Originally Posted by
jpescatore
Anyone else doing the flat, flat, flat Seagull Century this weekend?...
The other husband does triathlons, has a time trail bike and bikes to work most days - he and I will do the full century.
I told him to do his own pace and not worry if I became a small dot in his rear view mirror...
Originally Posted by
jpescatore
A great time was had by all
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
Nice ride report…
I especially noted the above comment about riding together
Originally Posted by
Jim from Boston
I have ridden as a solo rider on a few charity centuries, and a few self-supported ones...A basic advice I keep in mind during the century is
“Ride my own pace,” in particular not too fast at the beginning, and ride the entire route at a pace comfortable
for me.
Even when I pick up with another rider, I make it clear that’s my rule if our paces are not compatible.
Another strategy on charity rides done by myself, is to start early and perhaps be picked up by a group riding at a suitable pace and ask to draft with them.
That adds a kick to my pace, but quite often I fall slightly behind at turning a corner, and its amazing how a slight drop behind can be impossible to catch-up, attesting to the value of drafting…
Originally Posted by
jpescatore
Jim from Boston: I'm very leery of group riding with people I don't know, especially on large rides like this one (the highest bib number I saw was something like 4300) and especially when the roads are a bit wet.
Perry (the triathlete guy I rode with) was much more willing, even though drafting is not allow in tri races - he doesn't do much group riding, either.
There were several wipeouts in the first 40 miles or so, when the roads were the most wet and when the clumping of riders was still pretty high.
Thanks for the reply. I ride very few organized rides, and my experience comes from the largest. It has a few hundred riders at most, with staggered starts two hours apart for 100, 50, and 25 mile rides.
Even the century has staggered starts of about five minutes, for groups of about 20 riders. I try to get in line early to go with the first group, as described.
Last edited by Jim from Boston; 10-09-18 at 07:36 AM.