Weekend Wrap Up, Rapha Women's 100k

Saturday's Cyclopath ride was short and sweet to Manchester and back. (Temps hit 80 before we left Salem at 6:30!) Will finally managed to get out of bed early enough to join the group for a ride, and he did terrific. It was just 20 miles for us, (we rode out of Beverly), but since I planned to ride the Rapha Women's 100k (metric century) on Sunday with Ride Studio Cafe, Saturday's ride was really just a warm up.

Some of the ladies I rode with today.
Rapha Women's 100.

On Sunday, The Queen and I rode the Rapha Women's 100 -- A global event of women riding 100k on the 7th of July to coincide with Rapha sending 100 women to ride the Etape du Tour, (an event allowing amateur cyclists to ride a stage of the Tour de France.) Locally, the metric century was held by Ride Studio Cafe in Lexington.

It was a challenging ride, but I did well. Many hills -- which I was strong on but didn't fly up. These were serious hills. Nothing at all like what we see on the North Shore! The route wasn't marked, so we rode in groups based on our pace, (which was moderate), and I rode a good strong pace for 46 miles. Kathy dropped back to a slower paced group about 10 miles into the ride, (she hasn't been riding as much as I have and preferred an easier pace), but somehow her group dropped six miles from the course and we ended up running into each other at a Dunkin' Donuts 15 miles from the finish! (A DD's! How ironic!) I then joined her for the last leg of the ride. (As we came into Lexington, those who came up short on mileage -- and wanting to complete a true metric -- had to turn off to ride further. My metric was done.) It was a fun ride, (though The Queen didn't love it), and a great, hot, weekend!