I just did my first metric century this past weekend with a group and it was awesome. Now I need to kick it up a notch and do some serious solo miles. My training group will be riding the Tour of Litchfield Hills this weekend, which is way too hilly for me so I am going to challenge myself another way. I'd like to try a real century starting in Cheshire, but need ideas on a destination that is pretty flat along the way, reasonably light on traffic and has some places I can fill up my water bottles.

I have searched mapmyride and CTBikeroutes and it looks like there are quite a few planned routes available from various spots in the state. I thought I'd come here to ask for opinions - #1, is this a stupid thing to try and do solo for my first time?

<snip> ...- #1, is this a stupid thing to try and do solo for my first time?
It's not necessarily stupid. Many people cycle that distance on thier own. Only you know your capabilities and your comfort or confidence level to go out and do it by yourself.

I personally think that doing a first century as an organized ride makes it a much nicer experience. There are other riders around, sag support and rest stops already set up. It removes many worries, especially if you get a dip in your energy level which seems to happen to many riders around mile 80ish.

If you are not up to the 75 mile route in Torrington, why not go and give the 50 mile route a try? Riding those hills will only make you stronger. There are many people doing that ride that lack the strength or climbing confidence and go and still have a blast. It is a fun ride, my little brother rides it on his mountain bike and he isn't really all that into road cycling. If I wasn't going to be out of town on business, I would go and ride it.

Sorry, but I can't help you with route ideas around Cheshire. Check spindog's ride calendar for upcoming centuries. Maybe you will want to drive to one of those for your first 100 mile event.

is this a stupid thing to try and do solo for my first time?

I do the majority of my centuries solo and it isn't really a big deal. Most folks who do distance rides go faster than me and most people I like to ride with aren't up to centuries right now. Plus, I prefer the solitude of riding alone.



I did the New Haven century last month, it went near Chesire, I think. We started in New Haven, looped thru Milford/Orange/Woodbridge/Wallingford/Durham/Madison/Guilford/Branford/E Haven and back. Beautiful-except for downtown NH !)

You might be able to get a cue sheet at the bike shop that organized the ride:

http://www.thedevilsgear.com/newcontactuspage/

I live in S.Eastern CT and could give you a few ideas.....PM me. There is certainly no reason you couldn't do 100 miles on your own with some planning. THere is also a nice century coming up in September I belive....the Quiet Corner Century offers Metric and Full 100 mile routes and is well supported with a very nice route. It leaves from Camp Quinnebog on Rte 12 near Danielson.

Hope this helps.

I live in S.Eastern CT and could give you a few ideas.....PM me. There is certainly no reason you couldn't do 100 miles on your own with some planning. THere is also a nice century coming up in September I belive....the Quiet Corner Century offers Metric and Full 100 mile routes and is well supported with a very nice route. It leaves from Camp Quinnebog on Rte 12 near Danielson.

Hope this helps.

I did the Quiet Corner / Quinnebaug route a couple years ago. Maybe I was having a bad day, but I remember that being a brutally hilly route. BF member spindog has an awesome website listing virtually all of the New England century rides. http://lifestylebydesign.org/eventscalendar.html

Thanks all for the advice and encouragement. I have decided to try a route from my house down to Old Saybrook and then come back along the same path. Enough convenience stores along the way to buy drinks and a pretty cool destination after 50 miles in the saddle. http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ct/cheshire/669426586 is the mapped route. I am thinking I will do it Sunday given that the temperature will be more reasonable than Saturday.

How was your ride?

Oooh, thanks for the followup. What was supposed to be a bachelor weekend with lots of riding turned out slightly differently. My son got really sick this weekend and I decided it would not be cool of me to leave an 11 year old at home alone for the 7-8 hours it'd take to do the ride. Maybe this coming weekend since Mom is now home and #1 son is all better!

I have an Edge 305 on order that should be here by the weekend. If I do the ride down to the shoreline it'll surely make a good response to put up my actual track and statistics! :)

Yeah, not a good idea to leave the son home ill.

Good luck on that ride to Scranton.

Just to update this thread, I did do the solo century a few weekends ago on Labor day weekend. http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=339794

It was a complete blast *and* I ended up being totally ready to do more. If the ride to Scranton next week goes well then I plan to do even more long distance rides... thinking of a Coast to State line and back ride, or maybe doing the CT River Ferry ride on the 23rd.