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| Rider Braclet |
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sorry this review is a little late, but better late then never]
By: Jeff
The day was finally here. Brent and I had been waiting for this day for awhile now. Bright and early on Sunday morning Brent and I headed up to
Three Oaks, MI. The temps were in the high 40's, needless to say we had multiple layers on. It was partly cloudy, but overall looked to be a great day to test our legs on our first official biking event.
As we approached Three Oaks we were seeing more and more cars with bikes attached to them. This only added to the excitement of the ride ahead. The
Apple Cider Century attracts 5,000 cyclist every year!!! When we finally entered town, the realization of how many cyclists this is finally hits.....Holy Cow that is a lot of people on two wheels. I have to give it to the organizing committee though, there were plenty of people to direct you to parking, and also plenty of people to direct you where to go for packet pick up. After packet pick up we went back to the car and unpacked the bikes. We got everything ready to go. We got on all our geeky bike gear, helmets, gloves, drink bottles, cycling computers. We were ready to go!!!
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| ACC Starting Line |
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| Brent Fixing Flat |
At this point we headed away from the parking lot and towards the start/finish line. Honestly with so many cyclist around I was just thinking, "don't hit anyone". We then proceeded through town and then towards the countryside. I wouldn't say it was crowded, but still a good group of cyclist were all around. The only hills of the event were as we crossed into Indiana. (
Now let me point out that I am talking about northern Indiana and southern Michigan, if you live here you know that it is flat. So if you are from a mountains type region please disregard all talk of hills....you would be laughing at me.) About 10 miles in a pack of racer wanna-be cyclists passed us....oh they were all decked out in their "team kits". As they zoomed by us I thought, hmmm we'll never see them again. But then Brent says, "do you know that guy?" After looking ahead I thought, hmmmm maybe I do. So I stepped it up a bit, and was able to latch onto the back of the wanna-bees. I was actually a bit surprised I was keeping up. I finally got beside one of their riders and asked for the guy's name that I thought maybe I knew. Turns out it was not him. So then Brent says, "does this mean your going to slow down now?" , "No I'm feeling pretty good". As we started up a incline that is when it happened. 15 miles into the ride I hear Brent say...."Jeff.......Flat". So we got a slight break as Brent put a new tube on. At 25 miles in we got to the first SAG stop. It was a nice setup. Again you are reminded how many cyclists are there. Everything was orderly, Food and drink tents, and bike repair tent. It was great having a bike repairman on duty, Brent was able to get his tire properly inflated, and had his shifting tweaked. We are not sure where the repairman was from, but thanks for the help!!! The food setup was great, grapes, bananas, Clif Bars, cookies, hot potato soup, and of course apple cider! It was pretty comforting knowing that we were all ready at the half-way point. The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. The wind picked up a bit, but wasn't unbearable. Over all we had a really great time and a really great ride. We finished the ride and then had the included spaghetti lunch. Next year we plan to do the full century. Can't wait!!!
So proud of you boys!
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