Greg has a great post up about his first 300k… he took a ton of photos too (and I snagged these two from him).
Water water everywhere. This was Greg’s first 300k. He did his first 200k on last year’s Lake Champlain ride – pedaling his old converted mountain bike 130 miles in 95 degree temps. The reward for finishing that ride – his new Surly Pacer, which he used to complete the 300k.
Great riding Greg, especially with the flat pedals! This ride taught me a valuable lesson. You can never be prepared enough for what might unravel on the road. While pacelining with several riders I blew the rear tire by riding into a narrow road crevice. There was damage to the sidewall but I didn’t think much of it until a couple miles down the road after installing a new tube, I flatted again, and this time that damaged sidewall had given way. Andy and another rider (apologies for not remembering) were very kind and stayed with me to try and get me up and running again. After attempted sidewall and tube repair on the bridge into New York failed I told Andy and the other rider to go ahead and enjoy the rest of the ride, and I would just walk it in to the 1st checkpoint (only 1/2 mile away). I thought I was done when in came Gary and Sarah. Gary tells me he has a spare tire and tube that I can have. How about that for kindness and generosity? Up and turning the pedals once again, I stopped at the bike shop in Plattsburgh and grabbed tire/tubes so that when I saw Gary again I could replace what he had given me. I spent the rest of the ride vowing to always carry a spare tire in the future! The flooding that we saw was unbelievable! Somewhere in the islands on the return I rode past a couple donning waders and they were walking, rather wading, from their flooded home via the driveway that was totally submerged to their car parked just off the road. One can’t imagine what was going through their minds. Yet they still managed to smile and wave as I passed. Many thanks to the riders (Gary, Andy, etc.) who came to my aid and helped turn what could have been a nightmare into a happy ending. Thanks also to Mike, who had the very challenging task of re-routing on the eve of the ride in order to get us around the badly flooded areas. Hope to see everyone at the 400K.
Bill
Congrats to all the finishers, and to the organizer who went above and beyond.
Special thanks to Mike for saving the ride for the rest of us! The modified route was still a very nice brevet and so much better than not being able to do anything.