Civil War Century/Tour Riders

[creadinger]

Dangit, what we did not need…. hopefully there are lots and lots of friendly home owners in the area who don’t mind sheltering bunches of cyclists for an hour or so.

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/products/outlook/day2otlk.html

I don’t mind a little rain or even heavy downpours but severe storms are a problem. Stay safe out there y’all! I think I’ll bring my BikeArlington reflector vest with me and I mounted an extra taillight last night.

And the POP for Gettysburg now is 100% with many thunderstorms expected after NOON.

[consularrider]

@KS1G 30411 wrote:

Rain gear – … I mounted a set of Crudbuster Racer Mate Mk2 fenders night – they will help keep road spray off me and the bike and I know anyone following me will appreciate it.

I had these on my Salsa for the Reston Century and got several favorable comments from riders who preferred drafting me than anyone else. Not too many bikes had any type of fenders on that ride.

[KS1G]

Yes. Riding behind anyone quickly became problematic! Like following a perpetual water fountain or sprinkler. Fenders don’t fit the roadie cred, or many road bikes. I don’t see many raddoneur rigs on area century rides, either. I did CWC my 1st time (2009?) on my commuter (removed rack, lights, kept the fenders) and the people who passed me (there were many!) appreciated I left on the fenders. I bought my 1st set of crudbusters for 2010-11 riding, picked up a set of Mk2’s for 2011-12 but never needed to take them out of the box. Very glad I have them for tomorrow, wish I’d thought of it for Reston.

So forum folks can look for 2 bikes with crudbuster fenders, and one rider in their Bike Arlington jersey. Still haven’t decided which jersey to wear (I’m beginning to sound like my wife!), although I won’t use the Google Android one my son bought me as a present – took 2 washings to get the dirt out after Reston! No white, darker colors this time (but vest is screaming yellow-lime).

[creadinger]

I’m on a different ride, but we will cross several times so just in case – I have a burgundy colored IF with black fenders, bar tape etc.. I’ll probably be wearing my blue/orange 2011 Pan Mass Challenge jersey. I’m also bringing my Bike Arlington reflective vest that I picked up at Bike to Work Day. I’ll toss that on when it rains.

Also – if it gets really bad stormwise given the SPC forecast for severe tomorrow, and it doesn’t look like it’s just going to blow through real quick I don’t have any qualms abandoning (better to live to ride another day right?) My wife will be in the area with our car so if anyone wants a bail out let me know. Given timing I imagine the most likely place for that would be up near Gettysburg. We only have a Honda Civic and a 2-bike rack so we only have room for one. Send me a PM if you’re interested and I’ll give you my cell.

Here’s to hoping the forecasters really F-ed this one up.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I just picked up a set of SKS Race Blades for my road bike…I justified it by getting the 25-32 sized ones, so I can transfer them to my wife’s hybrid. I’m optimistic that the rain will be intermittent and coming late in the day, per the forecast, but any potential rain will be much more bearable with fenders.

If the BikeArlington jersey doesn’ identify me well enough, I’m riding a blue Cannondale R400…probably one of the few road bikes on the course with a bell…

[KS1G]

I share your optimism, hopefully the fenders will just be ornaments. And, bells rock! Maybe I’ll move it from the commuter…. Have a great & safe ride tomorrow.

[bluerider]

Fully packed, bike ready. Going to bed to get up early. Good luck everyone.

[Arlingtonrider]

Good luck guys and have fun! We’ll hope for good weather for you!

[consularrider]

Looks like if they got to the finish by 1 pm they were ok. Looking forward to ride reports and photos.

[mstone]

Tornado warnings, yikes.

[bluerider]

We were at the third rest stop when the storm hit and the sirens went off. The last 25 miles were in the rain and the hill at mile 60 broke my soul into 15,000 pieces but I finished the ride in 6 hours and 41 minutes with a top speed of 44 mph, average speed 15.4. My body was weak and slow all day, it was not a good ride for me although the event was terrific. Going to have a massive plate a baked ziti now and rock myself to sleep.

[TwoWheelsDC]

I got kicked in the face with 40mph winds, hail, and rain with pretty much no warning just as I was rolling out of Gettysburg around mile 80. Sky went dark, a few rain drops hit my glasses and then BLAMMO, thunderstorm. I took shelter and it passed in about 10 minutes, but rode in steady rain for the next ten miles and then it was clear until the end. I finished in 6:36 with a 15.6mph average…much better than I was expecting.

I didn’t run across any forum peeps that I was aware of…passed a bunch of DCRandonneurs on Jacks Mtn Rd. Going up that on a loaded touring bike must’ve been miserable.

Edit: only took a couple of photos. It was so muggy I was sweating buckets and had to keep my phone in a sandwich bag.

First pit stop at Gathland State Park:

The storm, although this pic doesn’t do it justice:

[creadinger]

Glad to see you guys finished ok. I finished the 128 mile brevet in 10 hours 45 minutes total time. From the same ride 2 years ago I knocked off 75 minutes this time! Woo hoo! As for the storm I got to a 7-11 control stop in Gettysburg literally seconds before it hit. On our way back south a HUGE tree branch had fallen across Confederate Ave, a little north of Millertown Rd effectively closing it.

On Harney Rd when we passed the last CWC rest stop the volunteers all kept calling out “only 16 miles to go!” Oiy that would have been nice. We had about 30 miles left at that point.

Yeah, after the storm it was spotty light rain the rest of the way and the temp must have been in the low 70’s upper 60’s. It was nice! It was definitely more comfortable in the rain than the first 80 mile sweat-fest.

http://app.strava.com/activities/21311138

[KelOnWheels]

Y’all rock!

[JimF22003]

I skipped the last rest stop thinking I might beat the rain. Ha! The rain started coming down sideways at about mile 85 for me. I happened to be beside a line of trees that made a pretty good windbreak. The rain was coming in so hard from the side that I was actually not getting all that wet… until the wind died down a LITTLE. I waited it out for about ten minutes there, but then went on. It was still coming down amazingly hard, but there was no thunder, and the wind was on strong, not gale force.

The cold and the wet and the adrenaline actually gave my legs a little new life, so that was good.

Still it was a nice ride, and I’m glad I did it.

So… who’s up for the Indian Head 100 today???

[Author]

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