blog.zgraggen.name  All-day insanity or I have a blog too!

Last Saturday I went to Boston for the Brewery to Brewery (b2b) ride. It is organized by the Harpoon brewery and the slogan of the ride is: “148miles for a Harpoon”. My friend Javier convinced me a couple of months ago to sign up for this ride. He thought we could ride it together, since he always wanted to do this ride. Unfortunately, I got in and he didn’t. Since, I have never been to Boston before, I looked forward to this trip especially since the ride was on Saturday which would give me one day for Touristy things.

The longest ride I did prior to this ride was 60miles in about 4h. Therefore I was a little worried and intimidated by the distance. But I knew that I would/could finish it. The question was how fast. I decided to start with the 30km/h group. Which was the perfect decision in hindsight. The riders were started in inverse order according to their estimated speed. The first riders started at 5:15am and as a faster rider I could sleep in a little because our start was after 7am.

Miles 0-16: Our Peloton consisted of 25 riders and we started all together through down town Boston. Because of the parade for the Bruins (which won the Stanley cup) there were 100s of spectator already waiting along the street and cheering us on. The speed was very moderate especially with all the red lights were we had to wait. During that part of the ride I talked to a couple of other riders, but mainly to Steven who is a very nice guy and a strong rider than me. Once we were out of the city the pace picked up a little and shortly after we were at “a rest stop”, or better said “Porta Potty City”. I didn’t have to pee yet, but I decided to wait for my new friend.

Mile 16-48: The field increased the pace. We were riding much faster now. Whereas before it felt like a relaxed Sunday ride, now there was some tension in the field. This tension got even bigger once our Peloton tried to overtake 5 other riders. Instead of latch in on the end, they decided to merge in the middle. This made for a very aggressive feel in the field. People were competing for “good” position within the group, which I didn’t like and though were completely unnecessary. So I stayed at the very back out of all trouble. From time to time I was still chatting with Steven and it seemed that the two of us had similar goals for the day. My hands started to hurt after 2 hours since I was riding on my triathlon bike in a non-aero position. I couldn’t wait to split up the group so that I could ride in an aero position for parts of the race. To my surprise the whole group stayed together until the first rest stop. But I knew the group would split up now since some people seemed exhausted already. Note: I noticed 2 people turning back before the first rest stop.

Mile 48-100: Me and Steven were ready to go after a couple minutes and decided to start alone. After a while some riders caught up with us. Eventually we had a nice group of around 10+ riders. We were rotating and were making very good progress. Even though Steven and I wanted to hang back till mile 100, we ended up pulling the Peloton. This felt great till about mile 97 where there was a long uphill to the next rest. I couldn’t keep up with Steven anymore. I was suffering and was questioning if I could finish it. Or I should say, I knew I could finish it, but this way it wouldn’t be much fun anymore. I started to realize that I screwed up my nutrition and didn’t drink/eat as much as I should have and I was also running out of water. Once I reached the 2nd rest stop I saw Steven waiting for me. How nice of him. I decided to drink a lot (Water, Zico, Coca Cola) my goal was to have to pee which I couldn’t 4h into the ride. All this drinking helped and I started to feel better and before long the two of us were on the road again.

Mile 100-126: Initially it was just the two of us but eventually there were 6 riders and we were rotating and made really good progress. >40km/h on flat parts. I seemed to have some strength back. Except on the uphill I was still missing my power. I also enjoyed all the aero riding I was doing when I was leading the group. About 90min into this section, I was in third position. The person in front of me dropped out of the Peloton. So I thought to myself that he must be tired and can’t lead. A few second later the leading person indicated that I should take the lead. This was only after a 30 second effort on his part. Well I didn’t mind and started pulling again. A couple minutes later when I indicated that the next should take over. Steven came next to me and laughed that we lost half of the group. Well it was up to the 3 of us now to finish the last couple miles of this section. This part was flying by and went over much quicker then I thought. At the 3rd and last stop I drank a Zico and a Coke again. Also I ate a banana, a pickle and some salt pretzels which tasted all delicious I finally achieved my goal and was able to go pee after 6h of riding.

Mile 126-148: Steven and I decided that we didn’t want to wait any longer and so the two of us were on the road again. The wind had picked up and it was harder to ride but after a while we had a small group together again and we made good progress. Except for the hills, where I still had a hard time. About 8miles before the finish a really fast group with some professional rider overtook us and Steven jump on their back. Unfortunately this was on an uphill section on I lost him. But on the top of the hill another fast group overtook me which I latch onto. We were rotating again, even though some people made barely any effort upfront. Luckily we also had some Triathletes which were pulling the Peloton very strongly. One weird experience was a wooden bridge which was covered and there was almost any light in there. I barely could see the ground and was keeping track of the other riders by looking towards the end of the tunnel (silhouette). This and the fact that I was really tired made this a very freaky experience. Unfortunately there was another hill before the finish and I couldn’t keep up with the group. On top of the hill there was a sign which made me unbelievable happy! It read: “All downhill from here”. What a joy, a couple minutes later I crossed the finish line. Amazing I did it!

I did the 239km in 7:40:20 (pure riding time, without rest stop time)

I really enjoyed this ride and will consider doing it again. I definitely recommend this ride to any other riders. But it might be a good idea to do more then 60miles as longest preparation ride. Here is a map of the ride.

Facts of the ride:

HR-Chart

This entry was posted on Friday, June 24th, 2011 at 6:44 am and is filed under Sport, Inspiring. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.