Holland Hundred

I'm not entirely sure what lead me to believe that doing back-to-back 100 mile rides was going to be a good idea. It sure did hurt today...not intolerable...not unbearable...but, a little painful.

As it turns out...it was a great idea. I had a blast. I had the chance to ride with Frank and Amy Yarde and, of course, with Berger. The 4 of us made our way from water stop to food stop to food stop to water stop. And, eventually, back home again. 103 miles later and we had accomplished something pretty spectacular. A full century ride...about 75 miles of which was in the rain. Not bad!

We left at about 7:30 from Holland and wandered around Ottawa and Allegan counties. Saw some little lakes, a big lake, lots of corn, horses, cows, some mysterious crops, a few mosquitos, and plenty of other nutcases on bikes. The ride was just under 6 hours of ride time...which I thought was pretty good. We had pancakes for breakfast, which I thought was nice.

All in all... I had a blast. It was a great ride. Frank is a frighteningly strong rider and I was left with the impression that he was only keeping things under control in the interests of keeping our group of four together. Amy and I had lots of chances to chat as we let Berger and Frank pull us around the countryside. And, Berger is just about the nicest guy in the world. So...how could it be anything but a great day?

Doing back-to-back century rides has me a little sore this evening. So, I'm a little iffy on how the JDRF ride is going to go tomorrow. I may really struggle to finish...we'll see. I talked to DID about doing some Cyclocross on some seasonal roads. But, the way my legs feel, I'm not sure that I want to make tomorrows ride more difficult than it needs to be. I should probably just keep it low key.

We'll see.