# I Care Classic Century



## Jeffh (Oct 4, 2006)

Anybody riding the I Care Classic Century this weekend ?

http://www.icareclassic.org/index.shtml

A few MTBR's and myself plan to start the Century @ 7:30

ibikergal and me plan to ride our old Red Tower Tandem it should be fun. :thumbsup:


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

You better start @730! You don't want to be on Day Road when the wind comes.


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## Jeffh (Oct 4, 2006)

Thanks for the heads up, :thumbsup: 

We do plan to start @ 7:30 but when you have a group sometimes things go a little sideways.

We are all Mt. bikers anyway a little wind just builds character.


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

Jefff said:


> We are all Mt. bikers anyway a little wind just builds character.


Forecast is winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. I just looked at the route more carefully. You are going south from Morgan Hill, so wind won't be as much of an issue. Coming back from Hollister is where you'll build that character.

The Gilroy Hot Springs area (from Roop to Canada) is one of the best places to ride in the bay area. It's short, but definitely sweet. The Canada descent is a blast, but then you have to ride on Hwy 152 for 1/2 mile and cross it. Be very careful on 152.


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## kmac (Feb 13, 2007)

Be careful on Hwy 25 coming back from Hollister too. I used to live in Hollister and people drive like idiots on that road. At least they did on the weekdays. Hopefully you won't have much traffic on Saturday. I'll second the vote for Gilroy Hot Springs, that is a fun climb and place to ride. Very little traffic. The area around Morgan Hill will be nice too. Day Road can be gorgeous and the ride around the reservoirs is where lots of the local Morgan Hill riders spend their time (at least I do!). Be safe and enjoy!


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## ibikergal (Oct 4, 2006)

*First Tandem Century !!*

What a great day for a Century!! :thumbsup: The weather was perfect, the roads were not too steep and riding with Friends is always FUN!!!

A few of our MTBR Friends decided to do the Century so we, that is me and my better half, decided we had talked enough about riding our Tandem on an organized ride, we better stop talking and Just Do IT!! :mad2: Up to this point we had not ridden the tandem for longer than maybe 2 hours and we had not ridden it in months, say 6 or 8 so this would be a challenge of our team work, endurance and tandem. 

The day started out early, our group of us and 6 Friends started peddling at about 7:45am. The air was cool and the wind was not too bad yet. The first climb was Roop Rd. the tandem is very slow up steep hills and this qualified as a steep hill in section. We did it and re-grouped at Canada Rd., then down Canada Rd. which was a very fast down hill with a few turn. I was a little nervous about the speed because I am on the back and can not see where we are going and we only have a small drag brake and cantilevers on the tandem. We got it up to about 39 mph and that was fast enough for me!! :yikes: 

Then to the flats, as a tandem we are able to cruse at a pretty good speed, I think our buddies enjoyed the nice draft we provided. As a stoke I have free hands so I took some pictures while we rode, see some below. 

We stopped a few time at the rest stops to eat and re-group and to stretch out my legs. Our group stayed pretty close together throughout the whole ride. We had a couple of people flat on the ride and we started to loose air in our front just 8 miles from the end, so we pumped it up and tried to get back to the van before it went flat, we were able to go about 29 mph on the home stretch with a little tail wind and we made it to the van just fine. 

What a day our first Century on the tandem was a success, in the end we did 101 miles with 3,550 feet of climb in a total time of 8 hours 15 min. and moving time of 6 hours 14 mins. with an average speed of 16.2 mph. Not bad for a couple of inexperienced tandem riders!! :thumbsup: 

This is the Motion Based Stats for the ride.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/...unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=2713077


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## Plim (Mar 31, 2006)

Thanks for posting the pics. It was a good ride; I was sad when my legs crapped out on the final straight and I just had to watch you guys (and my easy draft) take off into the distance. You two rode that tandem like you'd been doing centuries on it for years.


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## CHUM (Nov 4, 2005)

Great pics!

That was a HOOT! for my first Century....and trailing you guys back at the 93 mile mark goin' 29mph was killer :thumbsup:....I "heart" drafting tandems


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## Jeffh (Oct 4, 2006)

The Tandem was a cheater bike for this ride, I was able to cruise on the flats 20-22 mph and still keep my heart rate down. 

The wind on the return trip from Hollister was the only negative, next time we need to start just a little earlier and try beat that wind. 

It was fun to watch grrrah, CHUM and 8-track chase down the Deutsche Telekom Time Trial rider out on Hwy 25 and just crush him with there pace line. 

I noticed the Tandem did not seem to be handling well on the decent down Bailey rd (I thought it was just the wind blowing us around and it turned out that the front tire was going flat  ) We stopped on Santa Teresa Blvd and just pumped it up a bit and off we went. 

Yes it was fun going 29mph down Santa Teresa Blvd with a tail wind on the way back to barn. :thumbsup:


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