benb
06-12-2016, 03:38 PM
Great day yesterday for B2VT, a ride that starts right near my house in Bedford, MA and goes to Okemo Mountain ski area in Vermont, 134 miles with a supposed 8100 feet of climbing. (Also into the prevailing winds here, though that was not a big deal at all yesterday). Got up at 4AM to ride to the start. I live about a half mile from the start so that's a great motivator to do this event again. One of my friends stayed with us to avoid having to travel so early in the morning. I had signed up for the 17mph start, he was in the later 21+ mph group. I rode the Trek Domane I bought earlier this year, and I used 26c Specialized Turbo tires.
I've rode about 2300 miles this year so far and trained specifically for this ride. I finally rested the week before and I felt incredibly strong yesterday. I had done 4 80 mile rides solo, a 91 mile ride solo 2 weeks ago, and one century with a small group, but I always had a pretty good training fatigue for each of those. What a difference the rest makes, even when you barely sleep the night before due to nerves. I had been doubting myself for a ride this long but I surprised myself.
Our group left and went out slow for about a mile or two and then someone attacked and everything sped up. No big deal for me but I remember remarking people were going to burn themselves out. We ended up averaging over 19mph the first hour and stayed almost that fast to the first rest stop which came at about 2 hours. That was also about the time the climbing started to ramp up. I had mostly been hanging back up until this point and not thinking I was feeling that great but as soon as the first big climb came I warmed up and pretty much was dropping the group without trying real hard. I regrouped with a couple people I knew were smooth at the first stop but it was pretty much chaotic after that first stop. I'd ride with a group for a bit, something would happen and the pace would drop or a big climb would come up and I'd end up bridging up to another group. The roads on this route were exceptionally smooth until about when we crossed into New Hampshire. From there it stayed pretty rough all the way through New Hampshire till well into Vermont.
I knew I was having a great day about mile 75 when we hit the first of the 2 timed climbs. The first was listed as Category 3. Not very hard at all. Went up at tempo the first 3.5 miles and then when the purple bib guys competing for the KOM caught me (they left about an hour and 20 minutes after me) I kind of got an adrenaline boost and let myself go faster. I was really worried about not burning myself out. My friend won that KOM and we yelled at each other, very cool. Got to the rest stop and had gone to the bathroom and ate a clif bar and sandwich before I reconnected with the guys I had been riding with.
At this point it started raining hard and the ride really changed. I left the rest stop with only one other person from my original group, we had agreed to stay together as long as possible. After that 80 mile stop we were basically passing and moving up through small packs of riders in the rain with the support cars practically right on top of us. I was shivering like crazy when it first started raining but once we hit a good climb I warmed up and was fine. It was about 55 degrees and I just had bibs/jersey/arm warmers. The original forecast was that it was supposed to be be sunny and 70+ by mid morning. The last rest stop was at 105 miles and my front derailleur jammed big time downshifting into the rest stop. I had used a dry lube, my bike was perfectly clean and tuned at the start of the ride. I have avoided riding this bike in the rain, now it looked like I had done a mud pit cross race.
We left that last rest stop ASAP to avoid getting chilled again. They were hanging out plastic bag rain coats but they were parachutes and I knew I was okay as long as I kept moving. I probably should have grabbed one and stuffed it in a pocket, it would have been pretty ugly to break down in that rain, but the support cars were everywhere.
There was a classic Vermont covered bridge right before the start of the second timed climb. If you have never rode over one of these, one of their key features is a wooden road surface. This one had a central are that was about 3" lower than the rest. About 3 or 4 of us were going over this. I stayed on the far right side, which ended up being a good choice. A guy right in front of me on a tri bike went down the middle and went down hard when he hit the wet and likely oil slicked mess left by the cars. We stopped to help him and he ended up saying he was okay to continue but we all walked the rest of the bridge. My tires had actually seemed fine here, I was able to stop quickly without any skidding when he crashed, but I had been vocal about the bridge being dangerous when we approached it, and I had actually crashed on a century on wet rain tracks 11 years ago after seeing someone else crash right in front of me so I was very wary.
Then we got to that final climb and it almost immediately turned into a dirt road.. It was very wet but luckily was hard packed and in great shape. There were sections here that you could get bogged down in and feel the mud dragging on you but if you were careful you could avoid them. My derailleurs were in really really tough shape going up this though, lots of really bad shifts. I did well though and kept moving up past lots of riders by the top. My pacing seemed really good on these long climbs as on this one I watched a lot of people pass me and then struggle and I went by them again as the climb went on. At this point I was separated from the last person I knew though, he had said he was cooked and to just go ahead. I figured he'd catch up again but he didn't. I pretty much flew solo after this, tagging onto groups but never finding anyone riding my same pace, so I'd move on. By this point I also figured the ride was almost over and I still felt great, so I just put my head down and rode tempo (which is a lot harder than I had been riding in groups) and again was just flying by people on the climbs. I hammered the last 5 miles and shot right up to the finish feeling great.
Got to the end and I had finished in 7:27, at least a half hour faster than I had hoped for and averaged 17.9mph when I had been hoping for 17mph. Total time on the road was about 8 and a half hours, so not a whole lot of stoppage. This ride had a race like feel to it and seemed so daunting at the start so I never stopped anywhere long. The only big negative is I had gotten there so much faster than expected that my wife and son had not arrived yet.. My son was very disappointed not to see me in the ride or crossing the finish line. We had a good time at the finish and then drove home. It took me 2 and a half hours to clean all the grime off my bike and get everything working perfectly again today...
If I do it again next year and the spring is going in a similar fashion I'll surely try the 18 or even 19mph start waves.. It seems like with faster groups half the difference is better teamwork in the group and pacing, I think I could have gone a good bit faster riding with a more disciplined group that stuck together and did a better job rotating at the front.
Overall a great ride.. Great rest stops, great support, all the riders were really nice and well behaved, the route was easy to follow and well marked, and I didn't see anything dumb or unsafe happening. Great times, the party at the end was well done too and I enjoyed having a Harpoon despite thinking I'd be in no shape to do so at the finish.
No pictures.. I'm thankful all my electronics were still working at the finish.. I kept my phone sealed up in a plastic bag except to send status reports to my wife at the rest stops so she'd know when to leave with the car to drive to the finish. My Garmin Edge 1000 just barely made it to the finish and then reported low battery despite leaving Bluetooth off. I left the backlight on the default auto settings, maybe that drained it fast since it was rainy and dark, but no way this thing is navigating you through a double century. I don't know what was up with the route, it was from ride with GPS, but the turn by turn was also weird starting about halfway through the ride but I could still follow it. (The full page directions stopped popping up.) I have yet to have the Edge 1000 work perfectly when navigating a ride from RideWithGPS, it's always had issues.
I've rode about 2300 miles this year so far and trained specifically for this ride. I finally rested the week before and I felt incredibly strong yesterday. I had done 4 80 mile rides solo, a 91 mile ride solo 2 weeks ago, and one century with a small group, but I always had a pretty good training fatigue for each of those. What a difference the rest makes, even when you barely sleep the night before due to nerves. I had been doubting myself for a ride this long but I surprised myself.
Our group left and went out slow for about a mile or two and then someone attacked and everything sped up. No big deal for me but I remember remarking people were going to burn themselves out. We ended up averaging over 19mph the first hour and stayed almost that fast to the first rest stop which came at about 2 hours. That was also about the time the climbing started to ramp up. I had mostly been hanging back up until this point and not thinking I was feeling that great but as soon as the first big climb came I warmed up and pretty much was dropping the group without trying real hard. I regrouped with a couple people I knew were smooth at the first stop but it was pretty much chaotic after that first stop. I'd ride with a group for a bit, something would happen and the pace would drop or a big climb would come up and I'd end up bridging up to another group. The roads on this route were exceptionally smooth until about when we crossed into New Hampshire. From there it stayed pretty rough all the way through New Hampshire till well into Vermont.
I knew I was having a great day about mile 75 when we hit the first of the 2 timed climbs. The first was listed as Category 3. Not very hard at all. Went up at tempo the first 3.5 miles and then when the purple bib guys competing for the KOM caught me (they left about an hour and 20 minutes after me) I kind of got an adrenaline boost and let myself go faster. I was really worried about not burning myself out. My friend won that KOM and we yelled at each other, very cool. Got to the rest stop and had gone to the bathroom and ate a clif bar and sandwich before I reconnected with the guys I had been riding with.
At this point it started raining hard and the ride really changed. I left the rest stop with only one other person from my original group, we had agreed to stay together as long as possible. After that 80 mile stop we were basically passing and moving up through small packs of riders in the rain with the support cars practically right on top of us. I was shivering like crazy when it first started raining but once we hit a good climb I warmed up and was fine. It was about 55 degrees and I just had bibs/jersey/arm warmers. The original forecast was that it was supposed to be be sunny and 70+ by mid morning. The last rest stop was at 105 miles and my front derailleur jammed big time downshifting into the rest stop. I had used a dry lube, my bike was perfectly clean and tuned at the start of the ride. I have avoided riding this bike in the rain, now it looked like I had done a mud pit cross race.
We left that last rest stop ASAP to avoid getting chilled again. They were hanging out plastic bag rain coats but they were parachutes and I knew I was okay as long as I kept moving. I probably should have grabbed one and stuffed it in a pocket, it would have been pretty ugly to break down in that rain, but the support cars were everywhere.
There was a classic Vermont covered bridge right before the start of the second timed climb. If you have never rode over one of these, one of their key features is a wooden road surface. This one had a central are that was about 3" lower than the rest. About 3 or 4 of us were going over this. I stayed on the far right side, which ended up being a good choice. A guy right in front of me on a tri bike went down the middle and went down hard when he hit the wet and likely oil slicked mess left by the cars. We stopped to help him and he ended up saying he was okay to continue but we all walked the rest of the bridge. My tires had actually seemed fine here, I was able to stop quickly without any skidding when he crashed, but I had been vocal about the bridge being dangerous when we approached it, and I had actually crashed on a century on wet rain tracks 11 years ago after seeing someone else crash right in front of me so I was very wary.
Then we got to that final climb and it almost immediately turned into a dirt road.. It was very wet but luckily was hard packed and in great shape. There were sections here that you could get bogged down in and feel the mud dragging on you but if you were careful you could avoid them. My derailleurs were in really really tough shape going up this though, lots of really bad shifts. I did well though and kept moving up past lots of riders by the top. My pacing seemed really good on these long climbs as on this one I watched a lot of people pass me and then struggle and I went by them again as the climb went on. At this point I was separated from the last person I knew though, he had said he was cooked and to just go ahead. I figured he'd catch up again but he didn't. I pretty much flew solo after this, tagging onto groups but never finding anyone riding my same pace, so I'd move on. By this point I also figured the ride was almost over and I still felt great, so I just put my head down and rode tempo (which is a lot harder than I had been riding in groups) and again was just flying by people on the climbs. I hammered the last 5 miles and shot right up to the finish feeling great.
Got to the end and I had finished in 7:27, at least a half hour faster than I had hoped for and averaged 17.9mph when I had been hoping for 17mph. Total time on the road was about 8 and a half hours, so not a whole lot of stoppage. This ride had a race like feel to it and seemed so daunting at the start so I never stopped anywhere long. The only big negative is I had gotten there so much faster than expected that my wife and son had not arrived yet.. My son was very disappointed not to see me in the ride or crossing the finish line. We had a good time at the finish and then drove home. It took me 2 and a half hours to clean all the grime off my bike and get everything working perfectly again today...
If I do it again next year and the spring is going in a similar fashion I'll surely try the 18 or even 19mph start waves.. It seems like with faster groups half the difference is better teamwork in the group and pacing, I think I could have gone a good bit faster riding with a more disciplined group that stuck together and did a better job rotating at the front.
Overall a great ride.. Great rest stops, great support, all the riders were really nice and well behaved, the route was easy to follow and well marked, and I didn't see anything dumb or unsafe happening. Great times, the party at the end was well done too and I enjoyed having a Harpoon despite thinking I'd be in no shape to do so at the finish.
No pictures.. I'm thankful all my electronics were still working at the finish.. I kept my phone sealed up in a plastic bag except to send status reports to my wife at the rest stops so she'd know when to leave with the car to drive to the finish. My Garmin Edge 1000 just barely made it to the finish and then reported low battery despite leaving Bluetooth off. I left the backlight on the default auto settings, maybe that drained it fast since it was rainy and dark, but no way this thing is navigating you through a double century. I don't know what was up with the route, it was from ride with GPS, but the turn by turn was also weird starting about halfway through the ride but I could still follow it. (The full page directions stopped popping up.) I have yet to have the Edge 1000 work perfectly when navigating a ride from RideWithGPS, it's always had issues.