I certainly got my money’s worth on the VT 200k. 130 miles, 12.5 hours. A bit slower than I had hoped and planned – but I had a strong first half until something went awry with food intake and stomach. My plan was to ride a stronger second half – the route had the big climbing out of the way by Bristol in the first 40 miles. After the midway point I bloated up and had a hard time taking in water and fuel. I suspect it was some fructose in a bottle of juice I drank at the midway point. I struggled on – reduced to a pretty slow pace over any elevation change – but it was beautiful day to spend on the bike. Early in the year for me too, to take on more than a century in one sitting.
We had 9 starters, and I’ve yet to verify brevet cards – but I’m fairly certain we had 7 finishers. We had 1 DNF due to mechanical, and Greg turned around somewhere after the first control as he was having no fun climbing after a weeks worth of late nights getting a large project finished up.
I took a total of 2 photos, nothing really worth posting other than the line of cyclists at our first control, and a shot of the mountains from the top of any number of ridgelines we crossed. There were ample photo opportunities on the inbound leg – but I kept my head down and the pedals turning.