Orny's Cycling Journal

At this time last year, I summarized my first winter using a smart trainer and Zwift to maintain fitness. Now this year's spring blogpost is due, even though the Corona virus and shelter-in-place orders will extend the indoor riding season into April, and May, and June, and...

But let’s start with the good news and winter happenings before turning to the more unpleasant, ominous future.

The Harrogate UCI World Champs course

Epic KoM

Scenic ride through Titans Grove

Not a bad day, for December!

My Xmas gift: the Tron bike

New Year's in the Italian village

Combo Jersey

Halloween dinosaur on a mountain bike

The Herd kit

In the six months from October through March I rode 2,830 miles, 99 percent of them on the indoor trainer. I did one-third more riding than the previous winter, mostly because I didn’t get my trainer until December of that year.

In that time, Zwift has given us a lot of changes and additions. The most noteworthy were the addition of the undulating Titans Grove route, the Yorkshire UCI World Championship course, the short Crit City expansion, and a much needed redo of the half-baked Richmond (Virginia) UCI course. Zwift introduced mountain bikes and even tested steering in a short off-road path. And they debuted individual and team time trials, although I haven’t tried those as of yet.

And one has to mention how well Zwift have handled the dramatic and unexpected growth in usership resulting from the Corona virus lockdowns. A year ago, it was noteworthy if there were 10,000 to 15,000 people Zwifting simultaneously. Recently we’ve been topping out around 35,000: three times last year’s peak.

The biggest farce of the year has to be the Fence, a tool that community organizers have long begged for, to help keep group rides together. I found it inconvenient and fiddly. And ride leaders only transitioned their whining about fly-away riders to complaining about people merely riding close to the Fence. Plus Zwift botched the implementation so horribly that they had to withdraw the feature after a short time.

Meanwhile I made a few improvements to my own Zwifting setup. The biggest win was buying a smart outlet, which allowed me to turn on my cooling fan using my smartphone, without getting off the bike. I also wrote a background program called zwift-pic-monitor that automatically displays any screen shots I take while riding (normally Zwift saves each photo but doesn't show it). And I added a new IRL cycling jersey to my already large collection when The Herd—the club I ride with on Zwift—completed its long-awaited design.

On the negative side, I’ve been plagued by chain drops and slippage, particularly during high-power sprinting efforts. I’ve already installed a new chain, so I suspect my outer chainring is worn; however, I can’t verify or fix that at the bike shop until the current Corona virus lockdown is lifted.

That brings us to this winter's achievements; it’s quite a list.

In December I completed my first year on Zwift. Disappointingly, I never got the anniversary email they usually send out.

I finished the December 100-mile mission, the April 250k mission, the Italy and Everest challenges, the 5-stage Tour of London, the 7-stage Tour de Zwift, the 3-stage fondo series, and the 3-stage Haute Route Watopia. I rode 16 stages of the (nominally 5-stage) Tour of Watopia because they were doling out double experience points; but I only did one out of 3 stages of the Tour of Innsbruck. I earned the Zwift mountain bike & tires, acquired the Zipp 808/Super9 disc wheelset, and was awarded the much-coveted Meilenstein Lightweight wheels upon completing my 10th ascent of the formidable Alpe du Zwift.

I started the now-poorly-titled “off-season” at Level 26, and am currently at Level 38. But after two winters I’m only 56 percent of the way to the current max level (50) because it takes lots more XP to level-up at higher levels.

And then we get into the really noteworthy stuff...

After ascending 5.7 times the height of Mt. Everest, I earned Zwift’s Tron “Concept” bike. Everyone covets it because it takes a long time to get and has ostentatious glowing tires. Although noteworthy, it’s tacky and doesn’t perform any better than several “real” in-game bicycles, so it’s of little interest to me.

I earned the Masochist badge for completing 25 ascents of the Alpe du Zwift. That’s hard and also takes time to complete. A nice, respectable achievement. Tho I’ve just about given up on breaking the 60 minute ascent barrier.

I’ve already written about completing Zwift’s challenge for completing each of the in-game routes: first an initial 25 routes, then the full 67 routes. The second set was my most memorable and noteworthy achievement of the year, because it included several of Zwift’s hardest courses.

The longest of those routes was 107 miles, and I also extended the second-longest one to 100 miles. As you know, 100+ mile rides are how I judge my year. The following week I notched a third one by repeating the 33-mile Stage 1 of the Watopia Tour three times in one day.

With my usual real-world events being cancelled due to the Corona virus, I’m hoping to do rides on Zwift that match the distance and climbing of the outdoor centuries I’ll miss. The first of those was a challenging 200k (125 miles) with 8,400 feet of climbing that I completed yesterday, but that deserves its own separate blogpost. However, that means I’ve already completed four “Zentury” rides so far this year.

Mimicking my first IRL event is a segue to where my training stands now. In a normal year, I’d use this space to summarize my level of fitness and preparedness for the transition to upcoming spring events. Although outdoor riding is going to be severely curtailed, there’s still good reason to review where my fitness stands.

My Chronic Training Load (CTL) bottomed out around 50 at the end of October, as I recovered from a strained achilles, but the aforementioned route challenge motivated me to train hard through November, December, and January. By New Year's, my CTL had risen to 80, which exceeds my usual summertime peak. After those two Zenturies to complete the route challenge, my CTL maxed out at 98, setting a new and unexpected all-time fitness record—in January! Since then, I’ve let it subside back down to 75, which is still above my summertime peak form.

While recovering from last fall’s injury, I produced a disappointing 197W back in my November Functional Threshold Power (FTP) test; but in February I bounced back up to 215W, and a subsequent Alpe run bumped it up to 227W, which are both closer to what I would expect when I’m in form. I’ll see where I stand again in May.

Based on my CTL and FTP, I’m in great shape for whatever riding I'll do, indoors or out. But thanks to the Corona virus, it’ll be more of the former than the latter. All my group rides and major events in April, May, and most of June have been cancelled, and I expect that will also be the case through July at least.

It might make sense, then, to revisit the goals I set for this year. Ironically, four months ago, I wrote the following:

I don’t really expect to surpass my 2019 season, due to this year's confluence of circumstances. Will 2020 also feature great weather, limited travel, no job commitment, and an understanding partner who will loan me her car to get to distant rides? And can I continue to evade the growing concerns of age and health?

While I couldn’t foresee cancellation of the entire cycling calendar along with all other public gatherings, I was skeptical that 2020 would be as good as 2019. That was eerily prescient, huh? Barely two weeks into spring we knew that unless the trajectory of the pandemic suddenly changed, there would be no outdoor centuries for me this summer. We’re left now to do what we can with what we’ve got.

That’s why I can’t tell you how glad I am that I bought my smart trainer and started Zwifting in 2018, so that my indoor setup was up and running a year before we were ordered to shelter in place. I hesitate to imagine how stir-crazy I’d be now if I wasn’t set up for indoor riding!

But I’m not looking forward to spending one of my remaining summers inside. I already miss being warmed by the sun, fresh air, being out in nature, exploring new places, and making lasting memories. But putting miles down on the turbo is infinitely better than not riding at all… or being deceased.

Stay tuned, and stay indoors!

Six days after I finished my winter training with my first indoor century, I brought the bike outside for my first substantial ride of the year: the Pittsburgh Randonneurs’ 125-mile Sandy Lake 200k brevet.

I had more than the usual nerves leading up to the ride. After all, it would be the longest ride I’ve done in two years, and I was going into it with essentially zero prep. In the past four months, I’ve only done a couple short rides outside, none of which I’d count as “training”.

Honest, I'm stretching!!! #notamidget

For the first time ever, all my winter riding was done indoors, on the trainer, using Zwift. I’d done a lot of that, but would that be sufficient to power me through a 10-hour, 125-mile ride? I was about to find out!

And what better way to put Zwift to the test? The rolling route from North Park to Sandy Lake and back has over 8,000 feet of climbing, making it the second hilliest ride I’ve done since 2009.

It didn’t begin auspiciously. Eight of us set out promptly at 7am in unexpectedly chilly 45-degree weather, and I somehow scraped my calf on my pedal pretty nastily as I first clipped in.

As the miles and hours passed, the sky cleared and the sun slowly warmed the air, and riders started shedding layers of clothing. Although it’s too early in the season for the leaves to be out, it was heartening passing outbursts of forsythia, cherry, dogwood, and magnolia. My legs felt good, but I rationed my strength, knowing I hadn’t done much (i.e. any) training for endurance. After a while, both my knees and my traps complained insistently (the latter are my biggest weakness on long-distance rides).

An undetected tailwind that had helped us ride north became a much more noticeable headwind on the return leg. My strength faded and I remained with slower riders at a casual pace, rather than burn my few remaining matches.

We eventually plodded back to our starting point at 5:10pm. That’s 40 minutes faster than the roughly comparable McConnell’s Mills 200k brevet I did back in 2016. As measured by Strava’s “Relative Effort” metric, it was the fifth hardest ride I’ve done since 2009.

Although this was my second 100-mile ride of 2019, it was my first IRL / outdoor century of the year, after last weekend’s indoor century on the trainer. And discounting that “Zentury”, this was the earliest in the year that I’ve done a 100 mile ride, beating my 2016 brevet by four days. As far as I can figure, it was also my 75th confirmed overall century; there might be others, but records from my early years are incomplete.

It was a satisfying day; I got some sun, hung out with friends, and knocked out my biggest athletic goal for the spring. I’m very pleased at how well it went.

But before I finish, I have to revisit my preparation. I went into this event with the goal of putting my wintertime indoor Zwift training to the test. Was it effective? Was it valuable? Let’s look at that in more detail…

Tan lines starter pack

On the plus side, Zwift is fun; it makes indoor workouts more than tolerable, even attractive. It ensured I started the event with excellent cardiac and aerobic conditioning, with leg strength that was up to long miles and hard climbs, and with touch points (hands and seat) that could tolerate time in the saddle. In terms of building early-season fitness, Zwift was an unqualified, smashing success.

There’s another side of the equation, however. Although I’d done some long efforts on the trainer, other than my grueling indoor “Zentury”, none were more than half the duration of my 200k. While I gained strength and aerobic conditioning, I wasn’t building up the endurance needed for 10-hour rides.

At the same time, all the high-resistance work I put in compromised my joint health, specifically my knees, where I’ve been experiencing pain both on the trainer and during outdoor rides. I’ll keep a close eye on that, so I can ride as long as possible without needing joint replacement surgery and the associated time off the bike.

A much lighter consideration (pun intended) is that indoor training didn’t allow my skin to adjust to the seasonal increase in sun—and specifically UV—exposure. Yeah, I came home with a bit of sunburn, on a five-inch spot just above each knee. For proper springtime training, my Zwifting setup might need a couple sun-lamps!

More seriously, the net-net on Zwift is that it has been a complete success, and I’m pleased that the investment produced the desired and worthwhile improvement.

My previous post, following my Zentury, summarized my winter training and said that I had achieved my two expressed goals for 2019: using Zwift to both get over my 2018 malaise, and to begin spring at a high level of fitness. Sunday’s Sandy Lake 200k brevet was the final proof (the proverbial pudding), and I couldn’t be pleaseder (sic) with the result.

I also couldn’t be pleaseder that I’m now on break, with no major events until the middle of June. I’ll be riding—and might get another century in—but a good training plan includes periodization, wherein peak training is followed by recovery and consolidation before kicking it up another level. Fortunately, I’ve got a few weeks to kick back before the solid block of summertime events line up like dominoes.

But so far—and for the first time in a year and a half—things are looking really good!

My eight days of hell started Saturday with a resounding bang: my sixth time doing the Boston to Provincetown Outriders ride, which at 130 miles has been my longest one-day ride of the year since back in 2010.

The weather was almost ideal, starting cool and warming nicely under the solstice sun. The wind would be surprisingly favorable: starting at our backs on the southbound leg to Sandwich, swinging into our faces on the eastbound segment to Orleans, and then becoming a three-quarter tailwind on the final slog north up the cape.

Having trained less than normal this year, I decided to take things easy. This was made more pleasant and easier to remember when I latched onto two slightly slower riders—Ian and Billy—shortly after Quincy. We stayed more or less together through the first rest stop in Halifax, until I finally felt the need to kick it into high gear and attack the first steep hills on Long Pond Road as we approached the Sagamore Bridge.

After the walk across the bridge onto the cape, I munched on some Oreos at the midway rest stop in Sandwich before leading Ian and Billy up to the unforgettable rollercoaster of the Route 6 Service Road. There I dropped them again in order to use up some more of the energy I’d saved in the first 65 miles of the ride. After emerging onto busy Route 6A, I eased up until the next rest stop in Yarmouth.

Shortly thereafter, our route joined the Cape Cod Rail Trail. As the odometer ticked over 100 miles, I took the opportunity to rest while riding, chatting with another rider, Eileen from Manhattan, before pulling into the Wellfleet rest stop for welcome watermelon slices.

The next segment is always one of my favorites: the first view of the Atlantic along Ocean View Drive in Wellfleet, past Lecount Hollow and White Crest and Cahoon Hollow beaches, and then down swoopy and rolling Long Pond Road. Despite dropping my GoPro camera on the pavement while taking pictures while moving, I somehow still managed to set a new personal record time for this segment.

The hills of Wellfleet were followed by the final rest stop and then the hills of Truro. The miles ticked off, and the wind picked up on the final, exposed flat into Provincetown, sapping my remaining strength. But taking it easy had paid off well in making the ride a more relaxed and less painful experience.

I arrived in Provincetown and gathered up my event tee shirt at 3:15pm after expending 4,000 kCal covering 127 miles in 9h 10m and turning over 40,000 pedal revolutions. And I got paid an extra $27 for doing it, thanks to my employer’s health benefit!

After dunking my head in the harbor and then changing, I kicked around Provincetown for a few hours. I walked all over, and found a nice spot on the beach for looking toward town and contemplating what is probably my last Outriders ride and my final visit to Provincetown (next weekend’s extremely brief stop notwithstanding). I also spent some time at the former Wa store’s idyllic Japanese garden, but only about half its accoutrements remain after the store’s closure.

Before the ferry ride home, I fueled up with a chocolate milk, cola, Doritos, a lemon Italian ice, and two slices of pizza. When 8:30pm rolled around, I went to the ferry and turned over the free ticket I’d earned last year, when the ferry had departed an hour late and then gotten woefully stuck in a string of fishermen’s lobster traps. Thankfully, unlike last year, the ferry ran on time and my ride home didn’t involve any trips to the emergency room!

Overall, this year’s edition of Outriders was awesome: great weather, great route, great people, and just an absolutely wonderful day overall. I only wish more of my friends were around to share it with me. You can see my full set of pictures here.

Outriders will always remain a favorite memory of Massachusetts. At 130 miles, it has been the longest event in my cycling calendar since I stopped doing brevets. Unlike most organized rides in the area, it starts less than a mile from my condo, which means I can just roll out of bed and grab a bagel and go. And the ferry back home is equally convenient. The ride traverses some of the most beautiful and memorable parts of the Commonwealth and Cape Cod. If that’s not convincing enough, it’s filled with the most considerate organizers and friendly participants you could ask for. Although I may not be back again, I cannot recommend Outriders highly enough. It is a tremendous example of how good a non-charity group ride can be.

June has been quite a month, featuring some amazing rides, and then another serious crash. Here’s an update.

With Memorial Day coming early, this year I had an extra week between my big May ride (Tour d’Essex County) and my big June ride (Outriders). With beautiful weather on tap, on Monday June 2 I decided to throw down another solo century, just for fun. It would be my third century of the year.

While deciding on a route, I came across a century I did five years ago with the Quad crew, which went up to Dunstable and back, skirting a couple lakes.

Although I’d forgotten much of it, it turned out to be a beautiful route, which I extended a couple more miles up into New Hampshire (both in order to cross the state line as well as to visit Nashua’s appropriately-named side street called “Century Way”). Going through Chelmsford I briefly rode alongside an adult fox, and on the return leg I stopped at Kimball’s for ice cream.

Physically, my body wasn’t quite up for the challenge, as evinced by periods of serious pain in my right shoulder, left knee, and both hands. But having stressed my body, I expected it to adapt to be able to better handle the demands the next time.

“The next time” came two weeks later, when I undertook one of my favorite rides: the Outriders double-metric century (127 miles), which starts a few blocks from my house in Boston and goes out Cape Cod to finish in Provincetown. Thus my fourth ride of the year in excess of 100 miles.

The weather was absolutely perfect, and I paced myself in order to have enough strength for this perennial longest event of my cycling year. As a result, I spent time chatting with several other riders, and still finished 12th out of 125 starters. And that left me with five hours to enjoy in Provincetown before my 8:30pm ferry back to Boston. It really was a stellar day.

While the ride out was awesome, the trip back was a litany of troubles. The scheduled ferry broke down, and the replacement arrived an hour late for our departure. Then when we were halfway home, the new ferry shuddered to a violent halt when it got snagged in a line of lobster pots off Scituate, which took about 20 more minutes to extricate ourselves from.

By the time we’d docked and I’d put my lights on my bike, it was nearly midnight. I’d already been awake for 20 straight hours!

On the two-mile ride back to my condo, something happened. I’m not gonna go into the details of what or where, since my head injury prevented me from remembering much about the event. I’m pretty sure it was a solo fall from hitting something I should have seen. Although there are additional odd pieces of the puzzle.

What I do know is that I came to, completely disoriented, but knew it. I had someone summon EMTs and went to the hospital, where I was diagnosed with a concussion, cat scanned, and (after several hours during which my mental state gradually improved) released. I had some abrasions on my hand and foot, but the head injury was the most concerning. Well, except for the huge bruise I later developed from the nurse’s botched attempt to insert an IV port in my arm…

The bike initially looked kind of banged up. I’d popped both tires, bent one brake lever, and the front wheel was dented and out of true. Fortunately, it looks like the latter may be the only thing that needs replacement, and that should be covered by the extended warranty I bought on my wheelset.

The only thing I really need to spend money on—and the most impressive bit of damage—was my helmet, which was scraped up, dented, and cracked through in four places. While I have very little faith in bike helmets, I can say that I’m very thankful that my naked skull didn’t take the beating the casque did. I’m pretty certain it saved me from a crippling injury.

By the time I walked my broken bike home from the hospital, it was 3:30am. I’d been awake for 23 hours and 45 minutes. One hell of a long day!

That was last weekend. Most of the symptoms of my concussion have abated, although I’m still being very careful about it. My arm—which was fine until they tried to stick an IV into it—remains livid, very sore, and difficult to bend. The bike’s in the shop, and I hope to have news from them shortly. And a new helmet has been ordered.

You might be wondering what this means for my planned rides: surprisingly little. I had been debating doing an unsupported CRW ride that repeated the 130-mile Outriders route the following weekend, but the ferry problems had already convinced me to forego that. I usually do a solo century over the Fourth of July holiday, and that should still happen if my arm permits, although possibly on my old bike. My next organized group ride isn’t until July 20th—the Mount Washington Century—and I expect to be back in form well before that. Then comes PMC.

So overall, the crash won’t put too big a dent in my training goals. Mostly, it’ll hit my wallet in the form of medical bills.

But the thing that bothers me most about the whole episode is this: cycling entails risks you can control and others which you cannot, and I’m discouraged to think that this accident might have been something entirely within my control to avoid.

The 126-mile Outriders ride from Boston to Provincetown is definitely one of my favorites, but I approached it with some trepidation this year, my fourth time doing the ride.

June’s weather has been absolutely terrible. Two weeks into the month—not even halfway through!—it was already the sixth rainiest June in recorded history. And there’s nothing worse than the prospect of having to spend ten or eleven hours cycling in the rain.

I was also concerned about my physical preparedness for the longest ride of the year. On June 1st I’d barely survived a scorching and miserable Tour d’Essex County (ride report), and in the intervening weeks I’d only ridden one training ride and one easy commute.

Thankfully, the weather turned out to be perfect: sunny, mid-70s, with a light tailwind.

Last year my friend Noah had joined me on the ride, and this year we convinced our friend Paul to ride for the first time. We ambled down to the Cyclorama and checked in, then moseyed out of town on a route that largely followed my commute to work in Quincy.

Along the way, I took some video footage with my new(ish) GoPro camera, which you can see here:

It was a great test of the device I’d assembled to strap it to the back of my hand, which worked surprisingly well. The only problem was that the GoPro devours batteries, and it went dead right after the first stop in Halifax. Next time: lots of spare batteries, and don’t keep the camera on standby.

After inhaling a powdered donut hole, a mini-cinnamon bun, and a handful of grapes, we were back on the road. Noah, who has suffered with back problems for more than a year, started slowing noticeably only 45 miles in, well before we reached the Sagamore Bridge onto Cape Cod.

That put him back to about my speed tho, since I have 20 years on him, and I wanted to take it easy out of respect for the long miles and concern about my lack of training.

My legs were very tight and on the edge of cramping by the time we pulled into the rest stop in Sandwich, and the subsequent traversal of the rollers on the Route 6 Access Road was quite painful. Although I was doing better than Noah, I was deliriously happy to arrive at the 80-mile rest stop in Yarmouth.

The next segment included the long stretch on the Cape Cod Rail Trail. I was afraid it would be a mob scene on a rare beautiful Saturday, but we really didn’t encounter many people. And for me, it was the ideal breather; while I had struggled on the hills, I was perfectly fine on the long, flat stretch of the rail trail.

After crossing the 100-mile mark and a long rest at the water stop at the end of the bike path, we headed off into Wellfleet. I insisted on a brief stop at White Crest Beach to see how much of the beach and the overlooking cliffs last year’s winter storms had destroyed.

The infamous hills of Wellfleet and Truro again sapped our legs, but Noah and I soldiered on together. Although the Truro rest stop is only eight miles from the finish, one’s physical condition after 116 miles means there’s never any thought given to skipping it. Well, that and the brownie bites the organizers always provide! Much better than Paul’s choice: his 9th Slim Jim of the day…

Riding along the narrow strand in Truro between Massachusetts Bay and Pilgrim Lake, the batteries on my Garmin bike computer died just two miles short of the finish line, so I don’t have a complete GPS log. Paul, whose legs (and hair!) were better all day, waited for us at the Provincetown line, and the three of us rode in to the finish together, after 9½ hours in the saddle.

I have to say, the Outriders organizers really do a fabulous job, and this ride delights every year. The food at the rest stops is better than even the largest organized charity rides. The entire route is very scenic and arrowed superbly. The water stops are spaced perfectly: few at the start, but more frequent in the later stages. The ride is a great challenge, and ends at a wonderful destination. Even the event tee shirt is usually pretty well designed. The only negative is that they don’t provide ice for the riders, which for me is a basic requirement. Next time: chip in and buy our own at a convenience store.

This year’s ride was great for several reasons. The weather was perfect. I fared much better than I did in the earlier Tour d’Essex. And I shared the ride with my buddies. This was the first time I’d seen Paul this year, and sharing his first Outriders ride was a blast.

After a change of clothes, we had dinner at Bayside Betsy’s, where it took three tries to get the BBQ sauce I requested for my burger, then some lemon sorbet, then some pizza, followed by a lot of slack-jawed sitting around and gaping at the tourists. At least we were able to keep a delirious Paul from getting a tattoo while he was in town.

After a brief stop at a convenience store for even more food, we hopped the ferry. We managed to stay awake to see the first two periods of the Bruins winning Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals before arriving home in Boston and going our separate ways.

It was a good, long, hard day, but very memorable, and shared with good friends. What more could you want?

It’s June, so the cycling season has gotten serious. Here are the three most recent developments…

After opening the month with my first Tour d’Essex County (see previous post), last weekend I went to Maine to visit my mother. Except I did so by bike.

No, I didn’t ride the whole 360-mile round trip, but after taking Amtrak to Portland, I rode the 66 miles from Portland to Augusta on Saturday, then back again the next day.

Not that anyone reading this knows the area or cares, but my route basically follows Route 9 from Portland, past Bradbury Mountain in Pownall, crosses the Androscoggin at Lisbon Falls, endures some more serious hills going up to Sabbatus, then finally dumps Route 9 for the Litchfield Road and the Whitten Road into Augusta. It’s very hilly, and doubly hard when there’s the usual northwest headwind.

Still, it was well past time for my first back-to-back long rides of the year, and doing 136 miles over two days was good training for the upcoming Outriders ride.

On the other hand, I’d done the hills of Waltham’s Trapelo Road only two days before, and by the end of the Maine trip, my right knee was complaining pretty loudly. So I spent a few days off the bike to let it recuperate.

Item number two: yesterday was the 130-mile Outriders ride from Boston to Provincetown, at the far tip of the Cape of Good Cod.

I rode pretty strong, but started slowing down a bit after mile 80. My knee wasn’t happy, so I took it a bit easier on the hills and didn’t do any jackrabbit starts.

My buddy Noah came with, which was nice. He’s a strong, young rider, but he was undertrained, and had a bit of the bonk about the time we hit the century mark. Not only was this his first Outriders ride, but it was also his first time riding on the Cape, so I had fun taking him on the rollercoaster Route 6 Access Road and the CCRT and Ocean View Drive.

Despite our travails, we recovered and finished well. The ride seemed shorter than usual to me, and I felt better at the end. Part of that might be because it was a very cold day—about 61 degrees, with a stiff northeast headwind—but even so, nine hours and 130 miles makes for a very long, exhausting day in the saddle!

And, of course, this was my second century of the year, which keeps me on pace with previous years. Here's the GPS log.

After dinner and ice cream in Provincetown, we hopped the 8:30pm ferry back to Boston. I’m thinking perhaps next year I should host a pre-ride breakfast at my place, since I’m only a few blocks from the start.

The third item is that toward the end of Outriders I rolled over 20,000 miles on the Plastic Bullet, which has been my primary bike for the past six and a half years.

That bike’s been very good to me, and I don’t look forward to replacing it with a new, unknown quantity, but it’s definitely showing its age. My previous (steel hybrid) bike was retired with a little shy of 17,000 miles, so the PB has done a very admirable job. But as much as I hate to say it, it’s almost time to relegate it to "beater" status and find myself something new and shiny.

But first, we’ve got to spend another couple thousand miles together, doing my first Mount Washington Century and this year’s PMC, and maybe my first Maine Lighthouse Ride. So there’s still some more good times ahead for the old steed…

My third century of the year was actually a double metric: the 130-mile Outriders ride from Boston to Provincetown.

I started pretty promptly at 6am and rolled out with the second group out of the chute. I hung with them for the first 30 miles, even taking a pull or two, but decided after the first water stop in Halifax to let them go and set my own pace.

For the next 100 miles, I solo’ed the whole ride, virtually never seeing another rider except one or two at water stops. The cloudy and damp conditions we started in gave way to hot, direct sunshine shortly before I hit the Sagamore Bridge in Sandwich, and beat down pretty hard at times during the 70-mile haul down the cape.

My legs lasted pretty well until Yarmouth, about 80 miles in. From there on it was a slog. Delirium set in about the time I reached Wellfleet; when I turned onto Long Pond Road, which kicked off a final 30 miles spent reciting “Oh Long John” to myself. At the time, it seemed to capture my situation very eloquently. I’d later end the day with a reprise when the return ferry docked in Boston: Oh Long Wharf!

Despite really struggling the last 30 miles, no one passed me except for two guys who skipped the final water stop while I was resting there. In the end, I arrived at 3pm and was the 12th finisher out of nearly 200 starters! And despite riding solo, by keeping my rest breaks short I cut a whole hour and a half off of last year’s ride.

Finishing that early left me five and a half hours until the ferry ride home. First I went down to the harbor and washed some of the sweat, sunblock, and road grime off. Then, having expended over 5,000 kCal, I had a big postride meal at Bayside Betsy’s. I returned to the finishing area to watch stragglers come in, and helped pack up the tents, chairs, and other supplies. Then, after a quick side trip to a convenience store, I was off to the ferry.

Overall, it was a nice day, even if I didn’t have any of my buddies to share the ride with. The huge miles of solo riding really took a lot out of me, and it took a couple days to recuperate. But it was nice to be one of the first to finish what will probably be my longest one-day ride of the year, and it was awesome being back on the cape again. I look forward to hitting Provincetown again in six weeks when I finish my eleventh Pan-Mass Challenge.

Here’s the GPS log.

Saturday I finally did the Outriders ride, a 130-mile one-day ride from Boston, down to Cape Cod, then up the length of the cape to Provincetown.

I’d wanted to do the ride for many years, but was put off by such a long ride so early in the year. In addition, since it was mostly a gay a lesbian event, I wanted to ride with someone who had done it before and knew the group, rather than doing it alone. But this year my friend Lynda served as chaperone, and my friend Jay came along for the ride, as it were.

Having ridden a lot this spring, I knew I was ready for the miles, but I wasn’t sure about the weather. That uncertainty was compounded when I came down with a cold the week before the ride. But when the time came, I felt okay and the forecast looked ideal.

So Jay and Lynda showed up at my place and at 5:30am I found myself leading them down to the Cyclorama, where we checked in and waited around for a while before setting out at 6:13am. It was great that the ride began just a few blocks from my house!

The weather was a factor that demanded one’s attention. It was a stunningly gorgeous day, climbing from the low 60s to the mid-80s, with a light breeze that also increased throughout the day. It was one of those rare perfect days, and enjoying it by spending the whole day biking on the cape was a wonderful treat.

I knew the roads we took to get out of Boston, but once we were over the Neponset River and into Quincy, we were in new territory for me. However, the route wasn’t bad, as we kept to suburban roads a bit inland. Jay dropped behind for a bathroom stop at a Dunkin Donuts, but caught up again after a while.

After two hours on the road, the first water stop in Halifax was a bit of a cluster. We arrived at the place Lynda remembered (and where the arrows painted on the pavement directed us), only to find the lakeside parking area being actively torn up by construction equipment. After a few minutes, we pressed on and came to the ad hoc rest area a mile further on.

But that wasn’t all… The truck the organizers used to move food and drinks for the riders hadn’t arrived yet! Just before we left, it pulled up and we grabbed a couple apples to eat as we continued on.

A few miles before we reached the Sagamore Bridge, Jay requested another stop at a Dunkin Donuts, where I stretched and massaged my legs a bit.

We reached the high bridge and walked our bikes across, since there’s no barrier between bikes and automotive traffic. However, that gave us the opportunity to enjoy the breeze and a wonderful panoramic view of the Cape Cod Canal. Painted on the pavement at the end of the bridge was the message, “Welcome to Cape Cod!!”

The second water stop was just another mile up the road in Sandwich, and it represented the halfway point of the ride. Having been on unfamiliar roads most of the day, the remaining miles were mostly on the familiar route traveled by the Pan-Mass Challenge. I enjoyed showing the roads to Jay, who has spent very little time on the cape, despite living his whole life in Massachusetts. That included the roller coaster ride on the Route 6 Access Road, which Jay and I attacked with abandon, and the painfully trafficky Route 6A that got us to the third water stop in Yarmouth.

Then it was time to jump onto the Cape Cod Rail Trail for a long haul down the cape to Wellfleet. During this time, I rode completely alone, having lost Jay and Lynda and the entire Outriders crew. Although Jay had been ahead of us, he missed the turn onto the CCRT and wound up adding six or eight bonus miles to his ride before he got back on route.

For myself, I’d somehow programmed a water stop in Orleans into my GPS, but having seen none, I thought I’d somehow missed it. The truth was that the next stop was at the end of the bike path in Wellfleet, where I stopped and waited for Lynda and Jay.

This was where everyone started really feeling the strain of the ride. For the first 100 miles, we all did quite well, although often I’d fall off Jay’s pace, and Lynda would in turn fall behind me on the hills. It was only after we got beyond 100… 110… 120 miles that we each started to hit the wall, though no one cracked.

The familiar route through Wellfleet took us by a stunning overlook over White Crest Beach, where I made sure to stop and show Jay what the miles of beaches in the Cape Cod National Seashore are like. However, the Outriders route diverged from the PMC route in Truro, avoiding Route 6 almost completely. The alternative was a little hilly, but more scenic than Route 6’s commercial buildup. By this point, I was having cramps on hills, and had to pedal one-legged for a bit.

We enjoyed the final rest stop in Truro, which featured brownie bites, a light massage, and the shade of a big willow tree billowing in the rising wind.

From there, one final short leg brought us into Provincetown to the finish at the foot of the Pilgrim Tower, where we collapsed and sipped on ice-cold cola. I arrived at 4:36pm after riding 130.5 miles in 10 hours and 23 minutes clock time. That was split into 8 hours of riding and 2 hours in rest stops. My moving average was 15.8 mph.

One of the nice parts of this ride was that they had a bag drop, so we had street clothes we could change into. However, after ten hours on the road in the hot sun, we were absolutely grimy. Jay insisted on taking a quick dip in the ocean by the piers, where he surreptitiously slipped out of his cycling bib shorts and into his swim trunks, while Lynda and I opted for the more traditional route of using wet-naps in a restaurant bathroom.

That restaurant proved to be Bayside Betsy’s, a nice place run by a friend of Lynda’s. Although the food at the rest stops had been superb (Twizzlers, Nutella, grapes, apples), by the end of the ride my stomach wasn’t having any of it. I wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of trying to force myself to eat at a restaurant, but somehow I managed to order a steak, and by the time it came, my system had quieted down enough to enjoy it. The waiter provided Provincetown-appropriate banter that made it a pleasant experience.

By the time we finished dinner, time was already running short before our return ferry to Boston, so we walked down Commercial Street and had an ice cream at Lewis Brothers before boarding the catamaran at 8:15pm, with the setting sun providing a brilliant backdrop.

This was my first time on the Provincetown ferry, and it was quite pleasant. The only disappointment was that between the wind and falling temps, it was inadvisable to go out on deck. The ferry moved along at a solid 38-40 mph clip and had us back in Boston at 10pm, where we mounted back up for the comparatively short ride back to my place from Long Wharf.

We said our goodbyes and headed to our respective beds, reflecting on what a beautiful day and what a wonderful ride it had been. The only negative was that we hadn’t had enough time in Provincetown, but I find that’s always the case when I visit the cape. I was dead tired, but in a good way, with no real complaints about the ride or my performance. It’s definitely a ride that I will look forward to doing again in future years.

GPS Track Log: 2010 Jun 19: Outriders Boston->Provincetown
Sat, 19 Jun 2010 05:26:28 -0400

First time doing the 1-day, 130m Boston to Provincetown Outriders ride, accompanied by Jay and Lynda. Gorgeous and perfect and epic day. My longest day in the saddle in a long time. Slight adjustments to route due to construction in Boston and at the first water stop. 8:30pm ferry ride back is recorded in a separate GPS log.
Owner:	ornoth
Location:	--
Activity Type:	Road Cycling
Event Type:	Special Event
Distance:	129.93 Mile
Time:	11:19:22
Elevation Gain:	3,208 Feet

Follow this link for my full 2008 Pan-Mass Challenge ride report, including writeup, photos, and maps.

Follow this link for my full 2006 Pan-Mass Challenge ride report, including writeup and photos.