Give it all, buddy! Go, go, go!!! The cranks began to accelerate to generate momentum. The legs began to pump as quickly and as hard as they can. The torso began to move from side to side and so did the bike. The cadence began to decrease after the initial burst, as the ascent never seemed to end. The hands made their way to hold the bullhorns and the body stood on the pedals to grind away. The left hand and the left leg; the right hand and the right leg alternated to share the pain as they pushed hard to generate enough torque to move the pedals. The bike made slow progress till it came to a crawl and eventually stood still. It refused to move an inch come hell or high water!! I had to swallow my pride to get down and walk the last 10-15ft to reach the top.

It was a sunny morning and a gorgeous day in prospect. It is time to let the disappointment of the day before pass and give the first century on the fixed gear another shot.

Kim has charted a 40odd mile loop towards Hardwick from her home in Plainfield. Instead of taking Donna’s offer for a ride on her car, I decided to ride my bike to Plainfield and back too, which would add another 20miles to the actual loop.

We started around 10am and made steady progress towards Woodwick passing a beautiful lake in Woodbury. The lake was right at the start of a decent uphill. So, we decided against stopping there to take pictures and attacked the hill. The grand down hill ride towards Hardwick from there was well worth the climb.

Wait!! Did I say, I enjoyed the downhill ride? Is this coming from a guy who was scared out of his wits until just a couple of weeks ago to even try the fixed gear setup? I guess, the initial fears were result of an overestimation of the difficulty of riding a fixed gear bike. It took some getting used to. But, the more I ride, the more I love riding it. Of course, it has brakes to fall back on in case I need them in emergencies.

The next ascent towards Cabot however had a wicked gradient. I’m guessing it’d be on the far side of twenties. After giving it all, I had to get down and walk the last 10-15ft to reach the top. After that came a glorious ride downhill towards Marshfield. The max speed read 40.1mph which is nearly 64kmph. Phew!! That was good!!

The headwind turned the easy rolling terrain of the last 20miles into quite a pain and slowed us considerably. I bid Kim and Donna goodbye as we reached Plainfield and headed home.

Although the average at the end is nothing to write home about, it was quite satisfying to have completed my first century on my fixed gear bike.

Stats: 105.8km

Avg: 20.47kmph

Max: 64.16kmph

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/hivenkat.d/HardwickLoop20100523#