Mar 16 - more about the ride

Dan Wallace was there at the start but had decided not to do this one.  He had a tough time on the 300k and didn't want to repeat the 400k DNF of the last two years.  Would he have DNF'd?  We'll never know.  In any event, we saw Dan at the first on-the-road Control -- Wildwood (56 mi) -- and at the lunch (113 mi) Control.  Paul was also at lunch spot as well as the starting Control, naturally, and the end.  The 165 mile and 221 mile Controls were simply store stamps, no volunteers.

Terry Shuya wasn't a no show -- he hadn't even signed up !

The rides are well organized.  Brevet cards are computer printed and ready -- there are not supposed to be any last-minute riders.  Dan had some pre-packaged snacks (bars etc) at Wildwood; Paul had sandwiches, pretzels, chips and bars etc. at lunch.  At the finish there drinks, including beer, along with snacks and home-made chili (which was excellent !) and some cheese pizza.

We got off to a good start.  Jerry and I were leading the pack away from the hotel and down along the lake shore.  I knew that wouldn't last long, because I was only rolling at 16mph.  Keith and Ruth, especially, on the tandem, would quickly outstrip a pace like that !

The group broke into two plus stragglers early on.  I was pulling that second group for quite a while and then peeled off to the left to see if Jerry was still following.  No Jerry.  Rats.  This is all in the dark, by the way.

I stopped and waited but no Jerry.  I rode back a half-mile to see if I could see him coming, perhaps he'd had a flat or something -- nothing.  Double rats.

So ... I called his cell phone and left a voicemail.  A couple of minutes late, he called me back ... he was (or had been) still with the group !  I'd missed him when I moved to the side to check.  Triple rats.

I told him to go on; I'd catch up at some point.  I did at the 56 mile Control.  There were still a bunch of riders behind us, perhaps 1/3 ?  Think about the groups of riders being 10 + 10 + 10 and you get the idea, with us in the middle or actually trailing that second group at this point.

At the lunch spot we caught up to that second group, now fractured, of 10 people.  One of the ones in that group was Dick, with whom I'd ridden around Lake Ontario last summer.  He had driven down from Ohio just for this ride, getting in a 400k for his series in preparation for, you guessed it, the Granite Anvil.

We left with that group but Jerry couldn't keep up.  The high-grade rollers were slowing him down.  I'd been riding at the front, chatting with Dick, but dropped back and waited for Jerry.  We would see that group at the 165 and 221 mile Controls -- they weren't getting too far ahead of us.

We never saw the front group again, except for a few who had been dropped and became an in-between group.  In fact, Jerry and I finished ahead of that group, passing them in the night late in the ride as they had stopped to deal with a flat.

I know that it's hard to keep track of all these groups -- way out ahead is the Keith & Ruth group; who likely finished 3-4 hours ahead of us.  Then there's the group that was dropped by them or perhaps was part of group # 2 that I was leading for a while ?  -- not sure -- the Dick group, (for want of a better name), the Jerry-Dave mini-group :), and another 6-10 people behind us.

I shed my jacket at the 56 mile mark and was a little chilly as a result.  That didn't last long and I was taking off my skull cap, the vest and long sleeve jersey.  The pace picked up.

Our pace wasn't too bad at the beginning, considering the waiting around that I'd done and the fact that we were only two.  Last year we did the first 100 miles in 6 hours, working as a large group.  This year that was 7 hours.  The last 100 miles took us 9.5 hours.  Jerry had to keep stopping due to cramps; we rode slowly for the most part.

I was happy to see the ride over.  I get a feeling almost like claustrophobia after too many hours on the bike.  I need to get off.  I'm happy to resume after an hour or two, but need that break.  Psychologically I also like the day's ride to end same-day.  The only exception to that is the tail end of a 1200 -- this year we, Henk in one instance and Catherine in the other, finished in the 2am range.  The end in sight after 3+ days of riding is different than the end in sight after one day.

Jerry was fairly wasted, outstripping his conditioning, liquid and solid consumption.  I was pushed to the edge, due to time perhaps. 

As always, I finish one of these and look back on it as a "good ride". 

We passed a scrap metal dealer who would pay good prices, but what about Titanium ?  Then again, I thought, I'd get more for the bike on eBay.  Of course today I'll start thinking about the next ride, pain forgotten :).