| Quick Stats Ride Distance: 101 miles Elevation Gain: 5,370 feet Average Moving Speed: 16.3 mph |
Our expectations were off because we thought it would be around 3 or 4,000 feet of climbing, and consequently, it would be a relatively flat ride. Wrong. It was 5,370 feet of climbing and didn't feel like a flat ride at all. Sure, there are no long climbs, but it is definitely not a flat ride.
Our planning was on because we saw heat and wind in the forecast. So we started early to avoid as much of it as possible. We got home at about 1 pm. Once home it kept getting hotter. Amy noticed it was 24 mph wind. We basically avoided those issues entirely.
What we didn't avoid is another broken front shifter cable, another flat tire, and a bee sting.
But first a little Good Samaritan story. On one of the little climbs on Cedar Creek Road I saw a couple guys on the side of the road with one of their bikes upside down (the equivalent of having a car's hood up) and asked if they had everything they needed. They needed a chain tool. I have a chain tool, so I stopped. Busted chain. Once I got the tool out of my bag I noticed the SRAM PowerLink tied to the tool and realized it would be an even better solution: just put it on each end of the broken chain, reconnect, and lock in place by pulling it tight. This is, of course, why I had tied it to the tool in the first place. The only problem was one of them apparently dropped one of the PowerLink pieces in the grass. After a few minutes of looking for it I donated my chain tool to their cause and decided to get going. It was not until long after I left that I realized it might have been for the best because my PowerLink was for a 9-speed chain, and while they had said their chain was a SRAM, I neglected to verify if it was 9-speed. If not, it probably would have been a very bad idea to use it.
The moral of that story is that sometimes dropping something and losing it turns out to be a blessing.
My shifter cable (or I suppose it could also be the actual shifter as I have not checked it since getting home) broke somewhere before mile 77. I don't remember precisely where it happened, all I know is at mile 77 I had to climb Lockwood Road, a fairly steep (but thankfully not very long) climb, without the use of granny gear. Which meant standing on the pedals. Thankfully this had happened to us in the past, so I remembered from Amy's experience that if I put it in granny gear I might not be able to go back to either the middle gear or the high gear. Without a cable it shifts down but not up. So I kept it where it was, in middle gear, the rest of the way. In fact, to avoid shifting without thinking, I made a point of keeping my thumb on my index finger. Well, I kept it there until we got to Felida, the last climb on our version of the RACC, at about mile 99. I stopped thumb wrestling and intentionally shifted into granny successfully, saving me from joining others in walking their bikes up the hill. However, upon reaching the top it stayed in granny, as feared. But with only a mile to go it wasn't a big deal.
The flat tire had been a bulge that I started feeling early in the ride, with the intensity of the thumping growing steadily throughout the ride. These wheels/tires/tubes were a different set as I finally got rid of those spoke-breaking Eastons about a week ago. So the tire was probably ancient. But carrying a spare tire like I do (in addition to spare tube), I decided to just nurse it in the hopes of making it through the ride. At about mile 85 there was a very loud POP and the nursing was done. The tire change was very fast as were are getting quite good at it. I had hoped that we might see those two guys so I could get my chain tool back, but we were apparently too fast of a pit crew, or more likely they were too slow of one, for that to happen.
The bee sting wasn't a big deal, just added some "les miserables" humor to an otherwise extraordinary day. I apparently rode straight into a swarm while descending at high speed at about mile 93. Amy was behind me, saw the swarm, and with her love of bees she gave it a very, VERY, wide berth. I felt several thumps on my chest and one on my left knee. The one on my left knee smarted. I looked down and he was still there. It was still smarting. He was stinging me! I reached down and knocked him off, trying not to swerve off the road. Still smarting. The stinger was still there. Ugh. Finally able to grab the stinger and pull it out, somehow staying on the road. It throbbed for a few miles, but the distraction may have actually been a blessing as the last few miles of a century are the toughest. You know, like hitting your thumb with a hammer so you don't notice your broken arm.
In spite of the troubles it was a great day. And it could be an even better day because those very troubles would obviously be solved with a brand new bike. Everyone knows new bikes have break-proof shifter cables, flat-proof tires, and built-in bee sting protection.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
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