My rear pack had two extra Dasani waters, and I had two bottles on the bike. In the bag I had enough food for an overnight trip, I learned after the Okeechobee incident that you need to plan for the unexpected and a route miscalculation could lead to a nutritional miscalculation which could lead to you being on the side of the road in tears needing assistance. I also had a rain jacket, two tubes, one inflator 3 co2's, electrical tape, tools, Sram link, patch kit, blue park tool and a Swiss army knife. I was packing, prolly 10 extra pounds to the bike, but I need the work out.
Immediately my Garmin didn't work as it should and the route was not coming up like it should have. I guess the data was old. On top of that it must have turned on early cause the battery was low when I had fully charged it the night before. Never mind though, we had a cue sheet which I could easily read, we had my memory of the route which was amazingly fresh and we had Orange Arrows courtesy of the organizers.
We set out on a joyful cruise. I start getting into a rhythm and ride out. Morrissson was always withing sight, and I decided every 25 to 30 we would stop to stretch and keep riding. It worked well and we kept doing our thing. I had to fix Morr's bike, no biggie, and we kept rolling, chatting and having fun.
Somewhere around mile 50 or 60 we both ran out of water. I still had the two extra bottles in my pack but really wanted to hold on to them till it was an emergency. Well as we finished a hill and made a turn, I saw a house labeled for rent and could clearly see it was empty. Without hesitation I called for a refueling stop and we both hit the spickets on either side of the house. Filled up and then kept rolling. Not even 5 miles after that we hit the town of Mascotte and had lunch. See, this is the thing about a self supported ride. I have done this ride several times and since It was supported I never bothered to notice all the little towns we rolled threw and all the historical markers. Because I was forced to be conscious of the possible supply spots, I kept my eyes unusually open vs. Unusually focused on hammering to the next stop. It changed the ride, dare I say, made it even better.
I pride myself on my COCK pit set ups and my Cross bike is outfitted for a loooong day in the saddle. The music played all day till I shut it off.
Look thats Morrrisssson, brother rode strong and well I never had to worry about him. He couldn't and wouldn't draft, but that's ok, I get more pride out of riding hard by myself then sucking a wheel.
My favorite self quote from the ride "Morrisson, now your about to find out why they call it the horrible hundred"
Eventually, we reached a point of doubt. The cue sheet said one thing, the cyclometer said another. Somehow we ended up hitting Buckhill road the 5 peaks, at mile 90 something instead of 80 something. We had somehow accumulated 10 more miles then we should have. We hammered buckhill, we hammered Sugar loaf mountain, refueled at the top and kept our roll on. It wasn't long before we stopped checked the sheet and realized we still had 20 or so more miles to go. I made the call it was time to push and we did. We rode dangerous roads in the dark, squinted for Orange Arrows, kept climbing even though it should have stopped and eventually celebrated the finish. My Thigh muscles cramped which slowed me down some, I guess that's the danger of Self supported is staying on top of your hydration, lesson learned.
If you have yet to go out and do a century, solo, without babysitting, do it! It will change the way you look at the ride completely.
The ride for me was Poetic!
115 miles, 7 hours 20 min ride time. New record for me in both speed and distance.
enjoy,
laters,
LOS
4 comments:
My first century (112miles) was also solo but at FLATLACHOOCHEE.. no hh100 like you two mofo's. No drafting daz tough.... congrats again and actually that sounds pretty good idea about explorationo type of a ride instead of worrying about the next sag. whatz with all those sizzy roadies riding the sidewalk?
...yeah I think sags are overated, with self-supported ride you tend to pay more attention on places you go through and be responsible to stuff you are bringing with you. But I think this will be challeging in the dirt though.
Ya, i left the fact out that I want to put together a horrible dirty hundred in Clermont. Its possible, there are tons of dirt roads out there!
I wanna be like you when i grow up Daddy!!! One day we can do that together...My goal for next year, how bout that!! Ya heard!
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