So I am less than one week away from the STP. This year I plan on doing the one day version and start from my house. This means I will be riding 224 miles, my first double century, on my brand new Mango Sport.
I am nervous and have a bit of anxiety since I didn't train as much as last year and I will be riding a bike that I have only put 210 miles on. But putting that aside, I have the base miles from commuting to work with so I should be good.
I am not sure what my average speed will be but my hope is 16mph. Last year I averaged 16.9 mph on the Raptobike but I was in much better shape and weighed 14 lbs less than I do now. The Mango Sport has been faster than the raptobike at my current fitness level and the STP is well suited to speedy velomobile riding. My plans include a 14mph average speed. I have allocated 50 minutes to rest stops. Last year I spent a lot of time at rest stops but this year I am solo so plan on approximately five 10 minute stops. Given an average speed of 14 mph, the ride will take 16 hours from my house. Add in 50 minutes for rest and we are at 16:50. If I start at 0300 then I will get to the finish at 1950. That is my worst case and gives me 1:10 of buffer. If I average my target of 16mph then I will finish at 1750. That is a great time to finish. Keeping the rest time down is key, but I do have some buffer zone time.
The question is what to bring. Since I haven't trained with any new food solutions I will go with my tried and true.
- One 2L bladder of Cytomax, refilling as it empties
- 5 baggies of cytomax, sized for mixing with 1L of water
- two 500 mL water bottles, initially frozen. I will refill as necessary. I will also douse myself with water as needed.
- 1.5 lbs of dried cherries
- 6 packets of cliff shots gels (black cherry with caffeine)
- spare tube, spare tire, patch kit, pump, tire levers, towel
- sunscreen
- sunglasses
- camera
- gps
- gps battery extender
- phone
- hand cleaner
- 2 small towels to keep hands clean and wipe down the mango
- Imodium tablets
- Aspirin
- rain jacket
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5 comments:
You seem to have a good idea about how to do it. You should be fine.
If you could do it on your Raptobike, you should be able to do it in your Mango as well.
Peter
Excellent, I think I will use your list as a blue print for mine!
I'm getting a bit nervous myself. 204 miles is a loong way to go. I did only 50 yesterday in the heat and felt depleted. My tail fairing construction project has progressed too slowly, I doubt it will be "ride ready" for saturday.
Crashes, potholes, wrong turns, and too much sun top my worry list... just pre ride jitters I guess.
Can you rig up a misting spray bottle in the mango cockpit?
Brad
For cooling I will go with pouring water on my face and chest from the water bottles. I am carrying more water than I would (and did) on my lowracer. Mostly because I want a better mix of water vs drink mix bottles. You don't want to pour cytomax over your face, too sticky.
Too Much sun is an issue. Last year I had a narrow brush with heat exhaustion. I had to stop and rest and cool down with water over my face, chest and arms.
Potholes are mostly an issue for the first 40 miles. Better afterword and the press of people is better after the first 40 miles so you have more room to maneuver.
Wrong turns are the least of your concerns. The chalk markings of the route are EXCELLENT, and you will not be alone basically ever on route. So you can put that concern behind you I believe.
224 MILES! Whoa! But that new mango has cruise control right?
No Cruise Control but I may put some speakers in for music.
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