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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View Comments
@Buck Rogers
Buck, everything you said there (save for the fucked mixing of the metric and imperial systems) is exactly correct for super-long rides. An extra few kph for the first few hours just might get you home a half an hour earlier or 3 hours later.
At the very least, you boys are riding in a bunch with people you dont know. Go slow early to socialise. 320kms (with more than a few hills?) gives you plenty of time for heroics later on. My two cents worth is that you do want to stop long enough to refill water bottles from time to time. 100ks on two bottles (presuming you aint getting handoffs from the sag wagon - not recommended with a bunch of riders who dont know each other!) will leave you pretty dehydrated later on.
When I have done long group rides, i have found a very short stop (quick piss and bottle change) on the two hours followed by a longer food stop on the next two hours and so on and so on - is an effective way to go. Go hard early and you will fuck over a few blokes and never see them again...
Buck, Steamy, @All,
I think between Tim's 20 mph and Bucks 28 kph the group will find its own speed. There will be those of us who can do more and some who are hanging in and that means that an organized pace line will level the group - strong guys up front doing pulls and slower sitting in in the back. This is not a race and between Tim wanting to get over a hump by a certain time and Buck wanting a steady pace there is what will actually happen on the road. By that I mean after the first half hour we will know what the group is capable of and adjust accordingly.
On the L.I. ride we were feeling good because there were no hills ( or at least none like at home) and our group was not interested in a fast pace so Tim and I were held back but this was great because at the end we had mojo left. And just to let you know our pace was 18.5 mph.... I for one would not do that for the next 90 miles (I am doing miles because it was L. I. And I believe kph is not allowed on the Island).
Looking forward to the day, it's going to be great.
@King Clydesdale
Don't sweat it and do what feels right - if that is come ride until the legs stop all good but if not you have palace of honor here because it was your idea to get this rolling!
@Rob
No matter what we say or strategize or plan, this is but one certainty.
@Marcus. Holy shit, I must have been deep in the Sauterne as Marcus and I almost agree on something! I completely agree with you Marcus on the water bottles. I usually go through around one 24 ounce bottle per hour. I am couting on getting hand offs from te sag, but now that i think of it, that will not be easy from a moving bus, might even be a bit dangerous. Might need stops every two hours or so.
@Steampunk
I plan on starting with a bunch of food but also plan on hitting a couple of stores along the wy, not just sag food.
@Rob
Rob, you are the voice of reason here. I am all for pace lining, but not trying to go too fat. The group will work itself out on the road for sure.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
And Jeff, they're predicting rain and a high of 20 C and winds of 30 kph for Paris Roubaix on Sunday. Yes!!! The cycling Gods do love me!!!
@Buck Rogers
Watch Overcoming again - and see Bobby Julich do a quality hand off.
My $0.02...
- 100km on two biddons is way too long. If it's warm, one bottle per hour is what I should be going through. I got dehydrated on a hard ride two weeks ago and it was miserable and I do not want this to happen this time. So in my mind, quick water stops every 60kms or so will be needed. Either that or we learn to receive bottles from a moving vehicle (which I have never done).
- I too don't want to kill it during the first half of the ride. I personally believe that psychologically, the first half will be harder than the second half so lets not make it physically harder as well. Granted, for most of us, we will be riding beyond our longest distance during the second part, but at least mentally, we will know we are over half way there, that we are truly getting closer to the goal with every pedal, and that what ever distance remain, we have ridden before. I also think that any distance beyond 322kms (the 200 mile mark) will also be tough because at that point, the goal of "200" will have been reached and any further distance ridden is really just to get us "home". (Note that I am an Engineer, not a psychologist nor do I play one on TV.)
- The route is around 358kms. Break it down as follows: 161kms by noon. 322kms by 7pm. 342kms by 8pm (as I said above, I think those 20kms are going to be hard mentally and physically as there are some short steepish climbs in this stretch). 358kms by 8:30pm as the last 16kms are downhill. No contingency built into this time line, but at least the pace is very comfortable. And for what it's worth, I picked up a set of 600 lumen lights so I'll be ready to finish in the dark (on bad roads) if need be.
- As I review and study the route, I've marked a few possible food stops on the route map 222.2 on 100 route (disregard the vertical shown on ride with GPS--it's way too high). We should definitely plan to stop at Village on the Green at km ~206, which is where the Trio stopped (4:07 in 200 on 100).
As it has been said before, regardless of how fast/how slow/how often we stop (or not), this is going to be one hell of an adventure!
Man, all this planning & pregame discussion would have me pysched out for the ride. I've always like to just prepare, prepare, prepare, then make it happen.
But hey, I'm not smashing out 200 like you lads!
Best of luck. Hmm, I should be heading north to eastern Canada right around then for my honeymoon. Should I try & convince the VMH to let me bring a bike along and have a day to myself for this ride? A honeymoon in hell!
On another note, the South has positively fucked me up. Yesterday was 16*C and windy. I actually considered bring a gilet along for the ride. I've gone soft big time!
Sorry if I missed it...but how many hours of saddle time are you lads estimating this ride will take?
@Rob
I also suspect that @Tim's 20mph pace and @Buck Rogers's 28kph will amount to much the same thing when it comes to a paceline. The effort required to maintain 28kph solo translates into something like 30-35kph in a group. That might be a tad fast to sustain over 12 hours, but it's something to keep in mind and hold a plausible target. If that sounds intimidating, I'm not sure we're able/ready to do this (especially over the flatter first half of the ride).
@CanuckChuck
I'm an historian, not a psychologist, but the hills on the second half of the route scare me a lot more than the fact that we'll be 200k into a 358k ride (i.e. more than halfway there). Anything that eats into our pace (like hills) will be a major obstacle. Hell: by 10:00, I expect to be starting to think about that first beer at the end of the ride. By 16:00, I'll settle for not being sick of tasting my own bile.
For what it's worth, I'd really like to be done in 14 hours. That's my goal.
@Ron
14-15 hours, but with about an hour's worth of stops in there. That's my (somewhat ambitious) target. 14.3 hours translates to a 25kph pace; I think that's too slow. I don't say that to be arrogant, but more that the major demon won't be our speed but overall fatigue, which will creep up from extended time on the saddle. I'll be as tired after 12 hours of riding regardless of whether I've ridden 25kph or 30kph in a group. If that's the case, I'd rather be going a bit faster to be finished sooner. The agony can stop when we get to North Adams, so let's get there faster...