Pardon the typos, spelling errors and crap use of the English language.
It was rainy and in the low sixties before the start. I stuffed my wind vest in my Camelbak just in case.
After about 5 minutes of a heavy downpour it stopped raining at or about the time we rolled out.
People were either flying at the start or I was going ubber slow as I felt as if I was going backwards through the pack. I did have good knowledge of the first climb coming up so I held back.
Made the left turn of death and started the Club Creek Rd. climb. The climbs starts gradually, gets steepish, flattens a bit and the goes up and up for the 20-22% part that really hurts. Rode the whole climb like always passing a number of walkers (the 34x34 low gear sure helps that) Hit my usual super high heart rate too, hit 201 this year! It was humid as heck going up that climb but we managed to get a nice tailwind toward the top that helped to cool us down a bit.
I rolled over the top and killed the downhill as usual. My cross bike is the most stable bike I’ve ever owned. Gravel was nice and tacky but not that well packed. A lot of nickel to quarter sized gravel was here and there but I really didn’t notice it until I climbed it on the return leg. As usual I passed everyone and was passed by no one; it is great to have 25+ years mountain biking under the ole belt.
Finally hit the pavement and an instant headwind. Burnt a match or two trying to bridge up to the closest guy but I couldn’t do it, not enough HP in my skinny out of shape legs. Just then a guy was coming on my left and I managed to catch his wheel. He dragged me up to the huge guy (tall and wide not fat) that I had tried to bridge up to earlier. I managed to get in a decent group but after a few miles I had to let them go, too early for me to dig that deep. Didn’t matter that much though since we made the right on to the 8 mile gravel climb right after I lost the front part of group. I still had a few guys behind me and I would ride with those same 3 or 4 guys for the rest of the ride.
We more or less rolled along chatting and riding up the climb. I wasn’t paying attention to my efforts though and had to back-off about 1/3 into the climb and let my friends ride off. I recovered for the next 1/3 of the climb and concentrated on hydration, eating some gels and knocking back the endurolytes. The rain started dumping for about 5 minutes and that really helped me and my legs recover, I really love riding in the rain. I slowly reeled my buddies back in toward the top right before we jumped back on the pavement. We rode the pavement for a short while and turned back in to some gravel, this section was new last year but I remember it being semi-mountain bike friendly. Toward the top it got extra rocky and I wound up dropping my friends. I topped out on the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) and headed downhill. It felt nice to cool off a little in the wind. After the downhill there was brief climb and I got my first cramp twinges of the day. I hit some more endurolytes to try and fend off the cramp monster. My group came back together soon after and then we hit the first rest stop. It was a quick in and out for a pee, a fresh water bottle, a free gel off the table and some more endurolytes. When in doubt get the endurolytes out!
Our little posse left the rest stop together and we quickly started heading downhill on some more twisty gravel that was crisscrossed with some good ruts. One of the other guys, I’ll call him MTB was a mountain biker too so we cruised the downhill railing the turns and bunny hopping the ruts making up time on the others in our group that were better at going up then down. MTB read a corner wrong and we both had to scrub major speed but we regained our composer until he ejected a bottle hopping a subsequent rut. I kept going, knowing he would catch me soon, he had 30 lbs on me so he was sure to catch up. I railed the downhill solo, picking great lines and having a blast. MTB caught me at the bottom. We then climbed some pavement and then started climbing some gravel again. It was another long slog up a steep hill toward the BRP. Our downhill challenged members caught back up on the climb.
We topped out on the BRP and started climbing more. I absolutely hate this part of the ride. I’m not sure if it is a mental block or just a climb that doesn’t match my skills but I always suck on this part. All my buddies dropped me and were long gone after a few turns. No one passed me, I passed no one, and I was alone in no man’s land. I just trudged along, pedal stroke after pedal stroke. I kept eating, drinking and hitting the E-lytes to ward off the cramp monster, at least that part was working. The climb finally changed its demeanor and my body responded better and really picked up the pace. The added tailwind helped too. The road pointed down and now I was riding the section of the BRP from earlier in the day and was approaching the rest stop for the second time that day. A rider or two actually loomed in the distance I was actually catching some one! On the downside my cramps started showing up again close to the same place on the road as the last time, right on time to roll in to the rest stop. Another pee and water stop and I rearranged some food stuff between pockets and of course took more endurolytes. My buddies were still there when I arrived but they rolled out before me. I was sure to catch a few of them soon.
Why would I catch them? Eight miles of gravelly downhill loomed ahead. MTB would be long gone but the others were catchable. After a brief steep paved downhill that actually got me chilled, I made a left on the gravel and started to smile from the memories of the last two years. The eight miles were mostly downhill with 4-5 big ring climbs that could be muscled over along the way. It was pretty twisty at times and had two nice S shaped rutted downhill corners and a whole lot of fast sections. I really love this part. I started picking people off left and right. I’d sight the next carrot up ahead, drill it to get a nice clean pass and then continue to my next target. I was definitely burning a match that I would like to have a few miles later but the downhill was too darn fun to not hammer like hell. I caught a young rider on a skinny tired road bike, we’ll call him 15. The kid could ride the gravel well but lacked the ability to set up a turn and would scrub speed each time. I only caught after closing the gap through some successive sketchy turns and then had to floor it to get and keep my gap on him.
The last half mile or so are almost flat so I throttled back a wee bit and 15 caught back up. We chatted a bit and I learned he was 15 years old, was running a 36/25 low gear (vs. my 34/34) and was running 23c slicks (those ultra skinny tires make his descending even more impressive). Strong kid, I wished him well and had to let him go up the road as my efforts were starting to haunt me with the return of the cramp monster. It sucked to see the kid go but I had no business slowing him down on the way home. I hit the e-lytes some more (probably 10+) and swigged some water and another hit of the gel flask to help the recovery from my over zealous downhill effort. Cramps and all it was still worth every grin inducing red-lined pedal stroke on the way down!
I turned on to the slight downhill pavement toward the last climb of the day and hoped the cramps would subside soon. One of the poor descenders, we’ll call him Z caught me on the road and I had hoped to draft him a bit as he passed but the legs would have none of it and I had to let him ride off too, damn cramps.
A few more miles of paved road, a left turn and a few more feet of pavement, then gravel and then a steep, loose gravel covered, double switch back little ball buster of a climb . Made it up that fun little part, legs felt ok, no cramps just spent. I just kept grinding my way up the gradual continuation of the climb. Over the top and down a high speed “soft” gravel descent that was probably the sketchiest of the day, my overall body fatigue didn’t help much either.
A little section of pavement rolled under the 35c knobbies before the final climb up the backside of the Club Creek Rd. climb, 2+ mile of gravel, with a few false blind corner summits and a final nasty 15% section right before the top. Not much to say besides I pedaled, passed a few over geared walkers, suffered, pedaled some and suffered some more. About a 1/2 mile from the top I saw Z walking up the final 15% and knew if I could stay upright I could close the gap on the final downhill.
Z made it over the top first but I wasn’t that far behind. The downhill was paved, ultra fast, rough in places, twisty and a had real nasty strong gusty wind with a slight crosswind element thrown-in for good measure. I started the downhill fast and on the edge of control and it wasn’t long before I sighted Z ahead and set up and executed an ultra clean pass on him. I tried to maximize my gap on Z before the last little road section and I pedaled where I could to open it up. I made the quick turn on the last semi downhill section of the ride. About 1/2 mile from the end some dickhead in a Miata tried to make me dent his front left fender when he decided stop signs were optional, thankfully his driver side window was down a bit and I can be loud prick when I need to be. To close for comfort to be nice….
I made the last final turn on the gravel driveway of the brewery and just held off Z for the personal win. The first place guy, Jeremiah Bishop finished 1:30 ahead of me but hey I bet he trains more than 2 hours a week. I crossed at 5:29 on the clock. This was my third attempt and my worst so far. I love the ride but I’m not sure if I want to suffer that much again until I build my endurance base back up.
Never say never, my memory is short…..
Dorky book keeping info follows:
65.91 miles
6600 feet of climbing
12.4 mph average speed. 40 maximum speed
Average heart rate: 169 , Max Heart Rate: 201
1-1/2 flasks vanilla Hammer Gel, one single serve orange Hammer Gel
One packet Power Bar Energy Blast w/ 2x caffeine (the caffeine didn’t even cause a blip, so much for that).
6 bottles of water (3 in camelbak, one on bike filled twice at the reststop.)
40 Hammer Endurolytes Capsules and 9 Hammer Endurance Amino capsules.
