Stagecoach Century

A group of us from the club went out to Ocotillo this past weekend to do the Stagecoach Century.  This is a great ride through the desert, with about 5000 feet of climbing and (sometimes) rather fierce winds.  We were lucky this time; it was gorgeous weather, clear and probably about 75 to 80 degrees for the better part of the ride  Just fantastic!

Roger and I came in under 6:30 rolling time, with a 15.5 mph average.  Total elapsed time was 7:38.  (I figured it was a good practice to put that onto the Garmin, so that I'd be aware of how much time we were spending at the rest stops and lunch.)  We even had a flat to fix, so we got some time in for that.  Doing 100 miles in under 8 hours works out just fine; the standard pace expected for PBP would give you about 12 hours for the 100 so there's your little cushion for real food and sleep.  Not a lot of time, but some!

On this ride, I tried to work out what we'd need to keep track of on the computer.  It was handy to have the elapsed time, but I can't imagine keeping the Garmin going for a full 90 hours.  So I'll have to figure out how that works.  And you definitely need to see the total accumulated miles, but again -- am I going to want to see 750 miles on that thing?  Don't know how useful that will be.

Just for grins, I've gone on the United site to see if we can use award miles to get to France.  As of this date, we can - but we are not ready to make a commitment yet.  We need to survive the other brevets.  Roger has started to identify some that look good.  We are on for the 300 km on February 7.  It will be a flat course, so kind of a cop-out.  But at least, since I have never ridden that far before, it will give me a chance to see if I can hold up.  A couple of our club friends are planning to ride it, also.  Now, I know why I am doing this.  But what on Earth are they thinking?