Vermont is spelled with a capital “V”, surely no coincidence. With the loads of mountains and climbs available, it had to start with a “V”. I mean, if it was mountainous enough to draw a runaway “loose” nun who left the church for a sailor, it must be good, right? (Great nordic skiing there””Trapp Family Lodge, if you are there in the winter months as well).
Anyways, being a seventh generation “V”ermonter myself, who was raised on a family farm on Rogers’ Hill in West Newbury, VT (which was hand cleared and settled in 1763 by my G-G-G-G-G-Grandfather and still owned by my father) I have a deep love and feel for VT, liberal politics notwithstanding. So when I heard about the 200 on 100 “Dumptruck of Awesome” that was available, I just knew that I had to do it. And not only that, I knew that I had to share this beautiful “Ode to the V in Vermont” with all of my best cyber-cycling-soul mates. Okay, soul mates might be going a bit far there, but you get my meaning.
So, enough with the intro.
Break out the rollers, get on the trainers, find your winter gear; lay off the seconds, nurse that one glass of booze, hold the toasting to one drink, dodge Cupid’s chocolates and shoot the Easter Bunny because training for this bastard started yesterday and you’ll be paying for it on the 28th of June, 2012 in spades!
See you in the pre-dawn hours on the Canadian border with our eyes firmly fixed on the prize of the Massachusetts border. Let’s drive this dump truck like Mel Gibson leaving the compound in a post-apocalyptic world, baby!
Route and location details on the Cogal Event Page.
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@versio
#60 was also the number worn by Fausto Coppi in Lugano (1953) when he won the world road race championship...
@Tim
Thanks"”good advice. I'm happier with fewer stops (every 100k or 60 miles), say, that last just a little longer, too. The more stops"”however brief"”are going to slow us down a lot.
I think you're right in wanting to start fairly strong. 130 miles = ~210km; getting that done in 6 or 7 hours could be a tall order, but it is the flatter part of the state. It seems to me that the lone thing I'd want to add (and you implied it) is getting organized fairly quickly. I imagine it will take us maybe half an hour to find our legs first thing in the morning, but it will be essential to develop some kind of a functional paceline quickly (this among a group of people most of whom have never ridden together).
@King Clydesdale
That would be a huge shame, mate. Work hard!
@Steampunk
I'm with Steamy on this one. Fewer stops and for a bit longer, around 15 minutes every 100 k's.
I am completely against killing the pace at the start. Maybe we will need two groups from the get go b/c I will not be going out too fast. My plan is to go steady and long. I have never gone longer than 110 miles at one time but i have run non stop for 9.5 hours and i passed tons of peope over the last two hours who just died after starting out way too fast. I still say a 28 to 30 kph pace all day is much more realistic, at least for me, right from the start.
I think that trying to do the first 130 mies in 6 hours is completely unrealistic If you are trying to do that, you can ask at the beginning who can hold that pace and ride with them. I plan on having a great time and trying to do that pace from the start is not going to work for most of us. There most liklely will be at least two very different abilities on this ride. I will be in the slow and steady group right rtom the start and I most definitely plan on finishing.
King Clydesdale: Man, that's what the sag bus is for. Go as long as you can, set a personal distance best, and call it a day whenever you have to without shame! You'll still be there for food and beer, man!
@Buck Rogers
I plan to bring plenty of food- and drinkstuffs with me, but I think it will actually serve as a bit of a morale booster to have one or two of those stops coincide with a café or side road restaurant where one can get a sandwich, coffee, pie, snack, etc. Not a long stop, but enough to get off the bike and take in a bit of local food that's not been in the back of a van all day...
@Buck Rogers
This. Totally this. But don't go tempting us with cold beer from the sag vehicle.
@Buck Rogers
Slow and steady here. Must have the discipline to stay that way. I want to have legs for the big climbs that occur after 150 mi. Lots of food and drink in the sag wagon. Salt. Periodic but short breaks. Working together will be advantageous. Over and out.
@King Clydesdale
Be there. Seriously.
No better way to punish yourself for falling off the training than to smash pedals until you cant turn them any longer.
After that, hop in sag and cheer everyone else on
@King Clydesdale
And just to chime in with one more bit of unwarranted advice, riding with the group will allow you to do things that going solo is much harder to achieve.
Recently I've been doing a lot of ~100-110k solo rides that sometimes felt like slogs at the end, while my most recent imperial century felt like a rather easy 160k by comparison, not only because I properly fueled (to prevent bonk in the middle of nowhere), but I fell in with some good pacelines that carried me faster than I would have been able to go alone, at about the same effort.
I say you give it the 'ol college try!
@Buck Rogers
Breathing calmly and deeply so as not to throw my laptop out of pure, green jealousy.
@versio
Mosers move there is one of my favorites in the history of Cycling. Incredible. It also speaks to the notion of the "right" speed for the cobbles. Each section, depending on their roughness, has an ideal speed and when you hit it, its like you're floating. In that scene, he obviously has it, and it just blowing by everyone else.
Now, if it was those of us on Keepers Tour, seven seconds later, the camera would find us going 1/3 the speed having hitting a cobble sideways and killing our momentum.
@King Clydesdale
Survive on V... have you learned nothing? You get your ass there!
@versio
Love that scene, best moment from the movie... he is so smooth and fast, and just look at that flat back!