I originally posted this in the Road Cycling forum, but Machka mentioned I should head over here....So here's my double post...

My wife and I headed out today to attempt our first double metric. We would be riding from Dundas to Niagara on the Lake. We planned to go up the escarpment, through Smithville and St. Catharines on our way to NOTL. The ride home went through St. Catharines, Vineland, Beamsville and Grimbsy before heading back up the escaprment. We would have loved to stay below, but that would involve riding through Hamilton and that was something neither of us wanted to do. It was a challenge and we had a great time except for a little meltdown I had between 175km and 199km...Needed a washroom and some food...Let's just say visions of Tom Boonen were running through my head. Along the way we also ran into a couple thunderstorms, one causing us to find cover at a funeral home. This stop was well timed since about a minute later a lightening clap hit way to close for our liking. Before that we got stopped twice by ships going through the welland canal. Those things plus the stops for water and such resulted in a longer total ride time then expected. The last little stumbling block for us was the wind. We ended up with a headwind for a good chunk of the ride home. I know we could have planned better, but we wanted to ride to NOTL....The wife's family lives out that way...

At any rate we are hoping to do another the next long weekend in August...Hopefully the weather is better.

So the stats are...
Distance - 210km
Ride time - 8 hours
Total time - 10 hours
Ave. speed - 26.3km/h (16.3mph)

It's the morning after and now we are trying to decide if it's better for us to do a quick recovery ride or just sit and let the body recover on the couch. I'm thinking the recovery would be good for the legs, but bad for the butt....it wants to stay on the soft couch...

Oh yea and the bikes still need to be cleaned. Luckily we have other bikes to ride if we want.

ah crap! I just noticed that I fudged the title....It should be first double metric (I know what a century is)...A double century would have been sheer insanity....






Maybe next time:)

ah crap! I just noticed that I fudged the title....It should be first double metric (I know what a century is)...A double century would have been sheer insanity....
Maybe next time:)

Actually, a double century is not sheer insanity :). They're really fun, mostly. I rode the Grand Tour Double Century starting from Malibu, CA at 4:30 AM up through Port Hueneme, Moorpark, Simi Valley, lunch in Ojai, over the Casidas Pass, into Rincon, then back to Hueneme and into Malibu at 7:00 PM.

Lots of other riders on the course, well staffed checkpoints, lots of friendly SAG drivers and practically perfect weather. No bike problems, no problems with the motor (that would be me), so it's all good!

Of course it would have been more difficult if it were self-supported, like yours was!

Rick / OCRR

ah crap! I just noticed that I fudged the title....It should be first double metric (I know what a century is)...A double century would have been sheer insanity....


Then call me insane. I did a double metric last month (a little bit slower than you, for an 8h 23m rolling time) and I'm signed up for a double imperial in 11 days. (starting to get a little nervous, but it's good nerves.)

Good job rbart! Got my first 200k ride (210 actually) planned on 7/7 (or so depending on weather). Solo effort...all by myself.

You go Clifton!

Congratulations! A double metric is still (IMO) a long ride. Good to hear about other couples doing long rides together as well.

My wife and I also recently completed our first double metric (advertised as 125 miles, cue sheet made it out to be about 128). We were a bit slower than you, but made it. Wife's asthma kicked in at about mile 95, right as we got to some of the biggest climbs on the rout, but once that was dealt with it went fine.

We are still discussing the idea of a double imperial century. I like the idea, she isn't so sure, but considers double metric very reasonable.

Thanks for the kind words guys...

We are seriously looking at our second one and are looking at planning the route right now...

I just hope to figure out my gastric issues by then. I'm not sure if it was the HEED that I was usuing or maybe my nourishment through the ride was off, but that stretch from 175km-199km was awful. All I can say is that I was lucky we found the gas station or it would have been messy. This happened the last time we did a century and I was also using HEED at that time, but you never know it might be a coincidence. The funny part is our first century in Georgia in 35C weather I never any problems like that. I was dead tired at the end for sure, but not gastric problems...And there was no HEED for that one.