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05-17-03, 01:45 PM
So I just got back from riding the Ture De Cure (100k) and I had a pretty interesting ride....
This ride I decided to try to stay up front with the "faster" riders. For the most part I did pretty well and only came in about 17-25 minutes behind the first person.
The course was pretty tough (even for a climber!) with about 20-25 miles of flats/downhills and 40 some miles of climbing. The ride started at the base of a mountain (at a casino go figure) and went downhill (to another casino go figure) then climbed from there until the last 3-4 miles where it was downhill.
As for my experience staying up front... all was well until about 5 miles in (not even warmed up) I round a corner and get out of the saddle to begin a short climb up a hill when boom, both of my feet are on the ground sliding along with my bike at 21 mph. My chain broke just as I got out of the saddle and I had to surf the pavement on my cleats (gonna need new cleats and a chain!) to stop from falling. Needless to say I was scared crapless, but in the end I kept the bike up and didn't wreck myself or anyone around me... As I got passed the group I was riding in I got compliments of "good save". A friendly fellow further back stopped and helped me put the chain back together (I didn't have a chain tool on me) and I was back on my way, dead last :o. For the next 10 miles I hauled butt to pick up the front group again, and luckily for me, I caught them (with the help of another person) on the first climb of the day. I even was able to catch up to some fast 'racer' type guys. (They turned out to be jerks). They later dropped me by running numerous red lights while we were in the climbs. So for the next 25-30 min I was pretty much alone riding up the hills (where I can do the best IMHO) and caught two more riders one of whom turned out to be John Ensign (Nevada's senator) I had ridden with him before (Last year's Las Vegas Century) but this time we stayed together for the rest of the ride, I even gave him one of my power bars (he was out of food) :) We talked the rest of the way back and I found out that he got to meet Lance Armstrong once in Washington D.C. :D
all in all it was a fun ride, I ended up raising $125.00 for the American Diabetes Association, and finished with a good time for myself :)
p.s. the chain was a SRAM PC69 Chain with roughly 1400 some miles on it :rolleyes:
This ride I decided to try to stay up front with the "faster" riders. For the most part I did pretty well and only came in about 17-25 minutes behind the first person.
The course was pretty tough (even for a climber!) with about 20-25 miles of flats/downhills and 40 some miles of climbing. The ride started at the base of a mountain (at a casino go figure) and went downhill (to another casino go figure) then climbed from there until the last 3-4 miles where it was downhill.
As for my experience staying up front... all was well until about 5 miles in (not even warmed up) I round a corner and get out of the saddle to begin a short climb up a hill when boom, both of my feet are on the ground sliding along with my bike at 21 mph. My chain broke just as I got out of the saddle and I had to surf the pavement on my cleats (gonna need new cleats and a chain!) to stop from falling. Needless to say I was scared crapless, but in the end I kept the bike up and didn't wreck myself or anyone around me... As I got passed the group I was riding in I got compliments of "good save". A friendly fellow further back stopped and helped me put the chain back together (I didn't have a chain tool on me) and I was back on my way, dead last :o. For the next 10 miles I hauled butt to pick up the front group again, and luckily for me, I caught them (with the help of another person) on the first climb of the day. I even was able to catch up to some fast 'racer' type guys. (They turned out to be jerks). They later dropped me by running numerous red lights while we were in the climbs. So for the next 25-30 min I was pretty much alone riding up the hills (where I can do the best IMHO) and caught two more riders one of whom turned out to be John Ensign (Nevada's senator) I had ridden with him before (Last year's Las Vegas Century) but this time we stayed together for the rest of the ride, I even gave him one of my power bars (he was out of food) :) We talked the rest of the way back and I found out that he got to meet Lance Armstrong once in Washington D.C. :D
all in all it was a fun ride, I ended up raising $125.00 for the American Diabetes Association, and finished with a good time for myself :)
p.s. the chain was a SRAM PC69 Chain with roughly 1400 some miles on it :rolleyes: