2nd Annual Superbowl Century. (Metric Edition)

It was a cold and foggy morning when our journey began.  Only three team members displayed the commitment and intestinal fortitude to brave such conditions.  I wasn’t sure anyone would show.  Larry and Mike had bowed out by e-mail.  Not sure what happened to Albee?   I was glad to see Jimmy there when I pulled up.  Within a couple of minutes Joe rolled up to join us.  After we chatted for a couple of minutes while getting things unloaded I realized I left my shoes at home!  A quick trip home for those and then we were finally on the road by 7:45.  Visibility was about a quarter mile-not good.  The roads were damp but mostly clear for the first few miles.  As we turned off Centerville we encountered a road still mostly covered with snow and ice.  We were able to cautiously find narrow patches of pavement and successfully navigated our way through it.  That would be the last encounter with the snow as the road cleared when we turned right onto Whittemore Rd.  We had pretty strong headwinds on the way out to Knott’s Island so I was thinking on the way back we would be rewarded with a nice tailwind.  Joe and Jimmy had some strong pulls on the way out.  I didn’t have a computer in front of me but I felt extremely slow and beaten down by the headwinds on my pulls.  Somehow it seems the wind was always worse when it was my turn to pull.  We finally made it to the turnaround at Knott’s Island Ferry landing and stopped for a quick snack and photo op for a selfie of the group.  None of us had ridden over 40 miles in months so the ride back was definitely a challenge as the wind seemed to shift and we were pummeled with strong headwinds for most of the return trip- so much for the payback!  At mile 51 Joe popped.  Jimmy pulled Joe back to my rear wheel and we slowed our already slow pace.  The last 11 miles were just a slow grind and we were glad to see our starting point.  At the end we were .2 miles short so Jimmy and I took a U-turn to get in the official mileage.  We worked too hard to come up short of the official mileage.  Joe got a pass on the U-turn since he rode to the start point and still had another mile or so to get home.  We were pretty beat at the end but it was great to get in another epic ride with a couple of the faithful STC members.  I’m glad we were a little more sensible and chose to do a metric century this year.  Thanks to Jimmy and Joe for participating in the craziness.  Also, a big thanks to Jimmy and his wife Jessica for hosting another Superbowl party later that evening!