jeneralist 

I've participated in the MS Society's "City to Shore" ride before. For that ride, the first day's main route is 75 miles, but bold riders can choose to extend that to 100 miles by adding on a 25 mile loop -- IF they get to a certain checkpoint in time.

This will be my first time in the Bike to the Bay. It also has a main 75 mile course on the first day with an option for 100 miles. Does anyone know by what time riders need to reach which mile marker to enter the 25 mile loop? If I'm more speedy than usual, I could do that loop TWICE, and reach 125 miles = double metric century

(Crossposted Charity events, regional forum)

indyfabz

I saw you riding through Manayunk on Saturday. No chance in hell you can do 125.

Seriously...I am surprised they don't give that info. in the rider handbook, but it appears they do not. I would email the chapter directly.

jeneralist 

Last year for City to Shore I did 110 miles the first day: the 100 mile ride, and 10 riding to the train station to get to the ride. Good weather, good tires, and a tailwind...
And thanks, BTW, for riding City to Shore so consistently. My niece is taking MS medications these days....

Good thought on mailing the chapter.

indyfabz

This will be 22 years in a row. I will be wearing No. 24. Going to be putting up signs along the route again this year. I do it Friday morning, leave the car at Woodcrest and take the train back to town. That way, we can take the train to the start and drive home Sunday. It's odd because I always get assigned to sign the last 2/3 of the route so I end up in Ocean City late Friday morning only to return the following day. Last year I arrived just as the Bellvue Hotel was going up in flames. There was a strong sea breeze that was nocking the smoke down. One section of town was completely shrouded in smoke. It actually irritated my throat when I walked to see if the nearby condo where we were going to stay might be affected by the smoke. It was not.

I am thinking about making my own "rogue" sign to put at the foot of the first bridge. There used to be one that read "Legs Don't Fail Me Now." I think it got lost at some point and never replaced.

jeneralist 

So let me put this here so that if anyone ever searches this thread, they find the answer to the question that started it: in 2013, the cut-off was 3pm at mile marker 69.

I know this, not because anyone I asked before and even on the ride could tell me, but because I saw the sign at the turn -- at 3:15.

There was a storm headed to the beach that day, with winds blowing up from the south. Of course, we were trying to ride south. The folks at the southernmost rest stop, near mile 67, said that with an 8am start to the ride they usually expect to see their first riders around 11:30 -- and on that day, no one got there until around 1:00pm. So I'm not too embarrassed that not only did I not make 125 miles, I didn't even do a century.

Thankfully, the rain held off until about 10 o'clock that night, and was finished by 6:30 the next morning. So the ride had a few puddles the 2nd day, but no rain. Of course, that also meant that the wind shifted after the storm moved through -- and we rode back north into a headwind! At one point, my riding buddy and I made missed a turn. We realized something was up, and spent a moment looking at our route sheets. That off-course moment -- no wind. Back on the bikes heading back to the course -- no wind. Make the turn we missed -- wham! the wind came back.