Tandem Cycling - Anybody else tandem the Seagull Century on 10 Oct?

The folks at Salisbury University put on another excellent century ride this year. Despite the persistent sprinkles, my wife and I had a wonderful time. We met several other tandem couples along the way and hope to see them again next year. Unfortunately two of our half-bike friends took spills but both are doing much better now. One wrecked and still managed to finish the ride in 6 1/2 hours. For tandemers not familiar with this ride, it takes place on the eastern shore of Maryland in October, very flat and includes a rest stop at the ocean. The ride is perfect for tandems but you gotta stay alert with over 8,000 single riders on the two lane roads.

See you there next year!
Justin

Unfortunately two of our half-bike friends took spills but both are doing much better now. One wrecked and still managed to finish the ride in 6 1/2 hours.

I think the probability of this happening to us because of the huge number of people caused us to forgo this ride. We did a smaller century the next day but still in MD. The weather was much nicer but there were some rolling hills.

We also rode the Seagull last week. We saw many other tandems. Although we enjoyed it, it was way too flat. It is not a ride that I would be thrilled to do again. We like our hills!

I did the century (but not on a tandem). I came across a father and daughter team around Mile 60. The girl was 8 years old and I was surprised to see her do the distance not only in terms of stamina but also patience and perseverance.

I came across a father and daughter team around Mile 60. The girl was 8 years old and I was surprised to see her do the distance not only in terms of stamina but also patience and perseverance.

That was us. We had an absolute ball on the ride. Now we're thinking about doing the STP next year with my brother since he lives out in Portland.

Here's a copy of the post from over on the Northeast board:

We had a great time this year even with the little bit of rain and the strong headwind on the way back from Assateague. This was my eight year-old daughter's first century on the tandem and she did absolutely amazing stoking strong the whole way, especially for the last 20 or so miles into the wind when I was starting to fade just a bit. We averaged just a little over 16mph rolling for the 101.5 miles on our computer.

We also noticed all the folks changing flats along the way. Not sure what was up with that as we didn't notice any excessive debris either. We had one close call at about mile 30. I usually don't ride in big groups of folks I don't know but we had just turned into the wind a little bit and a moderately paced group passed so I decided to pull in behind them. About a mile later a guy and a girl crossed tires 4 or 5 riders ahead of us and down they went. About three more bikes piled into them but I was able to brake/swerve to miss them. Nice thing about a tandem is you can really stand on the front brake to get slowed down in a hurry. We stopped to see if there was anything we could do to help but there didn't seem to be any serious injuries. I'm sure a couple folks headed to the hospital to get checked out though.

We had many, many folks (I bet well over 100) comment to my daughter on the on how cool they thought it was she was doing the century. It really made her feel great and if anyone reading this was one of those people thanks from the bottom of my heart. It turned what was going to be a great experience anyway into something she will remember for the rest of her life.

Here's a pic of us at the finish: