Backroads Century – Who Is Going?
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@jabberwocky 31613 wrote:
I’m one of those people who can eat damn near anything on long rides. I’m hoping the aid stations have M&Ms.
I’m with ya there, I’ll be chowing down at the rest stops. The only thing I might carry food-wise would be some espresso gel shots for the caffeine, because I’m not sure I can swill down my daily requirement of coffee before 7:30am.
I have a tendency to slog along slowly on solo rides if there is nothing to keep my pace up. I think riding with a group will be good for that, and also be fun. I went ahead and signed up for BB, and the B leader said that it is pretty casual if anyone wants to join up during the ride.
@Swiper 31985 wrote:
I enjoyed the century and my “accomplishment” of being able to finish 100 miles at 6 hours and 30 minutes. Well, I guess that I have to start somewhere. My second ride above 50 miles since starting this hobby back in May.
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Any century in under seven hours is good work! I did much better for the Backroads than I did for the 50 States. Some of that may have been the 20 pound difference in bike/load weight. And I had forgotten how hilly the second 50 was. The tomato, cucumber, and humus sandwiches at White Post brought me back!
Ride highlights, for me at least:
– Weather – Think about the best ride weather you can possibly imagine. Now double it. That’s how good the weather was. Crisp in the morning, cool in the afternoon. Unicorns were crying it was so f%&king nice out.
– The course – This was my first Backroads, and the course was really great. Someone here mentioned the big hill at about mile 85 so I spent most of the ride in dread of it, but really it wasn’t that bad. I was picturing a 30-minute slog but really it was much shorter. Although hilly, most of it was rolling. I drop like a rock, so I mostly slingshotted the climbs.
– The rest stops and volunteers – everyone was super nice and all the rest stops were well-stocked. The tomato sandwiches were the bomb just like everyone said, and they even made one special for me without cucumber
I was a little perplexed by the potatoes however. They were good, especially with some kosher salt, but I thought they were lacking something. I asked how the tradition started because they are pretty much the Colombian recipe for papas saladas (salty potatoes), but the volunteers didn’t know. I found myself wanting a giant hunk of chicharrones to go with them The only let-down foodwise were the burgers at the end. I’ve never had decent burgers at a post-ride bbq. Tiny and overcooked. But the hotdogs were good.– Parking took longer than expected so I missed the BB group departure and joined up with the B’s. The leaders did a great job and although I thought they kept too fast a schedule at the stops, it was probably a good thing since I tend to dawdle. One of the things I was a little disappointed in with my group was the lack of decent pacelining. Everyone was just kind of all over the place, passing, surging up and back. In the end all you could do was try to hang with a small group and hope it held together for a little while.
I didn’t see as much widespread bad etiquette as others have reported, but I did see a few isolated incidents of riders failing to yield especially to overtaking traffic which was surprising, given how much of a big deal they made of it in the ride sign-up. At one point on a climb the entire group kept right to allow a van to pass, but one rider further up simply refused. He was riding almost on the yellow line and stayed there for what felt like far too long. He had more than enough time to find a spot in the peloton over to the right, and the van started honking at him. And honestly, I didn’t fault the van driver; the rider was being obnoxious either deliberately or ignorantly. I turned to the rider next to me and asked “what’s that guy’s problem?” and the rider actually thought I was referring to the driver of the van and he said “West Virginia driver”.
All-in-all a great century. I had forgotten to start my computer until about mile 3, so by the ride end I only had 98-point-something miles. You’d better believe once I got back to the car I spun that rear wheel til the odometer read 100.1
I’ll be damned if I’m going to ride 100 miles and not have it show on my computer :pYeah, I saw the same behavior (maybe even the same rider), where a group of 20-30 people pull single file to the side so a car can get by, and one person just rides the yellow line. Folks were yelling “car back!” over and over, but it took like 2 minutes for the guy to finally wake up and move over. I experienced similar stuff from slower riders, especially on the back 50 and on descents, where I’m trying to pass someone and they are just weaving all over the road making it much more difficult than necessary.
Overall though, things went well and issues like that were rare. I’ve had similar experiences at every large organized ride I’ve done. I think it just goes with the territory. When you get a few thousand folks on the road at once, you’re bound to run into at least a few oblivious or rude riders.
To throw some positivity out there (I know you guys love that crap
) I was happy with the aid stations as well. I hit the first one hungry but not sure what exactly I was craving. Turns out what I wanted more than anything in the world was goldfish crackers. Amazingly, they had anticipated me and had them in abundance. And I liked the pork bbq and burgers at the finish. Granted, anything tastes good after 6 hours on the bike.
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