31st Annual Birmingham Bicyling Club Century & Double Century

31st Annual Birmingham Bicyling Club Century & Double Century

Alarm at 3:AM. Dressed, breakfast, and on the road by 4:AM. Drove to Montevello, Alabama via GPS routing, except for a re-route through a wildlife management area. Arrived at the Montevalle High School a bit before 7 and found a shady parking place on the University of Montevello campus. Unloaded the Rambouillet and after picking up registration package sat down in a folding chair and listened to La Bottine Souriant's Quebecois. 8:AM start looped us around town a little and then it easy pedaling for the next 4-5 miles or so, then the first hill: up and down. Missed the 10 mile rest stop as I jumped from group to group, then the memorable section...as Robert says, " a nasty set of rollers". Wasn't as bad as I had made it out to be - mostly, but definitely memorable...each one starting gently enough but having a quarter mile section on each with 7% grades. The 20 mile rest stop marked the end of the rollers - then it was just rolling farm and timberland. I rolled on by the 30 mile rest stop for a few miles, then turned around and enjoyed the refreshments put out by the Alabama Bike Coalition. This was the best stocked rest stop I've ever seen - trail bars, bananas, oranges, nectarines, grapes, pb and jelly sandwiches, potato chips, opwerade, water, etc etc...While the rest stops were excellent, the ride was not well marked and I missed several turns, then had to turn around after a 1/4 to a mile out. The rollers on return were less fun, and especially with noone else in sight (there were only 200-300 people total for the ride) - then I missed another turn, huffing up a steep hil only to realize that the cyclists who were previosuly ahead of me were unlikely to have gone so fast as to have disappeared. Few dogs, fantastic rolling curvy scenery the whole route, and a temperate day in September.