Today 6 of us rode my official 54 mile birthday ride. I had about a dozen people say they were coming but as we shoved off still no sign of them. I hope they had a good ride wherever they went. At 54 miles our planned route was probably a bit long for some, and only about half long enough for others. For us today it was just about right! ;-)
I had told folks that today was a "no drop" day, but at the same time, they should be able to hold a 15 mph average over the 54 mile mostly flat route. We did have just under 1600 ft of climbing,(see note below) but that pretty much counts as flat around these parts. Kris, who intends to be the best disciple of our social group's "training series" rides had really set her goal to be able to attain the magic 15 mph pace for the day.
As we were preparing to take off this morning Brian had a flat. He repaired it as my Race Across Oregon teammate Cary pulled in. Riding along with him was his brother (and my former college roommate) Terry. Filling out the party today was my brother-in-law Dave.
(L-R Cary, Terry, Brian, Dave, Kris)
Cary had commitments to attend to in the afternoon so he and Terry let it be known that they'd be hammering today's ride out, and they did. We lost sight of them around 7 miles in and never saw them again. We will undoubtedly ride in April for Terry's birthday so we'll make up for the lack of face time then.
Shortly after seeing Cary and Terry for the last time Brian pulled up with his second flat of the day. (note: a well worn tire is not the best way to start a long winter ride.)
He got the flat repaired and we continued on our way. The riding was nice, the light fog cleared aided by a light headwind that developed about 20 miles into our ride. Before long we turned east on Waconda road and put the wind mostly to our side.
Kris still had a smile on her face at the halfway point of today's ride.
After a few miles we turned north on Duck Inn road and enjoyed our first tailwind of the ride. We cruised along pretty quickly until arriving at Gervais where the market was open and we planned on stopping for a little resupply. Kris and I found Dave and Brian stopped there, tending to a broken spoke in Brian's wheel. The market was very accommodating allowing Brian to take his bike into the store to do the repairs where it was warmer.
While Brian did get the wheel back in good enough shape to ride on, it's going to take a bit of fine tuning when he gets home. It's a bit hard to see in the video clip, but if you watch closely you can see Brian's rear fender vibrating.... that's the effect of a wobbly wheel!
The forecast had said there might be rain (or snow!) late in the day, and about 3/4 of the way through our ride it looked like we might get a few drips, but that cleared up before it ever came to fruition.
Kris was very proud to have attained her goal of a minimum 15 mph for the 54 (closer to 55!) miles. The top speedometer shows the miles for today, the bottom is toggled to the average speed.
Cary and Terry rode a faster pace and didn't have any mechanical issues. They called as they finished the ride, the rest of us were still 12 miles out. That spoke repair really cost us some time! Here's the data from Cary's Garmin:
Distance: 54.18 mi
Calories: 3011
Average Speed: 18.4 mph
Pace: 0:03:15/mi
Duration: Total: 3:13:47
Active: 2:56:54
Resting: 0:16:53
Elevation: Total Gain: 1593 ft
*NOTE: Cary informs me that his Garmin 305 reported nearly 1000 ft of climbing but when the data was uploaded to TrimbleOutdoors it changed to ~1600. We both agree that 1000 ft seems more accurate.
We finished up by having our "post ride debriefing" at Wanker's Corner in Wilsonville. It was a good group to share the day with.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
...............Road Bike.....LifeCycle.....Total Miles
Today............55...............0.................55
Jan total.......501.....+.........30.......=.......531
Feb total.......183.....+.........0........=.......183
Year to date....684.....+.........30.......=.......714
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I would have come, but I never got the promised follow-up e-mail with details :-)
ReplyDeleteSorry, I guess I dropped the ball on this one. I had invited several groups I cycle with to join me and guess I missed the Randonneurs on the final "set in stone" email.
ReplyDeleteI had another Randonneur ask about details but only checked email at work. I was in a meeting all day Friday so didn't respond until late. :-(
Mea Culpa
Lo siento
The Garmin data you included is misleading. The trimble site seems to exaggerate the elevation gain. My device read about 1000 feet, but the after uploading to trimble, it was 1500. You can't climb 500 feet onto the internet can you?
ReplyDeleteMy starting line statement was that we shouldn't waste time waiting for anyone who might be late to the start. A fishing trip should leave the dock at the appointed time. After about 45 minutes of apparently competitive 'hammering' the Mallon brothers looked at each other and proclaimed, 'we don't have to ride this hard.' Yet momentum kept us rolling pretty fast.
Los
I just cut and pasted the data. I often hear that the mapping sites misrepresent the total climbing, especially on longer rides (ie 200 mi+) but hadn't heard that on 50 mile rides. It did surprise me when your data showed almost 1600 ft. We rode in the same area last year though not the same route. Last year was something like 700-800 ft, this year we did climb one more hill but certainly not an 800 ft hill!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't going to wait at the start, it's a pet peeve of mine. If the start is at 10, be ready to ride at 10, or be prepared to ride hard to catch up! ;-) Many plan other events for the day based on projected finish time. To delay for those who are tardy puts many others into a tail spin.
Oh, and momentum is MY friend too! :-)