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Centuries! Who would have thunk at the beginning of the year, I'd be writing about having ridden 8 centuries this season (and its not even over yet! )

Not I, that's for sure. But sure enough, the opportunity presented itself yesterday to stretch a club ride into a full hundred miler, so I decided to go for it. The ride was listed at 70 miles, I could get in another 20 if I rode to the start (which I often do for the club rides I go on), which left 10 miles to pick up at the end (accomplished by cruising down to do part of the San Francisco Bay trail and back home).

Don't have the vital stats handy, but I do have the elevation profile for reference.



The big bump in the middle is Mount Diablo. I was the only one in our ride that rode it all the way to the top. The last five miles average around a 7% grade, and the last .1 of a mile kicks up to leg bursting 17%. I did make use of my lowest gear (a stump pulling 26x34), tried to relax into the climb, and just hang onto my rhythm on the final ascent. Worked like a charm, and wasn't nearly as winded as when I rode that section last (a month or so back).

According to ridewithgps, the whole route came in with just over 7,000 ft of climbing, not the hilliest century I've done, but it certainly had the biggest climb I've during a century around here.

scrming

WOW!! That's awesome!!! Congrats!

unabowler

Congratulations, it sounds like you're having a great year. 7000 feet of climbing is mindblowing to me.