I rode a second Century in February, as the 5 person Fleche team with which I attempted a 360+ km ride
last October will have another go at riding from Aichi prefecture near Nagoya to Tokyo in 24 hours on the first April weekend.
This was our first training ride together this year. We did a 120 km course together which started 15 km from home, so I ended up with 150 km by the time I got back. I then added a local detour to bring the total to 162.3 km (100.8 mi) to make it my third century this year (
on Strava).
I met one of my ride mates on the way to the start, so we rode the last 8 km there together. It was about 10 deg C (50F) at the start, warmed up to about 15 deg C (59F) at noon and then dropped to 6 deg C (43 F) in the evening. Most of the climbing was in the first quarter of the 120 km course and that is where I had to work hardest to keep up because drafting doesn't help on climbs. Other team members had done less riding this winter than I had, but I am not a fast cyclist to start with. I enjoyed riding together with other randonneurs again after 4 months and it was an excellent preparation for the upcoming event.
Unfortunately we had an incident on the way back, when the 4th person in our group (two bikes behind me) crashed after I had to slow down because a car indicated to turn in front of me and the rider at the back was taken by surprise, slammed his brakes and landed under his bike by the curb. We had been using hand signals to indicate slowing or stopping to people behind us, but that didn't work for a sudden slowdown for a turning vehicle. When drafting closely, every rider also has to watch not only the person they're following but also what's further ahead. Fortunately the team mate was OK, nothing broken, only a few bruises and a scuffed jersey sleeve. I will definitely call out more in the future!