tunavic

TH, HunkerDown and BeachGrad, I'll be riding the 50 miler starting at 9. I'll keep an eye open for you guys! I'll be riding my white/red Pinarello KOBH and wearing a Redlands jersey.

TrojanHorse

Excuse me? This thread is to discuss the brave souls doing the CENTURY, not for people milking tiny injuries from way back in previous years. We'll keep an eye out for the guy on a Pino limping along trying to mooch sympathy from any women within earshot.

Actually, there's a chance we'll cross paths on the last 8 miles - the 25 and 55 routes match back up again once you get to Gerald Ford drive @ Da Vall Dr. I'll be on the lookout.

jimincalif

I'll be on the century route, wearing a Bicycle Club of Irvine jersey riding a red and black Specialized Roubaix. Ride safe and have fun everyone!

Beachgrad05

I'm starting at 6:30 as I want to get going early since I'm slow. Those starting after me I might see passing me. I will be on the new black Domane with white lettering in my black The Unlikely Cyclist kit with orange bands on leg. There will be four of us TUC riders out there in that kit but I will be the non-skinny one.

TrojanHorse

Yeah, welcome to the club. The only club on earth where everybody wants out.

Jim - TdPS is positively filthy with Roubaix bikes (mine is white with black lettering btw) - which one of these fine-looking cyclists is you?

jimincalif

Actually I'm not in that group shot, it was taken before I joined in December 2013. On the website if you hover over "home" and then click "Board of Directors", you will see a picture of the treasurer - that's me.

tunavic

You know me well

TJClay

Just wondering, last night I mounted a new set of GP4000s which are directional. After finishing I noticed the front one is correct but I have the rear mounted backwards. Does this mean when I pedal that I won't go anywhere???

TrojanHorse

Is this you?

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...backwards.html



(I seriously think the directional arrows on the GP4000 are just there to keep people from asking which way to mount them. It can't make a bit of difference)

TJClay

So so if I put the back wheel in backwards but the directional arrow is pointing in the right direction then I'm good to go right?

TrojanHorse

Either that or swap it with your front wheel and just run the chain up to the front wheel.

You're good to go.

TJClay

Damn, never thought of that. Does that make it hard to turn the bars?

TrojanHorse

Woot! Finished my home-rolled Tour de Palm Springs and I must say it worked out pretty well.

To recap, I rode 17 miles from the hotel to the start (slight uphill and into the wind, oops, didn't account for that), started off with the century riders about 10 minutes late and rode the 55 mile route + an extra 10 miles from the century route until the two paths diverged. Then I did the 25 mile route and caught up with the family at the lunch stop and finished the ride with them, which turned out to be a fun way to polish off my 100 miles for the day.

For some reason beyond my understanding, the organizers have a death grip on the start. Since I was running 10 min. behind my schedule AND I didn't want to deal with the crowd at the starting line, I took the parallel street to avoid all that frippery. Unfortunately, they had little starting line Napoleons patrolling that side street forcing what was a large group of people with the identical idea back to the starting line. So I U-turned, thought better of it and re-U-turned and headed back out again, which got me yelled at. I ignored the yelling until it went away and had a great rest of my morning. Stick it to the Man!

Celebrity sightings:
1) I found Beachgrad05 on the first long, usually windy portion of the ride sporting her sporty new shop colors and a VERY zippy new bicycle.
2) After ALL sorts of riding around, right about mile 95 I said something grumbly out loud about are we there yet and some attractive young lady on a Giant said something cheerful in response and I thought, hmm. that voice sounds familiar. About 30 seconds later TunaVic went scooting by and it took a second to realize the young lady was his GF, so tunavic finished the ride with me and the family.
3) RIGHT at the end, a familiar face with a familiar mirror in a familiar Rebel Rider jersey went by - Rick@OCRR finishing up (the authorized route most likely) century.

I did NOT see HunkerDown, which has me doubting that he even rode the thing. Hmph. I also did not see one single BCI jersey, so he was probably hanging out with jimincalif at some sort of coffee shop all morning.

I stopped and helped a poor stranded fella who said he was on his third flat and was out of CO2, barely 25 miles into the century. I guess he rented the bike, what a deal! SO I loaned him my compact frame pump and let him wear himself out pumping up his tire. He was pretty put out by the whole flat-ridden experience and pretty glad I stopped. I'm a little surprised - usually at those rides you have tons of people stopping when you have a problem of some sort. Oh well, a small deposit in the karma jar for me, I'll take it.

In other news, when you start the century at 6:30 with all the century riders, there are zillions of people on the roads. When the 55 mile route doesn't even start till 9 and you take that route, the roads are nearly deserted. No fellow riders to mooch a wheel off when the wind kicks up, oh well.

Riding the 25 mile route, even with dead tired legs is a huge ego boost... man, I passed little kids like they were standing still (which they were in a few circumstances). There are riders of every possible shape and size on those shorter routes but it's cool to see everybody out there pumping out the miles.

jimincalif

I was there and completed the 100 mile route. I was looking out for both Conejo and the TUC cycling kit but didn't see any.

Re the start, one of our group of 3 did not want to deal with the start area stuff, so we rode up Sunrise all the way to San Rafael I believe, then cut over west to the route and had no one yelling at us. We rolled out of the hotel about 6:50 and we were about 2.7 miles S of the starting area so that put us a bit behind. One of our group was quite a bit slower, so eventually I just rode my own pace and we regrouped at the SAGs. So with more wait time at the SAGs I spent a lot of the day passing the same people over and over again. They probably wondered what was up with me. But it's all good. Had a great time. There was a little headwind early on, but it was probably about the calmest you could ever hope for there. Finished the last two segments really strong and felt great at the finish, then rode back to the hotel from there.

jsigone

nice report!! you rode allot more miles than me today even in your funky configuration of ziz zags in the desert

no pics?

TrojanHorse

I was basically solo so I was in turbo mode at the SAGs, I guess you never caught up. Are you going to hit GMR with us in March?

Yeah, alot more than the 90 you rode? No pictures... I only had my cell phone and it was snuggled down in a ziploc in my back jersey pocket. I was basically late all day, no time to stop and take pictures of brown dirt.

jsigone

You got triple digits....I got notta and saved 30min

TrojanHorse

You apparently averaged 4 mph more than I did too ahem.

See if you can tell when I caught up to the family and rode with them.

TrojanHorse

I just realized I never saw ahultin either. I believe he and his son were doing the century - he rode with a blind stoker and his son rides a cross bike, so that's pretty hard core. Beachgrad said she saw some other blind stokers (they had jerseys or some other identifying characteristic) but not ahultin.

So... provisional well done to Big A and little A.

jsigone

glad you were able to find them w/ all those people out. So where was your recovery meal at? That one time you dragged me around the desert, I ended up at the Chop House. Good but pricey but good.

TrojanHorse

Well, we had a couple.

Meal 1 was a half a leftover burger from islands the previous night and it was DAMN good. Made me feel almost human again.

Meal #2 was lunch at Panera bread at about 4 - just a light sandwich, the kids were starving.

Meal #3 was at the Wolfgang Puck Pizza Bar in Palm Desert and THAT was a crazy good pizza (lamb sausage, pureed eggplant and goat cheese). Not too terribly expensive either.

Various beers and wines sprinkled amongst, of course.

TJClay

I snuck out early with a friend about 6:30. We got yelled at too to go back to the start but just ignored them. Had a good ride but a little slower than last year for some reason, I thought it would be quicker with less wind. The hill after crossing the freeway seemed harder this year, I think the wind was coming from the north even though it wasn't very strong maybe that was why.

TrojanHorse

Yeah, I figured none of the people yelling at me were cops so... Sayonara!

The ride parallel to the 10 was my fastest ever (even including a stop to find an advil) due to the reduced wind. It was still there though. Those hills on Dillon seemed interminable this year for some reason. Most of 'em are more of a false flat I guess but still... endless.

ahultin

Yes sir, we finished! A bit slower than last year on the singles, a bit faster than 2013 on the tandem. My stoker for the first leg did very well given that 50 miles was the longest he had ridden in over a year. My stoker for the second leg has only been riding since august and has never gone over 34.5 miles. He had lots of heart but I could swear by his mile 30, my mile 81, he must have unclipped and sat indian style on the back . The last 20 miles I think we averaged about 11mph. Sebastian went ahead and finished about 30 minutes before us.
I did see Beachgrad briefly, she was leaving the 80 mile sag as we where coming in. I believe BSC had @13 tandems on the ride though the vast majority did the 50 mile though we did have three teams on the 100 including myself. The teams are typically identified by the BSC jerseys as well as a "license plate " of sorts identifying the club and name of the pilot and stoker (we had the plate and both my stoker and Sebastian wore the BSC jersey). Our fastest stoker was paired with cycling legend John Howard, they completed the century in 5:06.
We too avoided the chaos at the starting line by starting from our hotel right around mile 1. We had no problem with route Nazi's and even had highway patrol stop traffic for us as we made our left turn onto the official route!

HunkerDown

As is typical for me I took off with the first wave of riders - the anticipation gets to be too much - to the sounds of the Theme from "Rocky" played by one of the numerous marching bands that came out to entertain us. I was with my friend Vinny who was riding his first Century and it wasn't long before his youth and fitness kicked in and he disappeared into the distance. I hooked up with a nice group wearing Coates Cycling jerseys - they said it was a LBS in Pomona - and I mooched a slot in their solid paceline through that long stretch on Dillon Rd.

About Mile 75, despite drinking gallons of Skratch electrolite drink, water and salty gels, I was hit by some tough leg cramps. So long as I kept pedaling I found I could push through it but all those traffic lights - ouch.

Notwithstanding that last section between mile 75 and 90, I enjoyed glorious weather (sorry Bostonians), amazing traffic control handled by friendly and helpful law enforcement, and the finish with local cheerleaders cheering and the bands playing was a surprise and a real treat.

In the end I think the real culprit to my issues was my general slacking on my weekly riding and it gave me a real nudge to change my ways and get back to work so I can blaze through the next one - maybe Cruisin' the Conejo or Solvang.

Sorry I missed you, fellow Forum Clydes. Could have used you for a tow through that last part...

HD