By the numbers: 333 registered riders (278 pavement , 55 dirt)

DIRT:
Paul McManus gave the new Tour d’Afrique timing system a beta test. There were 40 dirt riders who used the scanners, and among them the recorded times ranged from 3:45 to 6:56. (All times are available at the Club web site.) The consensus was that the timing system worked fine and it was a big help to know exactly who was “checked in” and who was still “out there”. The other people who signed up for dirt (15 = 55 – 40) either did not show or switched to pavement. There were no reported incidents resulting in hurt riders. There was also an experimental moto support for the dirt ride, provided by Neil Dimacali. This seemed to be a very good idea and we will try to formally integrate that into next year’s ride. We also plan to expand the dirt option to a longer ride of 80+ miles with a shorter option of 40+/- miles.

ROAD:
We had the radio clubs out in force, and their communication with the SAGs served to keep the staff up to date on rider progress on both the mile and metric courses. The SAGs picked up quite a few riders (approximately 12) who needed to terminate for various reasons. The last rider finished about 5:00pm. It was her first century – she was very tired but also quite proud of the achievement. It was a long cold day in the saddle. Cudos.

There was one incident reported resulting in minor injury. One rider stopped in traffic and another crashed into him from behind. At this time it appears that the injury was limited to bruising and muscle trauma which are healing.

SURPRISES:
There were a few unanticipated features for the ride: cold weather; record turnout; and construction beginning at Thomas U. Even on the morning of the ride we did not realize that it would remain so chilly throughout the day. This compounded the issues with food. As soon as the ride start was completed, we went to the grocery store to add supplies for our dinner, using past experience to judge how much extra to prepare for the added riders. (About 100 people signed up within 21 hours of the ride start.) We felt pretty good about that until early afternoon when it became clear that a lot more was being eaten. This phenomenon is, I believe, due to the cold. Riders were simply ravenous when they finished and they chowed down. Can’t blame them – I’ve ridden long and hard in the cold, and the desire for food is dramatic when finished. (If it had been hot, I think we would have been fine on food; this is when the rest stops are pressed to keep up with the demand for drinks.) In any case, and whatever the explanation is, we saw that food would run low and made emergency trips up to Cal Mart to replenish. It was a close thing, but in fact everyone who wanted spaghetti, sauce, salad, and garlic bread got to eat as much as they wanted in those categories. The creativity of the cooking volunteers was astonishing. Toward the end it was garlic bagels! But more than one cold, tired finisher said they were great! (Note: There was a comment on tal-rides that some people did not get food. This is absolutely NOT correct. Nor was there ever any consideration of giving up on the food supply.)

The unannounced onset of major construction at Thomas College was a little rankling. When the course marking crew went by there a few days before the ride, there was no sign of such a thing. But when the rest stop crew got there on Sat AM, the parking lot was torn up, the concrete tables were gone, and access to the restrooms was blocked. Creativity saved the day there too. The rest area was relocated, some boxes were found to use as makeshift tables. They couldn’t do anything about the facts that the one port-a-pottie was across the mud and the restrooms were inaccessible. But they really did the best they could under adverse conditions. Next year we’ll make sure there are tables, and porto-potties will be added here and at the lunch stop in Boston. (We will even consider moving the stop to another location in Thomasville.)

SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR:
There have been several very helpful suggestions made on tal-rides and via personal communication, and we will act on these for next year. The one that we probably will not act on is to limit the late registration. The problem is that people show up, sometimes from out of town, the morning of the ride. If someone is there it means they have prepped the bike, driven to Miccosukee, found a parking space (!), and want to ride. If they are denied to register – guess what, they are going to ride anyway, and who could really blame them? After all that prep and the drive, I would too. Of course then they would not be entitled to eat at the rest stops and at the dinner, but again that is really hard to police (and frankly very unpleasant to have to police). But we will have a better plan in place to react to unexpectedly high late registration.

VOLUNTEERS:
The Spaghetti 100 is run COMPLETELY by volunteers, who collectively put in hundreds of hours of personal time and in some cases sacrifice their own enjoyment of the ride in order to make it better for others. Here is the honor role of volunteers for this year:

INDIVIDUALS: Dave Anderson, Lee Berger, Jessica Blocker, Michael Brown, Tom Butler, Bob Carruthers, Mark Cross, Christine Decoteau, Tom Gillis, Jamie Hanuka, Dave Harlan, Mark Harvey, Suzanne Harvey, Ed Holt, Faith Jones, Warren Jones, Dwight Kingsbury, Jennifer Koch, Mark Koch, Theresa Leslie, Kathy Lurding, Fran Mathews, Chris Mojock, Daniel Moniz, Al Parker, Curtis Parker, Larry Pushor, Dave Stotts, Ed Williams, Steve Wise, Irene Wynn and Richard Wynn.

GROUPS: Atomic Cycling, FSU Cycling, Tallahassee Amateur Radio Society, and Thomasville Amateur Radio Club.

SPONSORS OF ESSENTIAL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES:
City of Boston, Core Institute, Cytomax, Olive Baptist Church, Jefferson County Country Club, Keiser University Culinary Arts Program, Leon County Tourism Development Council, Tasty Pastry, Red Eye Coffee, Sunshine Cycles and Thomas University.