Rapha Festive 500, Day Six, 29 December 2013

Snowflake Century Actual Ride

Today was the Ride Studio Cafe’s Snowflake Century Ride! I survived it.

Distance: 101.7 miles
Total kilometers towards the Festive 500: 336 km. 164 km short.
Low temperature: 28° F
Weather: Overcast. Then, finally, the rain came. Last 20-miles in the a nice steady freezing rain.

Ride Notes:

I am rather glad I completed the entire snowflake. I believe that Don B. and I are the only two to have completed the entire 100-miles. Our secret was to roll out at 6am. It was way too early for me but in looking at the weather report and doing some simple math, I could tell I was going to be riding a lot of miles in the rain if I didn’t roll out, in the dark, at 6 am. The only other wacky enough to ride at 6 am were Don B. and Richard F. Our timing was perfect.
My Snowflake Century Ride Mantra: “The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.” Warning: Opens Youtube video.

Actually, the trick, I think was in making only two quick stops along the way – once for caffeine and once at RSC for oatmeal at the 50-mile mark. Other than that we stopped at stoplights and stop signs and that was about it.
The last 20-miles in freezing rain was tough but fun. Not minding that it hurt.
Many thanks to Don B. for holding me together. We got to ride the first two legs with Richard F.; amazingly, it was the first time I’ve ever ridden with Richard.
My big plan of taking 100 photos collapsed before we even rolled out. I realized that if I was going to make the 100 miles I was going to have to keep rolling. The trade-off was worth it. I’ll take photos some other time; and there were so many photo ops on this ride!

Fuel Cards for the Snowflake Century