A day in the Hamptons or "Two down, One to go"

Yesterday was the third year in a row that I participated in the "Montauk Century" with some guys from our Team Marty's riding group. 

This year, it took on an added significance as it is one of the three anchor rides for building up my mileage base for my Tour du Canada, which starts in just 5 weeks.

Unlike last year (45°F, raining sideways), this year we awoke to mid 50°s and a beautiful sunrise on the aptly named Sunrise Highway, in Massapequa, NY.

This year there were seven of us doing the Century, which I had described as "flat as a pancake" or more accurately "flat as a pane of glass" - there were only 870 feet of climbing (one bridge midway and a few hills at the end)  in the 105 miles.  I think this will prepare me well for the days in the Prairie provinces. 

We drove in to Long Island the night before and had a great pasta dinner at a restaurant which specializes in capturing that Long (pronounced with a hard G) Island atmosphere - Think of a mix between Joe Pesci and John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, with more food than 7 hungry cyclists could ever hope to eat.  The dinner arrived in mountains on our plates so we were well fed for the ride the next day.

The alarm went off at 4:30 after which we showered, had a bite to eat at the hotel lobby, and then drove the 5 miles to the start of the ride at the Babylon NY Train Station.  The ride started out ominously, with a missing shoe causing a 30 minute delay for us - apparently Pascal dropped one of his cycling shoes in the parking lot of the hotel, and we realized it was missing when we got to the start.  We headed back (in the car) to look for it only to get called back - another cyclist staying at the hotel saw the shoe, figured that it belonged to a rider doing the century, and brought it to the lost and found at the start.  A great "save" to what could have been a major bummer, but that is the helpful nature of the types of people who do rides like this.

With my base mileage for the Tour, I was unofficially designated (or took on the role) as the engine of the group, leading the others behind me.  No one seemed to complain, and others would come to the front now and then to take over.  To non-cyclists reading this, when you ride behind someone in a "pace line" you do up to 30% less work than the lead rider as he/she is in-effect "plowing" the air out of your way and you can draft behind in the slipstream.  We set off at a fairly good pace (18 - 20 mph) for the first 25-30 miles, and passed a lot of the riders who had started at 6:00 AM.  My view was that each person we passed along the route meant that the shower line at the end of the ride was one person shorter.

By the time we reached the first rest stop the morning clouds had burnt off, and we were riding in sunny skies with temperatures in the mid 70° s (F).  We stopped for a brief PhotoOp shortly after the second rest stop (50 miles) at a steel deck bridge where two of our group crashed last year - in that incident they suffered the usual cuts and bruises that come with a hard landing on the road, and unbeknownst to us at the time Marty ("thumbs up" in the middle of the photo) had broken his thumb - true to form we all finished the ride.

With that behind us we pressed on to the Hamptons.  To the groans of my fellow riders, I quipped that the green walls of vegetation blocking the views of the mansions behind them must have been the result of the "Hedge Funds" that are all over the financial press these days.  We opted for another brief detour for a Photo Op of the beaches and Atlantic Ocean that I will next be seeing in late August.

Our "Bentley count" through the Hamptons this year was: 3 Bentleys; 2 Ferraris; 1 Aston Martin Vantage convertible, and; one antique Mercedes convertible - I guess the economic downturn is affecting everyone, although there was still a lot of new construction happening.

By the way, did I mention that the route was as flat as glass? (see photo)

After a brief delay at mile 85 caused by a crash in our Peleton (those "wheel touches" can wreak havoc on the group), we patched Tim up and pressed on to Montauk.  For the last few miles, Pascal and I were playing a game of "cat and mouse" catching up to riders ahead, letting them draft off us for a bit, then slowing down and letting them build up a lead once again before cranking it up to 25mph again and chasing them down. 

When we got to the end of the ride, at around 1:30, we got our bikes loaded on the truck to be brought back to the start.  We arrived among the first 100 or so participants so no long shower lines (very important) or lines for food.   The ride was very well supported with well stocked rest stops (white chocolate chip cookies, bagels and pita with jam, peanut butter, Nutella, and plenty of other stuff) and a BBQ at five dollar Coronas the end. 

Showered and fed, we hopped on the 3:30 LIRR Train back to the start. The train was filled with riders, some of whom were still in their bike clothes, for the two hour ride back to Babylon - we were very grateful that we had the time to shower and freshen up before the return trip.  After about 30 minutes into the train ride it looked as if someone had released a canister of nerve agent on the train as every seat was filled with people, eyes shut, necks crooked, mouths open, and sound asleep, woken only briefly by the ticket agent to collect the fare.

Back at the start we loaded the bikes on the car, got to witness a few "Fast and Furious" drivers on the Long Island Expressway, and made it back home by 8:15 P.M.

I have now completed two of my three planned longer rides for training, with the "Revolutionary Ramble" being the last one, on June 12th before heading west.

36 days to "Wheels up" from Newark.