Big Dave, Bruce and I are doing this century as well. If anyone wants to join us let me know.
Ride Description: The Tri-State Seacoast Century route is primarily along the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine coastlines.
Hiatus
12 years ago
What day are you riding or are you doing both? Registration is closed out, are you in or are you trying to show up and get in?
ReplyDeleteThanks
I contacted them and they said just show up and pay the fee since they always havelast minute cancellations. i am planning on going on Sunday
ReplyDeleteI'm planning on riding on Saturday...if Sunday doesn't work for some folks....This is [Blue Felt] Tyler...would like the company of fellow Tuesday Nighters if anyone is heading up.
ReplyDeleteBecause they have this on both Sat and Sun we usually pick the better of the two days. So it’s too early yet to put that stake in the ground. That being said the extended forecast looks like Sat will be better than Sun.
ReplyDeleteWith registration closed were planning on doing the self support mode like we did last year. Bring your own food and drink and we’ll be stopping at stores along the way to fuel up.
Here’s a tentative list of folks who indicated they would be going;
Charlie
Bruce
Dave
Ray Davis
Bob Parent
Mark Muzzi
Peter C.
Gary Lane
Kris
One other
Below is my ride report from last year.
Landed in Hampton NH at 7:45am.
Was about 8:15 or so when we hit the start button.
Was in the 40’s and sunny when we started with a slight West wind.
By the time we arrived at the first stop the wind was coming in off the ocean. Lot of scenic vistas along this route. Many beaches and lighthouses along the way before we turned South back to Hampton. Mostly a head wind on the way back.
Our ride time was 5hrs 15min @ 19.6mph.
Then we all went out and had a nice seafood dinner at one of the local eateries.
The executive management decision is that we’ll do this century on Saturday which looks to be the better of the two weather days this weekend. (see forecast below). We are aiming for a 8am start and we’ll queue up on the paved section of the road in the state park near the comfort stations.
ReplyDeleteSaturday: Sunny, with a high near 62. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south.
Saturday Night: A chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 52. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Sunday: Showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 67. Chance of precipitation is 70%
Stuff to remember for the century;
Bike (duh!)
“Morning Rush” coffee cup
Wallet, cash
Cell phone
Spare tube
Pump
Patch kit
Tire levers
Hex wrenches
Food for the ride
Energy mix in a ziplok
Chamois Butt’r
Lip balm
Riding shorts, shirt
Shoes
Gloves
Sunglasses
Socks
Helmet
Cool Fall weather riding clothes.
Directions to ride location
Got up at 5:30 am, at least I think it was 5:30am. Anyway when you’re retired you never get up this early so it was an adjustment for all the body parts to deal with this.
ReplyDeleteFueled up with some orange juice, a raisin bagel, and a little coffee.
Grabbed my bag I had packed the night before and the bike and set it out on my driveway. Big Dave arrived at 6:10am to pick me up and we transferred everything into his truck and off we went to Hampton beach state park NH. As we got closer to the state park we now started seeing riders who had already started. They were really bundled up and looked cold. The draw bridge we needed to go over was still under repair. I had been over this in February so I was surprised to see it still under construction.
Was 38F when we left my house and when we arrived at the state park it felt a little warmer? I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out the right amount of clothes to put on for the ride. Knowing that after the first 17 miles we would be back at the park to maybe take some layers off I went with three long sleeves, a jersey, short with leg warmers, full linger gloved, headband and toe covers on my shoes along with a pair of wool blend socks.
We all queued up around 8am at the shack at the end of the paved portion of the park. The goal was to keep the group intact for the whole ride with a 20-21 mph tempo ride. I was guilty of violating this rule but more on that later. As we pulled out ten riders strong ( Bruce, Peter, Mark, Bob, Gary, Alan, Big Dave, Ray, Renard) the draw bridge was up and there were around 100 riders queued up waiting to take the route that heads South into Newburyport. Finally after waiting a few minutes the bridge went down and we were rolling along. After getting past the gaggle in front of us things settled down and we have a nice pace line going and we picked up riders who hopped on the back of our train. By the time we arrived back at the draw bridge our group had swelled to 20 riders. Again, at the drawbridge because of the construction traffic was stopped to be dismounted and used the sidewalk to get across.
Back at the park we took layers off, I took off one layer and kept everything else on. Quick stop at the comfort station then we hit the road heading North right along the coastline to the light house in Maine near our turnaround point. It was now around 50F with a pretty good East wind coming right off the cold Atlantic Ocean. We were rolling right along, everyone working together and we picked up a strong rider wearing a Cheeze-It jersey so he joined right in sharing pace as we went along. Nearing Portsmouth NH we had a group of 5 riders go past us and the Cheeze-It slid over to tag along as did I and this was where I violated my initial instructions so I guess we amped up the pace a little and tagged along with these five guys for awhile. We separated paths at the first sag stop (mile 40) and from then on we rode together the rest of the way. This first sag stop must have had 300 riders piled in there. There we lines for everything. Took awhile to get going but we headed out together and now the wind had picked up even more. We were hoping that on the return leg we would have a tail wind but it was not meant to be instead we have an even stronger head wind on the way back. It was tough work each time everyone went to the front to take pulls. Nearing Hampton the group came apart a little so we re-grouped. I spotted a porta potty (flowmax issues!) and made a quick stop along with Alan. Back on the bike we were zipping along again and somehow we missed a turn for the third time (maybe we were going to FAST?). The other two times we realized our error but this time we did not and we kept right on cranking until as we got closer to the park I realized our error. So when we arrived at the park we only had 90 miles in the bank. About half the group decided to go back out and complete 100 miles and the other half decided to pack it in. I was one of the latter.
Afterwards we went out to Browns restaurant for some nice sea food.