The flyer called for the 160 km starting at 7:30 am (sunrise was 7:22), the 100 k at 9:00, etc.
I'm used to Elephant Rock, Triple, Buffalo, etc with a few thousand riders and starting sometime between "time X and time Y" - so I I didn't make a huge effort to be there exactly 8 minutes after sunrise - and I got lost on the way there, so arrived at the start area at 7:45. Maybe 20 or 30 cars around and nobody on a bike, just a few volunteers.
The route had been changed (because of the floods) adding about 10 Km. So, off I went - not seeing another rider for about an hour. An official came by on a car to tell me that the road closure had been lifted, and the ride back as well as the whole ride for other groups would be on the original route.
Eventually a few guys (who told me they had started early) from the 100 km group came up behind (by that time I was just lollygaging casually along) I fell in with them for a while and then, here comes the peloton! Flying. Maybe 150 to 200 in mostly a double line!
OK, I got it now. These events over here are a mass start and a group gallop. And, I had missed the 160 km group - and they were long gone - thus, the nobody on the road situation.
So, I found a little gap about 2/3 of the way back, stuffed my nose in and sat in. At the turnaround for the out-and-back 100 km ride, there was an aid station. Little city park with bathrooms - which nobody used since there were bushes handy. The aid consisted of glasses of water. Glad I threw in some extra energy bars. Probably explains the surprisingly inexpensive entry fee, also. Oh, and the support vehicle which was a guy on a Harley riding at the front of the bunch.
About 10 minutes later, the gang reformed for the ride back, and I slotted in about the same spot. About 25 km from the end, the pace started to inch upward and on every hill, gaps would appear and since I was pretty far back there were some large efforts needed to close gaps and gradually work up towards the front. By the last 5 km it was pretty much flat out race pace for me, and finally a group of ten took off while I was still about 30 places back - I tried to bridge to them and got caught unable to catch up and stuck in no-man's land. By the time the next couple groups of 5 or so came up, I was cooked so couldn't hang on until the third little group for the flat-out horse race back to the stable.
Averaged 38 km (23 miles) per hour for the 50 km ride back.
So, I missed the full century (ended up with 120 km with the add-ons), didn't get out to the most scenic part of the ride. But, got a great high intensity work out and had quite a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the group was so big and moving so fast that it was really hard to carry on a conversation, so I didn't really get to meet anyone - just a few brief exchanges with folks that I met at the race last weekend.
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