HHH…my first one. I trained for the 100K (66.12) miles this year, but after talking to Paul B., Dave R. and Bud, decided to try the 100 mile. I’m here, the course is “flat”- this would be the one to do an Imperial century. They all convinced me this would be the one to try it on. After all was done I realized I should have traded out Dave’s pedals and stolen his bike in the middle of the night…next time!
So without really looking at the route (I have been studying the 100k route for weeks), decided Friday night to try the big one. If you recall previous post by FlyingLAZboy he told me to just do the metric for my first HHH ride…
The stay at the church was quite comfortable and enjoyable, company and conversation was good and I was not bothered by any snoring-even without earplugs! Spaghetti dinner was nice and breakfast was really good! Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits & gravy and juice…they really took care of us!
Once we all got out on the bikes we made the trek down to the start of the course, and since we were on bents, we went right up front. This would be the last time I was that far ahead for the rest of the course. After easily climbing the overpass right out of the start, another bent rider told me that was the toughest hill on the course, so I thought either he was just poking fun or this course really was flat. Started off really well and since I knew I had a long way to go and I wasn’t trying for any records just got a good pace and stayed out of the way of the crazies that I knew were about to be released behind me. Met up with the Lightening Pilot (Carolyn) and rode with her for a time, when this guy on a Bacchetta came up behind us making an awful racket! We though his chain was trying to shred his gears or something. Turns out he lost a sprint brace bolt and his seat was only held up by one side. We pulled over and gave him a few zip ties and got it back together and I took off. Later Carolyn would catch me right before the 100K/100 mile split and told me as soon as he got back on the ties sheared and he had to hobble up the road about a mile to the Shimano truck and get a bolt. Needless to say this but me further behind at the start and it was just part of the day. I stopped at all the rest stops but no more than about 5 minutes (except for Electra (the 50 mile mark), Margaretville (80 miles) and the ones that I waited for the potty-those took a bit longer!) The stops were nice and well stocked. I mostly just refilled my bottles and was off again.
The first stint into the wind came when we broke off from the 100K course and headed south. It wasn’t all that bad, maybe a 12-15 MPH wind, but I did slow to about 10-11 MPH according to my Polar. (I had Strava going on the phone but it quit at the 40 mile mark. I had phone battery issues the rest of the ride.) Got to going east again and if you read Bud’s account that’s what we all experienced. The tail wind was welcome, but the chipseal took the advantage. I did average about 20 MPH on the northerly stretch which boosted my confidence a lot. I was feeling really good at every stop up until about 70. I started to get slight recumbutt on the right side and just had to work through it.
Then I made the turn south at Margaretville, right into the wind. By this time it was about 25-30 (I would find out the reading at the 85 mile stop. They told us they were closing the course and that took my gusto to finish out, deflating the sails figuratively, because the wind would have easily kept them full!! After some conversation we discovered that they were automatically SAGing from the #6 stop-I was at 8A! I COULD do this. So back on the bike and headed off into the wind again. After about ½ a mile at 6-7 MPH, I realized that this was going to take me another 2-2.5 hours to finish the last 14 or so miles and I took the rest stop at about the 88 mile mark and waited for the SAG. I didn’t feel at all bad though as the conversation of the veteran riders who were already there was about how they had never ridden in THAT kind of headwind at the HHH. My main concern was that I could finish, but as I knew my phone was dead I had no way to contact Dave whom I carpooled with. Of course at this time I didn’t know he lost his phone either. The SAG ride took almost 30 minutes to go the 14 miles, so I wasn’t too sad that I called it. (“A man’s got to know his limitations.”- Spock)
After finally getting back to the convention center, I hopingly glanced around for Dave’s van but knew that was a long shot. I still had to get back to the church which I figured he would be at if he were waiting on me. So back on the bike again, and yep you guessed it-right back into that wind for a very steep uphill and a mile or so before turning onto 10th street and the cross wind, which seemed like a huge relief! All of the details worked out after that and I called the day at 91 miles. Furthest I’ve ever gone.
The most often asked question I got for the day was: “Do you have any beer in there!?” referring to the Aerotrunk I had on the back. I did use it to pick up a bottle on the side of the road…I could have sold bottles and made a fortune if I had picked up more!! Maybe next time…
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HHH (Read 10410 times)
