Rick@OCRR

I'm sure there must have been other 50+ centuries by now, but my first century of the year was put on by our club (Orange County Rebel Riders), on a mostly beautiful day, Jan. 17th, 09.

Rather cold to start (at least for us SoCal folks), i.e. in the mid 40's at 7:00 AM. By 7:30 or so we had the benefit of direct sunlight, so that was very helpful in getting us up to proper riding temperature.

I let all the fast (yeah, younger) guys go off the front, and rode with Wick (62, I think), and Julie who is a young'un but I'm not sure how young (guessing mid-30's). Julie and I were about the same speed, but we kept dropping Wick, then waiting for him. Eventually he told us not to wait any longer, so we pulled ahead riding North out of Irvine and into Yorba Linda along Santa Ana Canyon Road.

Somewhere along here I thought I'd dropped Julie (inadvertantly), but then eventually realized that she had probably turned for the first rest-stop, whereas I had sailed past it and was 5 miles or so beyond it before I worked out what had happened. Yeah, I felt stupid, but whatever. I didn't really need a stop and this was a casual century with no "checkpoints" as such, still had a bottle and a half so no worries.

Along here the route turned onto the Northern-most end of the Santa Ana River Trail (MUP), then up the Green River Road and across the 91 Freeway. Big climb up to the 91 crossing (well, a mile or so), and new traffic lights at the 91 intersection make life for the cyclist quite a bit safer there. Then the really long Green River climb (3 mi. at 6 - 7 %), a forced left turn at the top and I was in the outskirts of Corona.

A short ride on Ontario (yeah, another climb, about a mile) with another rider who just happened to be out there (not on our ride). Long climb up Lincoln to the 2nd Foothill crossing, then Bedford Canyon (kinda fast downhill), and up to Eagle Glen Parkway. Fortunately, I remembered a coffee shop at this intersection (It's a Grind!), so stopped for coffee and a "Some-More's" bar (very HIGH Carb) at the 49.5 mile point, with an approx. temp. of 70 degF at this point (10:30 AM).

Leaving the coffee shop it was into another immediate climb up Eagles Glen, then several turns but mostly descents down to Ontario again. There was a different route through Corona, but eventually it intersected the afore-noted Green River Road, back over the 91 freeway (hit the lights green this time!). By this time (about noon) the temps were in the low 80's and didn't get much hotter throughout the day.

Back on the Santa Ana MUP again, heading South this time, off at Glasell / Kramer, then through the City of Orange on Cambridge, Fair Haven and into Lemon Heights. I did a course mod. here to throw in another long climb (yeah, can't get enough), then it was an easy ride the final 15 miles back into Irvine.

So a total time of 6:15 with maybe half an hour spend at the coffee shop in Corona. 16.1 on the bike average. Not sure how much climbing, but it felt like about 4,000 feet. Lovely day, lots of sun, no mechanicals, no issues with motorists and a great time.

Probably didn't eat enough (though one bottle was SPIZ and another was Gatorade), or drink enough with only four bottles total over the 100 miles.

Back at the park I talked with a couple of the riders who had been on the Metric version, then put the top down on the Miata and headed home. Some lingering pain in my legs as I type this, but otherwise no pain issues .

Rick / OCRR

Mojo Slim

Here it is only 16 days in to the new year and I'm already behind on my century count! Since you're just lollygagging along at 16+, you should be taking pictures!

Rick@OCRR

Yes Mojo Slim,

You are correct. But since this was a mostly urban century, the photos would have been less than inspiring. Plus, I wasn't exactly "lollygagging" but in fact riding as fast as I could for about 80% of the ride.

With the climbs plus the wind (headwind out, tail-wind back), the average just wasn't getting up there like I'd hoped .

Rick / OCRR