2/13/2010
By: C. Kent, aka (Superman)

Hemet, Ca
Special edition:


Two years ago if someone would have said I would ride a bicycle for regular exercise I would have said they were silly. If the same people would have suggested that I would be ready or even willing to ride a Century I would have upgraded their position to crazy. But in both cases I would have been wrong and they would have been right. February 13, 2010 would be my third Century and I was looking forwards to it. This year I would be looking forward to riding with about eight or ten friends and hopefully even better weather than we had the year before. I knew I was ready and wanted to beat my riding time from the year before. Some things went according to plan and some things didn’t.

Shortly before the ride was supposed to take place and even before I registered for it my Lapierre had to go back to the manufacturer for what seems to be a small crack in the frame. I was a bit disappointed and considered not riding but I had rebuilt my Jamis and had ridden the Tour De Palm Springs on it the year before. So I signed up and starting adjusting my Jamis for comfort. I just got it dialed in on Friday the 12th. So I felt I was as ready as I was going to be.

Saturday morning some of us carpooled to Palm Springs were we attempted to meet up with everyone at post office just before the start time. That worked pretty well except not everyone knew where the post office was. We were all in contact by phone so our hope was to meet along the road or at one of the SAG stops. What I hadn’t counted on was that they changed the starting procedure of the ride to a staggered start from the main parking lot rather than closing the street and having a mass start. In my opinion that method simply didn’t work. With 9500 registered riders letting one or two hundred riders out onto the street every five to ten minutes was going to take a lot longer than planned

Still once we finally got started we did get most of the people together and headed for White Water. I felt we were making better this year than I had the year before and even on my backup bike I was passing people. I can tell you I passed very few people on my first century the year before. Shortly after we passed over the freeway we had our first flat and Tim was the unlucky rider.

We were still about 9 miles from the first SAG stop and I was mentally reviewing my plan for the ride. I knew I had to drink before I was thirsty and eat before I became hungry. I had both bottles full of energy drink and a back pocket with some energy bars and fruit and nuts. I also knew they would have food and water at each stop so I figured I had everything covered. I soon discovered I still had some things to learn. One was that the next eight miles was a constant and steady grade and two was that I should have eaten a bigger breakfast. I learned the first lesson I learned right away the second came later.

I was moving at a pretty good pace and noticed my heart rate was a bit higher than I wanted for such a long ride so I down shifted in an attempt to bring it back down into the 120 to 130s. It took a long time and soon we were passing the turn that the people doing the half century were taking. Forest fell back a bit to check on me and we rode together till we caught Ginny and Jill just before the Sag Stop. We rested there for a few moments while Forest and Jill got something to eat. We managed to find one of the riders we lost earlier but we got separated from Mark and Scott. Still Grieg and Ginny had a big smile on their faces.


The ride to the next Sag area started out well with a long downhill and those always make Ginny smile. We were moving along at a real good pace by then and I knew I was well ahead of my time from the year before. Then as we started up our next slight grade I noticed my right pedal felt like it was falling off. I checked it and it seemed to be fine but it was hard to apply any power on the right side. When I pulled into the next SAG area I discovered that my right crank arm was loose and I had to find someone with a wrench that would fit it before I could continue on. Once back on the road I spotted Dave coming to our rescue. Once he discovered I was already back on the road he drove back towards the Truck stop and the halfway mark SAG. I rode most of the way to the truck stop with Jill and Forest.


At the Truck stop we were greeted by our number one supporting family when Nicole showed up with her car all decorated with “Go team BSC”. We unloaded anything we didn’t want to carry to the end of the ride and refueled and refreshed ourselves as best we could. As soon as we were all refreshed and had our water bottles filled Nicole took a group picture and we headed out for the next leg of the ride.

The ride to the next SAG stop was one of the easier ones and a quick look at my bike computer told me that while we had stopped a bit longer at each stop my ride time was a bit better than the year before. I was glad I was still with the group on this section because I had missed the next SAG last year and the ride to the last SAG stop had been the hardest part of the ride for me. I had been out of water and food and I was just plain tired so I wanted to be sure to get more fuel before heading out towards the last stop. Here I learned lesson two. Somehow I had lost my small bag of energy bars and fruit and nuts. I didn’t notice it at the stop but I did shortly after we got ready to leave.

Once back on the road we had a pretty easy time riding over to our next turn and heading down Eisenhower. Jill and Ginny took the lead and Dave and I followed a bit behind. I reached back for some snack food only to discover I had misplaced or lost my goody bag and I could feel my energy leaving me. I didn’t help when I discovered I had a slow leak in the front tire. Another unscheduled stop but with the help of my friends and a Palm Springs SAG wagon I was back on the road in just a few minutes. I was still pretty tired but with a tire full of air it was a bit easier to ride and I continued on to the last SAG stop.

At the last SAG stop I ate a Banana, Orange and some trail mix that give me a bit more energy and we took off for the last ten mile stretch to the finish. Once we crossed the finish line I felt relieved to realize that I finished my third century and I did it with an average ride time of 16 MPH. Last year my average was 13.5 so I can say I must have improved.

We all got together and shook hands and hugged each and congratulated each other on a great ride. A bit later on several of us met for dinner in Palm Springs and I can’t remember ever being more relieved to get food and something to drink in me. It was a good ride, with good friends and just about perfect weather. And after dined we noticed that people were still finishing as we drove by the start finish. I can only hope they rethink the staggered start idea for next year.

The people in the group picture from Left to right are Forest, Jill, Tim, Ginny, Me, Ben, Grieg, Sigried, and Dave. Thanks to Nicole and the kids for the cheering and support.