Greetings friends. I'm new and hope to be back into the world of biking soon. This is a wonderful forum.

At this point I look forward to getting a new roadbike by next year. I was once an avid cyclist. Now at 37, a variety of events (mostly career-related) forced me to give road riding up for about four years. In the process I sold many of my bikes...but the itch has returned, I think.

I once raced for two years in the USCF in Cat 4, with the Los Angeles Wings based out of Whittier. That was fun, but two big accidents steered me toward more long distance time trials. Also I rarely placed top twenty since crits wern't my thing. Thus I got into centuries (around the year 2000). I tried a few of them at Death Valley and Mammoth. At the Death Valley ones (at the time organized by Planet Ultra), I actually did very well, signing in second in one DV century once. I realized the long endurance rides against the clock were wonderful and I did very well in them.

My question is: are there centuries that are promoted as actual races? It appears when I did them so many organizations were afraid to label centuries as "races" for liability purposes, so they were always organized "rides". And how come the USCF doesn't have a centuries (or double) as competitive events? When I get back into cycling, I hope to do mostly ultramarathon rides, particularly centuries; but I'd like to enter competitive events. Any tips/information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Jack

El Tour de Tuscon http://www.pbaa.com/!ETT/ETThome.html

Minnesota Ironman Bike ride http://www.ironmanbikeride.org/

Northern Minnesota Headwaters 100 http://www.itascatur.org/page2.html

sorry that is all I know off of the top of my head.

There is the Hotter then Hell Hundred http://www.hh100.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Only the English seem to enjoy bashing themselves on a regular basis in
50mi and 100mi TT. This is a variant competition that hasn't caught on
in the US. It should be noted that any hilly challenging century will have
10-20 hard men at the front trying to be first and staying with these guys
can be a real challenge. Doing a 10-12K foot climb overall in 100mi under
5hrs takes some horsepower and times in the 4H 30-40' range are not
unusual. The English sometimes do sub 4H centuries but these are TT not
mass starts.

Listed as a tour, not a race, but the Sunrise Century in Clarksville, TN will run on Sep 20th. There is an 'Elite Peloton' start ahead of the main group and you need to hang at 25 mph avg to get in this group and take advantage of traffic controls, etc.

Short list of sub-four hour finishers and current record is 3:56:11.

More info at http://www.clarksvillecentury.com/100_overview.htm

the UCMA definitely holds long races, although i suppose many of them are longer than a century: http://www.ultracycling.com/

also they have quite a few records for state-crossings, etc: http://www.ultracycling.com/records/records2008.html

the UCMA definitely holds long races, although i suppose many of them are longer than a century: http://www.ultracycling.com/

Redmond Cycling Club runs two races that are over a century (over a double, actually.)

The Cannonball and the S2S are 250mi and 275mi respectively (I think), and go from Seattle to Spokane via two different routes.

Redmond Cycling Club runs two races that are over a century (over a double, actually.)

The Cannonball and the S2S are 250mi and 275mi respectively (I think), and go from Seattle to Spokane via two different routes.

cannonball is ~275 and the S2S is ~280 i believe - but what's a 25-mile difference after a mountain pass & 200 miles?! here's their events page: http://www.redmondcyclingclub.org/events.html

are the S2S/Cannonball really races? i guess they do time them, and keep track of course records, i just never thought of them as races.

when i do S2S next year (i hope), i'll be doing it unsupported, so it will be all about survival, not finishing first. the people that do finish first use support vehicles, which is weak in my book.. (although it does allow them to finish in ~16 hours, compared to what will surely take me at least 20)

I really appreciate all the helpful info. Thank you everyone. It appears that the Tucson one is really doable given I'm in California. When I was in the USCF I raced the Tucson Bicycle Classic and got dropped real early, lol (cat 4). That was humbling, but it allowed me take in the view of the giant cactus and cragged rocks. Best wishes.

Jack

I think there are plenty of people who keep track of their time on a century and sort of consider it a race. I've often "raced" all kinds of charity or century rides without anyone actually getting a prize or medal.

Often there's some confusing BS because someone says so and so did the ride in "x time" but they actually started early or didn't count their stop times or whatever. But for sure, keep track of your hard efforts, their yours for the rest of your life.....

I really appreciate all the helpful info. Thank you everyone. It appears that the Tucson one is really doable given I'm in California. When I was in the USCF I raced the Tucson Bicycle Classic and got dropped real early, lol (cat 4). That was humbling, but it allowed me take in the view of the giant cactus and cragged rocks. Best wishes.


Many of the double centuries in California are timed events with mass starts and multiple check-points along the way. In addition, the people who run the California Triple crown site (http://www.caltriplecrown.com) designate three specific doubles each year as parts of a stage race, keeping track of the cumulative times of those riders who complete all three and recognizing the overall winner.

Calvin's Challenge, in Ohio, is a 12-hour road race, but this year they had a 100-mile time trial option (though only 8 people took that option this year).
http://www.calvinschallenge.com/

The Texas Time Trials (www.tt24tt.com) near Dallas, TX, has a 6-hour and 12-hour race category in addition to the 24-hour and 500 mile races. The 20-mile loop course allows easy support options for crew or even crewless racing.