Here's a link to the century I'm doing tomorrow

[SteelBlue]

http://www.siskiyoucentury.com/

Wish me luck. This is the heaviest I've been for a century ride (205) it could get ugly.

[Archaea]

next week I do the half ironman Caliman triathlon in Davis.

Not far from your stomping grounds, eh?

[SteelBlue]

Davis is a little over 2 hours from here. I'll be down there in 2 weeks for my son's swim meet.

[creekster]

Here is the message that I must enter to post.

[bluegoose]

Steel and I both headed up to Yreka CA for the weekend ride. A storm blew through on friday night but fortunately passed by before start time. Froze our butts off at the start (~42 degrees), especially on the first 45mph downhill.

Awesome day after that. A buddy and I rode with steel for 35-40 miles and then hooked up with a paceline and just rocked for the other 65-70 miles. one of the guys in the line was 68 years old and could barely stand upright, let alone walk, off the bike, but was incredible on the bike.

Steels experience was a bit different from mine. hopefully he can update you on the day.

Climbing was decent. this one is basically 2 mountain passes at the beginning and end of the ride, with rollers in between. only about 4600 feet total gain.

It was a good time. We did miss the game on saturday, and I have yet to watch the tape of it.

[SteelBlue]

Steels experience was a bit different from mine. hopefully he can update you on the day.

About 5 minutes after dropping off of the back of bluegoose's group I was riding with a friend who was doing his first century. He was riding very well and really should have gone ahead with the faster group but he was nervous about hitting the 70 mile mark for the first time. Anyway, we were on a lovely piece of chip and seal highway in a 2 man paceline. He was experiencing some numbness in his arm apparently (I was riding in front and couldn't see him) and was shaking it so had it off of the bar. I signaled that I was moving off of the front and moved out. He was not watching and didn't see me until it was too late. He went down HARD and was bleeding pretty badly from his fingers, one of which looked really bad. He had all the requisite road rash at the hip and elbow as well. We flagged down a passing motorist who took him back to the rest stop we had most recently left (between 5-7 miles behind us). I rode my bike back thinking my day was over. When I got there they were tending to his wounds and after about 20 or 30 minutes, he decided he wanted to try and finish.

Well, by this time the only people anywhere near us are the slowest of the slow. But, we decided to ride to the next stop and see how he felt. I pulled for him for the next approx 7 miles while he got his legs back under him. Then I flatted on some gravel. It actually cut my tire but it was not bad enough to end my day. I have very tight tires, and as I was putting the last inch of tire back on I punctured the new tube, costing me another 5 minutes. By the time we got rolling again there were only a few people behind us.

After another 20 miles, I was feeling the extra 10-14 miles I'd done (no computer so I'm guessing). I am the least fit that I've been for a century and so was starting to feel worn as we rolled into the next rest stop. It was mile 70 something for me. My friend was feeling great at that point and so when we left that stop, I bid him adieu and rode with an old dude up the last of the challenging climbs. At the top of the climb, I expected to see my friend and inquired about him as at this point he was fairly famous among the support staff. Nobody had seen him and the woman he had climbed the hill with said she had dropped him and that he hadn't come up the hill yet. So, confused, I waited a while for him and then figured he may have skipped the stop all together. I never saw him again until my friends picked me up on the road home. Thankfully, I'd gotten my 100 miles in due to the 2 swithbacks I had to do so I was happy about that .

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ride, but like one of those dreams where you have to get somewhere and you just can't seem to get there. Hopefully I've used up my bad luck for a while.

[MikeWaters]

It's frustrating riding with idiots. (not that your friend was one).

I was almost taken out on a metric century. some moron decides to push his friends rear seat, and then instead spins out and veers sharply to the left, almost taking me out (this was going downhill).

I was inches from broken bones.

[SteelBlue]

Wow, that was a close one Mike. My friend really was just a victim of 3 or 4 things happening that had a pretty low probability of happening together. He momentarily took one hand off of the bar, momentarily looked away from me just as I signaled to move out. I really felt for him as it looked very painful.

The thing this ride made me realize was that even in a ride with a SAG wagon, you could go a long time without medical care if you crash in the wrong spot.