Covington Century

So what's it like to bike 100 miles in less than 4 hours? Sunday's Covington Century presented an opportunity to find out. Covington is a small town about an hour east of Atlanta. Flat, rural roads; this one is known as a good century for the attempt. 25 mph average pace, sustained for 4 hours. The peloton hammers. Bring plenty of water and food, because they don't stop. Just sit in and hang on!

So I'm all over it. I got there early enough to roll up to the line 15 minutes early, just to make sure I would start with the lead pack. My jersey pockets were loaded down with enough provisions to sustain an army. I  was READY! This is gonna be cool...

So 8:00 rolls around, and we're off! Large group, brisk pace, some people trying to jockey for position, most people just sitting in, peloton clipping along right at about 25 mph, this plan is working to perfection. Not much conversation, the pace is a little too brisk for that, just a lot of nervous energy. And now it's raining. Everyone's just concentrating on holding their line and position in the dismal conditions. Whoa, there's a crash in  them iddle of the peloton! (This is just like a race!) Kirsten and Jim go down.
Fortunately, they're ok. We get gapped but chase back on. This feels just like The Tour, Baby! An hour passes. The rain subsides. It's a nice day for a ride. 25 miles down, 75 to go. And then it happened. On this day, the cycling gods were not kind to Poor Bry. pssssssssssssssssssssssssst. A flat! Bye bye, peloton! See you later.

I'm running brand new tubulars. I was quite upset at the thought of replacing my new $70 tubular tire, but I was more upset about my lost dream of a sub-4-hour century. Fortunately, my friend Mims stopped to help me. I needed it, too, because we struggled and struggled to get that damn tire off the rim, that was some super-duper super-glue. We finally got it fixed and started rolling again. I was so disappointed. I had half a mind to just find the shortest beeline back to Covington, hop in my car and go home.
After all, what was the point? I was out here to break 4 hours, and now  that's not gonna happen. But I was enjoying Mims' company, and before long, we were swept up by a medium-sized pacelining group of pleasant folks, and then  it
occured to me: it would be possible for me to ride this century just-for-fun. You know, like we used to do back in the old days. When we rode at a comfortable pace, chatted with our friends, met some new people, checked out the beautiful scenery, stopped at every rest stop, taking our time at each, and just generally enjoyed being on the bike and feeling very fortunate that I'm able to ride so much in the first place. It was quite a revelation.

So that's what I did. And that's the report. Sometimes it helps to let go of your expectations. And it's ok to ride just for fun. After all, that's why we're all out here, right? But I still can't tell you what it's like to bike a sub-4-hour century.

-Bry