Road Cycling - The course never closed

The EACC hosted the Johnny Ray Century today. This was our first attempt at hosting a full blown century ride and we did a great job! I don't know to exact total of funds raised, but we'll likely clear $1500 after expenses. The majority of this will go to purchase new bicycles which we will give to the local US Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign this Christmas.

Toward the end of the ride there were a few stragglers. They were hours behind everyone else. We never set a time when the course would close so we felt obligated to see to it that these fellows made it back ok. It took over 10 hours for two of them to complete our 102 mile route. Some members felt we should have told these guys to SAG it or ride it unassisted.

Anyway, I was proud that there were about 15 of us at the finish when the final two came through and we gave them a warm ovation and a plate of luke warm spaghetti.

I feel we did the right thing by sagging these guys the whole way and next year we should also assist anyone who attempts our course no matter what their finishing time. As long as there's daylight, I suppose. Anyone disagree? I'm new to this, but learned a lot today.

The MS rides I have done traditionaly close the course at 4PM, but I have still seen people coming in at 5:30.

As long as you have volunteers to help, let the riders finish.

Century rides are definitely good fund raisers for clubs. Many century rides have
'course closure' provisos listed implying no sag support after some reasonable time
usually 4-5pm. It can stretch your volunteers a lot to keep them around 10hrs or more on a hot summer day. Some centuries make a point of trying to track all
completers - ask them to come in a check out or pass through an easily controlled
end point so that in theory stragglers can be identified. One possibility that riders
never cover is a map detailed enough to read that actually correlates with the area.
You may not have noticed that many maps have highway/road numbers, but that
the highways themselves in many counties are not marked or if marked will be "John
Smith Rd, or Conyer Way" etc so the map is useless to a lost cyclist who doesn't
know the area. Typically many maps will omit roads that are out there, increasing
confusion. Heaven help the cyclist who goes off the map. Well marked turns, by
which I mean distinctive marks that no one else would use, with turns telegraphed and
then confirmed after the turn. On a recent century several cyclists missed a turn off
a 4 lane because the turn was marked less than 20 feet before the turn and only on
the far right side of the road. Riders out in the middle of the road would miss the
markings and keep going. Not everybody rides all the way to the right all the time.
So turns should be marked well in advance with the entire lane marked. The flag idea
someone mentioned in your early thread sounds promising but easy to miss also. It is amazing how many utility arrows, numbers and marks there are on some roads.
Steve

Hey moonshot! Congrats on a job well done!

As for our local Tour-de-Cure century, we used to leave the course open until the last guy finished, no matter how late. After a couple of years of guys taking over 12 hours to finish, they set a closure time of 4pm. The "Ham" volunteers would sweep the course at that time. If they encountered riders, they would let the rider know the course was closing and give them the options of going on unsupported or sagging in.

I think you did the right thing by letting the guys finish. However, next year I would suggest setting a closure time. Your volunteers are giving of themselves. They deserve to know when they will be done.

Glad things went well for ya'll.

Bob

I'm sure the last couple finishers were very pleased to have 15 people cheering them at the end. That says a lot about your group. The first time I ever tried a serious endurance event (Birkebeiner Ski Race - 55km), I was in the last 1/4 of finishers. It still felt so good to hear my name announced and people clapping as I struggled across the line - it made my day!

Good for you!

Dean