Bratwurst Century

Did the annual "Spring Century" with the SBRA EB group, better known as the Bratwurst Century. As usual, we loosly followed the Bike-Boat-Bike route, heading east from Riverhead on the North Fork to Greenport, short ferry ride to Shelter Island, across Shelter Island, another ferry to the South Fork, then back west to Riverhead.

A cool 50F at the ride start, overcast, wet roads, but no actual rain. We headed out with 15 riders. First flat at about mile 15, quickly changed, and we were off again. Steady pacelines, 20+ MPH. At about mile 30, a pothole took out Charlie and also caused Rick to flat. Charlie hit the ground hard! Two motorists stopped to assist but as the shock of the crash wore off, Charlie felt okay enough to get back on the bike. He continued with us to the ferry and Shelter Island, but decided to take a direct route back, accompanied by John Y. Hurt something on his right side, hoping its not too serious. Had a Clif bar on the ferry ride.

Last little delay was another flat at mile 50. Took a few minutes to extract the offending sharp stone, but after the flat was repaired just another 10 miles to lunch in Amagansett. By this time the sun was out and we had a nice lunch, sitting outside at some picnic tables. We were obviously in the "Hamptons" as my turkey and cheese on whole wheat was a pricey $7.30! A bag of peanut M&M's and a bottle of water and we were off again.

The last 40 miles had us in good pacelines but no one could quite remember the exact route so there were more than a few misdirections and wrong turns that kept breaking our momentum. Finally back to the start with 101.9 miles, 19.4 MPH moving average speed, elapsed time just uder 7 hours.

It turned out to be a great and and a great ride with friends. Will be back next year!