2006 Prouty Summary
July 8, 2006- The Prouty
The Prouty is a one-day, 100-mile ride starting and ending in Hanover, NH.
The 2006 Prouty was a great event but not without incident.
We were starting off on an uphill note. Jeff Adams had recently received a knee injury that prevented him from training much at all prior to this ride. In fact, the 100 mile century ride would double his riding for the summer. Taylor Moran-Gates , having been in med-school in NYC had been limited in time and was only able to run in preparation. He ran a lot, though. Matt Solar had been riding a bit, but wasn’t prepared to tow Jeff 100 miles. It didn’t take long to figure out that this might be a more painful century that last year (refusing to admit we’re getting older).
However, we did have the benefit of staying in NH the night prior and absolutely beautiful weather – both things we failed to get in 2005. These made the early ride start much more tolerable. The ride started well, and we immediately picked up another solo rider. After 20 miles we picked up a second rider, a member of the RPI cycling team. With a posse of 5, we rode.
Getting passed on the downhill by a expletive-cheering old man on a recumbent, trying to keep up with a sponsored amateur rider, sliding the rear wheel into traffic… lots of stories.
Checkpoints are roughly every 20-25 miles and 100 miles of NH hills is a lot when you haven’t trained, so by mile 80 (the last checkpoint) Jeff was threatening to throw in the towel. We knew he was hurting and we’d lie about the mileage on every hill. Jeff was done, but we guilt tripped him into finishing with us right as we rolled by the last check point. We continued to take turns letting him draft. Taylor seemed to get another wind at this point and took to the hills like his Polka Dotted jersey was at risk.
The last 5 miles are slow – small windy roads running alongside the river. The finish starts to feel really close, and you start to relax. Within 1 mile of the finish – literally – Matt got a flat. His first of the day. Thankfully, our group of 5 waited and we finished together.
Any day you can ride 100 miles with friends in beautiful weather is a good day in my book – this was one of them.
Tags: Prouty