nosferaustin

My buddy's going to pick me up in about 1/2 hour to go ride in my first century ever. We're riding the Ghost Town century in Tooele, UT. The forecast:

7am 39°F 30% chance of rain / snow, winds from NNW 17 mph
8am 40°F 30% chance of rain / snow, winds from NNW 20 mph
9am 41°F 30% chance of rain / snow, winds from NNW 20 mph
10am 42°F 30% chance of rain / snow, winds from NNW 20 mph
11am 43°F 30% chance of rain / snow, winds from NNW 21 mph
12pm 44°F 30% chance of rain / snow, winds from NNW 22 mph

My goal was to be off the bike by 1pm at the latest, but with this wind, I don't know. It's the 2nd 50 that will be into the wind, too. This is either going to be a blast or kill me!

Wish me luck....

sch

Not being a canuck, one can only say JFC, or echo Mr T and shout "fool!!"
The HP requirements of that amount of headwind will be formidable, to
maintain a 12-15mph average on the second fifty miles. If you can do
a 22-25mph average on the first fifty, you have a chance. Think metric.
The first fifty should be a real blast, the second fifty, I hope your ipod
holds up.

nosferaustin

Well, that was fun. Didn't make it, though. We sagged out at mile 68, about 18 miles after turning into the crosswind and about 5 miles after the right turn that took us dead into a headwind that was, I swear to god at least 30 mph. Top that with the fact that the temps went south, too and add in the snow that was kicking up ahead and I don't think we made a bad choice.

Overall I averaged 14.7 mph, not bad considering the back 18 were pretty much sub-10 the whole way. The one climb up the canyon nearly killed me at mile 20-ish, that was a bigger hill than I've ever ridden before. Add in the crosswind and the snow (and the 29 degree temp at the top when I got there (thanks to all of the poor volunteers who manned stop 2 up at the top of the canyon!) and it was a *****. I heard that a little while after that, the snow got so bad they turned riders away, told them to just keep on going past.

Overall, I had a great time. I'm bummed that I didn't finish my first century, but consoled by the fact that I don't think many people did. What a day.

richardh

hey nosferaudtin. I also did the ride yesterday. I did my first Century last weekend in St. George (Catus Hugger Century). There was much more Elevation gain but the Ghost Town Century was way harder because of the weather and winds. Last week my problem was with the heat since it was 95 degrees.

I thought I was doing pretty good since I was able to reach the 45 mile lunch spot at a time of 2:45 - The Wind on you back sure is nice. It was a wierd feeling going 30 mph and hardly feeling any wind.

The last 40 miles where pure hell with that headwind. At Mile 63 when you start heading north, the elevation starts dropping just a little but I could only average about 7mph with that wind. It was like riding up hill the entire time. Who would of ever thought that you would have to stick it in granny gear to ride on the flat. I am not sure how many people finished the century but a lot of people sagged it at the food/rest area at mile 80. I thought about also quiting but after a resting for about 12 mins I got a little strength back and hit the road.

The last 20 miles was tough. You slowly start climbing and the 30mph wind was straight on. To make matters worse it starting to rain that then turned to sleet. It was just stinging on my face. I can't believe how slow I was going. At mile 90 it starts to go downhill and could not believe how much of a fight it was to go down. About half way down, one of people from the event was driving a huge UPS like white truck. He slowed down and told me to ride his bumper. He slowed down to about 25-30mph and I was able to hug his bumper for about 2 miles which was very nice to take a little break from that wind.

I was the last one to finish at a total time of 9:22 and 8:20 of riding time. There was one guy behind me but I guess he got to cold and they had to bring him in.

I hate wind!

My ride at

https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2653805
Map Player at
https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/2653805

nosferaustin

Congrats on finishing! One of the guys we picked up on our way out was from Idaho Falls and also road down in St. George last weekend. He was saying how amazing it was that it was so hot last weekend and so cold this one. Utah weather!

My friend and I tried to make to to the 80 mile stop but once we turned into the wind head on, I realized that I didn't think I had it in me. We made a pit stop to see if some other riders needed help at one point and then hit the road again (if you can call crawling along down hill at 8 mph hitting anything!) When we stopped again after what felt like forever and realized that we'd only covered about 2/10 of a mile, we called it.

I hear it's a great ride when the weather cooperates. Probably will do it again next year.