As I have mentioned before, it looks like Barbara Kingsborough
will be providing a sag for this year's ride. Thanks Barbara!

The following is an article I wrote last year and just
revised. Please read it if you are new to the group or have
not read it. It is also posted in the file section.

To have a well stocked sag, we would need at least the
following:

A rear Shimano 8-9 speed wheel.
A rear Campy 8 speed wheel (I can provide this).
A rear Campy 9-10 speed wheel.
A front wheel (any kind)
and then the easy assorted stuff like tires, tubes, floor
pumps and the like

Also food and water. Last year Bob had an endless assortment
of goodies stashed away, and I am sure Barbara will do the
same. We should all chip in to defray the cost of food at the
start of the ride or before.

Here is the article. Please follow up with any thoughts or
comments you have.

Sag Wagons

What, why and who?

In the Tour De France, it is known as the broom wagon, because
it sweeps up all the riders who can not finish the stage for
what ever reason. Most American cyclists call it the sag
wagon. The double century has only been sagged a few times.
Fortunately, we have never truly needed a sag wagon, but they
are always appreciated if they exist.

One of the fun things about the double century without a sag
wagon, is that you are totally on your own. You have to carry
everything yourself, have to repair your bike, carry or buy
all your food, and you have to make it back on your own
strength, physical or mental, which ever is more powerful at
the time. Having a sag wagon kind of defeats that sense of
independence you get on a long ride like the double. That
said, it is always nice to have a sag when you need it.

Here are some (but not all) the times when riders have wanted
a sag wagon, and how it worked out.

Louis Malfitani, on is first attempt at the double, hit my
rear wheel and fell. At the time, he thought he only bruised
his arm. He continued on for a short time, but ultimately
decided to take the train back. He had indeed broken his arm.
He was lucky this happened near a train station.

A rider broke a shifting cable at about the 80 mile mark. He
abandoned the ride, went to a near by relative's house and
called his wife to pick him up.

I broke a spoke in Mount Kisco just 15 miles into the ride. I
decided it was not worth riding the rest of the ride on a
weakened wheel. I called my wife to pick me up, but I could
have taken the train back.

A rider overheated on one of the double centuries we did on a
95 plus degree day. Luckily, slowing down, wading in water and
dumping cold water over his head revived him enough to finish
the ride.

A rider blew out the side wall on his tire just south of Kent
at the 135 mile mark. I told him to go walk back to Kent, call
the Bobbitts, and see if they could help. The Bobbitts have
both completed the double before and lived near by. They were
able to repair the bike and send the rider on his way. He made
it back to the start under his own power. He was lucky, as the
Bobbitts were just about to leave their house for a ride
themselves.

At the first food stop, 60 miles into the ride, a rider goes
to true a wheel (lesson for another day) and discovered his
rim was cracking at the spoke holes. He was lucky and made it
though the rest of the ride without a problem.

These are just a few of the things that can go wrong on this
ride, or any ride. A sag wagon may or may not have helped in
all these cases. Metro North is the default sag wagon for the
bottom 70 miles of the trip. They have service from about 10
miles north of Dover Plains to White Plains. Unfortunately,
the service north of Brewster is every other hour on Sundays,
with the last train at 10:30pm. Also, they drop you in
downtown White Plains, while your car is up at SUNY. You would
still have to ride though White Plains and up Anderson Hill
Road to get to your car. I do urge all participants in the
double century to get a Metro North bicycle pass. It is
required for taking a bike on the train. Call them at (800)
METRO-INFO, or point your browse at
http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/mnr/html/mnrbikepermit.htm. Fill out
the form, print it and mail it in. It could not be easier.
Bike passes are a $5 one time only lifetime fee.

If a sag wagon is to be helpful, it has to contain what you
need to fix your bike, or be able to carry your bike back to
the start. A well-stocked sag wagon would contain the
following: water and food, a way to carry two or more bikes
and riders, a spare front and rear wheel, spare tire, spare
tubes, a floor pump, and a good set of tools for bike repair.
A cell phone would also be handy, especially if several riders
were to carry one as well. Also, since the double is a long
ride, even for a car, it might make more sense for the sagged
cyclist and sag wagon to stay with the ride, rather than being
sagged back to the start of the ride, as another rider may
need the sag wagon more than the original rider did.

The sag wagon is also a lonely and boring job. On average, the
ride travels between 15 and 19 miles per hour. Normally, the
sag wagon would go ahead of the riders and wait till the last
cyclist appeared. Then it would jump ahead passing all the
riders and then lay and wait till the last rider passed again.
While this would be fairly quick in the beginning, but as the
ride goes on, the difference between the fastest and the
slowest riders can become somewhere in the range of 2 or more
hours.

The other option is for a come on demand sag, where the sag
stays in a more central place, maybe doing something else,
like sight seeing, and has a mobile phone. A rider seeking a
sag would call and request a sag.