I decided to try this ride at literally the last minute. I had to be on site before 6:00PM for registration on Friday, the day before the ride, for the bike inspection and pre-ride safety discussion. According to Google, it is a two and a half hour drive (assuming I don't get lost on the way). I made it with a very slim 15 minutes to spare! Talk about cutting it close! Although I think they would have been Ok with me registering a little late.
During the safety discussion they mentioned the ride had a detour since one highway was closed for repair. This detour added another 2,000 feet of climbing! I later found out that 3 of the steepest and longest hills on the ride were on this detour, Strava rated them as category 4 hills. I have only attempted one category 4 hill before, that was last year on my ride to Shelbyville Ky. I ended up walking that hill. I am happy to say I managed to ride up all the hills on this ride, with the stock Musashi gears.
This would be my first sponsored ride that was unsupported (no sag stops) and on top of that the route was completely unmarked. Since I couldn't talk anyone into following me with a support vehicle, I was also riding randonneuring style, which simply meant I was completely on my own. I had the route map loaded onto the Garmin 800 to help with directions, I even brought along my old Garmin 705 in case the battery died on the 800. The ride included cue sheets that showed where to turn and the locations of the time stations. The riders called in at each time station to help the organizers keep track of where we are.
Ride summary:
There were a lot of big hills on this ride, three were labeled as CAT 4 by Strava. At one stretch it seemed like there were an endless number of 200 foot climbs. Climb 200 foot, descend 200 foot, then repeat, over and over. I did get used to them though and when I hit an unexpected shorter climb, I was actually disappointed.
The longest and steepest hills seemed to be on the detour stretch, here my RPM's went down to 67. So I'm sure I would need lower gears to climb any steeper hills. I really surprised myself at being able to complete this ride with plenty of energy left over.
The biggest problem I had with this ride was getting lost! I usually get lost on marked rides, let alone unmarked ones like this one. Some of my issues was simply missing road signs that the cue sheet labeled as the next turn, especially when it was dark out.
Some problems I had though came from the cue sheet having me look for road signs that didn't exist. This happen since some of the streets had two names and the actual road sign had the name not mentioned on the cue sheet. If it wasn't for my Garmin, I would have been totally lost.
I did have one wreck, caused by me trying to ride over a ridge in the road, the front wheel would not go over it, and washed out instead, throwing me down and sliding down the street after my bike. I didn't get hurt too badly, I reinjured my Rotator cuff and later found I had ripped a hole clear through my cycling shorts. This wreck happened just past the 100 mile mark on a busy highway that had some bad road repairs creating the ridge that I wrecked on.
I really enjoyed the challenge of this ride, and looking forward to riding the next one in 2014.
The ride directors made me feel like a rock star at the finish line, plus they sent me a great looking finishers jersey.
The Garmin 800 battery died, so the ride is split between two Garmin entries:
Ride details, first half
Ride details, second half
Ride summary's:
