Tim and Jon.... YOU DA MAN (craaaaaaazy, but da man) I plan to go to Sunset Beach in a few weeks too, BUT my bike will be in the back of my truck and I will have a few cold ones on the beach while I'm there DC
________________________________ From: Lucas <[email protected]> To: CyclistsOfWilson-COWs <[email protected]> Sent: Mon, March 21, 2011 11:07:49 AM Subject: [COWs] Weekend 600K Ride Report !!! Ok, here it goes again. I signed up for the 600K like I didn’t have anything else better to do this weekend. The route started in Lumberton doing various loops out towards the coast. 380 miles, hmm, that’s like from here to Philadelphia. PA. John o. is also doing the 600K as well so we ride down together. 60 riders gather for the event doing various lengths from 200K, 300K, 400K or the 600K. 19 are with us on the big one. Mass start at 7:30, I’m forced to miss the start to move my jeep so it starts out being a bad day. I leave about 5 minutes later but I totally missed getting to ride with the top guns. I rode hard for an hour passing several groups into the wind trying to catch them. I finally caught John about 45 minutes into the ride as he was meandering with the second group, but I could now see the front group so I continued on but ran out of gas about 300 yards back. I had ridden for an hour averaging 19.5 mph to no avail and I was trashing the rest of my ride if I continued at this pace, so I waited up for John’s group. JoAnn was in there as well and we’re both signed up for a 1200K in Alaska in August so we chat a while discussing logistics of that ride while I recovered. Most of the riders in this group are doing shorter routes so about mile 50 John and I are by our selves as they turn off in a different direction. We have like a group of ten riders in front of us and 7 or so behind us. The wind is brutal. It would have been nice to have had a couple more riders with us to help but it wasn’t to be. Mile 85 we get to Wallace, NC where it’s time for lunch, and we pass Jerry & Wes at a country grill but we’re going to Andy’s for a cheese steak and milkshake. 2 other riders are there, Brian and Mike from DC, who is a colonel in the military in Russian intelligence. We would ride with these guys for the remainder of the day. 4 guys working the wind was much better than 2. We ride, and we ride, and we ride. We watch the sun go down and still we ride. Mile 185, 8:45pm, we’re in Garland and we need food. A little mom & pop pizza joint looks really good so we dive in just before closing. Pizza is great, just what I needed because the night is young and Sunset Beach where we have motel rooms waiting is still 85 miles away and we are slowing down as the wind has taken a serious bite out of us, and we’re all exhausted. Things are slow now as we’re cruising under the full moon. White Lake comes at mile 200 and the wind still blows. John and I cursed those winds all weekend. Mile 227 in Hallsboro and our store is closed as its well past midnight. John is cold and is stuffing his jersey and shorts with newspapers, wrapping his feet and hands in plastic bags and I loan him my rain jacket. There is a picture of that floating around so I’m hoping to get a copy. Now we are fighting sleep as well. Been up for about 24 hours now and the body is tired of this crap. We’re riding individually now as we’ve launched into survival mode. We arrive in Shallotte around 3:45am, 258 miles into the ride. Into the store for another round of caffeine. Newspaper lady comes in at 4:00am to stock the selves and replies “You guys are up early this morning”. We give her a thumbs up but are too tired to explain. John and I are dreaming of showers and a bed so we head on but Brian has called uncle and needs a few minutes of shut eye so he and Mike stay behind. We get to Sunset Beach just before 5:00am mile 270. We’re beat, but we have only 110 miles to go, but first, shower and a nap. Lights out at 5:45, set the alarm for 9:00am. Freaking sun bust through the window at 7:45 just 2 hours later and the da… seagulls are having a party on the deck. We curse as we gather our things, suit up with fresh kits and dawn the new day. Life is good. All the other cyclist are still here and some are still arriving. We learned that even the riders up front struggled through the night getting here. 8:30 and back over the bridge for mainland. 10 riders again left 20 minutes before us. Brian and Mike are still sleeping so John and I are it for our group. We pass the main group while they are fueling at Hardees, but we stop a few miles farther to fuel at McD’s. Jerry and Wes are the first to leave town. A big group of 8 riders cruise by before we finish and now we’re about 10 minutes behind. It would be nice to catch that group and John is feeling good, really good. We have a control stop in 30 miles so if we can match their pace we can catch them there. That will be our last chance to join the party. John is taking us 18 to 19 mph into a cross wind and I’m thinking I can’t do this. He hands over the lead as we turn with a tail wind and now we’re cruising 21/23mph, we turn back into the wind a few miles later and I hand him back the lead. What are friends for? :) We arrive in Tabor City, S.C., mile 305 and the group is still there and now it’s a party! 75 miles to go. Jerry and Wes leave first then John and I leave out and soft pedal as we wait for the peloton to catch us. We ride with the group to the next control but there is lots of pain and suffering in that group and their pace is all over the place. John leaves out first from Boardman followed by Jerry, Wes and I. And then just like the last 600K I cycled a few weeks ago my body completely recovered and I felt really good. It was my turn to cruise 18/19 mph into the wind. We picked up John and the 4 of us would finish the ride together. I picked the pace up to 20/21 and I got a STFD comment from the back so I backed it down a bit fearing retaliation. I pocketed the rest of the county line sprints. We were leaving the last control with 27 miles to go as the big group arrived. John and I had worked ourselves to the front of this event and we were all smiles as we had a tailwind for most of the way back. We are the first to arrive back in Lumberton at 4:30pm Sunday afternoon. We polished off 380 miles in 33 hours. :) We celebrated a bit as we waited for the second group to arrive 30 minutes later. My feeling really good came to a halt on the way home as John had to finish up the drive back to Wilson. Even a chocolate shake couldn’t revive me. Dang, it’s Monday already! : ( -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CyclistsOfWilson-COWs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cyclistsofwilson-cows?hl=en.
