It's possible if the lead group rolls out that fast and there aren't a bunch of idiots trying to ride well beyond their means.

Otherwise it is a pretty fast ride with or without the help

Thanks for the info!

It's kinda buried, but from the website: "The 2008 elite peloton set a 100-mile course record of 3:44:55"

I think I can manage as long as the group is working well together. I'll probably do what you describe and let the group settle a bit before taking many turns at the front, and just try not spend too much time in the wind. Once a good rotation starts i'm happy to take my turn.

The website says that they're still supporting the lead group with motorcycle intersection control and a sag vehicle running behind the paceline with water etc.

Digging this back up. The ride is tomorrow and after reading a bit more i'm concerned about hydration. You said there was a vehicle handing up bottles, but a lot of reports I read stated that they had to drop back to the car (similar to what we see in stage races.) Many of those individuals then couldn't latch back on to the group at 26-27 mph. Apparently Kent Bostick, who led the group that holds the course record at 3hr 44min, will be leading again this year. I think i'm going to suffer big time!

I'm thinking it might be a good idea to wear my camelbak (the horror!) and carry two bottles on the frame. That should give me enough to finish without any handups. FWIW I occasionally do longer training rides with the camelbak so it's not like I would be trying something for the first time.

 

Tomorrow's gonna be hot but not especially windy, except during possible brief thundershowers, so I expect the peloton to break four hours for a ninth time.
Not sure whether I'll be driving a support car tomorrow. Some of you will remember my wife's white '92 Alfa roadster with the red poodle in the passenger seat. I handed up water and Gatorade and snacks while driving alongside the peloton. Naturally, we couldn't do that everywhere or just at any time. But traffic is so light on most Sunrise Century roads, that from the time I got signals from riders that they needed refreshment until the time I handed stuff up to them was never more than a few minutes.
We used to have one of the stalwarts wear a radio to call for help and to hear pace advisories. Those proved useless, and so will the advice which follows. Pity. You guys could cut 7-10 minutes off your times.
I laid out both our sub-four courses, the original 2005-2006 sub-four course and the current, flatter one, which bypasses the Jefferson Davis Monument, eliminating more than 300 feet of climbing. (The springtime Rotary century follows the old course but with alterations that make it even hillier.)
Having ridden the current course more than a dozen times myself, I believe I know where to lay back and where to honk it on. I used to carry a list of maximum ETAs about five miles apart. As long as the group reached those points ahead of schedule, they knew they were on target for four hours.
Let me establish some modest credentials. I've been cycling these roads since I moved back here in 1980. That was the week after I ran the Boston Marathon, one of the hottest Bostons ever. I beat the five guys I flew up with, even though I'd never beaten them before. How? By drinking everything the crowd handed me.
Unofficially, and with the help of Dr. David Costill of the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State, I coached Auburn, Alabama's, high school cross-country squad to a state championship. Some of you old-timers may remember the renowned exercise physiologist. He wrote for Bicycling as well as Runners World. I met Dave at a marathon, and we kept in touch. He was an expert on hydration and glucose replenishment. Do what he preached and win. None of the sub-four peloton people ever drank enough or took on enough carbs during their rides. You probably won't either. As I say, it's a pity. Every peloton has gone out way too fast, and you will too, but maybe you'll bear in mind a few pointers about pacing yourselves. Download the map of the century course and follow along.
After you pass through Trenton the second time and head north on Kentucky 475, you'll start gaining altitude almost imperceptibly. Maybe you'll notice after 475 cuts hard to the left and the route continues straight ahead onto Bells Chapel Road. About halfway to Davis Mill Road, you'll come around a blind sharp turn and behold the first of the two significant grades on the course.
(The second steep grade comes after you dive down to Elk Fork on Kentucky 848 and have to climb back up on the other side, but it's only a quarter-mile long, and momentum will cut your climbing effort.)
But back to the Bells Chapel "climb." It's only half as long as the Elk Fork climb¾maybe 150 yards long. But you won't get the fast run at this first "real hill," and you'll have been putting in miles over a false flat. I've seen at least two pelotons needlessly drop guys who could've helped farther around the course by heroically charging up this first steep section¾not to mention the gratuitous waste of everybody's anaerobic reserve. The sub-four challenge is about avoiding attacks. To discipline yourselves, why not resolve to ride up this first steep grade sitting down?
Because you're going to grunt later when you reach Industrial Boulevard for the second time. It's fun going out, but returning over it some three and a half miles from the finish is hard, hard, hard. The secret of our 100 miles is that, while you're forever going up and down, you rarely pull for long.
Instead of charging up our little hills, your effort will reward you more going down. Between Elkton and Allensville, Kentucky 102 is comprised of a lot of flats and shallow downhill sections, reverse false flats, so to speak. Another deceptive net-downhill section comes earlier, on Kentucky 1753. You'll hit some rises on 1753 and on the stretch of Kentucky 104 that takes you back into Trenton, but the shallow descents that follow those little rises make this section worth investing in.
Unlike racing, I find riding for high long-distance average speed rewards pushing the easy stretches, not the hard ones.
Good luck.

Thanks for the info Bryan; looking forward to it. I'm all for a measured effort but have a feeling your prediction will play out. There always seems to be someone that wants to hammer.

Thanks for replying. Depending on the size of the peloton i'm going to try to stay around mid-pack for a while. Not too far back though; don't want to get caught on the wrong side of a split.

I think i'm going to stick with the camelbak plan... read too many reports of people dropping back for water and unable to latch back on. Maybe they tried to drop back too early before the group thinned out... either way, the ride starts in 8 hours so i'm going to roll with it. Time for bed... leaving at 4:30am.

Supremely gifted and seasoned competitors like you don't need advice from a 74-year-old like me. I do wonder whether you'd fare a bit better if you made yourself drink more. Many of Costill's experimental subjects were notable Indiana racers. They achieved significant gains through extra hydration. But that was back before everybody started paying more attention to it. I assume you established good habits or, for a 100-mile record ride like ours, you simply don't need to. I can't imagine. I'm in awe of you guys.

Bostick's 3:44 is the proof our ride long needed that our ride is fast, which means it's easy for ordinary riders. I'm torn between, on one hand, hoping the current record will be knocked down by even faster times, and on the other hand, seeing more people break four with the leadership you top riders provide. Do you wonder how fast this course could be ridden by, say, a Tour de France field? What do you think? 3:35?

Yes, the routine here is to ease back to the rear of the pace line and raise your hand. The service truck will pull up to you, and the passenger will hand down whatever you need. It isn't impossible to hold on to the draft.

As a five-hour century rider in my forties (but a three-hour marathoner), and never enjoying support like we provide, I always carried two CamelBak bladders in the bag behind the seat of my recumbent Lightning R-84.

Let me change the subject and ramble on a little longer about recumbents, OK? They're not for you young studs. But just wait. I was forced off my upright bikes. I could either give up this sweet sport or get on a "lay-down." I was delighted to find I could run off from my old cycling partners on their uprights, guys who'd been my equal on most rides but my betters at other times. To be fair, my recumbent weighs 19 pounds and climbs almost as fast as the Trek it replaced. Then it fairly FLIES downhill and, for any given effort, it would pull away from my clone exerting an equal effort on the Trek. It took a season or two to learn how to get that kind of performance out of it-or, rather, out of myself aboard it. You traditionalist can scoff. Wait till you get old! I'd love to see guys like Bostick switch. My personal experience convinces me they'd pick up speed ON COURSES LIKE OURS. Recumbents would suck climbing Alp d'Huez, but they've broken the RAAM record twice.

I'll talk to Charles Marshall, the ride's longtime webmaster, about posting the times for all the sub-four years, beginning with 2005, the first year we laid out a course expressly for speed. Charles is the guy who started the peloton, and I'm fairly sure he has all the times on hard drives. If he doesn't, I have them from 2005 through 2011, the last year I rode. (A week later, my wife took me to the ER, and Mr. Superhealth here underwent surgery for the first time. And then an operation every year since. I beat cancer and would love to get back on my 15-year-old R-84, but my sweetie and my docs say uh-uh.

So nowadays, I'm getting my fun out of you guys. I'll take the red poodle out in the Alfa and watch you for a while and silently cheer.

Well the 2013 Sunrise Century is in the books, so I guess it's time to report back on my day.

The quick version: I hung for 66 miles at +26mph, then pretty much rode solo for 34 :-)

The longer version:
We started out the ride with around 30 guys (no ladies this year) and the group quickly organized into a rotating paceline. Everyone was working and my effort was pretty low. There was not a group sitting off the back while others worked (yet) as described from previous years.

Around 10 miles, some guys were starting to get weak and began jumping into the "backwards" line when they were only halfway up the "forwards" line. This was annoying and caused us to needlessly close gaps and waste energy. There was some admonishment from the group but unfortunately these guys kept going with their plan.

Around 20 miles, a group began to form at the rear of the paceline as riders decided to sit out of the rotation. At the time I thought this was annoying, but mostly due to the fact that there wasn't a good way to know if the guy behind you was going to rotate or just sit back. If he sat back then all of a sudden you had a gap to close to get back into the forward moving line. In retrospect as long as they didn't confuse the rotation It was better to have them suck wheel than try to work but never get to the front.

This went on for roughly the next 20 miles, and around 40ish miles there was a large group sitting on the back and a core group of probably 15 continuing to work. At this point my effort was still within my limits but the trend was worsening around having to close gaps.

Around 55 miles the working group was starting to crack and I was having to put out a lot of effort on a regular basis to close gaps. Guys were beginning to fall off the large group at the back but there were still around the same number working. Unfortunately the workers weren't all doing well and I started to get concerned about how often I was having to put in a hard effort to close gaps.

Somewhere around this point we dropped the entire group of guys that were sitting at the back. I just looked back after a rotation and they were gone. Nowhere in sight. This allowed the support truck to pull up and offer nutrition/hydration which answered one of my initial questions about the ride... for those looking to participate in the future, you will need to carry enough water to last until the draft pack falls off.

At this point things settled down a bit, but I started to get the feeling I had put in too many hard efforts for my fitness level. I'm a much better TT rider than road racer (i've only done one road race before) and i'm not used to the effort level varying so much. I sat back for a few rotations to recover and then tried to get back to work. Things went OK for a while but at mile 66 I got a sudden cramp in my left hamstring. I stood up and stretched it, then made a hard effort to latch back on. This caused the cramp to come back a little worse, so I stretched again. Another hard effort and another cramp... and so it goes. I watched the group ride away with probably 12 guys left.

The story of the next 34 miles is pretty boring so i'll make it quick. My hamstring cramp never went fully away, but I could manage it by standing and stretching, and keeping my effort low. Any harder effort and it came back right away. I had to stop 4 times to stretch when it locked up badly and wouldn't release while standing/coasting. The draft group from the elite peloton must have completely imploded as I only saw 3 guys come past. I tried to ride with 1 but lost him while cramping. Finished in 4:26. The sad part is I probably could have gone out and TT'd this course faster on my own but oh well... it was a fun experience.

I talked with one of the front group finishers afterwards and he said they finished with 6 riders in a time of 3:55. The day turned out to be pretty hot and fairly windy, which may have contributed to the slow time (relative to record pace.)

Overall it was a good experience and I will try to get back next year for another attempt. Other than improving fitness, next time I will pay more attention to my effort level and HR, and sit out of the rotation for a bit if need be. I think this approach will not only help me get further with the front group, but if done right it also allows people to stay fresh for longer and actually contribute to the paceline. The key to a fast time overall is to keep as many people in the front group as possible, and keep them working as much as they can without burning them up and dropping them.