The weather was pleasantly cool, partly sunny, with a strong breeze from the east. For some reason my computer wasn't working today, so I had to occasionally ask someone else for our mileage and average speed, keeping it to a minimum to avoid being a pest.
The first part of this century runs through an area of expensive vacation homes in Southampton. Lots of left turns and right turns, with glimpses of large homes past large gates and very tall and thick hedges that line the streets. We reached the first food and rest stop at about 25 miles. We just grabbed a couple of bananas and other munchies and kept going for the long out-and-back to Montauk and the lighthouse.
It was tough pedaling against the fierce, relentless headwind for all those miles, but we knew we'd be rewarded with a wicked power boost on the return leg, and that prospect kept us motivated. Even against that headwind, Afterburner couldn't help his nature and kept exploding forward, especially on the climbs. After a short break with commemorative snapshot (see attached) we took full advantage of the strong tailwind and rocketed back westward. Back at the same food stop we took our first, much deserved, real break.
At that point we ran into Serena, another of my fellow A19 SIG leaders. She was there with her own group of friends, but was somewhat frustrated by their slow pace. We invited her to ride with us. She was unsure and her group was ready to leave before us. She suggested we keep an eye out for her during our next leg and let her know when we caught up with her, at which point she'd gladly join us.
Onward onto my favorite part of this ride, through the beautiful wooded areas of the south fork, along winding, rolling roads, with lots of pines and hardly any cars. This point in any century (Q3) I tend to start feeling tired and the rollers didn't help. We kept breaking up and regrouping as the miles and the rollers kept disappearing behind us.
Eventually we did, in fact, catch up to Serena. This happened shortly after we had dropped George, who was beginning to struggle a bit. We thought he'd catch up to us soon enough. Instead, as it turned out, he had flatted right after we lost sight of him and — due to a series of circumstances and technical difficulties — had trouble getting a properly inflated wheel again for a while. Problem was, we had no idea.
At the last food stop we were able to get back in touch with him and he reassured us he was OK and would be getting back to the car, eventually. He got some help from other riders and made it to the last food stop, where a mechanic finally took care of his wheel issues.
As we started our last leg, we mistakenly exited the parking lot onto Rt. 27 and rode that for a couple of miles, but it was very busy with traffic and we soon realized we were not intended to be riding there. Locomotive, being very familiar with those parts in general and this ride in particular, easily found his way back to the marked route and we were once more in the game.
The very last few miles took us due east again and we had no choice but to fight the strong headwind yet again. Nevertheless, being so close to the finish, we gave it all we had and, in the end, completed the ride in just under 6 1/2 hours, including breaks.
The following link is for the GPS ride data that Afterburner uploaded.
We still had to wait quite a while for George — who was M.I.A. for almost an hour after the rest of us finished. Riders were still trickling in very sparsely and we decided to spare George the final wind-tunnel segment of the ride, since he was all by himself. We slowly retraced that last stretch with the truck and finally picked him up, still riding strong.
The 5-then-4-then-5 of us rode very well together for the entire century, despite Afterburner's frequent bursts of speed and George's misfortune. Both Anita and Serena are awesome riders. Anita, in particular, is in need of a new fun group to ride with. Gee, who could she possibly be looking to join? If we open our eyes wide and pout our lips, she just might occasionally put up with the train commute and come out to Nassau to play us on weekends for a Renegades ride.
Regards from Montauk Point.
Beast
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