Finally - The Century

Wow - at last a really beautiful weekend. Tom and I have been talking about doing a "century" - 100 miles - for a couple of weeks. There are two back-to-back centuries in the first segment of the ride. We have been complaining about cold winds, rainy days, and any number of other reasons for postponing what we knew we needed to do. In any case I dug up an old ride cue sheet from the Freewheelers (a local bike club) that started almost exactly from my driveway and we headed out yesterday morning. The route took us through some of New Jersey's prettiest country - mostly horse farms and small towns, all on good roads, and mostly rolling to flat. We went east through Monmouth county and somewhere around the 50 mile mark arrived in Manasquan where we made our turn and started heading back. We skirted the Pinelands coming back and, again, horse farms and a lot of good country roads. Only thing we had to complain about was a really nasty head wind that kicked in for the return trip. The temps were in the high 70s so it wasn't the cold winds we have been fighting since February but it was a true in-your-face, slow you down kind of thing that tends to wear you down. We finally pedalled back into Lawrenceville with the computers showing 99.15 miles - and we decided that was just about enough, lets go get a beer! So today I put a new set of tires on the bike and went out for a test ride. Actually the real point was to find out if I had any legs left after yesterday...I keep thinking of that back-to-back century exercise we will face in a few weeks. Another nice day, a day of spring breezes (the first rule of cycling: If there is wind it is always in your face!) and sunny skies . I did forty-some miles, enough to test the tires and let me know that the legs survived the century. This week looks like rain for at least the first couple of days - it will be forced recovery for us. We will be packing the bikes on Wednesday and shipping them out to LA a day or so later - after all the talking and riding this adventure is starting to seem very real. And David and Z - this photo is for you. (Tom's caption is Bob looking for a little more horsepower..)