The plan was for the 11 of us on Team Frankfort Bicycles to stay together and ride a comfortable pace, using the rest stops to re-group as needed. We stopped at mile 23 (2nd rest stop), mile 50, and lunch at mile 60 (good lunch w/wraps and plenty of fruit). Legs were starting to cramp a bit by this point and I was cooling off, so told the rest of the team I'd take off and easy pedal until they catch up. They caught me ~mile 70 after I rode an extra mile to visit a rest stop I didn't want to stop for! We stayed together for about a mile until I started to pull away with another team member (Sam). We decided not to stop anymore, so took turns pulling the rest of the way in. We finished ~15 minutes ahead of the rest of our team. As this was my first century, I'd never been in the saddle that long before... and my ass was letting me know that for the last 25 miles!

Now a word about the wind... a nice flat course for my first century (~400ft total elevation gain) was turned into a real test with the insane head wind for the first 50 miles. Never experienced a heart rate of 174 doing 12 mph on the flats before! Wow. It was nice to have the tail wind for most of the ride in though... managed to hit 27mph a few times without too much effort.

Should have brought my tri bike instead of the road bike. Thought I'd be group riding most of the time and sitting up. Turned out I spent most of the time in the aero position anyway (I've got clip-ons on the road bike), either on my own or pulling the rest of the group. MUCH more comfortable in the aero bars than sitting up on the hoods... probably 'cause I don't do many group rides.

Had a beer with the rest of the team.


Nothing other than maybe my bike selection. Then again, this was a training ride for the Cap2Cap Century in 3 weeks, and to start figuring out nutrition planning for long rides.


VERY well organized and supported! Post race activities were moved into the high school cafeteria because the wind wrecked havoc with the tents. Will definately do this again next year... and it's for a great cause (American Diabetes Association)!