ROADIE! 🚲
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At last, I became a roadie. After taking part in the local Tour de Cure in April 2013, I bought my road bike.
I had chosen it several weeks earlier; but decided to wait until after Tour de Cure to buy it. Something told me that there wasn’t enough time to adjust to it before the big day.
That was a wise move, as it turned out. Switching to a road bike from a hybrid was a major change. In fact, a road bike is as different from a hybrid as a hybrid is from a trike! My road bike is much lighter than my hybrid, and at first I found it quite twitchy. Indeed, it was rather scary.
I immediately noticed that, with a road bike, I felt like I was on top of the bike. With the hybrid, I felt like I was inside the frame. I guess the more erect position of riding a hybrid explains that one.
As to the choice of bike: I didn’t choose it for its brand; nor for its carbon fiber frame;
nor for its compact crankset. I wasn’t even aware that the bike’s crankset was a compact! It’s probably most accurate to say that I happened to manage that particular bike best by sheer chance. Shopping for a road bike is tricky when you have no experience riding one!
Getting the hang of a road bike meant using the same exercises that I employed while adjusting to the hybrid when it was new: getting the hang of starting up and stopping; learning how to keep control of the bike when I tried to ride faster; etc. And learning how to manage a water bottle that was on the down-tube rather than the handlebars! That was a tricky one. Gunga Din wasn’t around to hand me my water; and at first I had to stop every time I needed a drink, which was quite an annoyance.
And Finally -- A Road Bike Century! 💯
Naturally it wasn’t long before I started hankering to do a century on the road bike.
On July 19, 2013, I did. Pedaling time was 7:56:38! I averaged 12.5 mph, which was good for me at the time.
I began at 5 am. Not surprisingly, the day got very hot; and my big ride ended rather miserably because I ran completely out of water about 1.5 miles before I reached the 100-mile mark. Then I had about two miles to ride to get home. I arrived there dehydrated; and for at least an hour felt too exhausted and sick to even move. That was NOT fun, and ruined any sense of triumph.
I sure could have used a cooling vest that day!
For whatever reason, eating was a problem on this ride. Nothing tasted good; what I did eat tended to stick in my throat; and it’s possible that I ate too little as a result. Between the heat and less caffeine than usual (admittedly I’m a Diet Coke® fiend), I got rather headachy. I was glad that it didn’t rain, but I would have welcomed some overcast to moderate the temperature.
I guess I was in too much of a hurry to do a century on the road bike. Advice to self: next time, don’t ride a century in July; unless I’ve gotten fast enough to start at 5 am and be finished by noon. Of course I could plan my route to include breaks at home. But that feels like cheating!
As of January 2024, I have yet to ride another century. Lazy, aren’t I? But my main motivation for doing my century rides was to see whether I could do it. And I can!
I would like to participate in an organized century ride; perhaps one in Fall, when the weather might have cooled off a little. Well, maybe someday!