Tandem Cycling - Our first Tandem century

I've done a lot of centuries. My wife had never ridden more than 76 miles. We'd never done a Century on the Tandem until today.

Went out on the local Velobrew Ride today and did our firt century together on the Tandem. Great weather, and a good strong, steady group.

Finidhed the century in 4:35, with riding time of 4:19, and an average of 23.1mph.

Not where we need to be yet, but making progress.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i165/bobstewart/july4century2008small.jpg

That is awesome! 23mph is very quick. I road my first 100 on a single this year & averaged 19 on flat terrain. It's a real milestone. I have my non riding wife in training on our tandem. With any luck i will have her on some long rides next year if not before. Keep up the good work!

Nice!

Every century around here is way too hilly for that average speed.

Even hitting 50+ on the descents can't make up for the long grades turning 5-10 mph ;)

Nice!

Every century around here is way too hilly for that average speed.

Even hitting 50+ on the descents can't make up for the long grades turning 5-10 mph ;)

Yes, elevation profile please. Us NorCal weekend warrior folks would be dead after 50 miles at that pace.
:D

[QUOTE=merlinextraligh;7000198..... and a good strong, steady group.

Finidhed the century in 4:35, with riding time of 4:19, and an average of 23.1mph.
[/QUOTE]

Aprox what % of the time did you pull the train?

We're in Florida. It's pretty flat, so about a thousand vertical for the whole ride.

As for pulling, we never sherked a turn. Doing the math 30 plus riders wer'e on the front 3%. However a number of people never came to the front, so it would be higher than that, and when things got going toward the end we chased down breaks a couple of times.

Given that Deb had never completed 100 miles, we were careful to not get too ambitious in the first 50 miles or so.

That's impressive. And you guys are a sharp-looking team.

Congrats on your first of (I expect) many tandem centuries. And extra points to you for having a stoker named Deb. :D

Congrats on the first one on the Robusta.....that pace is incredible...we couldn't average that if you through us out of a plane. Nice job! Williamsburg....cool jersey
Bill J.

Congrats on your first tandem century in a fantastic time . . . even in fairly flat Florida. Nice matching outfits and great looking Co-Mo! Afraid we'd need a leg/lung transplant to do that kind of century now!
Years ago, we were not quite that fast with our best averaging 21.5 mph . . . but there was some higher elevation (2,640+ ft) and hillwork involved.
We did win the 'first tandem in' distinction (beat a rather loud-mouthed/bragging male/male tandem duo by 1/2 hour) and finished top 3; stoker Kay was the first woman to finish. However there was no tandem trophy, she did not get first for woman trophy (first woman trophy winner finished 15 minutes later) as the organizers stated . . . 'but she was on a tandem' (she did not pedal?)!
Did get the 'oldest female' riding trophy (she was in her late 50s then).
We still laugh about that one!
Have covered a 100+ centuries, some double metrics, a 325 miler (century/century/double metric) with over 22,000' of elevation gain and a finishing temp of 103 degrees. Ah, yes,those were the days!
So get your stoker some flowers . . . she deserves it!!!
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

^ Tandem Time trial divisions are often done on combined ages. I think you guys would be unbeatable as an over 140 team.

Amazing effort. Well done! Perhaps you should both sign up for the Tour de France next year. Their average in stage one last night was 42 km/hr compared to your 37.17 km/hr. The 5 km/hr difference should be a disappointment to the Tour riders!

Extra points for precise lineup of the Rolf wheels. You guys look fairly close
in size, unlike the more typical Gnu tandem couples. Hope your climbing
gets into synch like your speed has. Flat centuries, IME, are a piece of
cake compared with the more typical centuries with 4 to 6,000' feet of
climbing. Even Fla has a few hills, at least in the north, though the south
is almost dead flat. I am amazed at how well the legs hold up to flat long
mileage and it is always nice to be riding with a fast bunch that accepts
rotations. If we are in a bunch we almost always end up pulling the
train until the first long or steep hill. One other drawback to fast centuries:
it requires as few and as short as possible stops as possible, as witnessed
by your 16min off the bike in 100mi.

One other drawback to fast centuries:
it requires as few and as short as possible stops as possible, as witnessed
by your 16min off the bike in 100mi.

... we would call that a big plus...

the group we rode with is not much for breaks. 2 store stops that took as long as the last person paying for the gatorade and we were off.

Conversely, we rode with a very social group on Saturday with lots of regrouping, rest stops, and to be fair a recurrent problem with flats and we got less than 60 miles in the same elapsed time.

For the most part we prefer the former.