Top Mistakes Cyclists Make On a Century Ride

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Top Mistakes Cyclists Make On a Century Ride

My father taught my brother, sister and me to think things through and avoid mistakes. His office staff gave him a coffee cup with the word Mistakes misspelled three times on the cup when he retired from the US Army. I think about each century ride, even though I have been on many of them. But I have made mistakes like every other rider many times.
I once had a flat tire just short of a rest stop that had bike shop mechanics. I replaced the inner tube and overlooked the part of the inner tube sticking out of the wheel. I refilled the tire with a CO2 pump and the inner tube burst. So I had to replace the inner tube again. On another century, I forgot my bike computer. I had to do the ride by feel and by glancing at other riders’ computers to get a sense of my speed. And once I forgot my heart rate monitor with the same result, I had to ride the ride by feel and not with heart rate data.
Making mistakes, or forgetting something, is rarely a problem because of the ride support and the number of other riders at the event. Other cyclists will often help you when you need it. Often someone will give you a CO2 cartridge for your flat, or you can wait for the SAG support to pass by and help you. But some mistakes can have a harmful effect on your century ride. Help from other riders and ride support may not be able to rescue your ride.

Inadequate Training

The first mistake is inadequate training, or to not train at all for a century ride. I have made this mistake. I hurt myself two months before a challenging century ride with lots of climbing. I was rarely able to ride before the event. And I assumed that I could get through with cunning and guile. I suffered a terrible century, completing 90 of 100 miles with cramping legs. Your training is essential unless you are in good shape. If you are in good shape, that means that you have already trained for months. Or you have completed a century ride just before the upcoming event. Because of the ride support and the number of other riders at the event making mistakes is rarely a problem. If you are already riding 70 miles in one ride in a reasonable time, then your training is maintaining your fitness. A reasonable ride time is about 5 hours on a flat route and slightly longer times on routes with hills. I will cover training in Century Training with a Heartrate Monitor and the technical parts of training in Century Training with a Power Meter.

Over Training

At the opposite end of the training spectrum, is training too hard or over training. Doing training rides every day will build your fitness at first. But after a short time, your muscles will not have the time to recover and fatigue will begin to develop. Signs of overtraining include excessive fatigue in your muscles, and your heart rate cannot rise to its usual level on ride after ride. Also, you could have a lack of desire to ride. You have to strike a balance between tough training rides and not riding enough. Luckily, the distance between too little training and overtraining is wide for most cyclists. The ideal training plan should be one where you feel like you are making progress, and you feel well.

Alcohol

If you and your riding group have traveled to the charity ride and you all decide to down a few Fat Tire Ales, then this could lead to other mistakes. Drinking alcohol makes your liver process the alcohol in your bloodstream instead of storing more glycogen. Glycogen is the body’s storage of energy that you will need on the ride. Also, alcohol is a diuretic, like coffee. A diuretic will allow your body to pass water out of your bloodstream and increase your production of urine. The extra bathroom visits could lower your hydration level for the next day.

Waking Up Late

Your party could also cause you to wake up late and lead you to skip breakfast to make up the time. Rushing through your morning can lead you to forget things you need. Or you could skip the pre-ride check of your bicycle. And reducing your breakfast, or skipping it, puts you at a disadvantage before you start to ride. I will cover the pre-ride preparation in the Before the Ride chapter.
Another mistake that I often see cyclists do at century rides is to fail to plan. You should study the upcoming weather forecast and review the ride route. Heat, cold, sunshine or rain and the wind, you have to decide what to wear to counter the expected weather. And I have seen a few riders in every ride take a wrong turn, get lost and add time and miles to their ride. Spending time to get to know the route is a significant benefit.

Wrong Bicycles

Century rides are fun. But riding 100 miles is still a serious effort. But, I have seen riders bringing bicycles that are not appropriate for a century ride. I saw a cyclist riding an old beach cruiser. On a hillier century, one young rider was riding a fixie. He tackled a 9 to 12% short climb by ‘delivering the mail.' You do not have to have a pro cycling team bicycle, like the Trek Madone 9 Race Shop Limited ($13,000, €11,600). But you should have a bicycle that is not a hindrance to you.

Ride Your Ride

Pace line at a Charity Ride Nearing the Finish

Every book and article about riding a century warn riders to watch your pace and ride your ride. Joining a faster group satisfies our need to be in a group. It also feeds our competitive desire. Who wants to ride alone or with a slower group? But it is a classic mistake. You have trained a certain level of performance, such as averaging 16 mph (26km). Going with a fast group will affect increase your exhaustion later in the ride. Another part of bad pacing is attacking hills with an effort beyond what you trained for. Again, this is where rolling with a faster, stronger group could lead to problems. Especially if it is early in a century ride. Pedaling up a tough climb too fast wastes energy that you will need later. Also, you could end up with hurt muscles that you would have avoided by staying with your training speed.

Eating Right

I did not eat properly on my first century ride, and that hurt my ride performance. I bonked midway through the ride, and only mid-ride meal and a tailwind helped me finish. Having a plan and sticking to it is important. Not eating on a regular schedule, or worse, not eating at all will be a problem. In the Eating for the Century Ride chapter, I will go over the reasoning behind eating during a long ride.
Hand in hand with improper eating is not drinking enough water, or sports drink. It does not matter whether it is cool, or hot, during the ride, you have to stay hydrated. The only difference between cool and hot days is how much you drink and not whether you drink. I checked my weight before and after a long ride, and I found that I lost three pounds through sweating on the road. I figured out how many ounces of water are in three pounds (about 45 fluid ounces or 1.3 L, or two bicycle water bottles). This was how much water I should drink during a long ride.
Each of these mistakes can be overcome. None of these, plus many other common mistakes, are devastating in of themselves. They just make finishing the century ride that much harder and takes a lot of the fun out of the event. You have to approach the ride with some thought, create a plan and stick to the plan. By doing these steps, the ride will be a lot more fun and memorable in a good way.