Jan 2017 - "Tour De Cape" in Cape Coral FL
Feb 2017 - Solo century, 40 degree F, Illinois-Wisconsin
Mar 2017 - "Giordana Gran Fondo Florida", San Antonio FL
Apr 2017 - Another local century (Chicago IL)
May 2017 - YET ANOTHER local, solo century (Chicago IL)
Jun 2017 - Swedish Days Fox Valley Ride
Jul 2017 - Silver Comet Trail - 200k Smyrna GA to Alabama and back
Aug 2017 - Solo Boundary waters, MN century
Sep 2017 - Ride The Rivers, St Louis MO
Oct 2017 - Pumpkin Pie Ride, Ottawa IL
Nov 2017 - Tour De Tucson, AZ
Spent 3 days in Tuscon for the Tour De Tucson. Just a fantastic event, I highly recommend. 7,000+ riders, perfect weather, good scenery, and the BEST organized event.
When I say best organized - literally every intersection had police blocks stopping all traffic and letting riders go through. Out of the 50 or so intersections, we got stopped at 2 briefly.
I rented a bike. 2 months before the event, I reserved a Specialized Roubaix, which I was very excited to try out as I've been considering buying one. Fast forward to 2 days before the event and I contact my rental guy, and he tells me it was wrecked so he is giving me an Allez! What !? Clearly I was disappointed, but it got worse. I showed up and the Allez I got was a Claris groupset, and the bars were a bit bent. So I had to take to the bikeshop to get those straightened up.
Fast forward to the race - I get 200 meters into it and my gears begin slipping. Consistently. Now, this "ride" is timed, and if you finish the 106 miles in under 5 hours, you get a particular medal, and if you finish in under 6 hours you get a "gold" medal. I'd never finished under 6 hours elapsed time for a century, but was aiming for that. Hence my dismay at having to pull over 2 miles in to adjust the barrell screws. And then, the gears only got slightly better.
But I was making good time, skipping the stops that were available, until mile 44 was sort of a forced stop to carry your bike across a river (a dry Arizona river) with a SAG/rest stop at the end. So I had the mechanic look at it and he gave it a quick going over.
Back on the road and it still slipped on occasion, but I thought I had a chance to make it, so plowed through. When I got to mile 85 or so, I was tired and hot and there was a nice rest stop. Dismounted, and a few girls asked if I wanted them to hold my bike while I got my refreshments. Just fantastic service.
Got back on thinking I was going to finish in 6:10 or so, but got a second wind and finished the 106 in 5:45, my personal best. I limped home the last 2 miles after knowing I had it in the bag. But in an unforseen twist, they compute your time from the start gun, not from when you cross the start, so my official time was 5:54. Still good enough, but I definitely ran the risk of missing the gold.
All in all a great event. Best "friendly" ride I've done. And because all turns / intersections were manned, it can be very fast. This years winners finished in 4:03, that is averaging 26 miles per hour.
My strava link:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1280939316
December - I'll be in Tokyo for a week and am trying to hunt down Joewein
for one of his scenic rides. Failing that I can manage one the week of Christmas in Atlanta on the Silver Comet, if anyone wants to join!