The Charles River Wheelmen, who organized this ride, is a bike club that started in 1966. They certainly know what they're doing. They have three centuries every year, one in the spring, one in the summer, and one in the fall. This is the spring one. It goes, basically, from Wakefield, MA to Kensington, NH and back.

The turnout was huge. I overheard someone say there were 350 people doing the century. I don't know if that is true, or whether it was 350 doing all four rides (100mi, 100k, 50mi, 25mi) or what, but there were a lot of people.

It started out as an okay day, a bit overcast, but warm. Around mile 20, it started to rain. Around mile 25, it started to pour. Around mile 40, it started to get cold. Around mile 50 it was cold and rainy. All the weather forecasts called for "occasional scattered showers" but unless there was a scattered shower that followed the ride, I think they were wrong.

I wish it had been a nicer day, some of this country is really beautiful, full of horse farms and marshland. But it's not nearly as nice when you can even see because your face is full of road spray and your helmet has a waterfall coming off the front of it.

Still, most of the people were very nice and fun to ride with. I was happy with my time. There's a difference between charity rides and club rides. Charity rides are much more social and chatty. Club rides have a much higher focus on riding and are more "business like". Club rides have fewer waters stops and you are expected to be much more self-reliant. Not that one is better than the other, they're just different.

Statisics:

Date:

16-May-04

Type:

Road

Miles:

105.88

Time:

6:20:31

Avg:

16.93

Max:

36.0

[Mile 0] Everybody fresh and ready at the 7:30 AM starting line. It hadn't yet started to rain. A big crowd. The shorter rides didn't start for another hour and it was almost impossible to find a place to park in the Wakefield H.S. parking lot where the ride started.

[Mile 26] This is a lake just north of Haverhill, I think. The camera said this was taken at 8:54, so 25 miles is about right for 1½ hours. It's been raining for a while now. Blury, because I have no intention of stopping! I'm happy to say that Olympus' claim of having a weather proof camera seems to be truth in advertising.

[Mile 46] The first of two water stops was in Kensington, NH, roughly halfway. It's getting pretty cold by now, and no one lingered long here. It had been raining for hours by now.

[Mile 55] More rainy road

[Mile 62] Crossing the Merrimac River

[Mile 100] Mile 100

CRW had a very nice food spread at the end of the ride back in Wakefield

Our hero. After last time, I specifically asked this guy to include the bike in the picture, but apparently, he'd never taken a photograph before and didn't know how cameras work. Hence the blur.

Road grime. The bottom one is a "control sock". The top two were the ones I was wearing, the bottom one is what they started out looking like.