Tom Roberts
Active Member
Greetings to All,
This past Saturday (Feb. 13) I rode my Silvio in the Tour de Palm Springs century. The ride started at 7:00am and Palm Springs is about 100 miles from home so I got up at 3:00am to eat and get ready to go. I headed out at 3:45am arriving in Palm Springs at 5:10am (don't do the math). I was concerned about being late so I found myself there almost an hour before registration began at 6:00am. In fact, I may have been the first one to arrive. From then until the ride began another 9,999 riders showed up. That's right there were 10,000 people participating in this event. I never saw so many bikes in one place in my life. The rest stops looked like human ant beds.
Anyway, to the ride... As the mass of riders were just pulling away from the starting line I heard one of them say, "Wow I thought that was Mark". I could only assume I was being accused of being Mark Benson as he is the only Mark I know who has a Silvio in this neck of the woods. We headed out in a northwesterly direction from downtown toward I-10 and the back roads north of it. The first 15 miles were a slight uphill with a head wind. It seemed every time I looked down at the computer my speed was somewhere between 8 and 11 mph. I thought this ride was going to take forever. But from the first rest stop at the 15 mile point there was a long down hill that seemed to be about 15 miles. It wasn't that long but the second 15 more than made up for the first 15. I was traveling at speeds approaching 40 mph which is pretty fast on two tiny little strips of rubber. At one point small pace line passed me then for some reason slowed down, so I pulled around them and they drafted off me for remainder of the downhill.
At 50 miles I ran over something and had a blow out. Normally I would been bummed by this, but since my quads had just started cramping I was glad to take a break. After I replaced the tube I had to back off a little on the speed to keep the leg cramps at bay, but unfortunately I battled them for the rest of the ride. I finished with an average speed of 15.5 mph. By the end of the ride the gas tank was pretty low, but I had a great time and hope to do the ride again next year.
Great Riding To All,
Tom
This past Saturday (Feb. 13) I rode my Silvio in the Tour de Palm Springs century. The ride started at 7:00am and Palm Springs is about 100 miles from home so I got up at 3:00am to eat and get ready to go. I headed out at 3:45am arriving in Palm Springs at 5:10am (don't do the math). I was concerned about being late so I found myself there almost an hour before registration began at 6:00am. In fact, I may have been the first one to arrive. From then until the ride began another 9,999 riders showed up. That's right there were 10,000 people participating in this event. I never saw so many bikes in one place in my life. The rest stops looked like human ant beds.
Anyway, to the ride... As the mass of riders were just pulling away from the starting line I heard one of them say, "Wow I thought that was Mark". I could only assume I was being accused of being Mark Benson as he is the only Mark I know who has a Silvio in this neck of the woods. We headed out in a northwesterly direction from downtown toward I-10 and the back roads north of it. The first 15 miles were a slight uphill with a head wind. It seemed every time I looked down at the computer my speed was somewhere between 8 and 11 mph. I thought this ride was going to take forever. But from the first rest stop at the 15 mile point there was a long down hill that seemed to be about 15 miles. It wasn't that long but the second 15 more than made up for the first 15. I was traveling at speeds approaching 40 mph which is pretty fast on two tiny little strips of rubber. At one point small pace line passed me then for some reason slowed down, so I pulled around them and they drafted off me for remainder of the downhill.
At 50 miles I ran over something and had a blow out. Normally I would been bummed by this, but since my quads had just started cramping I was glad to take a break. After I replaced the tube I had to back off a little on the speed to keep the leg cramps at bay, but unfortunately I battled them for the rest of the ride. I finished with an average speed of 15.5 mph. By the end of the ride the gas tank was pretty low, but I had a great time and hope to do the ride again next year.
Great Riding To All,
Tom
