shumacher

Simple question:

What is a century?

Oh, of course, it's a 100 mile ride, but rides are seldom exactly 100 miles. I've heard anecdotal reports of organized centuries being as little as 94 miles, and as long as 108 miles. What variance is allowable for:
A century?
A metric century?
A half century?
A quarter century?

Thanks in advance.

dekindy

Whatever they map out. The Indianapolis Zoo Wild Ride century is 110 miles.

MrCjolsen

They tried to have a century once that was exactly 100 miles. As it turned out, the finish was .38 miles from the start. It took the sag vehicles all night to collect everyone and take them back to their cars.

shumacher

Okay. How about this: If I take a solo ride of 104miles, and two weeks later, I take a solo ride of 93 miles, can I say I've done two centuries, or just one?

Hammertoe

A century is generally considered 100 miles done in one day...


As to what distance you actually have to ride to call it a century...

It is all up to the rider...

No one is checking...

As long as the rider is satisfied that is all that counts...

Szczuldo

well i think to qualify as a century it has to be 100 miles in a day. So you can say you rode 200 miles in the last 2 weeks, but not really 2 centuries.

aham23

i would have to check the official BF What is a Century Handbook, but i would say no. you must pass the 100 mile mark to call it a century. later.

ExMachina

The riders were so spent they needed a lift to get them *POINT*-3-8 miles back to their cars?

Now, 38 miles would be more understandable...(and kinda stoopid)

MrCjolsen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm

shumacher

Sounds like organized rides might fudge the numbers a tad, and completing the ride is considered a century, but solo rides must meet the specific criteria. This makes sense to me, because it somewhat avoids devaluing the term.

Machka 

One century ... one fairly long ride.

Machka 

I ride brevets ... these have to be 200 kms, 300 kms, 400 kms, and 600 kms (and there are some longer ones as well). It is fine for these rides to be OVER that distance, but not OK for them to be less than that distance.

The ones I designed and host are 205 kms, 323 kms, 403 kms, and 606 kms. The 323 kms one is the most over, and that's OK ... however, for next year I might shorten it a little bit ... I'll see.

As for centuries, if I were doing an organized century and it came up to 93 or 94 miles, I'd keep riding until I had a full 100 miles on my computer. If it came up to 99 or maybe 98, I might stop and call it a century because I know my computer is out a bit (it is out approx. 0.01 km for every 1 km) .... but when I do centuries, I prefer to be just a bit over 100 miles.

grahny

I would say you did two rides, one was 104 miles, the other was 93 miles. A 'century' (or imperial century) is just a term for an organized ride (of the group, event, or charity type) of which the distance is somewhere around 100 miles. That's about it. A 'metric century' is the same thing, except the distance is around 62 miles (100k). Everytime I go for a 62 mile ride I don't go home and check off another metric century completed. I consider the terms pure marketing scams

Az B

Or you could just ride and not worry about some stupid number. 99 miles or 101 miles. Does it really make much difference if it's a nice day, you're with good friends, and you have a lot of fun?

Az

Machka 

Yeah sure. In that case, I do a lot of "organized" centuries. I plan them and organize them ... and then ride them myself.

A century = a 100 mile ride. All the more so if you do it solo, without a bunch of extra help.

Buckshot77

Heh, I went on a ride this weekend advertised at 120 miles, also advertised as a 200K ride. My computer showed 113.3 miles when we got back to the start. Definitley not what I'd consider 200K or 120 miles.

Rick

ExMachina

Cute. Did you *read* your link by any chance?

ruppster

From the UMCA website:

"For routing reasons some centuries are just under 100 miles. In the Y-R a century is a ride of 90 - 149 miles."


https://www.ultracycling.com/standings/year-rounder.html