Davis Double Century '98

Morning of the Ride!
We were up at 4:40am and ready to go at 5:25 am, but Brent didn't put his gear away the night before or even pump up both tires. In fact, he showed up with a flat tire on his bike and took an hour to fix it after borrowing one of Paige's tubes. Brent delays us from starting the Double until 5:40am.

The Ride!
Mile 0-15, I lead with a 16mph pace and then suddenly Paige's left crank arm falls off (She and Lonnie both removed their cranks during shipping on their flight out and didn't bolt it back in place tight enough.) We spend about 5 minutes looking for the bolt, and then the sag van comes along (Paige gets to be the first sag rider of the day). Paige gets on the van and sags to the 95-mile rest stop where they still don't have a spare crank arm bolt so she asks a fellow sag rider if she can have his crank arm bolt (since he wasn't riding) and she continues on (3 hours ahead of us <unknown to us until a few hours later>).

Mile 16-50, I lead with Brent and Lonnie drafting. I draft off of two tandems twice, but both times Brent and Lonnie are dropped so I slow it down. We stop at every rest stop to check for Paige or any messages she may have left behind. A few of the stops remember her and say she's still on her quest for a spare crank arm bolt and has sagged to the next stop.

Mile 100, Brent has knee pain and can't ride and Lonnie complains about the possibility of pneumonia from riding in the cold rain (neither of them brought rain gear even when it was a possibility in the forecast). They try wearing garbage bags and newspaper for insulation, but it doesn't help so they both bail and decide to sag the rest of the ride. I'm fine in my rain jacket so I hammer on. I ride for about an hour in the rain. The cold doesn't get to me until I stop for lunch.

Mile 100-165, I hammer a few hills and then I catch up to Patch Man (real name is Dan, but he's now been dubbed Patch Man since he's sewn like 7 Davis Double Century patches onto his jacket), and we ride the next 60 miles together until he wants to stop for chili at the fire station and I go on with the following I've picked up.

Mile 165-200, I lead since I'm the only one with the NiteRider Light. At mile 165, there are just two of us, eventually I had 10-15 riders behind me at the end (their AA or AAA operated lights have died over 3 hours). Most of them were only going about 9mph looking for road markings and potholes with their badly illuminating lights until I came cruising along at my 15mph pace and they all dropped in line behind me. They would've either had to stay out there an extra hour in the cold making their slow way in or sag in. I called out stopping/slowing/right turn/left turn while watching for road markings and potholes. The person behind me just zeroed in on my tail light and so on behind that person. It was pretty cool to have three people at the end thank me and shake my hand for leading them in the final 20+ miles.

I finally finish at 11:06pm and Brent, Lonnie, and Paige are waiting at the end.

Conclusion
Final ride time is 17.5 hours (9.5 hours for the first 100 miles and 8 hours for the second 100). The second 100 would've been much faster if it wasn't so dark and wet-I slowed it down on the wet corners since I didn't want to go flying off the hills and I kept my speed under 25mph when bombing down the hills at night since I was worried about not seeing potholes that would tweak my rims. I only had my NiteRider on low beam since I only had a ¾ charge on it.

Mileage Recap
Brent and Lonnie do a 100 miles and sag in. Paige rides 120 miles (the first 15 miles and then the 95-200 miles <sagging 80 miles on her quest for the crank arm bolt>) and even stays ahead of the rain.

Misc Notes

• Brent and his harmonica playing during the ride.
• Brent and his suicidal method of applying a garbage bag.
• All of us (except Paige who sagged ahead) singing happy birthday to one of the rest stop workers.

Speed and Climbing Notes

• First 15.5 miles were 16mph.
• 1 to 55 miles were 15.5mph.
• First 100 miles 14.2 mph average.
• Ended with 14.4mph average for the 200-mile ride with 7000ft of climbing.

The above was ridden about a year after I purchased my first road bike (not counting the 10-speed from high school days or the bmx bike from grade school). I've since ridden many double centuries at a much faster pace.