JayC

Anyone else doing Tour2Tanglewood this weekend? Just got done plotting out the GPS courses for the 305 so I don't get lost

CycleMagic

I'd not heard of it. you have a link?

thanks

eegretCL

Here are the two events happening in the triad this weekend.

https://www.nationalmssociety.org/NCC...ail.asp?e=6729 Tanglewood
https://www.carolinacup.com/

JayC

Yea.. most people around here are doing the MS150. I unfortunately commited to T2T early in the year so I'm sort of locked in. I'd have rather done the MS150 with people I ride with but there is always next year.

p8rider

I'll be riding the T2T this weekend. I'm riding the full century on Sat. so have a 7:30 start.

CycleMagic

thanks for the link. Can't make it this year, but something to keep in mind for next.

Have a fun ride!

JayC

Cool.. Im riding a shorter route as I'll most likely be providing draft for the guys on inlines, at least until I get bored

I'll be easy to spot.. Ill be one of the few people wearing a Roadskater.Net jersey that's on a bike.. lol!

p8rider

I'll look for you. Since the 100 rides outside loops during the ride there is a good chance you will pass me somewhere. I'll be riding my Trek 5200, (only about a million of those) you can't miss me!
Seriously our paths probably will not cross, but if they do that's great. What is your ride, (incase there is another rider with a Roadskater.net jersey)
My jersey will be brilliant green with some grey expand sections. I'll be sweating alot.

p8rider

In addition, my riding number is 1074

JayC

I ride a Blue RC4.. again, something you probably wont see many of. Guy on a Blue in a Roadskater.Net green jersey.. Pretty much 100% guarantee Ill be the only one of those.

p8rider

I clicked through the RC sight. Nice Bike!!

knobster

My wife and I will be there. We ride for RF Micro Devices and are doing the century option. Weather should be nicer than last year. Looking forward to it!

JayC

Just finished day 1.. I had told myself I was going to stay with the skaters for a while but that lasted about 1/4 of a mile. I was just spinning along and WAY up in the distance I saw a lone skater pulling about 5 bikes. I figured I'd catch up and see who it was since there are only a couple of people with our group strong enough to pull bikes. I dialed it up to 400W, about 19MPH and quickly caught up to him. I gave him the look to initiate the challenge and he took the bait.....

But I digress.. I caught up to him and it was a skater from NY that finished just out of the top 20 in the NYC Marathon a couple of weeks ago.. so he dropped in behind me and we cruised along about 20MPH for 20 miles or so and then the road started getting really bad and he had trouble keeping up. At the 4th rest stop, he told me to go on without him as the gatorback was killing his speed so I went along on my own until the next to last rest stop where I met up with 2 more bikers from my team and ended up finishing with them.

So far the event has been awesome. They have Carabas catering lunch, $5.00 massages, shower truck, free beer, etc, etc. I'm going to head back out there soon for dinner (No idea who's catering that).

P.S. I have yet to see another Blue bike and I made a point of walking through the rack when most of the riders were back in. I'm pretty much lost amongst a sea of Treks and Specializeds.

JayC

Tour2Tanglewood is in the books.

The second day started out at a more leisurely pace. I rode out of the park and realized I had gotten way ahead of the rest of my team so I stopped by the guard booth at the entrance to the park and waited for the rest of my team to come by. Eventually they all came by and I started back in behind the slowest one. Keep in mind they are all skaters so some of them are REALLY slow compared to cyclists. I hung back in the back for a while and moved up to the different groups and once we got out of the park, I caught up to the main pack of skaters (About 7 or 8 of them) and pulled them along for a mile or so. After that, I moved on and caught up with some faster skaters and they stayed with me for a while.

Had an interesting experience pulling those guys along. Inlines are faster than bikes going down hills where you get over about 28MPH. Unless you're hammering down a hill, someone on inlines will blow by you. So we get to the big hills in the course and I have the skaters in my draft and we start down the hill. We're moving along at a pretty good clip. I looked down and my Edge 305 showed 39 MPH. As we come down the hill, I'm announcing myself "On your left" loudly as we barrel down the hill. The whole way, the skaters were pushing me.. the lead guy in the draft had his hand on my back pushing me down the hill. Since I'm a skater myself, I'm used to that so it's no big deal to me, you just have to remember, you can't stop.. you got all that mass coming behind you and checking up could be catastrophic to everyone. So anyway, down the hill we come, flying.. As we near the bottom of the hill, there is a group of riders 4 wide who are pretty much ignoring me. I'm screaming "ON YOUR LEFT!!" and one of the skaters has a whistle and is blowing it and finally the idiot on the bike MOVES LEFT as we're coming by. I go into the oncoming traffic lane to miss him. As I go by, I yell at the guy "ON YOUR LEFT MEANS GET THE F**K OUT THE WAY!" Right as we hit the bridge at the bottom of the hill, I look up and here comes a truck. Now the truck was far enough away that I was never concerned about getting run over but the guy's on inlines couldn't see him because they were tucked in behind me. The truck was about 50 yards away by the time I'd cleared enough of the bridge to get the skater's back on the other side of the road. We veered back into the other lane and the truck passed and I climbed the hill and waited for the skaters to catch back up. Some other cyclists came by and asked me "What was all that about?" and I said "That guy wouldn't move over" and one of them remarked "So much for this being a fun event......." I just let it go. If you've never had skaters drafting you, you can't appreciate how easy it is to cause a major catastrophe at that speed on inlines.. I draft bikes all the time on skates and vice versa so I have an appreciation for the consequences.

So we get to the first rest stop and hang out a bit and after a few minutes head back out. I left that group of skaters shortly thereafter and went off by myself. Hooked up with one more skater and pulled him along for about 4 miles at a pretty good clip and ended up losing him about 3 miles before the second rest stop.

That was pretty much it for the skaters. I had a couple more with me after the second rest stop but not for long. The gatorback and hills were too much for them to keep up with a bike. So about halfway in, I'm pretty much own my own. I rode almost the entire rest of the way in alone. I'd pass some slower cyclists (I'm sorry, I DROPPED THEM LOLZ) every so often but starting back with the skaters had put the faster cyclists too far ahead of me to really give me any hope of finding a group to draft with. At the last rest stop, I pretty much just stopped and grabbed some fluids and saw a big group heading out and jumped in with them. I rode with them about a mile and then ended up leaving them and going off on my own again. I joined in with a couple guys here and there the rest of the way back but with about 4 to go, again, I was riding alone the whole way.

Overall, the second day, my speed wasnt that great. I only averaged about 16MPH the second day. The first 15 miles killed any chance of a decent day as the speeds were pretty slow. That not with standing, even without the first 15 miles, I dont think I could have done much better than maybe 17. The second day was really hilly and uphill most of the way. Here's some elevation charts if anyone is interested.



Saturday's route



Sunday's route

Overall, I thought the event was run really well. Some of the rest stops were pretty plain and given that the guys I was with who had done the event before RAVED about the rest stops, I kind of expected more. Some of them were great, tho.. The volunteers and police directing traffic did a great job and there was lots of sag support. It was a first rate event.

Most likely I wont do it again next year as the group I ride with does the MS150 in New Bern which is the same weekend. I'll probably do that and put my fund raising into that team. Tanglewood was fun tho and it's good to at least be able to say I did the event.

p8rider

JayC - I looked for you during the tour. I rode with two of your skaters early on in the ride and watched them pass me by on a good downhill.
I rode the complete century so didn't get into the park until about 2:00 Saw a table of people from your club, asked after you, but no one could find you at the time.
I thought the rest areas really were top notch, particularly on Sun when the one location at a middle school had their cheering squad out there and then the final stop where the volunteers were all in togas and they had a great sound system playing songs from Animal House!.
I am sure the New Bern ride could be good as well. I lived there in the mid 80's and it is a fun little town. One thing to keep in mind though, it is flat land so you always pedal, never rest.

JayC

The cheerleaders were great, werent they?

I stuck out like a sore thumb on Sunday.. I was wearing a Led Zeppelin jersey.. LOL.. I think I was the only rider in the whole event not wearing a T2T jersey or some other kind of ride event jersey. I had my other Roadskater jersey but they give me awful nipple chafe so after Saturday, I wasn't going to subject my man boobs to another bout of a Roadskater jersey.

Congrats on the century.. I only did the main route on Saturday.. I considered bumping it up and doing more but Im kind of glad I didnt.. Id have been hung out with no draft all day and it would have sucked. I rode ALL day Saturday with no draft until MAYBE the last 10 miles or so where I hooked up with 2 other cyclists from our team and Sunday about 95% of the time, I was solo.

p8rider

JayC - On Sat I rode about the first 40+ miles with a group and we ate up the miles. As someone who usually rides alone it was alot of fun. The remaining 60 I pretty much rode alone, always seeing other riders ahead, some passing me, me passing some.
Sun slipped out with a big group at 7:25. I know it was supposed to be a 7:30 start, but everyone suddenly just started moving and when you're with the herd you'd better move.
Got into the Volvo hq at about 10:15
Riding time average on Sat. 17.3mph, Sun 16.6mph
Really had a good time, met "knobster" as well

JayC

Nice speed given the route. Do you think my elevation profiles up there are reasonably accurate? Some of the skater were scoffing at the course saying it couldnt be as hilly as my 305 showed it to be.

p8rider

I think the profile for altitude looks about right. Not a huge difference mostly 50 up 50 down then with a couple of long drops into the Yadkin valley, muddy creek, abbots creek etc. It always appears stronger on a graph because the distance is compressed in relation to the change in alt.

JayC

I put some pictures up at Triangle Cycling but it's mostly just skaters and a shot or two of my big ass riding my Blue.. Probably not much of any interest to the cyclists but it was all the photos I had.