First this is heavily rode in NYC traffic so no matter what you will not go as fast as a ride where the streets are cordoned off.
Second while there are a few tough hills and bridges there is actually very little elevation 3,000 feet in total. La Vuelta Puerto Rico has 12,000 feet of elevation over 3 days.
The ride itself was awesome. I rode with the Prospect Park Century riders. Based on the start it looked like there were about 100 PP Century riders. I started a little mid'ish of the start and it took some time heading to the front in NYC traffic. I finally got to the front group at around Coney Island Avenue and started leading the century riders at around McDonald Ave. Yes i said leading. I actually was the pacesetter for almost the entire race. It was incredible, amazing and a ton of fun! Most of the rest stops we got to they said woah you guys got here too early and they were generally just unpacking the refreshments. I was the lead rider for the vast majority of the ride even riding into serious headwinds. Of course i would fall behind on some of the more serious uphills.
Going into the Bronx (around mile 70'ish) i was going up the second part of the RFK which is a switchback path. I was stopped on the path due to an obstruction. I had to dismount. When i tried to get back on my fear of hights kicked in and without the forward momentum i couldnt overcome my fear and thought i would fall over either side of the path. This forced me to walk the bike up the path. Because of it i lost the lead pack of 10. To make matters worse i got stuck at a red light at the Bruckner separating me even that much further from the lead pack (for those who know the Bruckner you know how long that light is). There was one other cyclist who was also separated from the lead pack due to getting stuck behind other cyclists on the bridge. We pushed each other, he probably actually pushed me more as i was pretty dejected at that point. Miraculously we actually caught the group after 1-2 miles. They actually cheered when we caught them and i went to the front to lead the pack. They said i provided a beast pace and helped push them all on their pace (i'm sure they didn't mind the tunes either).
That was such a great feeling when they cheered our return and said that.
I started chugging a little between mile 103 and 105 at that point we were whittled down to a pack of 5 and i did not lead the pack those last couple of miles, nonetheless i pulled into the finish line with the lead pack. The only single speeder among the finishing pack. There was a woman on a mountain bike who rode with us almost the whole time (we lost her somewhere after Central Park) was the first person to arrive after our lead pack (she was incredible), a woman on a heavy mountain bike who kept up with us the whole time, absolutely amazing! There was also one other single speeder who did the majority of the race with the lead pack however he stopped at Central park and didn't finish the last 16 miles (planned).
Overall we averaged between 16 and 17mph which is great for a ride in the city. In checking one of the lead pack's iphone app he clocked us at a pretty consistent clip between 20 and 15 mph with a max speed of 31mph (again lack of hills/elevation).
Overall it was amazing to actually lead a ride when it was my first century ever. Granted it was no race, and i am sure i will lag when i do the Escape NY Century this coming Sunday, but wow what a great experience.
Final thought, the music really helped me push my pace, without the music the ride just seemed harder (sometimes Pandora stalls on its stream and the last 16 miles my cell battery died).
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