The day of the Century

The 4th Annual Take Stock in Children ride took place last weekend on March 10th. Beautiful weather greeted us as we arrived in Ocala for what would turn out to be a great day of riding. About seventeen members of our Cycle Logic team showed up in support of this worthwhile cause that helps low-income children succeed by providing college scholarships, mentors, tutoring and long-term support.

At the start line, there was an obvious presence of orange and grey clad riders and with the roll out, Scott Pfaff and Roger Montes went to the front and kept things nice and steady amidst a sea of overly-anxious century "racers". Little Justin Pfaff tucked himself into the draft and hung in like a pro even as the speeds started to rise into the mid-20 mph-range.

The ride participants quickly sorted themselves into their corresponding ability groups and Cycle Logic was a hugely represented at the front of the field. It took a while for some of the participants riding with the lead group to get the hang of the basic group-ride dynamics, but Team Cycle Logic did more than their part to keep the quick pace rolling and rotating smoothly.

The Marion county sheriff deputies did an outstanding job leading the ride through the gorgeous countryside that is blanketed with horse farms and rolling fields. At each intersection a deputy with lights and sirens blazing stopped all traffic and yielded safe passage to those riding in this first-class event.

The lead group pedaled steadily into the well-stocked lunch stop located at Boulware Springs state park just off of the Gainesville-Hawthorne trail. An assortment of Powerbar products, energy drinks, gourmet sandwiches from Crispers, cookie platters and fruits were laid out for the cyclists and methodically laid into by them as well.

After resting and refueling, the leaders set back out to finish the century. The group consisting of approximately twenty riders would soon be whittled down to a core group of a dozen or so, half of which belonged to Cycle Logic. Scott, Ron, Moose, Mike, Paul and Steve D. would be the ones carrying the Cycle Logic torch to the finish line and really served as the backbone for the remaining group.

Moving along at a quick pace, the group worked well together with the lion's share of the pulling being done by none other than Scott "El Jefe" Pfaff. As the "25 miles-to go" rest stop approached, "El Jefe" informed the group members that we should quickly stop one last time to top off bottles. We pulled into the rest stop and four non-Cycle Logic riders pressed on in pursuit of glory. Despite my attempts to stall at the tables stocked with great food and cold drinks, the eight of us didn't waste too much time in getting back on the road now that we had a foursome about 4 minutes up the road to chase down!

With twenty-five miles to go, we dosed our efforts while rotating steadily. Once we were able to catch a glimpse of the four leaders up the road our mission intensified and our pace increased. With only eight miles to the finish and coming into less-rural areas of Ocala we utilized our police escorts to the fullest and screamed through corners and intersections as if we were the lead break in a European pro race.

The catch was inevitably made with only a few miles remaining just as the heat of the day took its toll on Steve, who succumbed to heavy cramping in his quadriceps. A rider from one of the Tampa teams smartly launched an attack realizing that the numbers weren't in his favor. This quickly dropped a couple of the guys that opted not to stop at the 25 to go mark. Cycle Logic took the responsibility of bringing back the attack. Once we were gruppo compacto, the pace slowed and Paul launched off the front in order to force a non-Cycle Logic rider to chase, which they did. With no real sprint point or finish line to speak of, the remaining eight riders (5 of those being from Cycle Logic) darted into the parking lot in a relatively anticlimactic manner.

When the dust settled, the lead group had a ride-time of 4 hours and 23 minutes with an average speed of about 22.6 mph. All of the Cycle Logic members did an outstanding job representing the team and completing an early season century [editors note: Justin Pfaff smoked the half-century with his mom and beat us all to the post-ride refreshments].

A huge thanks goes out to the organizers of the Take Stock in Children ride as this has been largely regarded as one of the most well run events attended by its riders.

Cycle Logic wrapped up the day with some great pasta and Greek food at Lakis in Ocala...lots of stories, lots of laughs and lots of fun was had by all that attended.

See you at the next event!