On Fri, 29 Oct 2004 07:37:15 -0400, "Roger Zoul"
wrote:

What's the total amount of elevation gain?

Why not just ride the entire thing, Badge? If you get someone to drive the
car along or just plan to wait on you at certain points along the way, I bet
you could complete it.

Who wants to drive any of the 100 miles when you can bike it

Go for it, man!

What about 'unknown college town...getting lost...and, uh, being taken in
by generous co-eds' did you fail to follow, big guy? lol.

Actually I was planning on this as an 'orienteering' expedition, since the
route is unlikely to still be marked, and there won't be any other bikers
to follow. I'm unexperienced in following cue sheets while riding - it's
not like in rally road driving where you have a navigator and driver,
heh-heh. Sure if you're riding with the group, you get lost now and then
and stop and check the map...but no reason to -plan- on getting lost.

But on your advice, it might be that I could explore that option...say
scope out the cue sheets and get a rough idea on where I'm going - it's a
complex course - and maybe ride the 50 mile loop, which is part of the
Century.

The thing is I don't want to actually ride the course before the group
ride, b/c you want some of the 'suffering-breakthrough' to occur to you.
IOW, you take on something that's over your head and then get there, but
not without some training and preparation.

It's possible that we could turn this into a two-day event. IOW, scope out
parts of it, then stay in a cheap motel and spend the night plotting and
orienteering, then ride the 50 mile route the next day.

What I lack in skill, and guts, I try to make up by planning, hehe. I did
that extensively when I ran the 10K and 10 miler races, though some of them
were tough enough, but well supported like Lynchburg that I wanted the
'full experience', so didn't recon. it. Most of my 10K races I ran at least
once before the race, but those were races, man, not group rides like this.

-B



Badger_South wrote:
:: Should be a fun weekend. I just got my cue sheets for the 2005
:: Shenandoah Valley Century, and nothing at -all- to do this weekend.
:: It suddenly occurred to me 'training ride on the SVC route'! Never
:: too early to do a training ride on the course. After all, would the
:: maillot jaune leave any detail unchecked; any hill unpunished? (Yes
:: my friends, the hills no longer punish us, for we are getting Hill
:: Legs. Hopefully after this ride we will have another kind of legs.
:: ;-D )
::
:: Actually, it will be more like 'drive over mountains to unknown small
:: college town, and get lost and be taken in by generous co-eds.'
::
:: Oh, what was I saying. Century. This is supposed to be moderately up
:: and down, but no mountains. Thus the 'Valley' part. Any century with
:: 'gentle, valley, or flat' in it and I'm there. If you look at the
:: profile, below, you might wonder just what kind of valley this is...!
::
:: We'll probably drive parts of the route, but, after all, who really
:: wants to drive the entire 100 miles, even in a car..?
::
:: So I have the elevation map, the cue sheet and the right shoes and
:: matching helmet.
::
:: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~slj/svc.htm
::
:: -B
:: It's all about the accessories.