04/10/2011
My ride today was fantastic but very hot, My daughter and I and a friend and his son did the Cycle Flagler ride.
Miles today: 50+
Mileage this month: 306+
Mileage this year: 2314+
Percent of goal achieved: 33%
Over/under riding days this year vs. last year: -3 days
Over/under miles this year vs. last year: 190+ miles
Average miles per ride this year: 36+
Average miles per ride this month: 51+
Miles needed to hit my 2011 goal of 7,000: 4685, this could turn out to be an 8,000 mile year

Great weather this morning, 71⁰F when I left home at 6:00 AM and 89⁰F and very hot when I got back this afternoon. My daughter and I left home this morning and drove to Palm Coast Florida to do the Cycle Flagler Ride sponsored by the PC Rotary Club. We met one of the guys that I have been riding with and his son that had driven up this morning as well. We arrived at the starting point at about 7:15 for the 8:00 start. We checked in at the registration desk and picked up our goodie bag the hit the breakfast table. Love those muffins.

We had a police escort for about 3 miles from the Chamber of Commerce building starting point then over the Moody Blvd Bridge to Highway A1A. It was a mass start with about 485 riders so we were able to take both lanes of the 4 lane east bound highway. At A1A we made a turn south along the ocean and things started to stretch out and we were on our own. My friend’s son had decided to ride with the rocket ships up front so we did not see him again until we got back for the BBQ at about 1:00 PM.

The three of us rode the first 20 miles to the first SAG at about a 16+ mph rate. The weather was starting to get warm but we had a good breeze off of the ocean and lots of shade when we turned inland and rode along the intercostal waterway. Lots of very expensive homes with big boats at the dock out back.

As soon as we left the SAG #1 we had to climb the Granada Blvd. Bridge. Now for you people that live in mountain states these bridges would just be a hick up for you, but for us flatlanders these bridges can tax our legs and this was the second high bridge of the day. The bad part was having to brake on the downhill side of this bridge due to a sharp right turn at the bottom.

The 16 miles to the next SAG #2 was not as pleasant as the first 20 due to increased traffic and no shade and a some head wind. We were still averaging almost 16 mph to this point which is a good average for this old boy. We took a quick break and then rode to the 40 mile mark where we had to make a decision.

Go right to do the 62 mile ride or left one mile back to the start. My friend decided to head back to the starting point and call it a day. My daughter and I opted for the 62 mile route which proved to be a bit of a mistake.

Shortly after leaving my friend we turned north into a stronger head wind and my computer was telling me that it was a 100 degrees in the sun. In the pure sun light it reads about 10 degrees higher than the actual temp so we had to be riding in about 90 degree weather with no shade in sight. We did about another 5 miles and we were out of water so we decided that we had had enough and turned around and headed back. When we got back to the main road we stopped at the first gas station for some Gatorade and some air conditioning. Even though we slowed down a great deal for the last 10 or 11 miles we still averaged about 15 mph.

This was a great ride and we will do it again next year, I just wish they would do it in a cooler month.