Originally Posted by
billyymc
Sorry I didn't provide a lot of detail on the route. It's 108 miles yes - not normally an issue at all for me or the small group I regularly ride with. But there are a few factors making it a bit more challenging.
1 - it's got 10,100 feet of climbing. 2 - a LOT of the course is on dirt roads, a few of them are essentially double track forest roads - seasonal use roads that are closed in winter. That's part of why we end up having resupply issues. Between those areas is a lot of farmland with the occasional crossroad. 3 - because of the nature of the ride we will be out there quite a while...definitely more than a quick flattish century on decent paved roads.
There will be cell coverage about half the route by my guesstimate. I haven't been everywhere along the route but I've been over a lot of it on hikes, skiing, in a car, or riding.
I think I'd prefer the hydration pack route, plus water bottles and a frame bag. Then have SAG on standby just in case. There will be places where we COULD diverge from the route if we needed something - it would cost us maybe 4 miles and at 5 or 600 feet of additional climb to divert then get back on route.
This to me sounds like definite SAG pickup truck territory.
If someone has a mechanical you cannot fix and you don't have cell service--how long would it take to get aid out there? An hour? 2 hours? Would you be able to steeple-hill chase to civilisation to summon aid in a timely manner? What about medical?
To put it in perspective, this year on Tour de Nebraska there was an officially sanctioned gravel/MMR route. On a 60 mile day, 30 miles to go. Afternoon. A group hit a patch of goat head thorns. Within half a mile, over a dozen prepared cyclists
had entirely exhausted their supply of tubes on their own rigs nevermind others. Did I mention this was an official route? Yes there was SAG, but it took well over an hour before anyone could even get a cellphone signal to summon SAG to go out there and try to do anything. No one got hurt, but it took a very long time to ferry the riders and their bikes back....some gave up waiting and were able to nurse their way back in stopping to handpump every 1-2 miles.