DXchulo

Who's in? The rules are simple, as always:

1. Ride a century every month.
2. Post a report here. Pictures are always nice if you have them.

10 Wheels

100.33 miles today, Winds 16-20 mph, 4 riders, one flat



https://s256.photobucket.com/albums/h...view=slideshow

DXchulo

Hoping to keep alive my streak that started in 2006. I got January done today.

The ride: 101 miles, ~5200 feet. Nothing too difficult.
The weather: Cloudy, high of 45. Not much wind. Not a bad day.

Some scenery along the way:

indyjanie

Does it just have to be 100 miles or is it organized century only? What a fascinating concept. I just got back my rider pass to the Apple Cider in September, my first century organized event.

Machka 

Thanks for starting this again. Rowan and I are hoping to be able to do it this year. I've completed CAMs in 2003, 2005 and 2006 ... and almost made it in 2008 (missed December.

In answer to the question above ... a century is 100 miles.



And now ...

Rowan and I rode our first century of 2011 on January 2, 2011.

We drove across the ranges to Longwood so that we could ride a flat century ... no sense making the first century of the year a difficult one, right! But as soon as we got to Longwood, we knew that the century would not be easy ... it was flat, but windy.

The first 20 km was into the wind - slow beginning. However the pace picked up for a while with the help of a change of direction and a tailwind. We took a short break in Nagambie and then continued our travels north with the intent of going to Murchison via the back way and then an out-and-back to Rushworth.

Not long out of Nagambie, however, we discovered that we couldn't access the back way because a key bridge was out. So we decided to try to get to Rushworth another way and make a loop of it. Good idea, but the road turned to gravel. This seems to happen relatively frequently in these parts! So we turned around rather than tackling a stretch of unknown length of gravel. And back to Nagambie, where we stopped for lunch by the lake.

We decided to take the main highway to Murchison and got there without further difficulty ... aside from the wind. For some reason, I had completely forgotten that we had been to Murchison before. I was thinking this would be a new place to add to my list, but when we turned one particular corner ... I remembered. And it wasn't even that long ago. But we cycled to Murchison from a completely different direction this time.

Getting out of Murchison proved to be a bit complicated. Since the publication of the maps, and definitely since Google's archaic information, a dual carriageway highway complete with overpasses has been built ... and we really wondered what the people who designed the were thinking. We had to go out of our way to get onto the highway we wanted because there was no direct access, and we didn't realise what a mess the shoulder was in until too late.

They had just tarred (tar spray) the shoulder but hadn't laid the chipseal yet. I didn't realise the problem until a clump of hot tar hit me in the back of the leg, burning my leg in two spots and sticking fast to it ... I was tarred!! But not feathered.

Our tires were coated in the stuff, and we had to cross a short gravel section to get to the part of the highway we wanted ... which meant that our tires were coated in tar and gravel. It took several stops and a variety of items found by the side of the road before Rowan was successful in getting most of it off. And for quite a while, I had to ride some distance behind Rowan because I was being sprayed by rocks coming off his tires.

And then Rowan flatted, and had to remove his sticky tire to find the cause - a wire from a truck tire. But an interesting aside, just as we were pulling up because of that flat, a police car (highway patrol) went flying past us about the fastest I've seen a car go, and by the time Rowan finished fixing the flat, the police car was on its way back at normal highway speeds. Not sure what that was all about!

Back on the road again and we arrived at the next new overpass with a very confusing intersection. We ended up facing oncoming traffic in our attempt to get across to the side of the road we wanted!!

A short while later, Rowan discovered that all was not well with the tire and we had to stop again to fix it. I took several photos at this stop - different from my usual scenery photos. I actually didn't mind all the stopping. This was the longest ride I've done on my new green Brooks saddle, and my right sitbone was giving me some trouble.

And the next bit was into the wind ... lots of work, not much in the way of results. When I planned the route, I knew how long it was, but all the mucking around at Nagambie threw my distance off, and our maps were not much help either because they are these 'representation only, not to scale' tourist maps. I thought we had quite a bit further to go, so was pleasantly surprised when we discovered that Euroa was only 8 km away.

We stopped in Euroa for ice cream and coke which hit the spot just then ... and then we were on our way back to Longwood. We did have to ride a little bit extra to get up to the 100 miles (160.9 km), but it was good that we didn't have to ride significantly more.

The high for the day reached 24C, and the winds were about 25 km/h gusting to 40 km/h from several different directions throughout the day. We started the ride at about 9 am, and finished about 7:30 pm ... 10.5 hours for our first one this year.

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7625549192331/

Me, finished our first century of 2011!


Rowan, finished our first century of 2011!

indyjanie

Thanks - but I know a century is 100 miles. What I meant was, is it just ride 100 miles once a month, or join a century ride (organized) once a month?

DXchulo

It can be organized or not. It doesn't really matter. Most of mine aren't.

I think what Machka was saying that a century is defined as 100 miles (Some say in 24 hours. Others say in a continuous ride. I say do what you want.) and that's it. 100 miles is a century whether it's organized or not.

Have fun out there.

indyjanie

Awesome. Thanks!

HC203

I'm in-will report back by end January.

liong71er

here's from yersteday's riding.tempt was at 16f in the morning then climbs to 30f for the whole days.lots of climbs on this route.

gps files
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/63886020


on route 517


scooley's mountain roads on route 517



the lackawanna cutoff.there's an old shoolhouse burried underneath those rail road.



frozen lakes (on route 23)

liong

HC203

Did my Jan century yesterday. 112 miles from Baltimore to Annapolis and around Price Georges County. A bit of urban riding, some bike path riding, BWI and B&A trails and then some rolling country roads.
8+ saddle time, average speed around 14.8.

MtAiry_mike

January Century:

Completed a "permanent" of 126 miles - approx 203k! Starting in Frederick, MD, the route headed north to Gettysburg, PA (skirting the beautiful civil war battlefields), then continued north past Arendtsville and then northwest over South Mountain on Buchanan Valley Rd. This is an especially beautiful stretch of riding, featuring several miles alongside Conewago Creek, and the lushly forested landscape in the Michaux State Forest, and then a scenic area of high elevation orchard country in the Buchanan Valley. We then descended into Caledonia State Park, before proceeding westward into Cumberland Valley. From there we turned in a southeasterly direction to climb back over South Mountain on Old Rt. 16 and Buena Vista Rd. We then had a long downhill into Thurmont and then back to Frederick. Temps started out in the mid 20f and rose into the mid 30s. Elevation gain was approx 7000ft.

HC203

@McWali
That sounds like a good one, I enjoyed the BBC Civil War Century back in Sept. Just today I was mapping a route from Baltimore to Gettysburg and back. I think it's around 125m.

MtAiry_mike

Yeah...was very well run by the BBC...loved those tomato sandwiches!

maha

Well hello from Finland!

The first century took place in about -10 °C (14 °F), the day before it was -27 °C (-16,6 °F) so -10 °C felt kind of nice.


I was kind of uncertain about how much clothes I needed so I packed a pannier full of different choices (didn't even open it during the ride). I used an insulated CamelBak for hydration and it worked great!


The asphalt roads where a joy to ride but the headwind, not so much...


I didn't ride in this much snow, this was just a side road during a short break.


And then came about 6-7 hours of darkness. And during the last hour, heavy snowfall! But it was a blast! Can't wait for February!

rhm

Oops, I started a thread with this title in C&V before remembering it's a long distance cycling tradition! I apologize for the double postyness.

I made my first attempt at a January Century last weekend, but bailed. I was riding my 1940's Fothergill (it's new to me). Here's the ride report. Bottom line: I wasn't prepared. It was really cold.

Second attempt on Sunday, Jan 23. Here's the ride report for that, but here's a condensed version:

Excited, as always before a long ride, I got up at 4 AM, left the house at 4:40. According to local weather reports the temperature was about -5 F when I left the house and by the time the sun came up it had dropped to maybe -10 F. Two toe warmers in each shoe, and hand warmers in my gloves, I was cold. I stayed in New Jersey. Basically I rode north through Pennington, Mt Airy, Sergeantsville, Quakertown, Perryville; then swung east over some beautiful little mountains, through Califon, then back down... don't remember the names of most of the towns. I took this photo of the Raritan River near Neshanic Station:

Lunch in Harlingen. The highlight of my ride was just past Harlingen, where I saw a fox hunting in a field. I was behind a hedge, so very close, and able to spy on him/her for a while. Beautiful critter! I got a couple pictures, not worth posting though.

I got home at 2:30, my mileage computer reading 98.4. After a trip to the library later in the day, I was up over 100, so this counts, right!

I'm looking forward to February.

seedsbelize 

I started my CAM the day after Christmas. Then did one last Sunday, and another one today. Now I'm going to give it a rest for a couple weeks, at least.
You can all rest assured that, were I in Ohio, where I used to live, I would not attempt anything so ridiculous.

chipg5

January done! Starting my fourth year of century-a-month challenge. Aiming for at least one a month, 18 total.

After the first two days of Jan it's been a real winter here in upstate NY: snow, cold, the works. I finally decided I had to go out last Tuesday, just flurries predicted and temps in the 20s. It was a beautiful if slow ride:

100.05 miles
08:14:15, 12.15mph avg
3275 feet
temp ranging between 24 and 33F, shoulders slushy/muddy but not icy.

liong71er

my gps batery dies at 81 miles...
https://connect.garmin.com/activity/77041519

these are similiar route as january ;https://connect.garmin.com/activity/63886020

rhm

Yup, I got my February ride done too. Nice day to be riding in the hills of New Jersey, huh?



I rode my 1940's Fothergill. As always, neck started getting pretty sore in the last ten miles or so.



Nice ride. Worst of it was that I didn't chose my route very carefully; being out farther from home than usual, I ended up on several miles of slush covered dirt roads. Very pretty. But slow! The whole ride, breaks and all, was over 10 1/2 hours.

Machka 

Cycled 167.6 km on the new tandem - our February century is complete! The route was Shepparton to Echuca and back ... and was into the wind almost all the way there without as much of a tailwind on the way back as we'd hoped. So it ended up being a tougher ride than we had hoped.

The route is as flat as Manitoba with fields, fields, and more fields to look at. Although, at the beginning and end there were apple and pear orchards which were a nice break from the usual fields.

One time soon time we're hoping to do a century along the coast - beaches and ocean rather than fields and cows!! I have a route mapped out for that.

A hint of autumn is seen in the trees


Flatness


Interesting For Sale sign


Pears

(Click photos for more)

chipg5

February done! Got to ride on the one spring day this month, temps in the 40s and lower 50s!! A lot nicer than my January century ride.

The first half was the same route as January, out to Cortland then south on Rt 11 to Whitney Point, beautiful, very low traffic, along the Tioghnioga River. Then at Whitney Pt I continued on Rt 79 E, which at this point is a very low traffic road, through beautiful countryside along the Tioghnioga River to Chenango Forks, where the Tioghnioga flows into the Chenango River. I continued along 79, on the metal deck bridge across the Chenango River, continued on up the hill to the top, at Richards Rd, then turned around, back along Rt 79 through Chenango Forks, Whitney Pt, Richford and back into Ithaca.

Other than my daily commute, I've only managed to get in one 22 mile ride this month, so this was a slow century, starting point for the spring season!

101.08 miles, 7:47:47, 12.96mph, 3920 feet climbed. The Route.


Along the Tioghnioga River, Rt 11 between Cortland and Whitney Point


Rt 79 bridge over the Chenango River


The route

MtAiry_mike

February done! Completed a 200k brevet in Ashland, VA with approx 2500ft of climbing. Temps in the 60s (f). Challenges sustained winds of 36 mph with gusts of 46 mph; blown off road; trying to ride upright in the crosswinds; packs of dogs; 2 flat tires, dodging broken limbs; darkness. On the other hand - it didn't rain, sleet, or snow! I guess it could have been worse.

seedsbelize 

I'm sorry I have to follow that one. I had temps in the 80s and 90s, and favorable winds until the last 25 miles. No climbing, no dogs, no flats. A cheese sandwich at mile 45, a sit down meal at mile 75, and then the headwind.
114 miles in 10 hours. 7:50 saddle time.
I'm told I have to re-format the camera memory. I'll try to have that done for next month's ride.
Jerry

scroca

Sorry to intrude, but I've never read this thread before. Thought I'd look it over for some inspiration for an upcoming tour. Never expected anything like this.

Maha, dude, you are my friggin hero.