Reston Century 2009 - CycleCentury

(See my full entry on my blog - http://jeffdav.blogspot.com > Reston Century )

About a week before the ride I received the info packet from the Reston Bike Club with details on this year's route. The route was pretty much the same as last year, with one notable exception. Instead of doing the Taylorstown (Hamilton North) loop counterclockwise, we would be going the opposite direction. I had not ridden the loop that way, and from what I saw of those roads going the way I had, I knew going the other way would be a serious challenge. The route was set up with a central rest stop in Hamilton, so we could choose which of the two major loops we wanted to do first. I reasoned that it would be insane to try doing the Taylorstown loop with all those hills last, so I planned to get that pain out of the way as quickly as possible.

On the morning of the ride I had a lot of trouble sleeping. I got up at 2:30 and couldn't fall back to sleep, and after about a half hour or so I took a couple of Advil and drank some water. I eventually went back to sleep at 3:30, but when the alarm rang at 5am I had a lot of trouble getting up. When I did I was pretty sluggish despite having my coffee already brewed (gotta love those models with timers...). I had my usual breakfast of 2 cups of coffee, a banana and a bowl of cereal - nothing out of the ordinary. I kind of took my time eating and before I knew it I was running a bit late. I mixed up my Hammer Nuitrition HEED+Endurolytes drinks (I had wanted to take Perpeteum, but unfortunately ordered my refill too late), packed up the car and was off to Reston Town Center. 5 minutes into the trip I realized that I had forgotten my camera :-( It was too late to turn around though, I was going to be late as it was...

When I got to the designated meeting place (just 2 min late), everyone except Ken was there and ready to roll. Ours was a prompt flock of early birds! Luckily, Jack had a camera phone on him so we took our only group picture (above) just before we took off (Ken arrived just after that, unfortunately).

The day before had been really soggy, and I had hoped the rain would stop at 8pm so that the pavement had time to dry off. It was dry for the most part, but in the early part of the ride we ran into a number wet areas, especially on shaded stretches of the W&OD trail. We all rode cautiously, so there were no water-related spills thankfully.

I was thinking before the ride that it would be a good idea to start out slow and save my legs for the pain that I knew would follow on the hills. Well, that didn't happen. On the way out to the Hamilton rest stop, we were all riding at a pretty good clip - 19/20mph average. I think everyone just felt great about being out there, and in retrospect it was probably a good thing we covered ground quickly while we could.

Once we got to Leesburg, we turned off the W&OD trail onto Dry Mill Rd. I knew that we would be taking a left shortly afterwards onto Woodburn Rd, so I started to get into my hill climbing mindset. Woodburn is pretty well known among bikers and triathletes in the area as a great workout hill. I, however, had never ridden it, so I had mentally added it to the list of unknowns I would have to confront that day.

As we turned left I shifted down to my small chainring and settled in for the climb. Woodburn Rd. is indeed a good training hill, but it isn't all that steep and it isn't all that long. I'm not saying it wasn't challenging, but having ridden up 'The Wall' on Stumptown Rd. a couple of times game me some perspective on the matter. The rest of the century crew made it up this first challenge of the day without issue, albeit at different speeds. At the bottom of the hill we turned right onto Harmony Church Rd and were soon together as a group again. Harmony Church was a very pretty route with rolling hills but nothing all that challenging. It intersects with the Colonial Parkway, which we then took into Hamilton.

The central rest stop was set up in a park right in the middle of Hamilton. I was really impressed at what a great job the Reston Bike Club did in setting it up. They had tons of space, a couple of mechanics to help folks out, gobs and gobs of really great food, about a dozen large coolers where you could fill your bottles up with either water or Gatoraide, and a veritable phalynx of port-a-potties. Riders were coming and going at a furious pace, but there didn't seem to be much waiting in lines for anything - so bravo RBC! We refilled our bottles and loaded up on some food and headed out for the Taylorstown loop - aka 'where the hills are'.

Instead of taking the trail back to Hamilton Station Rd., the route had us take a lonely farm lane - Ivandale Rd. - out to Clarkes Gap Rd., which becomes Loyalty Rd. just past waterford. Irene Rd. was a bit bumpy, but very beautiful and completely devoid of traffic. It did have some hills, but nothing too strenuous - just warm-ups for what was to come. Once we got to Waterford and onto Loyalty we were on familiar territory and knew what to expect. When we got to Taylorstown we decided to take a quick break just before hitting the big hill. It was funny because no one else took a break there, everyone just whizzed right at Taylorstown Rd from Loyalty, as if what was just around the corner was more of what they saw on Loyalty. Well, I for one knew better and wanted to collect myself to prepare for what I knew lay ahead.

Once we took off from the Taylorstown General Store, the hill pretty much started immediately. And man, it started to get challenging right away. As with the other big hills I had hit over the last month or so, I very quickly found myself in my lowest gear (and wanting a triple crank instead of my standard double). I was in the saddle for a bit but soon found it very difficult to stay there, so I came up and started pumping. My heart rate was up in the 170 range pretty quickly, and staying there. Surprisingly, I was able to stay standing for longer than I was able to normally - but that may have simply been out of necessity because I knew that if I sat I would have to take 'the clip-out of shame' (i.e. get off and start pushing). There were a number of other riders on the hill who had to do just that, but I'm pleased to report that none in our crew did.

Eventually we came to the top of the Taylorstown Rd. hill and after that point it levels out with some nice downhills. The next turn was right onto Stumptown Rd., which was the part I feared the most. It starts out gentle, but then there is a false-flat in the middle of two pretty challenging uphill sections. After clearing the first part without problems, a more experienced rider informed me of the fact that it wasn't over yet. I caught my breath a bit and tackled the second (longer and a bit steeper) section also without problems, and before I knew it I was looking at a huge, straight and steep downhill - it was the top of 'The Wall'! This meant that the worst of the hills was over, and I had a wicked-fun downhill to look forward to as I finished off Stumptown Rd. Coming down 'The Wall' was great because, since the road is completely straight at that point, you could really let loose on the brakes and hit some serious speed. I hit 39mph, which for me is extremely fast (I'm generally very cautious on downhills). We all gathered again at the interection of Stumptown and Loyalty. When Dave pulled up he mentioned that he may be done for the day because of a problem with his crank arm. It appeared the big man had actually cracked his crank going up those hills! I had never heard of anyone doing that - no there's power! He was very nervous about whether it would hold together and how dangerous it might be to continue. He planned to ask the mechanic at the rest stop whether it was safe to continue or not.

Once we got back to Hamilton, Dave spoke to the mechanic, who informed him that he'd be crazy to do the rest of the ride with the bike in that condition. Many bad things could happen, including the crank coming off with his foot attached, getting caught in the spokes - you get the picture. He wisely decided to not risk it and caught a shuttle car back to Reston (again with the outstanding planning on the part of the Reston Bike Club). We would catch up with him later in the day after the ride, however, so all was not a complete loss. He also got in 50 miles before the mishap, so it's not like he didn't get in a decent ride.

After Dave took off, Jorge, Jack and I set off for the Hamilton South loop. I had not been on any of the roads in this loop before so I had no idea what to expect. Just a bit south of Hamilton we started on one of the major roads of the loop - Lincoln. It was more of what I've come to expect from this area - beautiful scenery, not much traffic. There were a few rolling hills, but nothing really huge. On this stretch of road Jack and I started to notice a pattern - every time we would be ahead of Jorge coming down a hill, just at the point where we were thinking to each other "where's Jorge?", he would come storming past us going at least 10mph faster. Jorge is a really skilled and daring downhiller, and as he later informed us he likes to put those skills to use in catching up with folks on rides.

As I was coming down one of those hills on the next road - N Fork - I nearly got myself into a 'spot of bother'. I noticed a large (1 inch diameter) but short stick on the road too late to avoid hitting it. Luckily I went over without incident, but it could have easily gotten caught in my spokes and sent me head over heels or flipped up and done the same to Jack who was right next to me at the time. Thoughts of broken collar bones and major surgery crossed my mind briefly, but I soon shook them off and was enjoying the ride again. Soon we were at the intersection with Snickerstown Pike, which by it's 'fatness' on maps I had studied I expected to be a more trafficked road akin to Colonial Parkway. NOT! It was another really small road, and one that started out with a pretty substantial hill to boot. At that point I thought all of our pretty-substantial-hill-climbin' was over, but I just put my head down and chugged upward. After a short stint there, we turned right again onto Silcott Springs Rd where again we hit another moderate sized hill. That was the last one of the day, however, and afterward we cruised into Purcellville and caught the end of the W&OD trail, which would take us back to the rest stop in Hamilton.

As I was waiting to cross the Berlin Turnpike, I clipped out of my right cleat to balance myself while I pressed the crossing sign button, and in my tired state leaned a little too far to the left after doing so, started to fall and was not able to get my other foot out of the cleat in time, and toppled over - taking Jack with me! I felt really awful, but Jack was in good spirits and just brushed it off. It was ironic because on the one training ride he had done with the group he had had a similar couldn't-get-the-foot-out-in-time spill on the W&OD, so in actuality he was pretty understanding. I'm glad I didn't take out someone I didn't know. Both Jack and myself had very minor scrapes and were able to continue without problems.

At the rest stop for the third and final time, we were all very hungry. I had noticed previously that they had PB&J sandwiches available, but hadn't had any before because, well, I just don't like them all that much. I overheard a number of bikers gushing about how good they were, so I thought I'd try one to see what all the fuss is about. Well, those were the best PB&J sandwiches I ever had in my life! I'm sure it wasn't the ingredients, it must have been the state I was in at that point (75 miles into the ride). I must have been giving my body exactly what it was looking for right at that moment - a perfect combo of carbs, fat, sugar and protein. I had 4 of them!

After our PB&J feast, we got back on the road to wrap things up. The way back was mostly downhill and nearly all on the W&OD, with one happy exception - Dry Mill Rd. Dry Mill Rd. going into Leesburg is a blast - all downhill, wide open, little traffic, about as much fun as you can have one a bike. Once back on the trail we were just counting off the miles. We decided to forgo the Ashburn Rd. rest stop so that we could get back quicker, and about 25 min later we were back in Reston. We had survived 100 miles!

Jorge, Jack and I got some food and sat down at the tables they had set up where the ice skating rink is in the Winter (just across from the fountains). We were all pretty tired, obviously, but in good spirits. Dave had left a message on my cell and he came down to meet us which was great. He apparently took his bike over to A1 cyclery in Herndon, where they fixed the crank right away.

We didn't see any of the metric century riders around and figured they had probably bolted. Just before we were preparing to leave we saw Matt, who informed us that everyone was at the bar at Clydes for an hour, but we had just come in too late. We also saw Mike Hammer, who had wanted to join us that day but had a bad spill the weekend before and had to drop out.

So, in the end we all shook hands and vowed to do some fall riding at some point, in addition to next year's Reston Century.

To everyone who participated in the rides and in the century itself - I just want to say that I had a great time and it was really great meeting all of you. I'll probably put togther a fall ride or two in the late September - October timeframe, so be on the lookout for more emails.


nothing - had a blast

consumed food!


wasn't trying for speed


Hats off to the Reston Bike Club for an extremely well run event. The signs at every turn on the course were particularly impressive.