KidTruth

I'm leading what might be a pretty slow group through the MS150. I want to make sure that everyone who signs up is able to keep up, so I'm trying to organize training rides as well - does anyone know by experience (or just by math) what the minimum speed my group will be needing to ride at to have an enjoyable time and not end up in the middle of the night/stuck behind people who won't make it past mile 30?

More info, for those who don't mind a lengthy post:
I do 50 mile rides every weekend and about 100 miles a week, and have done centuries in the past, so I will probably pull the paceline the entire way (unless there ends up being a better cyclist on the team than me - I haven't met them yet but from what I have heard, well.. "I haven't been on my bike in a year" type stuff. And undoubtedly people on wal-mart "BSO's" (Bicycle Shaped Objects, as I call them)

Also so that I can secretly sneak off and leave all of them if it starts to get into danger-zone time-wise and up my speed from what I suspect will be the 15-16 mph range to the 20-22 mph range and get to La Grange before the beer is gone. =P
(just kidding about that last part.)

Raccoon

Well, if they can carry 15-16 without spending too much time at the rest stops you should be ok. If they are on wal-mart fat tire bikes they may be moving closer to 12mph if you are not careful.

I know one person I saw one person finish at 8pm last year, and said at times they were averaging 5mph, that sounds ungodly horrible to me, but they did finish.

So 15 mph moving average should be find and save. There are MANY people that do not finish and that is no fun, but most people should be done by 4 pm in my opinion, taking longer than that really gets bad, but that is 9 hours available. Personally I would rather finish in 5 hours and be off the saddle.

Good luck pulling them along.

KidTruth

Very helpful, thanks. I hear that with the wind... but with a me in front, if I can teach them how to draft and people really do some basic training rides, hopefully this will be easy. I guess I have one other question - what are road conditions like? I ride on Xero XR-1's, which I love, and even on potholes haven't broken a spoke on.. but I have had them go untrue on a pothole before. I don't know if I"ll have a gear truck for a second set of wheels, so should I use sturdier wheels or is it nice terrain the whole way?

Raccoon

With the number of rest stops with maintenance available I would not worry too much. I only rode it 2 years ago, and really it is all fairly decent road, there are some areas that are rough gravel but not too much for potholes from my memory.

One thing is to make sure people carry plenty of tubes, pump or CO2 with them, there are tons of flats out there.

My guess for rest stop time is that you could get a group of 10-12 (you don't say how many you have) in and out in 20-25 minutes for quick restroom break and a small snack or water refill, just try to avoid the first couple rest stops if you can, they are PACKED.

Just let us know if you have any other questions

dr. nate

They are really good about marking hazards, more so in the park.

-Nate

KidTruth

Thanks everyone =) I'm very hyped for this ride, I'll take the good wheels with me then. If I'm going to pull the entire way, I may as well use the aero wheels. Hopefully my krylion carbons will hold up, but yeah - tons of flats. I think I am going to ride with a backpack and just carry a pump as well as about 15-20 tubes and other emergency supplies, like Hydrade, etc. Nothing too heavy hopefully - I have a cycling specific backpack that holds a camelback as well as supplies. Does this sound like a good idea?

I just pray that everyone on this ride at least has a good enough bike to have quick release levers.. otherwise that set of wrenches is gonna be a pain in the ass to carry.

RazorWind

Why don't you get some of your teammates to help you carry some of that gear? If you're planning on having 15 to 20 flats in 200 miles, you're not doing it right, especially if you're using Krylion Carbons. I've put hundreds of consecutive miles on a set of those without a single flat.

Raccoon

It sounds like you are really putting too much of the equipment on you. If you want to pull the whole way share some of the load, and try to use just bottles and jersey pockets/saddle bags to carry stuff. The heat from wearing a back pack is not great in my opinion. Surely some of the guys with you can carry an extra tube and such. Also, I will likely carry 2 tubes for myself, if I have a blow out I might get a replacement one at the next rest stop you come to (bring cash). I actually had to buy a helmet at one of the more equipped rest stops after my nephew cracked his!

Creakyknees

Several thoughts:
- Are you a decent mechanic? Have a (mandatory?) bike check / wrenching party at least 2 weeks in advance (your talking about April 09 right?). So you can ID the walmart bikes and the ones most likely to break down. Also offer basic position fixes, etc. See what you're dealing with. And 2 weeks at minimum so the rider can get to a shop and get fixed in time, in the midst of the pre-ride crunch.
- Have as many (mandatory?) team rides as possible. Seriously... if that's the crowd you're dealing with, no way are they going to be able to ride any kind of paceline without practice. And, safety is important too. Talk about signaling, road hazards, etiquette, etc.
- ID the other strong riders, if any. You want someone reliable to ride rear guard so you don't lose ducklings. (Assuming the intent is to stay together no matter what).

dr. nate

I would suggest you get together with a local bike shop and/or other team(s) to try to put some kind of training rides together for your team. I honestly wouldn't suggest that anyone ride this event if they aren't able to ride on the open road in the elements on their own. It actually sounds like it could be a health & safety hazard.

So train, train, train, and train them more to be ready for whatever they may face. Its like what....six months..thats enough time.

-Nate

Raccoon

I trained my little brother (24) from may-august for the HH100 ride, and we finished with a moving average of 18mph. That is not much time, we trained through the heat of summer and I was impressed. But with time you can get people to do it if they actually are willing to do what you say. He loved doing intervals, I promise

yeamac 

I know the type you are talking about. People who show up for the first training ride in January and still have the numbers on their bike from last years' MS150 in April. Be sure to stress with the people you are pulling to try to find time during the week to ride. You may want to find a century training schedule, print it, and give it to them. If people are riding 3x per week, even if they have to do spin classes 2 evenings per week, they will be much stronger for the MS150.

As for being "stuck" behind the slowest people on the MS150, don't worry about that. I've ridden early in the AM, what I thought would be "ahead of the pack," and also left "late" after almost everyone else started out, and both times I passed people all day long that were slower than me. The course gets pretty spread out and will always be full of riders. The only exception to that is if you left at 5AM off site and/or started in the first group on the shortest route of the day, then you may not see as many riders. You may experience a couple "slow downs" from congestion throughout the day, but in my experience, I was able to pass others just about anytime I wanted and rarely got held up for more than a few minutes.

With 13,000 riders, you are going to see some flats. I think many are pinch flats from people who didn't air up their tires properly before riding. But I don't think it is anything out of the ordinary, percentage wise at least.