A Peach of a Day!

It was the first full day of Autumn, and what a perfect day it was! Some would call it peachy!
I celebrated it by riding the Salem Bicycle Club's Peach of a Century. It occurred to me that while I used to ride 100 miles every Saturday AND every Sunday, I haven't done a century in quite a long time. I was wondering just how that might affect this now social rider.

I was riding today with my brother in law Dave. Neither of us had preregistered :-( so the first order of business was to get signed up. Even as day of event registrants, the fee was very reasonable. I don't mind paying SBC's fees because I know it goes to a good cause, as opposed to some for profit outfits that charge exorbitant fees and don't do much other than fill payed staffers pockets.

Before we had a chance to pedal we ran into John Henry Maurice and the three of us decided to ride together.  The temperature was comfortable even at 8:30 AM as we started out. We were in heavy bike traffic for the first mile or so, but then got an opening as we climbed a small hill and started pedaling. I led our little entourage out in the low 20's for a few miles.  It was enough to get the blood pumping and set the pace for the rest of the day. We were stretched out a bit as we arrived at Jefferson, the site of our first support stop. Dave was focused on staying ahead of a group that was hot on his tail and missed the turn to the out and back leg to the support stop. He'd pay for that before reaching the second stop in Stayton. I pulled into the stop and John Henry was not too far behind.  We visited around a bit, snacked a bit, and then resumed our pedaling.

Before too long we crossed our first covered bridge of the day.

Hoffman Covered Bridge

In a few more miles we got close to the Richardson Gap Covered Bridge, but made a turn about a 3/4 mile before crossing it.

At times there were a lot of bikes around.

Other times there wasn't another cyclist to be seen. We arrived in Stayton, the site of our second support stop and found Dave there waiting for us. Here cyclists take over the Jordan Covered Bridge, no longer on a road.

The Peach is pretty flat 75 miles, with a hilly 25 miles tossed in about the middle third. My Garmin showed 3200 ft of climbing,  That amount of climbing is not a lot for our area. There are some century routes that have 10,000 ft, and 5000 is common. The Garmin showed a couple of places where grades reached 10%.  I saw quite a few bikes being walked up those hills. I just shifted down and pedaled up.




 I finished up the ride and had a piece of peach pie that the ride is noted for...... right after having a piece of Marion Berry pie.  :-)

I have not been riding much lately, and certainly not hard. It showed a bit today.  I had a 17 mph average at the end of the day, not shabby, but really felt it post ride.  I'll be going to bed early tonight!

............road bike.......rollers.........mtb.....lifecycle.....total Today.........101..............0.............0..........0..........101 Jan...........105.............34.............0..........0..........139 Feb...........428............108.............0.........24..........536 March.........809..............0.............0.........22..........831 April........1010..............0.............0..........0.........1010 May..........1000..............0............20..........0.........1020 June.........1500..............0.............0..........0.........1500 July.........1558..............0.............0..........0.........1558 Aug...........531..............0.............0..........0..........531 Sept..........574..............0.............0..........0..........574 YTD..........7501............142............20.........46.........7670