Civil War Century
 

Any 50+ folks heading out for the annual Civil War Century September 12th (http://www.baltobikeclub.org/index.pl/cwc)? I've been doing this for a few years & love the ride. However this has been an off the bike summer for me so I'm not in great shape. 7,400 feet of climbing over 103 miles, with riding through some sacred Civil War locations, including South Mountain, Antietam and Gettysburg. I recall seeing a couple of 50+ jerseys last year. I'll be pulling out my Pantani maglia rosa (pink) jersey for its annual airing out, so I should be easy to spot. Also I'll be the one struggling, wishing I had biked more earlier in the season....

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6...s/CW_Hilla.jpg

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6...tysburg_4a.jpg

I am currently signed up and, tentatively planning to ride it. I wanted to ride it last year but, my schedule just didn't work out. I have a sister that was going to meet me (she lives in Pittsburgh) and spend the weekend visiting but, a new job has forced her to change plans. I thought about bailing but, I've heard so many good things about it. Its a long drive (Raleigh, NC), but as long as the weather looks decent I think I'll make the trip. Who knows where or what I'll be doing next year, and this is one event I want to be able to look back on someday and say, I rode it! Its also an excellent opportunity to tour around the historic sites.

Nice pictures, by the way.

My brother and I have signed up! I think we're staying in Frederick the night before.

Bobby-is there a need to pick up any ride stuff the afternoon before? I don't want to get stuck in a line of 1000 riders the morning of......

I'm in. I did it last year, and I was way out of shape. I remember it being a pretty long day :)

I'm really looking forward to doing much better this year. I'll be wearing the old 50+ jersey most likely. Hope to see a few more then!

Jim - I'll look for your jersey. I'm not sure if you are the guy but before last year's ride I ran into a 50+ jersey guy parked near me. I introduced myself but my memory is a bit weak on names....I'm the opposite, my bike shape isn't great this year, I'm expecting a long day :).

Joe - fabulous, I know you had wanted to ride this in the past, glad to hear you are making it. I haven't been on Bike Forums all summer so I don't know what you've been up to but if it is like anything in the past I know you'll be kicking some serious butt. I hope to get to meet you, I used to ride a fair amount with Grampster & I know you have as well. Perhaps we can meet before or after (there's always sandwiches and homemade ice cream at the end). Unfortunately we can't stay long (my wife will be with me, though she's doing the metric), we have a birthday party that evening. Anyhow, we'll drive up in the morning (about 1.25 hours away), I hope to be riding by 7:30, give or take.

As for picking your stuff up, it goes pretty smoothly the day of. The have multiple stations and when we've picked stuff up in the past (usually between 7:30 & 8:00 for us), it went pretty quickly, say less than 5 minutes. What time do you think you'll start riding? Also the ride is well supported, good food (sandwiches, fruit, bars, drinks, etc.) and SAG (I broke a spoke a couple of years ago throwing my rear wheel way out of true, they got me back on the road pretty quickly).

Hope to see you guys, I'm getting pumped!

We're planning to drive back to Charlotte after riding.........ugh.....so we'll probably try and go off as early as we can so we can hit the road as quickly as we can. We'll probably shoot for getting started at 7 but most likely it will be between 7-7:30. My brother and I usually do these rides in about the same time but don't ride together because he's faster on the climbs and I'm faster on the flats. However he's coming back from an injury and is unsure if he'll feel like doing the 100 or the 60. Knowing him he'll still do the 100 and just take it a little easier.

I hope we have some nice weather!

It looks like Frederick isn't too far from the start-maybe 20-30 minutes??? Any issues with parking we need to know about?

I'm really looking forward to the ride and sure hope we can meet up.

Frederick is petty close, I'd guess less than 30 minutes. Parking is in a large grass field shouldn't be too much an issue. Last year's ride was postponed 1 day because of a huge rain (I think it might have been the remnants of a hurricane) so the field was a bit soggy. Some folks walk to the registration area from their car - 5 minutes, give or take. Some take their bikes with them.

One very nice thing about the ride (above the climbing, views and history) is that while there is up to 1,600 riders, it spreads out pretty quickly. For the century, you hit a pretty significant climb almost right away so things aren't too tight. There is one place that is a bit dangerous, after a long downhill there is a sharp turn at the bottom of the hill near a creek bed. As I recall there are marshals out telling people to slow down before this turn, last year someone wiped out badly here and had to be carted away. As I recall, this is either the first or second big downhill.

The normal route certainly has hills/grinders but last year because of construction there was a detour that went up a pretty long and severe uphill. Seemed like lots of people got off their bikes there and walked, I couldn't believe how slow I could ride and still remain upright. My overall ascent last year was 9,285 ft., the year before it was 9,100. The website says 7,400 feet, my older Garmin must have been off. I have a newer one this year, I'll be curious to what it says.

Here's a view of the course I did in MapSource last year, the flags show turns. You ride in a clockwise manner, I've pointed out a few sites and highlighted the rest stops.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6.../MapSource.jpg

Oh man, now I'm getting psyched to do this ride again :)

Im doing the metric. Do you know anything about that course?

My wife has done the metric the last couple of years, she says it is mostly rolling hills. Rather than running up the mountains like the century, this ride rides the ridges parallel to them (at least that's what I think). It doesn't go through Antietam but does hit Gettysburg.

By the way, the century does a lot of climbing but after most of it (I'm thinking around mile 65) there's a bailout that takes you back to the beginning of the ride, mostly downhill. Taking this bailout gives you a total of something like 77 miles. I had a friend do this a couple of years ago, he said it was a great way to end the ride. The bad thing about the bailout is that it skips Gettysburg, the good thing is that it cuts out 25 miles of mostly grinding it out, including one more big climb:twitchy:.

Here's a nice map that shows all the routes, the black is the full century, the dotted black is the bailout (highway 550): http://www.baltobikeclub.org/uploads...Routes_Map.jpg

Jim - getting excited as well, a bit nervous as I haven't tested my legs like this so far this year. Not sure if I'll ride a lot or be moderate this weekend, got lots of projects but I should probably put on some miles!:giver::giver:

Maybe my rest spot:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c6..._Cemeterya.jpg

My favorite part of the ride was going through Gettysburg where you can see up Little Round Top and Devils Den off to the right and up the slope. I've ridden up Little Round Top a few times on other occasions, but at that point in the ride I was content just to cruise on past it :)

Sure gives you pause....

It looks like a very nice ride if the weather is good. Some year I'd like to do it though the drive to get there is about 8 hours.

Joe - don't know if you got the email, but regarding early registration:

"Volunteers will be at the Cozy Restaurant between 6 and 9 PM Friday. You are welcome to join us there for a buffet dinner ($16 for the “Friday Land and Sea Buffet” or order from the menu). Or you can just come by to pre-register and pick up your ride-day information. Ask the hostess for the Civil War Century group – we have a separate room."

Don't know if pie is on the menu though....

Thanks! I just saw the email as well. We might just head up that way Friday evening to make sure we're on the road Saturday morning as early as we can be.

I'm sensing a suffer-fest for the weekend. With all the damp stuff this week, I haven't been able to ride much. I was planning to do a little hill work this week, but that's not going to happen. Hopefully I'll get a short ride or two in before Saturday.

I guess maybe I could just say I'm "tapering" this week...

My riding has been just the opposite but probably the same status as you!! I probably did too much over the long weekend and last night and I'm not recovering as I thought I might......I might have to use the 100 miler Saturday as a recovery ride**********??

I'd be okay with the overcast skies but not so sure about the wet stuff. If it rains I just hope its not until we're out there for a while. Gosh I hate starting off that way.

Did I understand from the email last night that we could pick up our ride information in Thurmont the night before? I've reread it several times and cannot tell if she was directing the message for Friday night to riders or people volunteering for the event. I'd hate to ride all the way up there and not be able to get the stuff!

Hmmm, don't know. I'd think this email was for participants, for volunteers I'd think they'd have a different email. Maybe you should contact them just to be sure!

Weather was great yesterday evening, contra the forecast, so I got in a little mini-hill work in after all. Nothing too strenuous, but hopefully it will keep the momentum going until Saturday.

Yeah, I blew it, I should have left work early enough to ride a bit. Last night I put the bike on the trainer for 45 minutes of Spinervals - but who am I kidding, I'm in for a world of pain. And now with the small detour, the total is 104.3 miles:twitchy:. Man, I remember those last few miles - it seemed like the course would never end.

Mary emailed me back last night and we can pick up stuff Friday night. 104 miles now huh. Well maybe I'll just add 10 more and get in my annual double Bday ride???

You are an animal.

Does that get you 2 slices of pie? :thumb:

Oh yeah!!

Plus chocolate brownies!!