What did you do in the Civil War?

I arrived about 7:10am, sporting my VeloDCity jersey. joining the M-Q line for registration I kept looking out for recognizable faces and/or bikes, especially Matt. Didn't see anyone I knew. Started about 7:40 on the 50 miler circuit. Relative to the Century it's "flat", but in fact there's 2800 feet of climbing, most of it coming between mile 10 and mile 30. Notionally I was aiming for a 20mph average, but the first hour saw 17miles, and it only picked up to 18.4 at the high water mark, somewhere across the battlefield. Finished up in 2hrs 47m, for 18mph overall.

Students of orthopedics will remember this is the course where I fell off and broke my finger back in May. Good to see they had a warning on the cue sheet about gravel at Horner Road, though it was actually the gravel combined with the severe dip in the corner that did me in last time. This time no problem. I took the corner on the left, trusting to no oncoming traffic on those rural roads.

Spoke to the bike mechanic at the REI stand, and was telling him about Wendy's epic ride the other year that she did in Tevas and flat pedals. He said yeah, she never returned the pedals .... Wendy, do you still have them?

Stephen, I was there with Andy (another member of VeloDCity and two of his friends). We emailed the organizer and they allow us to register on site by bringing the email communication. I think we all came around 7:10 AM. I contacted Matt the day before and he told me that he would start around 8 AM. I did not wait for Matt because I was aiming to do full English Century and I did that by myself since the other 3 people went for 75 miles (english with bailout descent). Luckily the other strangers who ride the English century were great.
My first century ever and I think that was too much. Boy, this civil war century is no joke. Elevation gain for English century is 7400 feet.

Firsty, the first 15 miles was fast when on the drop. I don't recall I was ever that afraid when I saw my cyclocomputer showed 48 mph. I got sprayed from the guy in front of me because of the wet road. Coupled with the cold weather it was nothing but miserable. After each rest stop, my body temperature dropped and I had to start riding while shivering at the same time despite using double tops and arm warmers. Terrible.

Secondly, I don't know if you've done the english century and whether the route was the same in previous years but the climbs were too much for my 11-23 cassette. I regret I did not think seriously about getting 12-25 or even 12-27 before civil war. Few miles before Rest Stop #1 in Gathland Park, the climb was big. The worst was after Rest Stop #2 on Mt. Aetna on mile 61.3, Ritchie Road, it was a constant climb for 3.8 miles. When I turned to Ritchie and greeted immediately with big climb, I thought it was probably short. It was my big hope. Turns out Ritchie Rd was a monster for close to 4 miles.
At Hilltop Rd mile 66.5, I stopped (where bailout route diverge from the English century) and I was so tempted to take the bailout and be back with 9 miles descent. I probably should have given up and take 75 miles instead but I didn't and I met another big hill at 71.2 mile on Jack's Mountain Rd and there's 1-2 other big climbs. I thought after all those hills I would be rewarded with a descent to the finish line like the 75 miles route. I was hoping that the last 20-25 miles would be just descent. Turns out not so. After Rest Stop #3 at Fairfield, it was all rolling road till finish line. I don't mind rolling roads but I was out of juice completely so on those rolling roads I was cranking just for the sake of cranking. Cranking on steam. I was lucky I did not experience cramps. That was on my mind for the last 35 miles.

This experience will stay in my memory. I don't think I will do that again. Ughhh......I can't even sleep now. Headache and would likely get musle ache on Sunday.


ps: The catoctin ridger you're planning, what is going to be like? Any similarity with one of CWC rides this year?

I did the metric and after reading the above, glad I went with that choice. My biggest problem was deciding not to wear armwarmers. Oh well. I thought the route was great- nice rolling hills. On my route, the avg age was on the older side (mid 50s)- so it gave me a change to say over and over "on your left." I definitely would do it again.

ps: The catoctin ridger you're planning, what is going to be like? Any similarity with one of CWC rides this year?

It has 4 major climbs in 55 miles so the course profile looks like a roller coaster. Total climbing is 4000 feet. It adapts some of the roads from the middle part of the CWC. It includes the 5 mile long drag of Raven Rock, which the CWC also uses.

I ended up doing the metric, with adding a couple miles by riding the the Gettysburg battlefield, because I had to be back in DC by early afternoon. Also, knew I was doing the Indian Head ride on Sunday. Didn't get going until almost 8am so probably missed everyone at the start. Started out at a pretty fast pace over over 19mph by the 1st rest stop. Slowed down to almost 18 mph by the next rest stop but still felt pretty good. Definitely the ride between the 2nd stop and through the battlefield is the section I enjoy the most. If anyone does the ride again I recommend taking a right onto Confederate Ave when you hit the battlefield. That road takes you along Seminary ridge and up to Little Round Top (nice climb) and then head down and around Devils Den and the Wheatfield. This is one of my favorite areas of the battlefield and fun to ride through. And only adds 2-3 miles onto the route.

The ride back into Thurmont from the Barlow rest stop I don't find all that interesting, but managed to keep the pace up and finish at 18.3 mph. Not too many people at the finish when I was done so grabbed a quick bite to eat, and luckly the ice cream truck showed up right then so I didn't miss out on that.

You're right Matt, there wasn't anything special from Barlow rest stop to Thurmont. I was thinking to do Indian Head but since I could do Civil war at the last minute, I had to forget Indian Head. Probably next time. How was it?

The ride back into Thurmont from the Barlow rest stop I don't find all that interesting, but managed to keep the pace up and finish at 18.3 mph.

It's the "nothing interesting" aspect that I find so appealing at that stage of eyes glazing over towards the end of the ride. You can just plug on and still be doing 20mph.

Not too many people at the finish when I was done so grabbed a quick bite to eat, and luckily the ice cream truck showed up right then so I didn't miss out on that.

I was miffed that I finished way before the ice cream truck showed up. Since I didn't stop at any rest stops, my total food haul from the CWC was a single banana, at the end.

Hey Sherwin,

Congrads on doing the full CWC....


Andy