Long Distance Cycling - Rode the Sea Gull Century '07

Had a great first 100 miler yesterday. Was the wind changing (on purpose!) to be in my face in every direction, or was I imagining it? Forecast was for 8 mph from the SE. I was definitely riding into the wind, as expected, to the beach, and got there about 12:30. Hung out for maybe a half hour. Route then goes north for 5-10 mi (Lewis Rd), and we definitely had a fairly difficult headwind of at least 10-15 mph for that stretch. Then turned west, where I was planning on coasting home with the wind at my back, but NOOOOO!!!, the wind turned to the west, where it remained for the rest of the ride. Made it back ok, though kind of fatigued and uncomfortable for the last 20 mi. I know this was relatively mild weather compared to some prior Sea Gulls, but seems like the wind gods had it in for me. Anybody else experience swinging winds, or was it just me?

Unless your bike speed is less than the wind speed there will always be a perceived
'headwind'. It is unusual even in the midwest for wind speed to exceed bike speed
(except perhaps going up hills) so there is 'always' a headwind.

Congratulations on your first century!! I must say though that I didnt experience the same wind issues as you and we were on the course at approximately the same time. I felt that when the wind did fill in at all it was from the southeast and probaby never over 5 to 8 kts. It was probably the most comfortable Seagull I have ridden in the past 5 years. It is worthy to note that unless the wind is directly behind you or perhaps 20 degrees either side of dead behind you then you will feel it as a slight headwind. In sailing parlance this is known as apparent wind.
Nonetheless, it was a great day for a ride and I am sure you feel a sense of accomplishment today and rightfully so.:)

I was rider #4570. It was also my first century, as well as my first riding "event", only 7 weeks after I started riding seriously ("seriously", as in getting an average of 150 miles in the saddle per-week).

My goal was to start earlyish, and finish by 3PM. My game plan: find people who are going fast and draft as much as possible. Well, it turns out that the guy I roomed with had a similar plan, so when we started, we got in this huge paceline, probably 30 riders, and just booked it outta Salisbury. In the line, we got up to 23mph, which was the top of my sustainable speed, so when it came to my turn to pull, I could only maintain it for 3 minutes before I had to drop back.

It's only a "century" if you actually stop at each rest stop (notably, the first). Well, the paceline I was in skipped the first, at 20 miles, which was a 2-mile detour from the main path, and we booked it to the 35-mile rest stop, which only had water and Gatorade. By about this time, I realized that I had neglected to bring any food, so I dropped off at the 35-mile rest stop (and the paceline kept going to the 60-mile rest stop), got some Gatorade, used the bathroom, and started off again on my own after a 10-minute stop.

About 4 miles from the 35-mile stop, after going through all sorts of bumpy road (thoughts of the Roubaix ride in France, where bikes need to be made out of really-strong stuff, lest the cobblestones literally shake the bikes to pieces, were going through my head) and not being really sure whether I was on the path or not, I thankfully came up to a marked turn (they had white spraypainted seagulls on the road with arrows indicating the direction of travel). This turn was at a "T" in the road. Y'know at turns in the road, there are places where cars go, and where they don't go collects all sorts of gravel? Well my line took me through one of those patches of gravel...and I wiped out! Scraped up my shin, bruised my hip, and scratched my until-then-pristine bike. As I was shaking myself off, more riders were coming up to the turn, so I yelled at them "GRAVEL! GRAVEL!" and, even with the warning, not 5 minutes after I wiped out, another rider wiped out in the same way.

He and I were fine, and we both jumped into the same 4-person paceline, taking it a little easier at 19.5mph, and when the next turn came up, everyone played it safe and took the turn at maybe 14mph. I stayed in that line until the 60-mile stop. I don't quite remember how I managed to do that, because a rock had lodged itself in my left brifter and was making shifts and braking less responsive--the front brake caliper wouldn't release all the way, causing rubbing, and the it was hard to shift the front derailleur. Thankfully, at our slower pace, I was able to open the quick-release on the front brake caliper, and I didn't need my large chainring at all (whereas when I was in that first paceline, the only way I kept up at all was by sitting in the large chainring the whole time), just stayed in the middle ring, and I was OK.

Got to the 60-mile rest stop at Assateague Island (after crossing that bridge and dodging all the horse manure). By then the Sun had come out and started to beat away all of the fog. At this stop there were lots of cookies, baked goods, fruits...so I gorged myself on the food, got some water to wash out my scrapes, and grabbed some packaged Fig Newtons for trailfood, and started off again after resting for 15 minutes to let the food have time to work. This time I joined up with rider #3056 and we double-teamed it to the 80-mile stop.

TO ANYONE DOING THE SEA GULL CENTURY: THERE IS PIE AND ICE CREAM AT THE 80-MILE STOP! The guy I was rooming with didn't know, and he apparently blew by it, but #3056 and I stopped and had a slice of pie and some ice cream and filled up on liquids. We started off again after 10ish minutes, and found two more riders for our paceline, still going at almost 20mph.

During this final 20-mile leg, we were being passed by teams and huge pacelines, but no one felt any pressure to link-up and go any faster, which was good because the sun was out in-full by now and we could enjoy the sights (and smells!) of rural Eastern Shore, Maryland (I commented "Ah, feels like I'm back in Blacksburg!"). All the while, we were still doing our paceline thing, with (maybe) 5-minute pull-rotations (it wasn't anything official, but that's how it worked out). On my second pull, I got to the front of the pack and basically set my mental cruise-control to 20mph and set my cyclocomputer to show ride-time, after five minutes I would rotate out. Well, as I came up to a road crossing (most of the major thoroughfare roadcrossings had a police officer directing traffic, favoring the riders), I looked back...and it turned out that I had dropped my entire paceline. So I went slow, waiting for one of them to show up and I asked him, "Where'd everybody go?" and he said, "Well when you hit the gas, no one could keep up!" So he and I took turns pulling each other all the way back to the finish line.

At the 60-mile stop I took my phone out and saw I missed a call from my mom, which said my parents and my sisters were coming to Salisbury to cheer me on at the finish line. With almost perfect timing, they got to the line only 30 minutes before I showed up at 1PM! It was nice to have someone in the crowd there to cheer for me!

Statistics:
Saddle Time: 4h49m00s
Actual Time: ~5h30m (including all of the stops, and the 5-7 minutes after my wipeout)
Max Speed: 28.3mph
Avg Speed: 20.0mph
Distance: 96.33mi

It was a good ride--I had fun! Now my dad says he wants to do it next year =)

You guys are probably right about the apparent wind explanation. Next time I'll remember to notice what the wind is doing while standing still to get a more accurate assessment. Thanks, I do feel a sense of accomplishment today, not very achy at all, and feel fortunate that the wind wasn't worse than it was, which I gather it often is. The rest stops were a great help at reinvigorating me and breaking up the ride into manageable chunks.

The rest stops were a great help at reinvigorating me and breaking up the ride into manageable chunks.

Definitely...I hardly needed to go to the bottles (likely due to the fog and high humidity), and even with stocking up on Fig Newtons at Assateague, I never once needed to get them out; the stops (roughly every 20 miles) were well-spaced, and the food (and pie!) was excellent.

For those for whom this was your first Seagull (and who intend to do it again), a word of warning: we got off *extremely* lucky in terms of wind this year . . . don't count on that happening next year. :)

Last year on the bridge over to Assateague I got so spooked at the sight of cyclists ahead of me listing sideways like so many sailboats under full canvas, and at the feeling of doing the same thing myself (and then unexpectedly having to abruptly bring myself back upright when the howling crosswinds would suddenly let up for a few seconds) that I actually got off and walked the bike the rest of the way across.

I didn't like coming upon four accidents that were serious enough to have cyclists shipped off in ambulances. Maybe with the unusually mild Seagull weather, people were being more frisky than usual . . . I don't know. I saw another cyclist almost go down on that gravelly turn that kle mentions.

As usual, the pie was excellent! (I can't do ice cream much, unfortunately, and certainly not while riding.) And as usual, I was cussing myself for forgetting to pack a small bag of chips . . . I'm always craving a salty snack at that 83-mile point, and chips would be the perfect "dessert" for the pie.

Congrats on your first century, yellowcanoe1! May it be the first of many!

Did anyone else see the guy on the recumbent with the full bike/body shield? Wow!
I first saw him as he was coming off the Assateague bridge and I was just approaching it....is he a member here? I kept wondering what it was like to be in that "cocoon" ....

Congrats on your first century, yellowcanoe1! May it be the first of many!

Did anyone else see the guy on the recumbent with the full bike/body shield? Wow!
I first saw him as he was coming off the Assateague bridge and I was just approaching it....is he a member here? I kept wondering what it was like to be in that "cocoon" ....

Yes, I saw him too. Also a 'bent tandem, and a guy pulling both a trail-a-bike and a trailer (for a smaller kid). Not sure which ride he did.

Also saw a guy pulling a full size trailer (like something a car might pull), w/ a bike upside down in the middle. Was he sag support, or was that a memorial for a fallen friend?

I also saw four accidents w/ ambulances, including one guy being carried off w/ a neck brace.

It's not too surprising, though, I was in a group of about 25 at one point when a car starting passing, panicked at an oncoming car, and swerved in front of our pack. A couple of the guys in front went into the grass, though I don't think anyone went down.

I agree with Maxine - I felt no effects from the wind at all until about 20 miles left when some early afternoon winds picked up - but they were MINIMAL! It was a gift - as was the fine mist until 1030! Did anyone show up for the Friday night gig? I've never seen that before - they usually have just wine and chesse - this year they had grilled chicken wings, corn, ice cream, popcorn, salt water taffy....
The deals from the vendors were great too. I got Discovery Channel shorts for $18!
All for now - I'm beat!

...and a guy pulling both a trail-a-bike and a trailer (for a smaller kid)...

I think I was asked by that guy to take a picture of him, his kid, and that bike/trailer thingy at the finish line at around 6PM.

Did anyone show up for the Friday night gig? I've never seen that before - they usually have just wine and chesse - this year they had grilled chicken wings, corn, ice cream, popcorn, salt water taffy....

Dang, I may have to sign up next year! I went once, wasn't too overwhelmed by the cheese, and never bothered again.

I'm definitely in for next year...I don't care what the weather.

This year, I couldn't leave work until mid-afternoon Friday.....next year I'll come down on Thursday so that I can participate in all of the "festivities", pre-rides, meals, etc....and get a good nights sleep!

If only it weren't on Columbus Day weekend - one of the few where I can make a break from DC. I've gotten into riding the Great River Ride up in Westfield, MA: fall colors in the Berkshire hills, great support, big hills and a much smaller rider field (alas, none of the vendors with deals on clothing and such).

A lot of my fellow PPTC riders make the trek to the Sea Gull Century, and I know that many of 'em enjoy it quite a bit - enough to come back every year. Perhaps one of these years I'll head out for the flatlands of the Eastern Shore...

I'm glad to hear that folks had a great time with the ride!