Tour de Cure 100 Mile Bike Ride
Posted by john on June 19, 2008 in Bicycling
Well, today was the day I had NOT been training for all year! I signed up early on for the 100 mile ride, and I devised a good training schedule so that I would be amply prepared. Life happens sometimes, and this was no exception. Up until today, the furthest I had been on my bike in any one day was 20 miles. I was still feeling sure about going 100 miles, though!
Until I woke up at 5:00 AM and had to peel my skin off of the sheets. It was another hot day today. Instead of getting up, eating and stretching, I did the smart thing: went back to bed! Again, it was a late night - I was up until 1:00 AM working on my bike, getting it ready to ride. There are several routes for the tour - 100 mile, 62.5 mile, 40 mile and even some shorter routes. Each route has a group starting time (the 100 mile at 7:00 AM and the 40 at 9:00 AM, for example). My thinking was that there was no way I was going to do 100 miles with that heat. And I was right. So I went back to bed, hoping to start a later route.
I got up at 7, ate, changed and packed up the Jeep with my bike and David’s bike (who would be joining me on the 40 mile route). It was getting hotter still, and the sun was brutal. When we arrived at Mendon Ponds, I realized that my helmet and gloves were… not… in the Jeep. So, rather than going home and getting them, I bought new equipment. It was probably time for a new pair of gloves (they were old), and my old helmet had a crack). Surprisingly, I did not spend more than I would have at the store, so I was happy. After registering, the race volunteers encouraged us to take shorter routes, not to wait for the group starts and notified every participant of heat stroke signs. Apparently, they were very concerned about this (and for good reason!).
David and I wasted no time and got cracking. South along the east portion of the park, west on 251 to River road. Turning south on River road, we travel for a bit before turning east on 5. Near Avon, 5 and 20 join, and then there is a huge rest stop at the top of the hill coming into the traffic circle in Avon. David and I refuelled and rested a bit before following 5 and 20 into Lima (where David and I swapped bikes), turning north and heading into Honeoye Falls. From Honeoye Falls, it is a short jaunt back into the park for a cool 40 miles.
David and I completed this in less than 3 hours, which beat our previous time of 3 hours. I felt good enough to go on for the 62.5 mile course, but I was not upset that I did not get to. The 100 mile ride would have destroyed me. From the looks of things, only about 60%-70% of participants showed up (later verified to be about right).
As usual, the rest stops were awesome, the volunteers were great and the course was good. The only complaint I have is that ignorant motorists still think that they own the road. Attention motorists: bicyclists are entitled to ride in the road! Although I try to ride on the shoulder whenever prudent and safe, it is not always possible. Bicyclists sometimes need to be in the road. If you decide that you need to shout at or honk at a bicyclist in the road, please think twice. If you cannot bear to be behind a bicyclist, please choose a route that does not have hundreds of cyclists using it. I was honked at by multiple cars and shouted at by a fairly large Harley driver. I would have loved to have had a nice, calm discussion with these drivers about why they should be a bit more respectful of cyclists. Right before I kicked their ignorant asses.
For those of you playing at home: this was consecutive PR #15.
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