# Sunrise Century near Nashville



## Bryan Crow

The _"*SUNRISE" CENTURY*_ will run Saturday, September 3, 2005, at 7:00 A.M. CDT. This event—with tours of 24 and 48 and 100 miles—has been the Mid-South's premiere cycling event since 1986. It's the oldest, biggest, easiest, and fastest century within a day's travel from Nashville. 

For 2005, there's a new start and finish at Rossview High School in Clarksville, Tennessee. That's just off I-24 at Exit 8. In fact, there's a lot that's new about this century. It has a new name, a new location, new courses, and new times. 

*IS THIS THE OLD "LABOR DAY CENTURY?"* Yes. That's what most of us have called it until now. It's Clarksville's traditional 100-mile bicycle ride, first staged in 1986 and mounted on Labor Day weekends since 1990. Since its actual name kept changing and growing longer, and since Clarksville's "Sunrise" Rotary Club may move it to a cooler date in 2006, now is a good time to shorten it. And the _"Sunrise" Century_ does start just after sunrise.

The new courses minimize climbing and turning. The pavement is smooth and clean, and the countryside is gorgeous. We believe in unmistakably marked routes, so there'll be arrows every quarter-mile. Traffic is minimal, and it'll be controlled at busier intersections by police and course monitors linked by radio to emergency medical technicians, SAG, and ultralight aircraft patrol. Our aid stations are exceptional and strategically located. There'll be support for the lead peloton provided by quiet motorcycles, spaghetti after the ride, and separate starting times for your protection: 100-mile: 7:00 a.m., 24-mile ride: 8:00 a.m., 49-mile ride: 9:00 a.m. Final on-site registration times: 100-mile: 5:50-6:50 a.m., 24-mile: 6:50-7:50 a.m., 49-mile: 7:50-8:50 a.m.

*WE'VE MOVED.* We ran out of parking space at Northeast High School, so from now on, the ride will start and finish at Rossview High School. Exit 8 of I 24 in Clarksville, Tennessee, is 45 miles northwest of Nashville and 270 miles southeast of St. Louis. The school is six tenths of a mile west of the exit, on the right. Parking and security are excellent, and there are plenty of hotels at Exits 4 and 11. 

*ADVERSITY? OR THE LACK OF IT? * One of the most popular bicycle rides in America bases its appeal on how hot it gets, another on how hard you have to climb. We mean to make the _"Sunrise" Century _ just as successful by taking the opposite tack. Our century courses have always required less climbing than the other centuries in the Mid-South. When you factor in light winds and traffic and smooth pavement, they've been among the easiest anywhere. But if you thought our previous 100-milers were easy, wait till you ride this one. 

*EASY MEANS FAST. * Few of us are elite athletes, but remember, the fastest course is also the easiest. If you want to know how easy a ride is, ask how fast it can be ridden. The fastest 7% of last year's century riders finished together in barely more than four hours (4:01:13). That set off a buzz. This year, people are coming from around the country, determined to break 4:00:00. Their enthusiasm inspired us to come up with the fastest 100-mile course we've ever laid out. 

*THE NEW CENTURY COURSE: * We were able to reduce climbing elevation by 369 feet and reduce the average grade by 18%. The only significant climb rises 66 feet. As you'll learn from the detailed PDF maps on our web site, there are 40 turns now instead of 63. Road surfaces are even smoother than they were last year. As usual, we've taken pains to ensure that the course is 100.0 miles long. 

*THE BLACK PATCH EDGE: THE RURAL ROADS OF THE PENNYRILE PLATEAU. * The hilliest century we ever mounted was easier than anything else within a day's drive of Nashville. Clarksville is blessed with a cycling paradise on its northern doorstep. Its terrain is level to slightly rolling.We're talking about the Pennyrile Plateau, a Mississippian Plateau named for the Pennyroyal mint plant. The region is also called the "Barrens" or the "Black Patch." Native Americans burned it off for generations, and most early pioneers bypassed it for fear it wouldn't afford good soil, fuel, shelter or game. It proved to be the richest farmland in this part of the South, so its fields are still full of corn and beans and wheat—instead of subdivisions. Only 11,000 people live in Todd County, Kentucky, so there's not much traffic. You'll see farm machinery and Mennonite buggies on the roads, along with some cars and trucks. On the century course, as you approach the rest stop in Fairview, Kentucky, you'll see something incongruous rising above the lush countryside. That's the Jefferson Davis Monument. It looks just like the Washington Monument, though it's a foot shorter. Fairview is Davis's birthplace. 

*THE SHORTER COURSES: * The two shorter courses—21 miles and 48 miles—are shortcuts. They start and finish on the same roads as the century. The first 35 miles of the 48-mile route, for example, are the same as the 100. Its last 14 miles of the 48 also coincide with the century route. Naturally, the shorter courses are easier than the century, but even for 21 and 48 miles, they're unusually easy.

*REGISTRATION:* Pre-registration guarantees a T-shirt to everybody whose registration is received before August 23. Everybody else will get one too on the day of the ride as long as supplies last. Don't worry. If we run out, we'll mail you one. Services include SAG, emergency medical service, rest stops, maps, cue sheets, bathroom facilities and porta-potties, showers (bring a towel), massage, lunch, limited repair services prior to the start, and other goodies.

*NAVIGATION, HYDRATION AND SAFETY: * "Keep 'em out of wrecks, keep 'em hydrated, and don't let 'em get lost." That's our motto. We hope it's yours too. We're going to bend over backward to keep you safe, on course, and hydrated. We're counting on you to do your part. There'll be more arrows this year to guide you around the courses and more aid stations to keep you refreshed. Like every organized bicycling event, we've had some injuries. Few have resulted from single-bike accidents. Most have occurred when people were riding close together. Massed starts are dangerous enough when every rider is experienced and everybody's riding the same route. Mix in inexperienced riders turning off the main route and merging back onto it, and it's no wonder bikes get tangled. We're going to do what we can to make things safer.

*HELMETS ARE MANDATORY. SO ARE THE FOLLOWING STARTING TIMES:*

*100-mile Start: 7:00 A.M.*
Packet Pickup and Late Registration: 5:45 to 6:50 A.M.
(Note, however, that we'll start the lead peloton and its escorts several minutes before 7:00 A.M.)

*21-mile Start: 8:00 A.M.*
Packet Pickup and Late Registration: 6:50 to 7:50 A.M.

*48-mile Start: 9:00 A.M.*
Packet Pickup and Late Registration: 7:50 to 8:50 A.M.

We're starting the riders of the three courses separately to reduce the chance of collisions during the early miles and where the courses split and come back together. Separate starts will also spread demand at the rest stops, making it easier to get refreshments and use the porta-potties.

Please don't embarrass yourself. If you plan to ride the 48-mile route, wait until 9:00 A.M. If you start with the century riders and then take the 48-mile shortcut, you'll be seen. SAG and Rest Stop operations will stop at 4:00 P.M. Transportation back to the school will be available until then. If you stay out on the course after 4:00, you'll be on your own. Furthermore, showers and other amenities won't be available at the school after 4:00 P.M. No exceptions. On the day of the event, you'll need to sign a legal release in order to ride. By signing, you agree to these _"Sunrise" Century_ policies. 

There's lots more information about the _"Sunrise" Century _ on the website*—http://www.clarksvillecentury.com/default.htm*—probably everything you'd want to know. If you don't find what you want, though, please email *[email protected]*.


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## BNA_roadie

*Change not always good......*

This use to be a "must do ride". But several of my buds, including myself are bagging this year. Why? No metric and weird start times. Don't change the CRAM.


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## Bryan Crow

Hello, BNA Roadie.

I’ll bold passages in this long piece so you can just skim for anything that interests you. Nobody has to read it! 

We’re glad you’ve enjoyed our rides in the past. *If * we’d thought *your reaction* was going to be *typical*—and it may be—we wouldn’t start the three rides at different times. We think they’re safer and will ensure better service at the aid stations and access to porta potties, but it won’t matter how wise we thought we were if you and many other riders stay home because of the new policies. If I’d heard your reaction ten days ago, I would’ve had the Rotary Club delay printing the brochures until we could conduct a “quick ’n’ dirty” survey to see if you and your buds are, indeed, representative.

You’re right, Roadie. *Change isn’t  always good. * We’ve talked about that at length. Since we’re staking our future growth on how easily or how fast the new course can be ridden, we hope to use it without changes until Clarksville burgeons into that pristine countryside. Thank goodness, that time lies far in the future. Row crops are still profitable enough that the farmers aren’t selling to developers!

Now, because of your post, we have to second-guess, and there’s a tendency for people to hop on bandwagons. I won’t be entirely surprised if your sentiments gather adherents as forum members read your message and this reply. I wonder if part of *your reaction * is *to our peremptory language* about the starting times (“Helmets are mandatory. So are these starting times. Don’t embarrass yourself.”). 

What prompted these strong words? Scofflaws, especially slow ones, starting up front despite our pleas. Slow pokes starting up front are a *nuisance as well as a hazard*, especially during starts and at split and merge points. We think it would be irresponsible of us not to try to reduce a hazard that has produced numerous injuries. The nuisance the slowpokes create will become more significant as we rely on “ease and speed” as a theme. For the sake of the more “serious” riders we expect to draw, we think we should do what we can to facilitate smooth, safe rides without rolling road blocks—such as youngsters and even casual tourists holding up folks who come here to ride fast.

Don’t get us wrong, Roadie. *We love kids and slow riders. * At age 66, I’m not so swift myself (though I’m considerate enough to start behind my “betters”). In fact, we’ve always encouraged slow riders who’ve never attempted the 100-mile distance to try their first centuries here. Let me come back to that point again later. 

*We do have to cater to century riders to some extent*—not necessarily fast ones but century riders. The Rotary Club wants to make this ride one of the top rides in the country. It’s investing a ton of work to ensure that it deserves a large turnout: more aid stations, more course marshals, and more road arrows, just to name a few improvements. 

*How can we draw more riders? By bringing them from farther away. Few people who ride shorter rides will travel far to ride their bikes, but century riders will.* We think they’re our future. We’ll continue to offer shorter courses, but we seem to have topped out in the “local” market. The same folks come almost every year. You stuck with us even when administration got a little sloppy a few years ago and services weren't up to snuff. Why did everybody keep coming? Because so *many of you like to ride in at least one century every season that’s not hilly. * 

About the metric: If you’ve checked the detailed maps on the web site, you’ve seen that the shorter courses are shortcuts on the century route and share most of their mileage with the century. That’s going to facilitate service, not so much to reduce our volunteers’ labor as *to keep you safe, keep you on course, and keep you hydrated.*

But that’s not the main reason we dropped the metric. *We simply couldn’t come up with a tenable course 62.1 miles long.* When we started and finished at Northeast High School, we were always able to lay out metric courses of exactly 100K (as close as we could measure*) But *we didn’t have much choice about moving to Rossview High School.* If you rode with us last year or the year before, you know *we ran out of parking * at Northeast. If you should change your mind and try our “new look,” you’re going to be delighted with the parking at the new location.

Actually, we did discover a permutation of our roads that yields 60.1 miles. It even shared most of its mileage with the century route. Maybe we should’ve used it. We could’ve extended those 60.1 miles by starting and finishing on the extensive service roads within the campus. That would’ve created a traffic problem for the parking area, however, and the resulting metric wouldn’t have been as smooth and level as the 48-mile course. 

It _would _ still have been smoother and more nearly level than any other metric in these parts. It’s amazing how subjective mere impressions can be. *One of last year’s riders complained* that our (harder) 2004 century course was harder than a century he rode the week before. It turns out *he rode a metric  course the week before*, a metric far easier per mile than that same event’s 100-mile ride. Maybe he was still tired from the metric. *It required more climbing in 62 miles than our old century course did in 100.*

I’ll hear rebuttals, but we think *there’s more magic in the 100-mile distance than in the 100K distance.* Most *Americans still think in miles.* In fact, it was long time after the emergence of the term “century” that the term “metric century” came into popular use. I confess there was a certain elitism among the “real” century riders who dismissed metrics as wannabes. To be fair, many of them were laid out by organizers whose localities didn’t lend themselves to the longer distance. Many of us like to ride metrics early in the season before we tackle 100 miles. 

I like them any time. *Not everybody who likes metrics resorts to them out of wimpiness. * Some people want to finish early, especially on the Saturday before Labor Day when it’s hot and their families have other plans for the weekend.It may sound more impressive to say you rode a “metric century” or you rode 100 kilometers than to say you rode 62 miles. I don’t begrudge those bragging rights, but the magic of the *100-mile distance * derived more from its status as *an impressive feat*. “I pedaled 100 miles!” 

Cycling 100 miles has been *compared to running a marathon*, although old marathoners and duathletes like me think we know better. I think 114 miles on a bike matches the marathon more closely. It depends on how fast you ride or run and how hilly the courses are and, especially for cyclists, how windy it is. I’ve ridden 200 miles in two days, and while some people can run 52.4 miles in one day, I couldn’t run that far in two. That may be because I never just _ran _ 26.2 miles. I always _raced_. I ran as hard as I could. I ride bikes for fun nowadays, not to compete. 

I suspect *many metric riders* haven’t yet ridden the longer distance. In his heart of hearts, a rider like that *would probably prefer to own century bragging rights. We believe anyone who has ridden the typical metric century can complete our “full century.” * The “Sunrise” Century offers that opportunity. In fact, I’ve ridden metric centuries that were tougher than our century.

Here’s another notion that may earn me some flak: *I’ve never believed 62 miles is enough of a step down from 100.* I think the more appropriate dividing point along a rider’s development is between 100 miles on one hand and some distance less than 62 miles on the other, maybe 50 miles. Exercise physiologists say it takes a lot more training to build up from a sedentary lifestyle to running ten miles or riding 50 than it takes to jump the rest of the way to running 26.2 or riding 100. My coach told me that when I started, and *he was right. Once I’d reached ten miles, additional running miles came quickly.*

I don’t think the typical century rider is a great deal fitter than the metric rider who hasn’t yet ridden 100 miles. *People for whom 48 miles will be a challenge aren’t yet in the big leagues, but metric riders, in my opinion, are.*

I suspect you’ve ridden centuries already, BNA Roadie (Nashville Airport Roadie?). If you haven’t, and that’s one reason you’re disappointed with our new offerings, *please consider making ours your first century.* Many people have. 

Where else can you find a 100-mile course with such easy rises, a course that’s also seldom windy and never traffic-ridden or rough? *There surely must be such centuries out there, but I’ve never found one.* I haven’t even found one with so little “climbing,” regardless of traffic, wind, and pavement. 

I’ve been emailing bike club members around the South who live in areas where the terrain is gentle. I’m asking them to recommend 100-mile courses. I ask those of you reading this to submit your own nominations. I plot the maps and cue sheets they refer me to in _Topo USA._ *I’ve found just one ride within a few hundred miles of Nashville that’s flatter than ours, and it’s not a century.* I highly recommend the _Tour de Corn _ in East Prairie, Missouri. It’s a wonderful metric. 

*The average amount of climbing for each mile of the Tour de Corn is the same as for US 1 along Florida’s east coast.* I love Florida, and I’ve ridden US 1 numerous times, despite Florida traffic and strong winds that almost never relent. Even the elevations along the pancake-flat roads of the Plains States go up and down a little—about as much as US 1 and the _Tour de Corn_.

*Our roads are definitely not flat.* We’ve been justifiably upbraided in the past for using that adjective. They’re gently rolling, but since so many people advertise their century courses as “gently rolling,” I guess we should say *ours roll much more gently * than most. Last year’s 4:01 finishing time says something, but who knows how good those riders were? A bicycle racer I know rode our new course recently and said he thought this year’s Tour de France peloton might finish in as little as 3:20.

Our course requires three times as much climbing per mile as the _Tour de Corn _ or US 1. If that sounds like a lot, consider this: It’s highly unlikely that many people who read this ride roads nearly so easy, not on a regular basis. Certainly no century course I’ve subjected to _Topo USA_ has matched ours.

*If you’re sick of my bragging, I readily concede that easy and fast don’t guarantee a great ride or even a great course. * Fast may not turn you on—easy either. I love our luxuriant farmland. You may not. You may love the spectacle, majesty, and challenge of mountains. *Think of our ride as a dessert, * something an athlete deserves occasionally after sticking to the meat and potatoes (veggies and pasta?) of his usual roads. People who rode in *last year’s lead peloton told us it was a thrill to sustain high speeds for 100 miles,* a sweet reward for all their hard training and competition over hilly and mountainous roads.

The CRAM? You’ll be relieved to hear, Roadie, that I’m only peripherally involved with that ride. I drew the maps. That’s about all. But *the CRAM * (Clarksville Annual metric Century) drew 750 riders this spring. It *may simply have to follow us to Rossview High*, and if it does, the course will have to be revamped. As much as I love the CRAM, I wouldn’t mind the elimination of that blind sharp turn near the bottom of the steep descent just before the bridge. Despite course marshal’s fervent warnings, people wreck there every year.

Since I’ve written this much, let me return to the “weird” starting times—7:00 a.m. for the century, 8:00 a.m. for the 21-mile ride, and 9:00 a.m. for the 48-mile ride. Let me point out that *if your wife, child, or friend rides one of the shorter rides, you’re all going to finish at almost the same time. Enjoy the spaghetti together! * 

*Why did we space the three rides so far apart?* It was the only schedule, according to our estimates and calculations, that *guarantees that the century riders* (except for the slowest of us, who may mingle with a few of the slowest 48-milers near the end) *won’t have to merge with the others. * Imagine the lead peloton, hell-bent on smashing four hours, bearing down on oblivious dawdlers riding three abreast. That’s not an imaginary example. That’s happened too many times.

Do these starting times put you off just because they're unconventional? Are you an early bird who just hates to wait until nine to get out on the road? I was born here in Tennessee—but on Hawaii time! I’d love those extra hours of sleep. Many centuries don't start until eight. Yeah, it’s probably gonna get hot, but *few of the 48-mile riders will spend much more than four hours on the course. * I bet they all finish long before the course closes at 4:00 a.m. 

We think the trade-off is overwhelmingly positive. *There shouldn’t be much rush at registration. The spaghetti cooks will have a narrower window for serving. We expect the starts to be safer and smoother. It’ll be easier to use the porta potties and get refreshment at rest stops. Course marshals and SAG will be able to take better care of everybody. * 

*I apologize for the tone * of the brochure, Roadie. If our admonishments not to cheat on the starting schedule offended you, we didn’t mean to insult anyone. We hope any insult fades, because we want you to at least give the new arrangement, the new course, and the new Start-Finish a fair try. We survey our participants. *If our riders don’t like the changes, we’ll make adjustments*, though going back to Northeast High (seven miles farther from Nashville) with its limited parking is almost surely out of the question. *It’ll be ironic if our success, which forced the move, is undermined by the move, won’t it?*

If the new schedule draws enough fire, we may have to go back to starting everybody either at the same time (which we’d dread) or very close to the same time. Of course, it would be *mainly the people who ride the shorter courses who might complain* about delays. I have to point out that *they’ve always been a minority.* As the event grows, most *newcomers will ride 100 miles, so the minority will shrink * as a proportion of total entrants. We hate to slight anybody. There may be a tiny market for very short courses for children, for example, but we have to keep our eye on the ball, on the century. 

*This event began as a century. * We added shorter rides for the minority of people who can’t finish—or don’t prefer to ride—100 miles. The _“Sunshine” Century_ has gone through many variations of its name. We eventually came to be known as somebody or somebody else’s _Labor Day Classic_. That name deemphasized the century. We chose the new name to honor the best management we’ve ever had, the Clarksville “Sunrise” Rotary Club, an organization determined to take us to the big-time. We also reinstated the word “century” to characterize the event. All the shorter rides have been concessions (not condescension, mind you!) to the *relatively weak market for “sub-century” distances.*

Bryan

* *We’ve measured the century course at least a dozen times.* We began with a *car * odometer, adjusting by a correction factor derived from driving 40 miles between Interstate mile markers and repeating the exercise three more times. Then we used three different *GPS * receivers, three *bicycle computers * (also corrected), and *Topo USA  * (which has proven amazingly accurate). We didn’t resort to a Jones counter. We may, but *we’re already confident that he course isn’t “short*,” and we believe the over-distance is altogether negligible. We weren’t as diligent about measuring the two shorter courses. They’re both a little long—but not much too long, not enough to reach the next whole-numbered mile.


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## BNA_roadie

*Thanks for your response....*

I've been riding for about 6 years now and have done both, spring and fall, Clarksville rides for the past 5 years. I have completed several centuries, Harpeth River, 3 state 3 mountain, West Palm leukemia TNT, etc, and no longer wish to do them. That last 15 miles is a bear and would rather not torture myself. 

Actually my 100k best was in Clarksville, avg'd 20 mph. I really like flats, 5'11" & 250 lbs. I'M NOT a climber. 

48 miles is a tease, 9 am start, I should be half way done with the ride and the sun is way past rising. Maybe next year it will change again. Best of luck on your new schedule. 

BNA Roadie
yes, from Nashville...the south west side, not airport. Not that there is anything wrong with that.


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## Bryan Crow

BNA_roadie said:


> I've ... done both, spring and fall, Clarksville rides for the past 5 years. I have completed several centuries ... . That last 15 miles is a bear and would rather not torture myself.


Can't blame you. Roadie. With my arthritis, there's no way I could've ridden 200 miles in two days on an upright. I ride a 19-pound recumbent with suspension front and rear, a Lightning R-84 I bought in 1998. On our roads, I'm significantly faster on it than on my Trek. On hillier roads, I'm about as fast on either bike. on the R-84, I make up on the flats what I lose going up hills. On very steep roads, I may be a little slower on the R-84.



BNA_roadie said:


> Actually my 100k best was in Clarksville, avg'd 20 mph. I really like flats, 5'11" & 250 lbs. .


You-are-_strong_!



BNA_roadie said:


> 48 miles is a tease, 9 am start, I should be half way done with the ride and the sun is way past rising.


Forget the official ride. My number's in the book. Call me, and I'll email you a map of the 60-miler we decided not to mount. No, wait, I'll tell you right now how it goes. Go to the website and print out the 100-mile map. Then use the other two maps to highlight the 60-mile route as follows: 

1) Take the 21-miler to Hampton Station Road. 

2) Follow the 100-mile ride from Hampton Station Road to Hermon, Kentucky. That's at the intersection of Old Railroad Lane and Hermon Road. 

3) Take Hermon Road south back to Kentucky 848 and then follow the 48-mile route to the finish. 

If you can put up with a 17-mph senior citizen some weekend, I'll lead you around the course myself. 

Oh, and here's another possibility: If I can get the race director to let you start with the century riders, come on up on September 3 and ride the 60 while everybody else rides the other routes. That's not exactly cricket, I guess, to make you a priveleged character. But I say anybody who has ridden with us ten times deserves special attention! Strictly speaking, you wouldn't be riding the 48, so maybe they'd consider it. The trouble is, there won't be any rest stops open between Trenton and the finish until after the official nine-o'clock start of the 48.

BC


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## Bryan Crow

I was out painting "reassurance arrows" today. I'm talking about extra road marks between navigational choice points for your peace of mind. If you ride a quarter-mile without seeing one of our arrows, go back until you find them again. We're painting hundreds of these extra arrows to reassure you that you're on course.

Our webmaster is on vacation until the weekend, so the list of registered riders is running way behind. We have many more than the _"Sunshine" Century_ web site shows. Extrapolating from preregistrations, we expect 1000 riders. That's more than last year but not as many as we're shooting for. 

This is just the second year that this Rotary Club has taken responsibility for the ride, and these guys are workers. They've come up with a lot of neat new angles, and they're going the extra mile to ensure excellence.

The long-range weather forecast shows a string of clear days leading up to and through the day of the ride with highs of 88 to 90 degrees.


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## Bryan Crow

As we have for years, we've arranged for protection by Clarksville and Montgomery County law enforcement. Guthrie, with a population of 1100 will get us across US 79 at Tiny Town, and their cops will help us through downtown Guthrie too. Trenton and Pembroke police will be on standby, but they're tiny communities, and we probably won't need their police. 

The news is that Elkton, a Norman Rockwell town of 1200 people that we last passed through many years ago, is rolling out the red carpet. There's just one stop sign on the route through Elkton, and the police chief has suspended it for cyclists. No need to stop. Just pedal through town. The chief will also have cars out on the town's western approach to safeguard us, and he will personally escort the lead peloton through town.

We're waiting for the webmaster to return from vacation. The web site still shows five aid stations around the 100-mile course. We've added a sixth, and we may add another. The six are listed below. Refer to the maps and cue sheets on the web site.

Webb Road: Mile 8.75 
Trenton East: Mile 27.05 
Trenton West: Mile 42.91 
Fairview: Mile 56.12
Allensville: Mile 73.63
Guthrie: Mile 88.64


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## Bryan Crow

*Attention: BNA_Roadie and anyone else who was disappointed that we dropped the metric this year:*

There's a PDF map of a 60.6-mile course on the ride website. This route has been approved, sort of. It's not official and won't be supported. They'd still prefer everybody to ride an official route.


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## Bryan Crow

Ride officials have disavowed the 60-mile ride. I apologize for posting information about it. The map has been taken off the website. 

The unofficial 60-mile course would've included four miles of unsupported road, and it could've created a hazard where it would've split off and at places where it would've merged back into official courses. 

Neither the Rotary Club nor the insurance company can take responsibility for "persons riding an unofficial course." They don't want anyone to ride the 60 or any other course except the 100, the 48, and the 21. 

I understand their position, and I hope members of this forum do too.


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## BNA_roadie

*maybe next year they will make it offical*

12345


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## covenant

That's a shame, because 48 is nothing and I'd rather not do 100. Well at least I had the HOT100 last weekend and have the Elk River Valley ride to look forward to on the 10th.

It sounds like you've got a great ride organized for the distances listed tho. Thumbs Up!!


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## Bryan Crow

Who's going to ride the _"Sunrise" Century_ under four hours? It's not a question of whether anyone will; it's a question of how many. 

Besides two locals who rode in last year's 4:01 peloton, we know Nashville members of that same lead group are coming back. Unfortunately, I don't know their names. I do know the ones from Spartanburg, South Carolina. We also heard riders from the Dothan, Alabama, area might come. 

There's every reason to think plenty more plan to join in. There were 35 in the group last year, and many more people have registered this year. Counting those riding the two shorter courses, we now project a total field of 1300 riders. On top of that, we've been touting the speed of the course, hoping to stimulate interest in a new record.. 

Tuesday, people from the Murfreesboro, Tennessee, bike club called ride headquarters and said they're coming to ride the course as fast as possible. They're going to provide their own support. Maybe that's because they plan to ride faster or slower than the official lead peloton, the one the ride organizers themselves plan to support. All these people need to talk to each other.

We need to get all "Sunsrise" speed demons in touch with each other. As one of the Spartanburg riders said, the hope is to reprise the chemistry of last year's lead group, which cooperated as if they hadd been riding together a long time. They really drove. They started fast, held a sizzling steady pace, and kept good order in the pace line.

The official website mentions a 6:55 a.m. CDT start for the peloton, five minutes ahead of the main body of century riders, but the thinking has changed slightly. A Nashville rider says, "Just give us a one-minute jump. Anybody who can catch us is good enough to ride with us." That's the plan now.

The lead peloton barely missed holding a 25 mph average last year, so ride officials plan to call the peloton to assemble for its advance start, stipulating that only riders confident they can hold 25 mph should start with this group. 

One former peloton member, also a member of this forum, worries about cooperation. He thinks everyone planning to assault the course record should have a quick pow-wow before the start.

The official ride site may address this possibility later Wednesday. Meanwhile, I hope everyone on this forum planning to shoot for a sub-four finish will e-mail me so I can put you in contact with each other.

Bryan Crow

[email protected]


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## covenant

Well, it should be all over. What were the results? How many were there and who beat the 4 hour mark?


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## Bryan Crow

Ten riders, eight on single bikes and two on a tandem, finished in 3:53:00. The captain of the tandem is a Senior Category 1 road racer, and he set the pace. It was blistering, 29 mph for the first 23 miles. Combined with an uncharacteristic 12 mile-per-hour breeze with 20 mph gusts and humidity so low you didn't realize how fast you were you losing water, the pace dumped a lot of good riders. 

People who finished in last year's 4:01 lead peloton failed to finish as fast this year. Peter Kotland, a top professional triathlete, elected to break off at 70 miles. He said, "The pace was just insane, 27 mph uphill into a strong head wind." To be fair, Peter was tuning up for next week's Ironman Wisconsin and couldn't afford to use himself up here.

About 100 people started in the peloton but at least half of them fell away by Mile 20. Between Mile 20 and Mile 25 several other groups and individuals fell away. 
Forty-one people stayed together for about 60 miles, still averaging 27 mph. A long slope approaching the highest point on the course shattered the lead group, and then more individuals began to fall away, one by one. One man hung with the peloton all the way to Mile 99 before dehydration caught up to him. He came in shortly behind, caked with salt.

Only 950 riders showed up, not a shabby turnout, but since more than 500 preregistered, we expected 1300. Maybe Katrina and the scarcity of gasoline in the Southeast kept people home. 

Finishers who didn't know I was connected to the ride said the new course is now their favorite-because it's not as hilly, and it has fewer turns, but what impressed many of them was even smoother pavement and even prettier vistas.

I took pictures of the top ten finishers and got their names. I'll post them next week.


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## BNA_roadie

*gotta brag on my boy........*

My 9 y/o boy did the 49 mile route & avg'd right at 18 mph. Needless to say, he napped on the way home! Kudo's to Travis on the Tandem at 3:53.


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## Bryan Crow

Lemme see if I'm understanding this, Roadie. A nine-year-old rode 49 miles? Whoa. That's heavy. That's amazing, just the distance alone. At 18 mph? In that wind? Is that solo or with Dad on a tandem? I mean, it would be very impressive for the two of you to make that kind of time together on a tandem. I can't ride that fast, not anymore. But if your son cranked out 49 at 18, I gotta ask: You raising the next LA?

I notice you call it 49. Maybe it is. A lot of people who rode it today said it's that long. We measured the 100 over and over, using GPS, Topo USA, and bike computers corrected against mile markers. We're very confident of the accuracy of the 100-mile distance, but we didn't take nearly as much care measuring the "48" or 49 or whatever it is. That's because we chose the course for the scarcity of hills and for its convenience. It shares all but about three miles with the 100. We didn't care whether it was exactly 50 miles around. In fact, we measured it at well under 50, 48.26. But I'd never defend that number. If you say it's 49 miles around, that's cool with me.

Yeah, Travis was honking it on. The tandem spent more time pulling then any other bike in the peloton. I watched from the support truck. Three motorcycles ran interference.

I wish I could've met you and your boy while you were here. I don’t blame you for bragging on him.


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## baking3

*Good for him!*

I thought that might be your son. I recognized the bike from one of your posts earlier this year (after all how many kids have bright orange Oreba racing bikes?). Good for him!




BNA_roadie said:


> My 9 y/o boy did the 49 mile route & avg'd right at 18 mph. Needless to say, he napped on the way home! Kudo's to Travis on the Tandem at 3:53.


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## BNA_roadie

*48 or 49, its wasn' t the century OR THE METRIC! The middle one.*

Bryan, sorry 'bout the metric jab, just had to do it.

We lost sight of him in the very begining, he ended up with a group of 6 or 8 riders. My wife and I were on a tandem and struggled for 80 minutes to catch up we were averaging 20 mph.

I had to get to him to make sure the little feces was eating and drinking. We finally did and at the 2nd rest stop, he recharged and we came back in a 17.8, he was sucking my wheel the whole way. I doubt he was doing much pulling when we didn't see him. I only remember the wind being an issue for a few miles towards the end. Not a big deal.

So, with us averaging 20 then 17, I'm guessing he averaged close to 18 the whole ride. He doesn't have a puter on his bike. The clock said 5 hours, less 2 for the 9 am start time, less ~20 minutes total at 2 restops = 17.97.

His best time previously was 15 mph over 40 miles. He was running a 42t chainring & 16/22 cassette, which he was spining out on and not drafting. I since have changed that to a 11/28 cassette and taught him to sit back and suck a wheel.

We are going to try to get him in the TN State RR in Leipers fork in two weeks, I was told he could by a dude at TriStar, sans a license. We will see.

oh, the pic of him zonked out, it's not his tongue it a piece of gum! LOL.


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## Bryan Crow

Hello, roadie.

My South Carolina buddy who's staying with us this weekend saw your son out on the road on his high-end European kid bike. What’s this boy's name? The boy’s athletic ability is enormously impressive. I'm all the more impressed because you've taught him how to ride, to spin and draft. We could be seeing it in velo news in the not-so-distant future. If someone had asked me if a nine-year-old could ride at 18 mph for nearly 50 miles, I would've scratched my head, because I wouldn't have been sure it had ever been done. That's mostly because I don't know much about kids'. My pal found it entirely credible from the git-go.

I deserve the little jab you kicked off with, and I'm pleased you and your family came up and rode with us despite the missing metric. We've already decided to reinstate the metric distance. The big question we are wrestling with now is whether we can get away with 60.6 miles. As some members of this forum know, we could tack on an additional 1.5 miles by exiting the campus from its western end. We’ve seen how much more plentiful the parking is, and it doesn’t look like using the service roads to start the metric would encroach on it. 

We’d prefer not to. Besides, it may well be longer than 60.6 miles in the first place. I haven't actually measured that course with bicycle computers or GPS receivers. Topo USA shows 60.6 miles. I’ve found the program to be amazingly accurate. If the so-called 48-mile course is actually 49 miles long, however, it's entirely possible that the putative 60.6 mile course is actually 61.6 miles long. 

Believe me, we’ll put more effort into ascertaining the lengths of the shorter courses. Our insouciance may make people think we were lackadaisical about the length of the century. We weren’t. I doubt any century has been measured more and measured by four different methods using ten different apparatuses.

We hope hurricane Katrina and the uncertain availability of gasoline explains yesterday's low turnout. This is the first time in all the years that we've tracked it that we've failed to end up with 2.6 times as many total entries as preregistrations.

I talked with dozens of finishers who didn't know who I was, and in 19 years of Clarksville centuries, I’ve never heard such glowing reactions. But it’s time to let the riders speak for themselves.


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## Bryan Crow

We'll get the names of these guys straight as soon as we can. Meanwhile, here's a group shot of the guys who finished first yesterday. There's one guy too many. maybe that's because the guy who goy dropped at 99 miles and finished immediately behind the peloton posed with them. I'll find out.


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## covenant

Great Ride report and it sounds like everything went great...maybe a little too fast or too windy for some but excellant none the less.

By the way....that little boy is my Hero!!


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## baking3

*Loved it!*

Bryan,

This was my first organized ride (I did the 48), and I have to say it was fantastic! The organization was excellent, the directions and SAG were great! I did not find 48 miles to be a challenge per se, but it was a nice length. I would have attempted a metric, but as it was I went for a personal best time at that distance. Between the drafting and the terrain, I made it in 2:20, a 20.5 mph average (very good for me since I am a very consistant 18.5 mph solo rider on the slightly hillier (sp?) routes around my house). I think adding an "almost" metric starting on the other side of campus next year is a good idea, but I won't be riding it - I'm going to do the CRAM in May and attempt the full "Sunrise" century  . See you there!



Bryan Crow said:


> I talked with dozens of finishers who didn't know who I was, and in 19 years of Clarksville centuries, I’ve never heard such glowing reactions. But it’s time to let the riders speak for themselves.


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## BNA_roadie

*I thought.............*

the metric would be back! BRAVO! You guys did a GREAT job, especially the road markings. 

The boys name is Max, Max Gander..........."Maximilian the Great".


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## Bryan Crow

Perfect name. Riders around here will get to know it... and Max too, I hope.


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## Bryan Crow

I said I'd let the riders speak for themselves, but I just have to relate what we're hearing outside this forum. A retired gentleman approached the ride director after the ride and said he rides one organized ride after another and has participated in cycling events all over America. He said ours was the best ride he'd ever seen. We heard many, many similar comments.

We expected at least 1300 and drew only 950 riders. We've never had so many no-shows. More than 100 people who preregistered failed to show. Last year, only 20 failed to show. This alone makes us think Katrina plus gas prices and the iffy availability of gasoline did a lot of damage to us. And now, there's corroboration. I just learned that some 30 of the no-shows called to say those were, indeed, the reasons they stayed home.

Here are some photographs of guys who finished first. There were ten riders who crossed the finish line together in 3:53:00, and we have pictures of a bunch of guys. I'll track them down and match pictures and names as soon as I can, or maybe some of you on the forum can identify them.


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## Bryan Crow

I uploaded a dozen photos of guys who rode in the peloton, ten of whom crossed the finish line in three hours, fifty-three minutes flat. I see only three of them made it to these pages, so here are some others.


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## Bryan Crow

baking3 said:


> Bryan,
> 
> This was my first organized ride (I did the 48), and I have to say it was fantastic! The organization was excellent, the directions and SAG were great! I did not find 48 miles to be a challenge per se, but it was a nice length. I would have attempted a metric, but as it was I went for a personal best time at that distance. Between the drafting and the terrain, I made it in 2:20, a 20.5 mph average (very good for me since I am a very consistant 18.5 mph solo rider on the slightly hillier (sp?) routes around my house). I think adding an "almost" metric starting on the other side of campus next year is a good idea, but I won't be riding it - I'm going to do the CRAM in May and attempt the full "Sunrise" century  . See you there!


Thank you very much, baking3. Speaking for the Rotary Club and the two of us cyclists who who ran the website, wrote the brochure, laid out the course, and marked it, it does our hearts good to read your kind words. Comments like yours guarantee that we'll try to outdo ourselves next year. Wouldn't it be neat if Lance and Sheryl drove up and rode with us then?


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## Bryan Crow

For an excellent report on the ride, written by one of the people who finished in 3:53, go to the ride website:

http//www.clarksvillecentury.com

These are the names of the ten riders who finished in 3:53:00. 

Travis Werts (Nashville, Tennessee)
Jeff Bauer (Nashville, Tennessee) 
Daniel Matheny (Murray, Kentucky)
Dustin Greer (Chapsmanboro, Tennessee) 
Tod Williams (Cookeville, Tennessee) 
Chris Curdiff (Clarksville, Tennessee) 
Roger Orth (Evansville, Indiana) 
Carl Bowden (Gallatin, Tennessee) 
Chris Allen (Greenville, Kentucky) 
Steve Wilson (Benton, Kentucky)
Allen Muroski (Memphis, Tennessee)

Yes, there are eleven names here, and the picture of these guys I submitted in an earlier post shows eleven guys. I presume the rider who got dropped at the 99th mile posed and gave his name too—as well he should, for my money, although I thought he missed the grand finish by quite a few seconds. I handed him water, and he fell back, but maybe he was able to close again. 

I can't be sure, because I was riding in the support truck, and immediately after handing off that water bottle, we passed the peloton and the three motorcycles escorting it. We leapfrogged ahead to the finish line so I could hop out and photograph the finish. Looking through the viewfinder, I wouldn’t have noticed whether there were ten or eleven in the picture. I was using a friend’s $12,000 camera (at his insistence), and I didn’t know how to use it. I didn’t get a picture of the finish. (What a klutz.) Others did, however. I’ll try to come up with one.


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## Bryan Crow

Here are the pictures we promised of the guys who finished in 3:53:00. We can match some names and faces, but let's see first what order they display in before trying to tag them. And we'll need help with at least a few, I'm sure.


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## Bryan Crow

I wonder how many sub-four centuries have ever been ridden. I can't understand how ours ended up faster than the Hotter'n Hell Hundred. I'm not surprised our lead peloton finished in 3:53:00. It would've finished even sooner if we hadn't had 15 mph breezes, the strongest winds here since 1986. But what does surprise me is that the HHH USCF race winner took 3:59:40 or (depending on which article on the HHH web site you believe) 3:59:10 to finish. 

It's fun to brag about the "Sunrise." It's definitely an easy ride with shallow inclines and only one real hill 66 feet high. Our faster times surprise me, though, because our course must require nearly twice as much climbing as the HHH. 

OK, it was hotter there than here in Tennessee this year, though not by that much. 

The Texas course is 102 miles long, while ours measures exactly 100.00. But at 25.71 mph, it wouldn't have taken our lead peloton six extra minutes to cover the extra distance. 

People describe the HHH road surfaces as "generally smooth" or even "glass smooth," although they also mention chip-and-seal. Our course has no pavement as coarse as "chip-and-shoot" (as we call it), which does slow you down a little, compared with our smooth asphalt. Still, my impression is that the Texas course is at least almost as smooth as ours.

I notice the winning time for the HHH USCF race was for an individual and that the average speeds were terrific early on. Maybe the HHH peloton broke up early, leaving less help for the leaders. Maybe that explains the difference.


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