I have to say that it feels good to get that first P2P Century under my belt. 100 miles goes by pretty fast when your group is dialed-in and shares the load up front. After a nice group dinner last night we got the day started early with a roll out at 7 AM which meant breakfast at 6 and luggage downstairs at 6:30. It’ll be a routine I am sure that we’ll get used to in a few days.
We rolled out with the morning cool and misty with wheels humming along and kicking up some water with a good bit of chatter among the group that was quiet after a few miles. We had a nice 10 miles or so to wake our legs up before we started some of the smaller climbs of the ride. We have yet to break down into riding groups but our foursome today was pretty well matched up in terms of speed and ability, so we stuck together for pretty much the entire 100 miles.
After getting out of Astoria, the Oregon countryside began to show its beauty. Since Oregon is one of, if not the largest lumber producing state, a good part of the ride included huge logging trucks going in both directions, so we were pleased to have a pretty wide shoulder. Riding into Astoria yesterday, I was amazed at the huge stockpiles of stripped down trees waiting for shipment along the Columbia River.
After 2 resupply stops, and a couple of big climbs, we had a great lunch at a county park at mile 54. The kids in Oregon must not yet be back in school because the park was filled with RVs and families perhaps on a last trip of the summer. Lunch was followed by one additional 3 mile climb and few smaller ones before getting into the outskirts of Portland for the final stop at mile 78 where we regrouped after a fast and great 10 mile descent. We made nice work of the final 22 miles working together to keep the pace up and rolled into Portland with our GPS units showing right at 100.3 miles.
I am glad that I packed my Normatec compression boots for this trip – 30 minutes of compression after a 100 mile 6 1/2 hour ride seems to really hasten recovery – at least for me! Good to get that ride done and the first century into the books. Tomorrow we’ll start getting to see some of the wild expanses of the Oregon countryside!