Originally Posted by
Andrey
Interesting, I was on the same ride in NJ.
It is my first brevet after a break for several years. It was also my friend's first brevet ever. I think we saw you at the finish and your Land Cruiser(?). Originally our plan was just to finish it and I was thinking it would take us 16-17 hours, but with 40 miles to go we realized that if we ride strong we could finish it just under 14 hours. Last 40 miles were very stressful because if we stay at above 21 mph we would barely make the time(under 14 hours). Luckily last section of the course was relatively flat and we managed to finish in 13:53. I never expected to finish a 300k hilly brevet under 14 hours, especially after not riding long brevets for 6-7 years and gaining some unwanted pounds. I also do remember that fast young lady that we were trying to catch , but she was too fast for us. I think she went off course before the last control because we did not see her at the finish .
I was also very impressed how beautiful that area of NJ is and how well thought out the roads are on this ride. I did ride some longer NJ brevets before, but this one is my favorite now.
I have to say there is always a lot of thought put into all the brevets in the area. As you are probably from the area, we live in very populated state(s) here. Although this route is only a 300k, it feels epic to me and the last rolling 35 miles to finish offers some redemption. I had a similar thing going on. At Hacklebarnie Park, I figured I needed to average about 17 mph to finish under 13 hours and that included a control and several highway crossings as you know. I sniffed and sniffed for the barn over the next two hours. It is a hard but very rewarding brevet or it feels that way to me.
She might be strong enough to do PBP with the lead group of guys. I hollered her a few times on missed turns. I think she has an old Garmin messing her up. She blew by me on Schooleys Mountain as I was removing my sun sleeves whilst riding....she came by me hauling derriere before you make the left and that cute ancient General Store is on your right. She went off course there. Gone by the time I got to that turn. She made a right and probably went all the way down Point Mountain and maybe across route 57 having to climb those again. No thanks.
That old Land Cruiser is mine. I always have to have an old vehicle for this kind of stuff. I was riding a red Cervelo that day.