jppe

I did the Century-100.6 miles
7700 ft of climbing
Max Speed was 48.6 mph
Headwind the last 20 miles killed my time-fortunately I was able to group up with 6 others for the last 20 but only 2 of us finished together.
Met my goal of finishing under 6 hr at 5 hr 58 mins (had to Time Trial the last 10 miles to pull it off).
Stopped once for 2 mins-took hand-ups from the volunteers on bottle water and bananas.
Will be curious to see where I finished-I'm guessing somewhere 30-49-it's an out and back so you can count the people ahead of you just before the turnaround. I counted 30 but passed some people on the way in and 1-2 passed me so not really sure.
Trying to stay with the lead group going out just about ruined my day. A single pace line formed from the get go and the really strong guys apparently were not interested in the rest of us tagging along. It took me about 10 miles to recover.

BikeWNC

That's a good time Joe. I don't know how you do it, especially after the winter we had. I'm still way slow and behind my fitness. Just have to keep plugging away.

Are you riding Issaqueena's Last ride or the Tour de Cashiers?

PAlt

Great Job- You're obviously in better shape than you've been claiming!
Andy- Hope to be @ both the events you mentioned, but better bet for Cashiers than Walhalla, may need to do some "Daddy Duty".

spoke50

I was going to post my own ride report, but I see you beat me to it. That was my first century and it was a good one. I'll post my Garmin results below. I got in under 7 hours, but I think that I could do it in under 6, so that will be my goal next year. I didn't sleep a lick the night before and I made the mistake of drinking to much coffee that morning. I had to hit rest stop 1 and wait for an open Port-a-Potty. I didn't stop again until I reached rest stop 4 where I wasted a bunch of time trying to contact my support team (the family) on the cell. I rode conservatively and actually felt really good at the finish. That wind coming back into Piedmont was brutal. I got in a good group headed back in, but for whatever reason they stopped back by rest stop 1 for a long time. Hooked up with another group for the rest of the way, but they were not near as strong as the first group.
Here are some pics for you. Maybe you reconize me as you were headed back from Adams Gap.


This is the climb back up to rest stop 3 on the way back out.


That's some of my support group that came with me. They supprised me on this climb. The little one is my 5 year old.


Here she is again chasing me up the hill. If that isn't motivation then what would be.


Out of the saddle most of the way on this climb. If I remember right, this was one of the steeper climbs coming back. Most of the climbs were not that steep, but Cheaha Mt climbs on both sides were long.


Getting five at the finish.


Here's my Garmin results. As you can see it is an out and back. I think my Garmin is a 305, but as you can see it doesn't do a great job on altitude numbers. They say that the ride has around 7700 ft of climbing. I'll definately do this one again next year. I think a goal of inside of 6 hours will be realistic for me. Of course that's assumming that the weather was as perfect as it was this last weekend. Hey jppe, great time! I'm sure you were one of those guys screaming back down the hill from Adams Gap. See you next year!

spoke50

Oh jppe, one other thing I noticed after looking at the numbers on the site. I didn't really pay attension to how many riders passed me going towards Adams gap, but I noticed that over half of the riders did not complete the whole 100 miles. When I saw that I realized that a lot of the folks I passed going back in probably turned around way before me. I'll have to watch that next year.

jppe

yeah-that is why I just count those I meet right before the turnaround. After that it's just a guess on who passes you whether they did the entire ride or not. You had a terrific crew with you. That hill seemed much steeper on the return leg-that was the one place I was nursing holding off some cramps.

spoke50

My support crew watched one guy fall off his bike on that hill and several got off and walked up. I passed a rider that said he had hit the wall right there and ended up calling it quits at the rest stop. I never cramped, but I road very conservative. I drove that route the day before and I could get those hills out of my head the night before the ride. I'll ride harder next year and see if I can get a time like yours

palookabutt

Looks like a great ride and superb weather! 7700' of climbing is nothing to sniff at, even by our "lofty" Colorado standards.

My first metric is this weekend. Looks like <50F and rainy, bleah!