Ride for Life 2010 - Metric

I am doing one of my favorite things. Sitting in my recliner after my nice hot shower after a really good ride, writing about the ride in my Blog.
I got there nice and early like I prefer to do. Most everything was setup and waiting for the cyclist to arrive. It seemed well organized and promised to be a good experience.
We rolled out about on time I was not watching the clock but it seemed to be about 8:30AM - as hot as it got 8:00AM may have been better. I did not have trouble with the heat but I saw several folks off the road being sick or just cooling off.
The route was good most of the roads were excellent - Leah we rode on Pea Ridge and I enjoyed just as much as the time you took a ride on it. This route took us farther down Pea Ridge crossing US1 - past US 1 it is not as nice a surface but still pretty good.
It does not show much more than the usual amount of climbing in my GPS data but is sure felt like it. There was not much in the first or second quarters of the ride but the third and forth - LOL. The third and forth both had to major climbs at least to me. The first in the third quarter was on SR 42 it was long and steep. The first part got up to a 9% grade and stayed between 6% and 9% most of the climb the second part was the trickiest part of it was a false flat - it looked like you had reached the top but the grade was still between 2 and 4% then you would go around a corner and it would go up again. There was a short steep part right at the top of about 7% grade. The second was on Ball road. I had done the climb on Ball Road before but from the other direction and it was harder going the way we were going. It was sort of short and no false flats but is is steep. It goes quickly up to 13% grade and then stays between 9 and 13% for the climb. I do not know the roads for the two climbs in the forth quarter but the first was shortly after the rest-stop and was a stead 7 to 9% climb of a fair length. The second was shorter but steeper with a grade of 7 to 11%. After the climb there was a short downhill then the road picked up again it was not steep but we were climbing at 1 to 3% for a long way with a few short dips then we descended at 1 to 3% for the rest of the ride with a few short climbs.
It was pretty nice to me most of the ride - the climbs were pretty hot and we did not seem to have much wind a little but not much.
The rest-stops were well placed, well manned and well stocked. However I can not give them top marks - no PB&J to be had but lot of good stuff anyway.
The was plenty of food at the end and I was about 5 or 6th form the last one to finish the ride. The food was good a few more cold drinks for the late arrivals would have been nice.
Turtle once again was preforming very well. I was having some trouble with the chain slipping on the climbs and believe I need to replace the rear freewheel. The chain is six months old but the freewheel has over 4000 miles on it and is 18 months old. I have been wanting to change it but I really want a 11 -34 nine speed like I currently have but have been having trouble find one. Will have to look more and harder.
Looking forward to the Team CBC ride Sunday - doing the 42 -still not able to do the 77 at the pace they ride maybe someday.
No Pictures because I have no camera right now - I sure miss taking the pictures and I saw what might have been a few good ones today.
I just realized something - I have done a Metric each Saturday for the last four weeks. Not much to some people but a first for me.

Ride for Life 2010 - Metric at Garmin Connect - Details