My first Century

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
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The utility cyclist
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Joined: 22 Aug 2016, 12:28pm
Location: The first garden city

Re: My first Century

Post by The utility cyclist »

foxyrider wrote:
The utility cyclist wrote:
cycleruk wrote:Did my one and only 100 miler by accident. :roll:
Good luck with yours.

Haha, me too, 1990 my first tour at the grand age of 21 :lol:
Accidentally bumped into the Tour de France on the 9th day after leaving Dreux, I had no idea it was on until I got to Versailles, hung around to watch the finish on the champs after trying to sneak through the barriers to ride down it (and stopped by a grumpy gendarme :roll: ) Afterwards carried on to where I'd planned to stay - small village hotel vum B&B just N of Paris but there were no rooms left! I hadn't booked anything throughout so found myself on the main road with the sun already over the horizon and no lights. arrived in Beauvais only to find everything shut, rang the bell of a hotel and got a room thankfully.

Checked the cateye digi in the morning and I'd done 104miles :shock:, it had risen to over 100F in Paris that day and never dropped below 85F throughout. Had a lovely 60 mile run to Dieppe on a back road that runs almost parallel to the D1
I never cycled that far again in one day but I might have a crack at home to my city of birth next year for my half century birthday, it's 152 miles though not too lumpy.


Think i've only tackled that distance once (as a day ride) and it was slightly more than lumpy! Yup @ 154 miles with 5500m of climbing around the Austrian / Italian border on a really hot day for the Otztaler radmarathon. Took me 13 hours and my sanity! I think it was enjoyable.

That's a heck of a lot of climbing, there's no way I could manage that these days, maybe when I was fit and importantly healthy but I was never built for cycling up hills. Made me laugh reading some person complaining they couldn't get back to 11st for the summer, I retorted back the last time I was that weight I was still at junior high :lol: I was my fittest at 13st9 in my army days but never really got to test myself cycling, it was always just a means to get around and have a bit of fun at the weekend, nothing has changed in that regard but I'd like to do another long ride. I think the altitude gain is about 4-4500ft so under a third of yours!
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