The Long Ride

PyZahl posted on the SBRA Bike Forum that he was looking to do a 100+ mile A pace ride today. I took him up on it! We left Rocky Point at 8:00am, and headed east to Orient Point. We made it there after 52 miles. With a nice tailwind, the two of us average about 21 mph.

We refilled bottles and then headed back to Greenport to catch the ferry from the North fork to Shelter Island. There was a bit of a wait for the ferry but we were kept company by about 50 other cyclists in the middle of a charity ride, also waiting to go to Shelter Island. After some trouble disconnecting the ferry line from the dock, we arrived at Shelter Island and made a quick crossing to the South Ferry terminal. A short wait there and we sailed down to the South Fork.

We headed into Sag Harbor but were turned back by a traffic officer who told us that bikes were not allowed down main street in Sag Harbor. This was a bit of a problem because we were following a route in PyZahl's GPS unit and couldn't modify it. We refilled bottles again and took a detour to East Hampton.

We rode down the South fork to Riverhead to fill bottles one more time. We realized then that we had added about 15 miles to our original route. From Riverhead, we slogged North, back to Rocky Point. Total ride distance, 122.58 miles, my second-longest ride, ever. Here is the GPS track on MotionBased.

It was a fun ride with a bit of adventure, revising the route as we went along. The legs are kind of sore and this turned into an 8-hour ride instead of the 6 hours I had anticipated so I will probably skip the Early Bird ride tomorrow. Actually we travelled many roads used by the EB North and South routes, also Bike-Boat-Bike, Tour of the Hamptons, and North Fork Century. Thanks to PyZahl for organizing a great ride. Here are some other photos from the ride:

Lighthouse at Orient Point
Ferry to Connecticut, at Orient Point
Nick at Orient Point, 9/9/2006, 52 miles into a 123 mile ride
Percy at Orient Point, 9/9/2006
Boats around Shelter Island, while waiting for the ferry
Main Street, Sag Harbor
Percy and I, back at Rocky Point, after 123 miles
Nick outside Tilda's Bake Shop, Rocky Point, our start/end point