2010 Middleton Century Ride

Chad Smith

Well it was time for the second year of the Middleton Century Ride. 160 kms of fun Nova Scotia Valley heat. and once again I rode (or at least started) with members of the Spinachers cycling team. Above is Chad Smith who joined us for the first time this year aboard his trusty Madonne Steed. We rode the first 50kms together and had a great chat and a few fun breakaways. Then it was up to me to continue on sans Spinachers. Last year the metric century and full century rode the first 100kms together. This year the split was at teh 50km mark and I was the only foolish person that decided to carry on for the full.

I took off with a group of other cyclists. Slowly we drifted apart until it was only 6 of us random fellows. Though there was great guy named Dave who I rode a bit with last year that showed up. It was nice to ride with him again. And I must also say it was much niceer just riding the course this year. While last years ride was fun and an adventure, the rest stops were so much better appointed this year, including an ice cream stop at the 85km mark of the full century ride. yes, your choice of many yummy ice cream flavours. Also the heat and humidity of last yeat satyed away. The temps never soard any higher than 28C. That alone was nice.

Now as it turns out the extra 60 kms was hilly. Oh nothing crazy but there werea few fun climbs. And I was happy to say that i aced them. I do a love a variable degree climb that starts out with say a 3-4% grade and then finishes with a nice 8 % or so. I can really geta good rythem and spins up those. Needless to say by the end of that section our little group was ripped apart. But we met back up at the next rest stop.

Here the Mavic Neutral Service Car makes for good drafting. Though the Kayaks won't help if we get a flat

As I didn't want to cool down too much I figured I would do my traditional solo effort from Annopolis Royal to Bridgetown. It is generally a bit of a tail wind and mostly flat so you get a good cadence going and really fly. Considering how much I rode already I was happy to see the speed stay in the high 30's and often into the 40's for the solo effort.

The final 25 kms saw Dave and I reteam our efforts and repass our friend on the recumbant bike. He was just a tenacious fellow, though he must have been lonely. This section was all rollers and a few gravel patches. But tight hamstrings be damned we pushed through and arrived back at the start point to a BBQ and food and the rest of the Spinachers who finished their metric century ride in fine form.

Spinachers enjoying a rest stop

I was really happy that I beat last years ride time by 1/2 an hour for a total of 5 hours and 39 minutes with an average speed of around 28.5 km/hr. And now I am looking forward to next year and getting that time down again. I think a 5:30 is in the cards.