I don't do but a handful of organized rides. This year I am definitely doing the Tour De Carroll on April 24 in Maryland and Pennsylvania; Americas Most Beautiful Bicycle Ride (AMBBR) at Lake Tahoe on June 6th; Reston Century in August in Virginia; Civil War Century on September 11 in Maryland and Pennsylvania; and Sea Gull Century on October 9 on the Eastern Shore. I already did the Vasa ride in D.C. and Maryland on March 7 of this year, so add that into the mix. A short ride that barely counts is the Ride D.C. that occurs some time in mid to late October in D.C. and Virginia.
There are a couple of other centuries I am considering doing: the Six Pillars Century out of Cambridge, Maryland on May 1 and the Cheat Mountain Challenge in August if I can find out how to sign up for it. I also found a webpage maintained by the Oxon Hill bicycle club that links to event pages for some more local events that I may consider.
Of these ride, I have only done one of them twice. Here are my favorites based on my limited exposure:
AMBBR: This is definitely a beautiful ride around Lake Tahoe. You see some spectacular views riding around the lake. A portion of the ride is along the bike path to/from Truckee. This runs along the Truckee river and is also very beautiful. I participated as part of Team in Training to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society (please help using the following link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/ambbr10/amfregly). With over 1800 other volunteers participating and proudly showing their city of origin with displays on their helmets, the ride had a festive feel and there was a strong camaraderie among the riders. Here is a link to some photos from last years ride: http://good-times.webshots.com/album/572918128cgwNha?vhost=good-times
This ride could be tough for someone who is not well trained. The ride takes place at altitudes ranging from around 5900 feet to 7100 feet. It has a couple of real climbs, a 500 foot climb early on at Emerald Bay and then a 1000 foot climb over Spooner Ridge starting at about mile 72 or so. There aren't any killer grades though the climb at Emerald Bay may have some stretches of 9% or so. The Spooner climb is probably more like 5% to 6%, but it weeds out the people who have not trained enough and turns them into zombies. I think the total climb for the entire century is about 4600 feet. For me the ride was not that difficult. This might be because I stopped 17 times to take pictures and took advantage of four break stops, this adding up to over two hours of breaks during the ride. I don't remember much effect from the altitude other than a noticeably higher respiration rate. Here is a link to a capture of the ride from my Garmin 705: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/6670206
Civil War Century: This is a challenging ride that I was really worried about after not training for most of July due to an inflamed knee and then suffering through the Reston Century on a hot August day. The website for this ride says it has about 7400 feet of climbing, but my Garmin had it at about 8000 feet. Note that my Garmin capture (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/13154713) includes a 300 to 400 foot bonus climb I did due to missing a turn. This was a ride for the serious club rider. On a ride like the AMBBR or the Sea Gull, you get a lot of people doing their first century or their one century a year. On these rides I feel fast because I am passing way more people than are passing me. On the Civil War century I found myself cursing the young skinny kids cruising past me on the climbs and muttering things like "Lets strap a 50 pound weight to your back and see how fast you go." For every person I passed, I probably got passed by five people. I believe that most of the riders you see on this ride are club riders who look to this ride as a test of their end-of-season conditioning. This is a beautiful ride right in our own back yard. It also provides a timeless perspective and a sense of history as you pass through famous civil war battlefields including Antietam and Gettysburg. The anticipation of the challenge of the vertical and the feeling of success on completing the ride made if very satisfying to me. This was the most vertical I had ever done in a single ride. I also rode for a while with a number of different people and really enjoyed their company. Here is a link to some pictures from the 2009 ride: http://sports.webshots.com/album/574643963oAgzmL?vhost=sports
Sea Gull Century: It was a tough pick between this ride and the Tour De Carroll. For me the Sea Gull is the bicycling equivalent of a first girlfriend. When I decided to get into endurance riding in the late summer of 2008, I made it my goal to do the 2008 Sea Gull Century as my first century ride. I trained hard according to a program I got out of a book on endurance bicycling and was able to have an enjoyable time with no suffering at all during the ride. It was an adventure to drive there the night before and spend the night in Salisbury, MD before getting up early to do the ride. It was like being on a mission. During the ride I got into several long-lasting pace lines and really liked the camaraderie that formed in the line. Then there was the pie and ice cream stop at mile 83. I took a longer than normal break to have an equipment failure addressed, so I got some extra time to enjoy the band and the pie. This got my sugar level restored enough that I was able to do the final 17 miles in about 45 minutes with the help of a couple of other people in a mini-pace line. The best thing was that when I crossed the finish line my wife surprised me by being there to cheer me. She had not come with me to the event and faked me out when I called her at the mile 83 stop, telling me she was at home, some 130 miles or so away. Another thing I liked is that it is a big big event. There are a lot of people and a lot of energy generated by those people. It is also a flat ride where you can hook up with some fast moving pace lines and make some good time. Then there is the pie and ice cream! Here is a link to my Garmin capture of the 2009 ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/15829361 and links to pictures from both the 2008 and 2009 rides. 2008: http://travel.webshots.com/album/567773873AKdgdq?vhost=travelj and 2009: http://sports.webshots.com/album/575053586ugGfzk?vhost=sports
Honorable Mention: The Tour De Carroll metric century is a great early season ride. I did it with several biking buddies and we had a good time riding together for a large portion of the ride. The ride has enough vertical to be a challenge on a warm day early in the riding season. The ice cream and cake at the end is a real reward. Here is my Garmin capture of last years ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/4236396
Now for a riding biography. My short description is: middle-aged man who does enough training to be comfortable on century rides with substantial climbing. Now for a little more detail. I am 50 years old and will be 51 in April. I started training for endurance riding in August of 2008 after a couple of years of doing 30 minute to one hour rides about four days a week. I now ride between 90 and 200 miles a week. During the winter I do the equivalent of 90 or more by doing spin classes and the Lifecycle. I will ride outdoors in the winter if it is above freezing and there is no ice and snow on the roads. During the spring, summer and fall I usually do between 110 and 150 miles a week with 200 mile weeks occurring when I do a century to start off the week. I live in Darnestown, MD, so my normal riding area is the fairly hilly northwest quadrant of Montgomery county, MD. A typical ride will have 600 feet to 800 feet of climb for every 10 miles. At times I will focus on my climbing during training and do things like climb Sugarloaf Mountain a few times as part of a 50 plus mile ride. Once I even rode up Skyline Drive from Front Royal. Sometimes I will do interval training on close-by Black Rock Rd. It has steep 160 foot climbs on both sides of a stream with grades up to 17 percent. Please don't take this to mean that I am fast on the hills as I am currently too heavy at 195 pounds and get smoked by the skinny riders. This is my story about why I get passed and I am sticking with it.
As far as equipment, I ride a Scattante Elite Triple. This store-brand bike has a carbon fiber frame, carbon fiber fork and carbon fiber stays and uses Shimano Ultegra components. I replaced the aluminum handlebars with carbon fiber to smooth out vibration. My computer is a Garmin 705 that has GPS and mapping. I like to schlep stuff around with me sometimes so I have a Trek carbon fiber rack mounted to my seat post and an insulated case that snaps into it. I have metal Look pedals. By reading between the lines you will see that I go for value but not at the expense of functionality.
To close, here is a link to a photo album that I use as a retrospective of the places where I ride: http://picasaweb.google.com/amfregly/ViewsFromTheRoad
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