guy2600

Rode it last year, signed up this year knowing I was going to be time challenged (work full time, take classes at night). Not in the shape I was in last year but feel I'll be able to limp through it. Did a 115 mile ride today with half the elevation gain at .5mph slower than then the pace I intend to ride at (wanted to be able to recover this week) and felt fine. I'm just hoping it isn't a windy or hot & sunny next weekend. Looking forward to it

godshammgod

I'm feeling fairly confident. I was signed up in the 18mph group, but I think my riding partners and I might opt for the 17mph group on ride day just to be safe.

I've put in about 600 miles in the past 3 + weeks so I feel pretty good. Like you, I gauged my prep with a shorter ride, but with a greater ratio of climbing than B2B. It ended up being about 110 miles with 6,000+ feet. That compares favorably with B2B which is 148 and about 8,000 feet (based on looking at others Garmin files). I think my friend and I averaged a shade under 17, which includes him cramping up severely.

No matter how you slice it, it's going to be a tough day in the saddle. I'm as light as I've been (though still ''heavy'' by cycling standards) so I'm hoping that will help as well.

JandersUF

My first time doing B2B is this year (and will be my longest ride ever)

I was on a good pace until a couple weeks ago... had put in about 7-8 weeks of 120-150miles per week, and had done a solo century with about 5000ft of climbing at a pace just under 17mph. But I got a cold about two weeks ago, then was out of the country sans bike for a week... just got back and found my rear-wheel with a broken spoke (I think the bike was sad I didn't ride it for a week)... so it is getting fixed as we speak. Sadly, my back up bike was a bit... poorly kept... my bad... so I worked on it for an hour this AM to get it ridable. Did manage to get it on the trainer for a quick 30minutes before work today.

Soo... I think I built a nice base up, but I'm a bit over-tapered. As long as I don't have a massive headwind the whole way, I think it'll be OK. I do wish I got another century or two in the past two weeks, but so be it. I think I am going to roll with the 17mph group, and just try to chill and not work too hard until we get a long way in.... eeek.

I do think I'll be able to get a nice ride in this Wed. How far/hard shall I go? Remember, I am over-tapered.

godshammgod

Janders-- My plan is the same as yours. Try to hide as much as possible for the first portion of the ride. Like I said, I'll be in the 17mph group as well with some friends. If you see a guy on a red Caad 9 and white Lazer helmet come say hello.

As for rides this week, I'm thinking of some nice easy 20-30 mile cruises. Might put in a couple of hard efforts on my repeats hill. It usually takes about 4 minutes, so that should keep the legs honest.

guy2600

Godshammgod, sounds like you're well prepared. Janders, I'd think (though I'm obviously no pro) it might be best to do a longer ride at a light pace - something you will recover from in a few days yet get a bit of conditioning back. I'll be rolling out with the first peloton, I want as much time to complete it as possible. We should all post back with our ride reports on Sunday.

JandersUF

Yeah, i think i might try to get some brief/hard rides in Mon/Tuesday before work, and then maybe do a nice slow 60ish miles on wed.

I need to find something easy to see to make myself identifiable in the pack. I ride a black generic carbon frame with a white helmet... I'll probably have my El Cyclista bibs on, which have a fun pink accent! heh. But yeah, please stop/say hi/let me draft off of you for miles on end!

godshammgod

I really want to try and replicate the riding I did last week. I ended up doing an impromptu 94 miles on Friday and felt super fresh, so I'm hoping that was a good tapering template.

Probably 2 short intense rides and one easier Z2ish type ride. This is one of those times I wish I had a powermeter. It would be so much easier to dial that effort in.

guy2600

I'll be resting until Thursday. Thursday and Friday will be easy rides of 20 miles, just want my legs to fully recover. If you see a slow guy pedaling this bike, it will be me.

godshammgod

The takeaway from this thread:

We'll all be riding really slowly.

One of my friends called me Saturday to inform me of a new bike purchase. Then he says, '' that B2B ride, it's two weeks away, right?'' I informed that it was merely a week away. He was not happy.

JandersUF

More speedbumps...

Got my rear-wheel back from the shop, with a new spoke. Looked great. Took off this AM, and got five miles... and BOoooOng... another spoke broke. And just when I was getting to the nice roads! So I babied it home...

Took it back to the shop, where we looked over the wheel. Both spoke breaks happened right where the spokes meet the nipples... not good. So they are re-building it. Unsure if they can get it done by Friday night.

Soo... found my old spare wheel, got it up and running, and ended up getting a nice 40mi in for the day.

But karma has been bad lately... maybe I should leave with the 16mph group for extra time?

yak

About 20 of us multi-year veterans told Harpoon to go fark themselves this year. I actually had a good email exchange with the president of Harpoon, explained how the arrogant tone of this year's letters turned off a lot of people, plus the forced contribution to team Psycho was too much to take.

Good luck with your ride, having big brother breathing down your neck. And watch out for all the tri-geeks that have no pack-riding skills.

We're doing our own alternative ride, 120 miles to a cabin in NH on Sat, return on Sunday.

guy2600

Janders, I'd drop down if you're concerned about keeping the pace. You can always spend more time recovering at the rest stops, maybe take a few pics if you're ahead on time. Best to have extra time than less..

I agree about the arrogant tone but it is what it is. Had no problems with last years ride.

GrotonPaul

Headed to Boston for the B2B, staying in town tonight. Feel ok about conditioning, three centuries in three weeks, plus one double metric last Friday. Hoping for 17 mph avg. Should be fun.

godshammgod

Cross post from Metro Boston Ride Thread:

Did the Harpoon B2B yesterday. Suffice to say it was an...interesting day. I must warn you this is a LOOONG post.

It began at 5:00am in my friend's driveway. My other friend's brand new Cervelo was placed precariously in front of friend number 1's car. Let's say just say this ended with a cracked chainstay on the brand new bike. At that point we thought our day was done...

But thankfully when we arrived at Harpoon my friend with the disabled bike was able to get a yellow Mavic neutral service bike (basically a CAAD 9). It wasn't perfect, but it was a bike and we were ready to ride.

The first 10 miles were pretty smooth, but the wheels fell off from there. Somewhere in Somerville my two friends dropped off the back with a mechanical. I was in the front of the group so I didn't notice until about 15 minutes later. At that point I figured my best course was to cruise with the pack to the first rest stop. We were a big group (about 20 riders) and covered the first 50 miles at about 19mph. It was fast and fun. At the first rest stop I decided I would wait for my friends. I hung around for about 20 minutes, until the final fastest group came through. The SAG driver said he had not seen my friends (more on this later...) and I decided I should roll out on my own.

At that point my 25 miles solo began with a winding 5 mile climb through Willow Brook State Forest. I actually felt really, really good through this stretch. I caught up with 3 other stragglers and hoped to ride together. But they dropped off on one of the rollers. At mile 70 I was very happy to see a gas station filled with about 6 or 7 other riders. Perfect. A small group to cruise with over the big climb of the day. Ah, but another wrench was preparing to be thrown...

At that point I called one of my missing friends. Turns out he was six miles away. They had gone 11 miles off course, which would explain why the sweep van never saw them. I decided I'll wait 20 minutes for them and we can ride in together. 20 minutes passes, then 30. Finally the sweep van pulls up. Driver leans his head and out says, ''You Noah? I've got two strays for you.'' The van had picked them up. And because I waited behind we had to be driven to the next rest stop to complete the ride (There was a 1:15 cut off to be at the final rest stop).

So we got to the final stop, had some water, joked about our misfortune and rolled out to complete the last 50 miles. Those miles were hard, but fun. First we baked on several short climbs then we got a refreshing rain storm on a 40mph descent, then we baked in more sun while drinking Beer at Harpoon.

In the end I only go to do about 122 of the 148 miles. It's a shame, because I felt pretty strong all day, especially on the climbs. But in the end, a lot of things were out of my control.

It's a hard ride, but not impossible. And the climbing really isn't that bad. You just need to be ready for some mile long hills bunched into the last 25 miles.

I might try this again next year...We'll see.