Spring Century Ride Report

The group at the ride finish in Riverhead.

Took a day off from work today to ride the annual Spring Century with a group of riders from SBRA, mostly the Early Birds group. This was my fourth year doing it and it is a nice ride, mostly following a modified Bike-Boat-Bike route, i.e. heading east on the North fork of Long Island to Greenport, taking the ferry to Shelter Island, across Shelter Island, ferry to the South fork, then west through the Hamptons. In this version, the start/end point is Riverhead (BBB is Mattituck).

Weather was perfect with temps between 60F and 70F most of the way, sunny skies, and light wind. We started with 14 riders (ended with 12 at the finish). It was a fast paced ride (20.1 mph average moving speed) although the total ride time was about 6 1/2 hours, due to 3 flats, waiting for ferries, lunch stop, and a few regroups. The East End scenery was great, as usual.

I felt good on the ride, my first century for 2008. I had a big, carby breakfast, a Clif bar on the ferry and a sandwich and a bag of M&M's for lunch. It was definitely enough fuel. The comfortable temperatures meant that two bottles sports drink and two bottles of water was enough fluid. The group kept a high pace but I didn't take many pulls. It was an effort to stay with the group when they hammered on some of the uphills but there were plenty of regroups to pull things back together. I think we all pulled in to the finish within 1-2 minutes of each other.

All-in-all, a good group ride under excellent conditions. Can't wait until the next one! Speaking of the next one, in three days I'll be doing my next century, the SBRA Montauk Century on Saturday. Much of that will probably be solo, but we'll see.

On another biking note... I read on the MasiGuy blog about artist Taliah Lempert and here bicycle-themed artwork. I checked out some of her work online and really liked it. So, I am now the proud owner of this pen-and-ink and watercolor drawing, which I just received today. Just need to get a frame now. Check it out!


Malcolm's Bike - Color Chart #1 by Taliah Lempert 2008