castlerobber
Zen MBB Master
15th annual Cyclists Curing Cancer ride today down the beautiful Natchez Trace. Over 350 riders, the largest field to date. Stayed away from pacelines since I wanted to compare to my solo century results from 2 weeks ago. Huge improvement--an entire 0.5mph faster!Well hey, 0.5 faster every two weeks and I'll be world champion by next year....the year after at the latest!
@castlerobber rode the 50....look forward to her usual excellent ride report!
The Cyclists Curing Cancer Century (with 62, 50, and 25-mile options also) is a fundraiser for the cancer center at Baptist Hospital in Jackson, Miss. It's spearheaded by an oncologist who is also an avid road cyclist.
The ride begins and ends in Clinton, Miss., at the Baptist Healthplex at Mississippi College. In honor of the 15th annual ride, well-known local sculptor and art professor Dr. Samuel Gore provided a sculpture of a cyclist on a mountain bike.
It was 75° and clear when the ride started at 7:30 a.m., with a light south wind. Police escorted the 350+ cyclists out Clinton Parkway to the Natchez Trace, where we headed southwest for an out-and-back ride on gently rolling terrain--no long or steep hills on the section I rode, but the only flat parts are overpasses. Most of the participants, as expected, were on road bikes; but there was a smattering of MTBs, hybrids, and tri-bikes, at least one tandem, three or four tadpole trikes, one LWB (Sun?) recumbent, and an Electra Townie 7D. And, of course, two Cruzbikes.
ReklinedRider overtook me after a couple of miles, and we passed the time of day for a bit before he headed on. The Cruzbike silhouette is distinctive, even compared to other recumbents, when seen in the rear-view mirror.
There were rest stops at 12.5-mile intervals, more or less. In addition to the typical cookies, bananas, quartered oranges, Gatorade and water, each stop provided little cups of pickle juice to help ward off cramps. (Pickle juice is a big thing for cyclists around these parts lately. I'll take my chances without.
)When I pulled in at the 25-mile rest stop/50-mile turnaround, two female cyclists immediately started asking questions about the Silvio. One of them remarked on the front-wheel drive ("is that hard to ride?") and standard-length chain, while the other observed approvingly, "the wheelbase looks about the same as a regular bike."
Temperatures were well into the 80s by the time I got back to Clinton and turned off the Trace. Lunchtime traffic on the four-lane-plus-turn-lane Clinton Parkway was unusually courteous, giving cyclists the entire right lane. I finished with a group from the 62-mile route that caught up to me in the last half-mile. Lunch was pulled pork, baked beans, and potato salad from a local BBQ place.
Overall, it was a pleasant Saturday outing. I averaged 14.9 mph for just over 50 miles, an improvement over last year's 14.1 mph. Considering I had ridden 31 miles at 15.6 mph on a different part of the Trace on Labor Day, I was quite pleased with my week's effort.
