Originally Posted by
DrIsotope
My personal advice to anyone opting to ride their first imperial century is to plot out a lap course-- say 20-25 mile laps, then repeat that lap until you hit 100. That way you're never too far from home, and if you make it to 60 or 75 or whatever and decide your body isn't up to the century, you just ride home.
really good advice. I have done rides recently where my body just said "No" at some point---totally out of the blue, just some part of me didn't have as much as the rest on that day. Being able to bail and ride a shorter route home (not that I was doing a century) was a huge help.
Actually I had planned about 50 miles ... very soon realized that wasn't happening, and ended up doing 24 and arriving home very happy and able to ride again the next day, instead of suffering for several hours wishing I had a bail-out route handy.