two rides but it was more than sixty and less than one hundred. Not sure why more people don't ride this friendly event. Traveled out with IronDoug for the ride. Start was better this year as the ride bypassed the side streets that created a cluster last year and headed right out of town. Group separated on the first short climb with IronDoug easily spinning away over the hill. Having a race tomorrow and feeling pretty low overall, I had planned on riding with a group as much as possible and not get involved in any twenty mile time trial chases. Plan went south right away as I found myself at the front of the group and after pulling a half mile motioned I wanted to pull off and let someone else take the lead. The guy behind me wouldn't go by me and just stayed on my wheel as I pulled over. Waited for someone else to go by but didn't have any takers so figured I might as well go up and ride with IronDoug as he would be glad to trade pulls. Got out of the saddle and accelerated away from the group. Had one guy on my wheel as I bridged up to IronDoug but he wasn't one of the guys who wouldn't pull so I was glad to have him along. We caught Doug on a small rise and the three of us traded pulls until we got to the first long climb. The climb is two or three miles long at a near constant grade between four and six percent. Tried to shift into my small chainring for the climb but the front derailleur seemed to be stuck. Told Doug and the other guy to go on ahead as I had to heel kick the derailleur to make the shift. Got going again but was twenty seconds down from the boys ahead. Held the gap for the first mile but then they started easing away as the grade went up a little. Ended up going over the top about eighty seconds down and probably lost more on the run into Pike for the first stop. Saw a couple of Nut Butter riders had pulled away from the group on the climb but knew that unless I had another mechanical they wouldn't be able to catch me before Pike. Rolled into the twenty mile checkpoint and signed in. Doug and the other rider who was up from Athens, GA were waiting at the rest stop. The Nut Butter riders rolled in soon after and one of them joined up as we started the rolling climbs up to the entrance to Letchworth Park. We traded pulls for several miles but somewhere along the way the Nut Butter guy had dropped out and was out of sight when we noticed he was missing. So the three of us motored downhill through the scenic park. Legs got tired on a couple of small climbs near the bottom of the park and cracked big time on one of the steeper ones. Told the boys I was done for the day and that they might as well go on without me. The last ten miles of the fifty-two mile course are pretty much all uphill back to Perry with a little over seven hundred feet of climbing. Didn't really recover after cracking and just spun out the climbs as best as I could. Lost seven minutes over the last section on Doug and the GA guy but was able to outpace any chasers and rolled into Perry with a nineteen mile an hour average in the third spot. So had a good early section of the ride and enjoyed working a line with the other guys but was disappointed again by my climbing. Beautiful ride though and will return next year if they have the ride.
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