Great Lakes - Cream City Century Ride Reports

Hey all who were out wandering scenic Waterford, Elkhorn, LaGrange, and East Troy in the excellent sunny weather today.... Tell us all about it!


I'll have a report and some pics later on. Just wanted to get an official thread going for ride reports.

I think I got started just as PSIMET and Cylowe were pulling in. I might have seen you at lunch - one tall dude with a HHH shirt and camo shorts, one medium dude with a blue shirt, and one blonde dudette (whitesox?)?

Course was quite manageable. Only real problem was the error in the cue sheet within the first five miles of the ride. Rode with various packs over the course, but was mostly by myself. The packs were Evil Wheels (first group was too fast for me, last group I ended up passing), Spring City Spinners, two fellows (one on a Colnago) who I saw at a Bombay Ride, and a guy with a nice Montebecane. Also, a few miles with a big guy on a blue Orbea Orca. Was that Blue Shamu? Cutters shirt too.

Saw some nice bikes: about 4-5 waterfords, moots, colnago, cervelo. Didn't necessarily make them faster than me in my stock bike in all cases.

5:51 on the bike, 17.5 average, about 6:30 total time.

Next up: Pedal the Kettle (travels some of the same roads): http://www.springcityspinners.org/

Cylowe - thanks for the recommendation for this ride as a first century. Worked out perfectly.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. - Einstein

>>My ride started at right around 7:00 a.m. I was wearing a primal wear cranken stein jersey
http://www.primalwear.com/Catalog/index.cfm?DIN=5537&catid=8&secID=1.
I was flying and holding a good 21 pace for the first 3 hrs. Well This was my first century, I have done
75 mile rides before but those last 25 miles just killed me. I rode with some spring city spinners, then
some other folks as I struck up conversation. I took a more leasure pace at the end just doing 15 mph and hr most the way in from 75 on . Weather was great , rest stops well stocked and managed.
The route markings on the road were to small and few. I blew my front tire out just after the la grange stop. Wismell are you a blonde I seen a blonde tagging along with the evil wheels, them folks were hauling
:ss. There was also a tandem team cooking along to . I do the century again but would improve my legs a little more and do better nutrition as I rode.

>>A side note who ever recommended cliff shots apple flavor reminded me to never eat your cooking.
Man do cliff shots taste like crap. I mean a country that can make drugs from battery acid brake fluid
and other horrible stuff can't make a good tasting shot. Boy Wiswell you guys don't stay long at a rest stop do you . I rode the centuravg y in 6:20 time on bike, 8:00 hrs out for the total day got in around 3:00 about a 16.2 avg my best avg on a long ride. All those people excited me at first but as the day
went along I realized I was riding at other's paces.

I will be at the pedal for the kettle but will only be doing the 63 , I need to practice more for another century.


Dynodan

I'll post more later, but the just is that I was out of shape after taking a month off the bike for various reasons (illness, t-boning a dog, insane rain, etc...) I cut about 7 miles off of the century route just to keep time with CyLowe and Dave342, but all in all a good ride.

CyLowe took some pics, but Wiswell I looked almost exactly like this today:

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/7725/rainfinishsmallar8.jpg

It was a very nice day. Lots of rolling hills. 6:01 ride time. I was riding with two others that had never done a century before so part of the day was the maintaining the pace. This was my forth century for the year with two more planned. I will do this one next year.

After two weeks of pretty much zero riding due to the rains, Sunday’s century was better than I had expected. Two days of sun and lower humidity helped out considerably.

Drove up to Waterford with Psimet. We didn’t get lost this time, as we did for the K/R ride in the spring. A good sign. Found Dave342 at the registration and got ready to roll out at about 7:15. We were going to wait to see if anyone else showed up and at one point I jokingly hollered out, “Where are all the Bike Forums people??!?” To which a random guy walking by said, “I’m on bikeforums.” Whoa! Anyway, he was on his own agenda and I can’t recall his name. If he sees this, I hope he responds.

Getting to the Elkhorn stop, we saw and older gentlman rolling along sporting a Tour de Phil jersey. Hipcycler would have loved seeing that, since that was his big bike ride in Spain a few years back. I was going to get a pic of him at the stop, but couldn’t find him.

This ride has a fantastic route. It winds around a lot and rolls up and down. Little to no traffic on most roads made it comfortable to ride two and three wide for good conversation. There are 5 rest stops on the century route, so it’s never far to the next table of goodies. And there are tons of people on the ride. Plus, there’s the low-rent spaghetti, meatballs, salad, and lemon ice (yum!) at the end that tastes like a four star restaurant after 6 hours in the saddle.

As much as I’d like to ride the Bike Psychos ride, this Cream City century is almost too good to miss. HIGHLY recommend this one to anyone.

Now for some pics:

Long shadows show an early start to the day
http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/6269/dscn6900zg2.jpg

Dave342
http://img464.imageshack.us/img464/6138/dscn6914hp6.jpg

Psimet2001 (and my left shoulder :o )
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/4369/dscn6916gv2.jpg

Self portrait
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/9867/dscn6909wa7.jpg

Typical scenario… dave342 pulling the out-of-shape FIBs throughout the ride
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/5411/dscn6919nn2.jpg

Fixin’ a flat tire. The guy walking across the street is SAG. He brought a pump, which saved some CO2.
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5739/dscn6922io4.jpg

The haute cuisine payoff!
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8204/dscn6924nc4.jpg

Fixin’ a flat tire. The guy walking across the street is SAG. He brought a pump, which saved some CO2.
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/5739/dscn6922io4.jpg



what? Psmiet was so out-of-riding form that someone else took the mechanical lead :eek:. that is just crazy.

its a nice looking ride, just bad timing for me. maybe in time as the calendar rolls forward a bit. later.

what? Psmiet was so out-of-riding form that someone else took the mechanical lead :eek:. that is just crazy.

No. Look again. He's analyzing the deflated tire looking for the cause of the slow leak so they could check the tire and rim for any debris. Dave's checking the inside of the tire for debris.

I was helping by staying out of the way.

Nope. Psmiet2001* did all the work. I just found the staple in my tire. Thanks Psmiet2001*.

^^^^ right, he is supervising. my bad. later.

>>My ride started at right around 7:00 a.m. I was wearing a primal wear cranken stein jersey
http://www.primalwear.com/Catalog/index.cfm?DIN=5537&catid=8&secID=1.
Wismell are you a blonde I seen a blonde tagging along with the evil wheels, them folks were hauling
:ss.

Dynodan

Yes, a wild-haired, short-haired blonde. There was also a woman in that group with a green shirt. I had a blue shirt and blue bike. I was with them for a while, but I was determined not to crack out, so I didn't try to go faster than my comfortable pace. As a result, I didn't suffer at all during the ride. I'm planning only the 63 for the Pedal the Kettle ride. It's a nice ride.

I do agree with you on the road markings. Too small. I prefer signs, anyway.

I do agree with you on the road markings. Too small. I prefer signs, anyway.

Yeah, road markings two feet before the intersection are not adequate.

I filled out a survey form and suggested that they should add markings 50-100 feet before an intersection, as well as keeping the existing blazes.

Signs would help, but that would be a lot of signs to maintain. Actually, a sign saying to go down to the third rest stop by the lake would help. A few riders saw people coming back up the hill out of the stop and followed them.

No. Look again. He's analyzing the deflated tire looking for the cause of the slow leak so they could check the tire and rim for any debris. Dave's checking the inside of the tire for debris.

I was helping by staying out of the way.

I put the staple in the tire at the beginning of the Dairyland Dare in hopes of Slowing Dave down so I could hang until the first rest stop. Lost me at the 3rd mile marker.

Kenal0

I'm addicted! The CCC was my first century, and I'm already planning the next 3. Although I bought my road bike only 3 weeks ago it felt comfortable. I finished 5:50 in the saddle and just over 6:00 total. I was pretty much solo throughout the ride, but would like to team up with a few others for my next rides. I stuck with a group for about 10mi early in, but they were averaging close to 25 mph and I know I couldn't keep that pace for 100mi. These are the next 3 rides I'm looking at, if anyone is interested in teaming up let me know. I believe if I was riding with a group I could average around 20mph.
http://www.clarksvillecentury.com/
http://www.wheelmen.com/harmon.htm
http://springcityspinners.org/

JT

I rode with Psimet2001 and CyLowe97 from bike forums and we started our ride around 7:15 or so. It was a windless Sunday morning and we talked about everything from bike mechanics to EPO to The Polish Cycling Team to Office Space our conservation was endless. It was great riding with them. I cant imagine riding a century alone. I would recommend this ride to anybody. Psimet2001 had a crash with a dog 2-1/2 weeks before this and was off the bike until this century and had no problem keeping up. The food was great at the five rest stops we had. The roads had very few cars on them and the scenery of south eastern Wisconsin was outstanding. The only problem we had was I had a flat 15 miles from the end. Psimet2001 fixed it and we were back on the road in less than 10 minutes. I saved the staple that was in it and I'll give it back to Kenal0 the next time I see him, which could be at the Psimet2001 Invitational Bike Ride at the end of September. This is a good century here in Waterford and I'm sure I'll be back next year.

I decided to ride at the last moment after getting an email from a spinning class friend. We rode with three others and had a blast - for us two our first centuries! I thought the route was great and the food along the way and at the end fantastic - but food always tastes better when you're fueling up for a long ride. I just might have to try the Harmon now.