7 hours 9 minutes? BEAST!
I'm at
a computer
now, which is rare these days, so I'll actually write something about this.
Batsto 200k
This was my first Brevet of the season, and ever for that matter. I wasn't really sure what to expect other than putting a long day in the saddle.
At the start point in Egg Harbor I asked a lot of questions about the card and whatnot as that's all new to me. Joe was basically like, it'll be fine, you'll figure it out. I showed up just before the official start time of 7am and needed a little extra time to pack my bike and bottles so I left around 7:15, you were allowed to leave anytime up to 8am. Brevet rookie mistake, the timer
starts
at the actual start time, not when you leave. That's why my Garmin and Official time are different. My goal was to break 7 hours, which I did on my clock, but not on theirs, next time I know!!
As far as the ride, it was wet and windy all day. Not ever horrific, but enough. Leaving late I had to go pretty hard in the beginning to catch the lead group. It took about 20ish miles to make that happen. Starting a long ride with a solo TT at threshold usually isn't a good idea but I've done dumber so...Sit in for a few miles to recover and then end up at the front a few miles out from the first Control. I didn't take notes on where the Controls were so I had to stay in the group at this point. After the volunteers signed my card I took mental notes of the next Control. Only 4 of us left without refueling, from here on out, I'd be on the front pulling the group.
Control2 was a pizza place in Salem. We took a slightly longer stop to pee but we were all on the same page and wanted to keep lollygagging to a minimum. Back on the road after a few minutes. I'm not sure where it happened but we lost our 4th guy somewhere.
Control3 was an Info Control which didn't require a stop, it just asked the mileage on a sign we went by. Shortly after we hit a few rollers and I kept pace, the 2 behind me fell off and I took the opportunity to ride them off my wheel. Neither were contributing to the effort anyway so, bye bye. 90K solo effort to the end? Sure, why not? This is kinda what I do.
Control4 I started to feel the effects of being out front all day. I actually needed a stop to refuel. So I did. I bought some RedBull and some candy and was just getting back on the bike when the 2 I left came in. 35 miles to go, many of those looking over my shoulder as I expected 2 guys working together to easily reel me in. But they didn't. Finished 10 minutes before the next guy, who also beat the previous record. The 3rd guy finished 10 minutes behind him. We all ate and hung out at the Tavern, got dressed, packed our cars, even as I was leaving, 4th place hadn't finished yet. Huge gap.
All in all this was a ton of fun. Totally up my alley. I'm more than likely gonna blow off CTC to do the Cranbury200 instead. I'm into it.
