Spring Century Bike Ride

For the third straight year I did the Spring Century bike ride put on by the Portland Wheelman Touring club. I did the ride with my friend Steve. Started in Canby and went south trough the farmlands and small towns. Fell in with a couple of lone riders and we formed a small paceline and soared along in the low 20's. At the first food stop they had watermelon and cantaloupe and pineapple and one of the volunteers saw my Ride Around Washington jersey and said he was there, so we reminisced about the ride. After that stop is the "hill" about a 750 foot climb. The first year I did the ride I had to stop partway up to settle the heart and breathing. Last year I plodded on up without stopping. This year I think someone took a bulldozer and shortened it, the hill was still hard (small ring, 6.5 mph) but it was over in no time. Hit 44 mph coming down the other side, then flat farmland soaring along at 20-22 with our small group. At the midpoint food stop I had more watermelon and cantaloupe and then strawberries at this stop instead of pineapple. Since it was lunch time I made a peanut butter bagel sandwich. Steve and I figured we couldn't keep that pace another 50 miles, so we went on by ourselves. I checked and we had averaged 17.6 for the first half and that's with stops and a hill. Rolled along at about a 17-20 pace and I mooed at the cows and neighed at the horses and baaed at the sheep and goats. Saw some buffalo, but I don't know what sound they make. At the last food stop they had tons of strawberries, so I had to eat a lot of them. Took a picture of the stop and then asked a pretty girl standing closeby to take a picture of Steve and I.
Rolled on to the end and actually seemed to get faster after 80 miles. Got to the end and it was 95.7 miles, the first year I did this ride it was my first ever century, so I turned around and did 4 more miles to make it an even 100. Last year I did 6 rides over 95 miles, so I was happy to stop at 95+. Stats for the ride- 95.7 miles with a 17.4 average. That's .4 faster over 96 miles than I averaged over 25 miles in my last tri! Had my GPS on the bike, so here's the map and profile.