garysol1 

September 12th.....Civil War Century. Who is riding?
I am thinking about making the trek East from Cleveland for this ride but I may be solo. Would love to have some fellow BF'rs to ride with.

barndoor

I'm on the fence on this one....lots of stuff going on that weekend....it's a maybe at best for me...maybe an 11th hour decision....great ride, very hilly ..... scenic and well staffed....hope to be able to squeeze this one in....

joshuaandlauri

Pretty sure I will be there, I did a run with the BBC in june? and had a tire bead break in turn cutting my ride short, so I need to do it.

JimF22003

I'm already signed up. Last year was my first year. They had to postpone it a day because of a bad storm on the scheduled day, but they still pulled off a well-run event. I'm looking forward to it. Hard but fun!

The Human Car

I'll plug a little known aspect of the century ride and that is at around the 60 mile mark there is a bail out that is all down hill to the ride start. So for those of you who are looking for a more challenging century and still not sure if you can handle all those hills this is a great ride to try out.

I'm volunteering so I will not be riding.

barndoor

Nice tip ;^)

garysol1 

Thanks Barry....If you recall we did a ride together last year when I was in town. Looking forward to seing you again at this ride.

maxine

I'm registered to ride the Civil War Century, but the club is short on hands, so I'm likely going to end up volunteering instead. If I do, I'm thinking about heading down to Indian Head the next day to ride the Oxon Hill Club's Southern Maryland Century.

In 2003 (?) I availed myself of the CWC bailout to which Barry refers, when I was suffering the mother of all cramps (quads AND calves AND hamstrings, in BOTH legs, at the SAME time ). I forget exactly where it is, but I believe it's shortly past the top of the third (of four) major climbs, and I think it's around mile 65-ish -- ?? I seem to remember a nice 7-mile downhill all the way back to Thurmont, and that I ended up with about 72 miles.

NoRacer

It's Rt 77 Foxville Rd that descends all of the way to Thurmont just before climbing up Raven Rock Rd Rt 491 just outside of Smithburg.

I'm going to wait until winter to do it again:

https://bimactive.com/ba/journal/archives/10783/20081231

maxine

You really are a glutton for punishment, aren't you? How about a nice fall day . . . ya know, pretty leaves and stuff, and no arctic gales?

estabro

Thinking about riding this one...

Consularrider

This one is in my list of tentatives depending on my travel schedule.

Mister C

Probably will join this ride but haven't committed to it yet. I am bit behind on training this year and want to see how I fare at the Cumberland Valley Century this weekend before committing to the Civil War.

The area is beautiful and it should be great ride.

kissTheApex

+1. Nice to know other fellow members will be out at Cumberland Valley Century.

prxmid

I'm riding the metric. Does anyone know the metric route, don't believe it's nearly as hilly as the century

WJ13US

I've ridden it a few times. And yes it is no where neer as hilly as the 3/4 or full. Basically it's rollers but mostly flat. There are no mountain climbs

If you are thinking about challenging yourself a bit you could do the 3/4, that one too has the bailout at about mile 40, but there are two mountain climbs.

Due to a leg injury that sidelined me for about a month and a half, I'll be volunteering this year.

Bill

cdale56

The metric doesn't include the two big climbs of the century and while the longer ride was beautiful, I thought that the scenery was nicer on the metric.

Can't make it this year but it hope to go again some day. Completely new to me, I was amazed at what great riding territory it is down there.

veloellen

I'm not a very strong rider but did this ride for the first time last year - was really pleased. BBC really pulled this off after having to move it to a SAFER day when the remnants of a hurricane weren't barrelling through. The only bad hills around the metric were near a ski resort - Liberty - can't recall the resort.
Well run esp that first rest stop ;-)....Barry was working it....

HC203

I'll be there with a few guys I ride with on Sundays. This will be their first century but getting them prepared with a few metrics leading up, I think two are doing the century and two the metric.

I'm looking forward to it. There are also a bunch of guys from Ellen's hubbies crew that will be there.

The bailout-Indeed a long downhill coast to the parking lot. I took that bailout last time and wished I hadn't as when I got to the lot I was fine. I recall just being quite overheated.

Maxine-I'll probably be doing the Indian Head as well. I've done it the past two years, including the year I bailed at the CWC. Hopefully this year I'll finish both centuries. A long drive down to Indian Head so I may just head there from Thurmont on Sat night.

Skones MickLoud

I haven't been riding for that long, but I'm thinking of trying out the century. Looks like a good challenge.

songfta

Well.... CWC 2009 sold out sometime in the past two days. So if you were sitting on the fence, it's probably too late to get in on the fun.

So here's the question: what distance will folks be riding? I'm going the whole century, as was the case last year: great route, fun times.

JimF22003

Century for me. This will be the last specifically hilly event I'll be doing this year. After this I plan to ride on the MD Eastern Shore and stay in one gear the entire day

songfta

On your new bike, you should be flying up those hills!

I plan on far more hills before the snow flies, though only one event that has full-on support (the Great River Ride on October 11). There will be club rides of Lost River/Columbia Furnace area and the Blue Grass Byways route, both with PPTC. I'm also riding the PPTC Century, though I'd hesitate to call that route hilly in comparison with CWC, Mountain Mama or MoM.

But the hills are a constant - keep 'em coming!

kissTheApex

For members who had run the CWC and the Reston Century within the last two years, can you tell me how do they compare to each other? I'm wondering especially how the two climbs at Taylorstown loop of Reston Century compares to the climbs of CWC.

Ihsan

songfta

You're talking about the Stumptown and Taylorstown climbs on the RBC Century, right? Those two are steeper than the climbs on CWC, but are far, far shorter. Most of the climbs on CWC are of the long, grinding type: 4-6 percent grade over a few miles, rather than the 8-10 percent grade over 1 mile like the Stump/Taylor hills. There are some short, steep climbs on CWC, as well, but they're in the minority.

Note that the CWC starts with a 4 mile climb out of Thurmont - quite the warm-up from a cold start. That is the longest, biggest climb of the ride. After that, there are other climbs that are slightly steeper, but shorter. The second big climb of the ride happens around mile 59, climbing Raven Rock Road out of Smithsburg. After a short blip heading toward Gettysburg at mile 71 (the steepest single pitch on the ride), it trends level-to-downhill for the remainder of the ride: you have all of the big climbing done by mile 72.

Hope this helps!