Greg, Mark Leuck (pronounce it, "Like"!!!), and I, along with Brad Bedell, tackled the Marko Polo 100 miler today. There were about 35 total people, and the ride was in memory of Mark Sachnik, whose birthday is/was tomorrow. His parents and his sister and brother in law were there at the start of the ride to see us off, which was pretty cool.
Greg brought out the XStream for its first long-distance test, which was pretty cool.
We all set off at a reasonable pace, 17-18ish, until Steve Barlow missed a turn after about 15 miles, taking about 20 of us with him. Then it suddenly became Hammer City all the way to the Caddo Mills rest stop (Mile 36), and the group was totally splintered. Greg, Mark, and I hung with Steve and a couple others at 25 mph all the way to Caddo (I dropped off a couple miles prior).
We continued on from there at a more reasonable 20ish pace, and Brad, sensing that he's a bit too early in his recumbent career to tackle many hills, cut off at Hwy 380 -- which was a smart move, because after the 2nd rest stop, we had both headwind AND hills for most of the rest of the day.
Greg was doing well on the XS -- at one point, I have a video of him doing 30+mph... (granted, I'm right on his tail...
) But after several miles of chipseal, I asked him how it felt, and he said, "Very nice -- smoother than the CAero." Later on, he mentioned his toes were needing a break after about 60 miles, but this is further than this typically happens on other bikes.
We had a "first time century" rider with us after the 64 mile stop, that slowed us down a bit, because he had lost his cue sheet and we didn't want to drop him... Along this section, we passed a "road closed / detour" sign at one point, and a few miles later just before hitting 78, came across a torn out bridge construction, that we were actually able to "portage" across, with some difficulty... too funny... but we were VERY careful to get the the XS across without getting it in the mud!!! If it would have rained recently, we would NOT have been able to get across it.
Greg developed a ticking spoke about halfway, that we tried to tighten, but without success -- guess these wheels aren't made for chipseal...
Mark continued to lead us a merry chase into the wind, taking advantage of his low profile to keep the pace at 16-18 most of the way southbound. We took an extra break at mile 98 at a CVS, because chasing Mark had gassed us, and it was getting REALLY hot out. But that was the break we needed -- we finished the 107 miles in 8 hours even, feeling pretty good -- my overall average was 17, which isn't bad into the wind we were dealing with.
I'll post some pics when I get to it.... But it was a good ride, without TOO much chipseal. Thanks for leading the way with the Garmin, Mark...
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Marko Polo permanent 7/6 (Read 2836 times)
