Hundreds of bikes collecting as the sun comes up is a beautiful sight. I enjoy the excitement (and food), the talkative company (and food), and the funny jerseys.... oh and the food. This ride is the best fed and most supportive ride in the city. Police escorts, tons of SAG, extremely well stocked rest stops with everything a cyclist could ask for. Last year I couldn't find the people I was looking for before the start. This year I did.
A mile from the rest stop, I was trying to get comfortable again. We had been at the rest stop for 15 minutes, which was too long. I was shaking out my legs, adjusting my shorts. My left hand was on the bar, but my front tire caught a small crag in the road, pulling it to the left and I couldn't regain control. Head first into the cement, but fortunately I had enough time to try and point my fall in the direction of the grass. I rolled off the road and was sitting in the grass at the end. I'm not sure how my feet got out of the clips. I added arrows so you can see it. The left arrow is where the helmet is split, as in I can pull the whole thing apart and see light in between. The arrow on the right shows the big dent. That grey line should be straight, in fact the dent is on the top middle and bottom of that side of the helmet you just can't see it well in the pic.
This is my dirty and ripped jersey. I think the only reason there isn't a huge hole is that I ended up on the grass. My knee is scraped, you could see the muscle when it was fresh, but it's just bright red now. My shoulder and elbow are scraped up. I have a big bruise on my inner thigh of one leg and a bruise on my haunch of the other leg. I can tell you right now I will be hurting in the morning.
Corey had ditched me in that mile (I told him I am no longer friends with him! I was just kidding Corey... mostly :p) It was on a downhill so there was only one guy directly behind me that saw it. He road up a little frantic and kept asking me if I was okay. I told him I was fine. I sat there for a minute and tried to decide if I had lied to him. A group of "cyclists" passed me after I had stood up and one made a snarky comment about my choice of places to stop... maybe I never want to be a true cyclist. I thanked the guy that stopped, took my bike, started to mount, to my surprise my handlebars and my wheel were not pointed the same direction. I dismounted and about that time Alice road up behind me. She helped me square my bars and helped me make it to the 32 mile rest stop... where I didn't get my clip out and pulled a dummy flop onto the gravel. Despite Alice's sound advice to stop and head back, I opted to go for the 100. My shoulder hurt, I couldn't turn my head all the way to the right, but I got some antiseptic at the rest stop and pushed on.
It sucked. The course beyond that is hilly, but I still wanted to catch Amy and at this point I wanted to catch Corey. Our friend Charlie helped nurse me along the rest of the ride, but my front derailleur wire came off at the top of the Cat 5 (or so I hear that's what it is) hill. I lost Charlie at that point. Then my garmin finally died. That is when I decided I was done. The pain killer Charlie had given me at the 42 mile rest stop was beginning to wear off. My lower back was speaking to me and the words were not kind. I was done. My first SAG. I tell you what though, if there ever was a ride to want to SAG in on, it would be this one. You cannot find a better t-shirt ride than this. It should be on everyone's list.
The bike is now in the shop, I have bought a new helmet and I'll let you know how my body feels in the morning.
Pros:
Pretty tshirt
FOOD! Lots of fruit, clif bars, shot bloks, peanuts, pickles, pickle juice, crackers, cookies, etc.
Tons of sag, you get passed by a sag car nearly every mile. It definately came in handy.
Volunteers, tons of volunteers asking what you need the moment you get in ear shot of the rest stop.
Police escorts. Countless cop cars, even more bike cops. Stopping traffic at most intesections, toward the end picking individual riders to escort through town.
An entire week to pick up your packet from 8 in the morning to like 6 in the evening.
Cons:
Hilly, hilly course. If you want it mostly flat do 52 or less. If you think you need a challenge, then by all means go for more. I don't think I'll attempt the 100 here ever again. The back end of the course is too much. Even if I hadn't crashed, it was a hard course. I am very happy that they changed the path up a bit from last year, it kept us out of downtown El Reno.
Pros:
Pretty tshirt
FOOD! Lots of fruit, clif bars, shot bloks, peanuts, pickles, pickle juice, crackers, cookies, etc.
Tons of sag, you get passed by a sag car nearly every mile. It definately came in handy.
Volunteers, tons of volunteers asking what you need the moment you get in ear shot of the rest stop.
Police escorts. Countless cop cars, even more bike cops. Stopping traffic at most intesections, toward the end picking individual riders to escort through town.
An entire week to pick up your packet from 8 in the morning to like 6 in the evening.
Cons:
Hilly, hilly course. If you want it mostly flat do 52 or less. If you think you need a challenge, then by all means go for more. I don't think I'll attempt the 100 here ever again. The back end of the course is too much. Even if I hadn't crashed, it was a hard course. I am very happy that they changed the path up a bit from last year, it kept us out of downtown El Reno.
