Apr 25/26 - going nowhere

"Where are you going", is the frequent question from people at convenience stores where we're stopped for sustenance.  Well, nowhere is the correct answer.  We end up where we started.

"Are you doing this for a charity", is the second most common question.  Well, no, we're doing this out of shear stupidity is the correct answer, but we don't say that.

It was hot.  We almost got rained upon, but not quite.  I take that back, as I don't really know about "we", I only know about "me".

Off we went at 5am on Saturday.  At 1pm on Sunday I was finished.  There were four people ahead of me, all of whom had ridden through without sleep.  At least one person was behind me who had ridden without sleep ... well, without sleep at the motel, that is.  The remainder of the 36 or 37 starters were still on the road, save 4, at last count, who'd DNF'd.

I set a personal record with this brevet.  Two solid days of riding including most of the intervening night, without a jacket, arm warmers, wind vest ... it was that warm.  As usual I was carrying my rain jacket and a pair of arm warmers in my pack, but never had to access those.

The first day was long and hot.  My black shorts had turned white, causing comment from one rider.  I rode by myself but constantly leapfrogged back and forth with a group of 6-8.  From the beginning I was almost the lanterne rouge, but that changed, as usual.  I wrapped up the first day at 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

The ride was setup as two out-and-return routes, 200k out and then back on the first day; 100k out and then back on the second.  That makes it convenient as you can leave your stuff in your room at the starting motel, yeah that Motel 6.

About 10 miles from the first day turnaround, I saw the first group of returning riders, making them 20 miles ahead of me.  That's a lot of gain in 125 miles, when you think about it.  Many of that group then continued on without sleeping; leaving the Motel 6 around 10pm while I was still on the road from the first leg.

The group that I was leapfrogging finished the first day just a few minutes ahead of me, having passed me shortly beforehand.   They could "smell the barn" and were really moving at that point.  I didn't bother trying to keep up.  That group opted for lots of sleep and, from what I heard, left around 5am.

Arriving at 12:30, I checked-in, had a shower, came back to Paul's room for some turkey soup and a beer, then retired, in bed at 1:15 a.m.  I set my alarm for ... ahem ... 2:15 ... and when it went off, I admit that for a few seconds I was confused.  It wasn't my normal "instant awake".

It took a bit to have coffee, organize, get my stuff into the car (I wasn't going to be back in time for check-out), and hit the road, so it was shortly after 3am that I rolled out.

It really was a beautiful morning and route.  I guess that it was about 20s mile before the turnaround that I saw 2 riders coming towards me.  Actually, now that I think about it, perhaps 25 ?  Those would have been the first of the group who rode through.  That would make them 40 miles ahead of me at that point.  Since they had left at least 5 hours ahead of me, they obviously weren't going that fast.  Lack of sleep does that to you !

The next one that I saw on the road was actually off the road.  Luis Vargas was sleeping on the concrete on someone's driveway. I went by, thought better of it and went back and said something and he was awake, thankful that I'd woken him up.  We were about 15 miles from the turnaround at that point.  I stopped a couple of times and he rode on.  Getting to the turnaround, he was there along with a pair from Puerto Rico -- they'd ridden through but had slept somewhere along the side of the road as had Luis.

We leap-frogged a bit for the next while and then I was by myself, ahead of them for a while.  20 miles from the end, the PR pair passed me, getting in about 20 minutes before me.  Luis was somewhere back there, obviously his ride through hadn't accomplished a heck-of-a-lot other than saving him the bother of sleeping at the Motel 6 ... perhaps he had something there !

Along the way back, of course I saw all the other riders still out-bound.  That's actually an interesting part about out-and-back routes.  I saw Jim Solanick about 5 miles from the turnaround, which would make him 10 miles behind me.  I think that he left around 4am.  The group of 6-8 from the day before were strung out, no longer riding as a group, a couple of pairs.  Tired and drafting don't go together.

I was back home a little before 5pm, showered, had a 1/2 hour nap, went to Mass.  Back from Mass, we had sushi ... not good sushi, disappointing sushi.  I did laundry and went to bed.  I could have left all those damp stinky clothes until today, but forced myself to stay up until I could get them into the dryer.  Thinking back, I should have thrown them into the washer before we headed out for dinner, but didn't.

Now I have a day to recover before Dick and I head to Fort Myers Beach.  I have a couple of minor adjustments that I want to make with the bike that I'll do this morning and of course I have packing to do.  I"ll pack for the entire time even though we ride right past here on Riverside on Friday. In fact, if our timing is good, we'll stop here for dinner.

The bike behaved well.  That extra 5-7 pounds didn't cause me any great difficulty.  I plowed up Sugarloaf without any real difficulty.  Do I want to carry all that weight up the hills on PBP ?  I'll have to think about that.  I'll do enough riding in Ontario in the meantime that I'll be able to make a judgement call.  Heavy bike or not, most people are pushing more weight up those hills than me -- their total includes their body weight.

Life is good ... and busy !!  Onward !