2012 tour de cure

5am up bright and early.  Not really, it was still dark.  Karyn and I headed over to the fairgrounds for the century start.  As usual I was running around until the planned start in order to get all my stuff together...

But then we waited...  Karyn lined up for the red rider start to ride us out of the start line.  Becky and Alex found me in the line up.

We met up with some friends that I met at the copper triangle in 2011.  Turns out they live about a mile from our house...



We headed out, with the rest of the gaggle or whatever you call it.  About 3 miles out Karyn was yelling back as she looped back for another ride route later in the morning.  Only a few more minutes and Becky's rear tire froze up and she skidded to a stop.  Turns out her seat back bottle holder sheered some bolts and dropped into her rear wheel.  We re-organized, tied the cage on Alex's bike and Becky and I each took a bottle and we were off.

This might have been a good thing since we passed 5 flat tires in the next mile, but didn't have any of our own.  It wasn't much later that my GPS died...  (Somebody forgot to charge it up... who was that?)

We passed Karen L and Alex (Both from team wild and IMWI).  Finally after the carter lake hill it was time to strip off that extra layer we all had on from the 50 degree start.

At this point Alex was pretty far ahead, and I lost Becky on the downhill...  So I took off to catch up.  I passed him while he was stopped at the Glen Haven rest stop, and he didn't see me so I peddled on.  Of course a fella comes up behind me and says "We just have to stay in front of the Mountain bike" at which point I was sure Alex was trying to pass, when I heard his bell...  The race up the hill was on!  I beat him by a solid 100 feet.  (10am)

Alex: "It's all downhill from here.  Except for that hill that killed me last year."

We stopped for water at the rest stop at the top since my bottles were empty. (Why would you carry a bunch of water up that 10-12% grade back there?)

I lost Alex again on the downhill but met up with Jerry who had a gopro mounted to his handlebars.  He drafted me all the way down since there was a headwind AGAIN.  I do wonder what that footage was like since he was ~2 feet off my back tire.

Alex caught up in the rolling hills again on the flats, we never did catch Rebecca and David on the 100k, nor Karyn, Kat, or several others we knew on the 50k.

I got in about 1pm, we'll never know exactly since my GPS was dead.  But that would make ~7 hours and a 14.4 mph average.

I pulled the stats of the course from last year below.

As always a great ride.  A great route.  For a great cause.  I love it.  Ride with me next year?