Cup And Cone MS Bicycle Ride (2011)

A nice ride. This ride featured "Helmet-Chips".  The organizer of the ride Bruce Bokish also runs a company that does sporting event timing.  Things like runs, and bike rides.  The RFID chip is embedded in some paper and stuck to the helmet of the rider or the rider's running bib.  As the runner or rider leaves the area to be timed an RFID scanner array reads each RFID tag as it passes through the scanner array field.  Then at the end of the timed course the rider or runner again passes through a scanner filed and the tag is read again.  For this ride the scanner array was positioned beside the road at the bottom of the 'Col de Lystra', a two mile climb up the front face of the Uwharrie Mountains.  Jordan lake is 216' above MSL while the 'summit' of the 'Col del Lystra' is over 400' above MSL.  As you can see from one of the pictures below Lystra Road does go right up the hill.


Here are the details of the ride:


04:10 hh:mm . Total Time
78.52 km .... Total Distance
              (1.5 km short of 80k - see below)
18.80 kph ... Average Speed
66.30 kph ... Max Speed
              (coming back down the Col de Lystra)
100+ F ...... Temp at the end of the ride.
80+ F ....... Temp at the start of the ride




I've done this ride in the past but only the short version.  Today I felt I was up to the 50 mile 'out-and-back'.  50 miles is about 80.4 km --- Today I got "SAG'ed" back to the start at the 78.5km mark.  This is the first time in all my bicycle rides I have ever been SAG'ed.  I have ridden in ove 110 degree heat but that was in  Wyoming and the relative humidity was essentially zero.  Today the relative humidity was ove 80% at the start of the ride.


SAG stands for Support and Gear and is run by grand folks whose job it is to make sure those on the bike ride make it back to the start.  They have pickup trucks, vans, even cars with bike racks.  The Cup and Cone bike ride was fully supported and there were many SAG vehicles. Below is a picture of the young man who picked me up.


I am in good shape but I think I did not eat properly in the days leading up to the ride.  It is always good to have plenty of carbohydrates under your belt when you take off on a serious bike ride.


Here are some pictures of the ride.

CUP_AND_CONE_MS_BIKE_RIDE_23_JUL_2011