The Imperial Century A Month Challenge Chatzone

[tatr]

Well done to @tatr and @Cold Snail That was a tough ride. I recorded over 9000ft of climb in 132 miles of riding

When I hit the "correct elevation" button in Strava it went up to 9k+ feet I guess I have an under-reporting Garmin.

 

[rhm]

I just posted my first imperial century of April, which was on Friday. Here's a link to the Ride With GPS track. It's a little complicated... this was a fleche ride, a team event with the PA Randonneurs. There are a lot of rules, but the gist of it is a number of teams of 3, 4 or 5 riders each rides a route of their own choosing. All teams end at the same place. The route has to be at least 360 km and has to end 24 hours after the start. No rest longer than 2 hours is permitted, and 25 km must be ridden in the last two hours.

I was on a team of four riders. We started at 11 AM Friday and I'm estimating we rode 135 miles by midnight; and we finished at 10:47 Saturday.

I had thought we could get a lot of miles done relatively early, then slack off later on, taking a rest or two. But as a team we were not especially fast. We had time for several short meals, and one full sit-down dinner at a restaurant, but never enough time to consider even a very short nap. The weather was spectacular. Not a cloud in the sky, very little wind. The moon was a little bigger than half, providing a welcome light for most of the night. It got quite cold as dawn approached, but I never got the chills I associate with long rides like this.

I did not bring a good camera, so I have only cell phone photos. In a wilderness area south of Trenton, between a swamp and the Delaware River, we saw this eagle and his/her nest:

The most interesting thing about the ride, to me, was the experience of seeing the whole day and night unfold, with changing scenery, changing patterns of activity. There were periods of heavy traffic, and a long period when there were hardly any cars on the road.

It was a lot of fun!

 

[Edwardoka]

I just posted my first imperial century of April, which was on Friday. Here's a link to the Ride With GPS track.

Epic - well done!
May I ask what your lighting setup is?

 

[rhm]

Epic - well done!
May I ask what your lighting setup is?

Thanks!
One guy had only a battery powered light that was unimpressive but quite adequate. Three of us, including me, had dynamo hubs. One of the guys had a new E3 Supernova headlight, and it was pretty amazing. Mine is a somewhat cheaper model, and I'm not quite sure what it is. My best guess is it's a B&M Lumotec IQ Premium like this one. I'm very happy with the light it gives, bright where I need to see, with a sharp cutoff at the top. Two of the guys had redundant lights; both the dynamo setup and some kind of battery powered light. I couldn't really tell what from what, but when I was in front of the pack, someone behind me had a light so bright that I could see my shadow, 30 feet high, on the trees ahead! I stayed behind them, for the most part, because when I caught that beam in my helmet mounted mirror, it was blinding.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

Hoping to do an 100 mile commute tomorrow morning to get Aprils done.

 

[StuAff]

Hoping to do an 100 mile commute tomorrow morning to get Aprils done.

A fellow customer of my LBS (or at least he was) used to do Havant to Waterloo, his commute, as a training run once a week. Both ways. 144 miles. And he did each leg in about 4 1/2 hours!! I know a few people who could do it that fast, but my best time for Pompey-smoke is 5 hours 6 rolling to Victoria. Good luck.

 

[Supersuperleeds]

A fellow customer of my LBS (or at least he was) used to do Havant to Waterloo, his commute, as a training run once a week. Both ways. 144 miles. And he did each leg in about 4 1/2 hours!! I know a few people who could do it that fast, but my best time for Pompey-smoke is 5 hours 6 rolling to Victoria. Good luck.

I ain't that fast!

Anyway I did it, 105 miles, will update your ride today with some details when I get home tonight. When I got into the office I had to pop out to the bank, so done another 9 miles on top of the 105 already! Short ride home tonight should see me break 200km for the day

 

[Soltydog]

Got mine done today . Fairly steady as I have a sportive on Sunday. I'll post details later.

 

[rb58]

A bit late in the month for comfort, but April's is now done. Friday Night Ride to the Coast Whitstable edition, including the ride up to London for the start, and the SMRbtH with the usual reprobates and a couple of guests.
119.5 miles total. Average rolling speed was "steady" - well, it is a social ride after all.

 

[Cold Snail]

I've managed to get a second ride (Oasts and Coasts 300k) in this month, as opposed to last month where I left it until the last minute
Got off to a better start than expected, then went backwards due to the wind on the Marsh, teamed up with three other riders around Deal as had been riding solo until then, a bonus puncture around midnight along the Pilgrims Way got us back to the arrivee at 2.06am with a whole 9 minutes to spare.

I was supposed to be at work today, but had to pass.

 

[ianrauk]

I've managed to get a second ride (Oasts and Coasts 300k) in this month, as opposed to last month where I left it until the last minute
Got off to a better start than expected, then went backwards due to the wind on the Marsh, teamed up with three other riders around Deal as had been riding solo until then, a bonus puncture around midnight along the Pilgrims Way got us back to the arrivee at 2.06am with a whole 9 minutes to spare.

I was supposed to be at work today, but had to pass.

I did this ride last year. It's a great route with a great variation of roads, flats and Hills. I always love the climb and descent of Ashdown Forest and the views along the south coast are fantastic.

 

[Cold Snail]

The coastal views alone were worth all the pain suffered in that marsh headwind, I was going to take a photo from the view 3/4 up the hill from Folkestone, but found out that my phone had discharged completely whilst in my pocket.

 

[rb58]

Insomnia struck again and I found myself wide away at 4.30am today. So instead of moping around I headed out as soon as it was light. Fantastic morning for a bike ride. Glorious sunrise highlighting the beauty of Kent countryside - the fields of rape seed and the bluebell woods. I'd planned to join up with some others for the commercial vehicle run to Brighton, but was far too early so opted for a well used Ashford and back route instead. So, that's May's in the bag.

 

[StuAff]

Nice one Ross. I was either second to complete or first, depending if you hit the ton by 1320 or so. 128 miles done since midnight CET

 

[redfalo]

goid job, @rb58! That was only hours after I had finished my April ride :-)