Day 3-More Climbs and lots of Hippies

Day 3 started off with sore legs, but after some coffee, over medium eggs and bread with peanut butter and jam I was ready to go. Today’s ride started off with a nice downhill section, but quickly turned into an uphill slog. We hit two big climbs within the 1st hour of riding, but eventually the road leveled out and we could ride some easier tempo. After the two first two climbs Mark headed back for some much needed sleep. Josh, John, and I continued on, riding some rolling terrain, and winding roads. The winding roads led to some confusion, along with road names on the maps not meshing with road signs. We luckily were good at making educated guesses and didn’t get too lost. As part of our route we did get a chance to ride a really cool 1.5 mile long gravel climb. Luckily it wasn’t too steep or we would’ve had some issues getting traction with road tires. Today’s ride ended up being about 3 hours in length.

That evening we headed down to Asheville to check out the city. I have always heard good things about Asheville so I was eager to check out vibe. After some research we decided on an Indian restaurant, and were not disappointed. The food was super spicy and by the end of the meal I was so bloated because of all the water I drank that I could barely walk. After dinner we walked around the town. Asheville is a really nice city, with a beautiful backdrop of mountains and a walkable downtown with shops, restaurants, and a large amount of hippies. It reminded me of Boulder, but I thought Asheville’s downtown had a lot more to offer than Boulder.

Day 4-My Assault on Mt. Mitchell

Day 4 was by far the toughest day for me. John had gone to Charlotte for the day to check out the City for a potential job relocation and Mark and Josh wanted to watch the Indy 500, so I was on my own to ride. Prior to the trip I was really hoping to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway, and hopefully to the top of Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi topping out at over 6,000’. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to check out the Parkway, so I loaded up Mark’s car and headed to a start location about two miles from the Parkway entrance in Asheville. I had estimated that the ride to Mt. Mitchell would be about 25 miles, and based on review of maps the route seemed to be mostly uphill from my start location to the base of Mt. Mitchell. I had never been on the Blue Ridge Parkway and was excited to check it out, as I have always heard it is an amazing place to ride. The Parkway was designed as a recreational route, and even though it was only two lanes with no shoulder the auto traffic was really nice to cyclist and had no problem waiting their turn to pass me as hammered away at 10 mph. The views from the Parkway were amazing with huge vistas and miles of forest. As the ride progressed I was really starting to feel the affects of the long climbs, and was starting to hope that around every corner I would see the sign for Mt. Mitchell. The turn-off finally came 31 miles into the ride. I now had another 4.5 miles of climbing to hit the top. The first two miles of the Mt. Mitchell climb are the hardest and it levels out towards the top. At the top I picked up a coca cola, some peanut butter crackers, and a Gatorade to replenish my reserves. I was now at the mid point of the ride and had another 36 miles to get back to the car, but a good portion of the return trip would be downhill. For perspective the out portion of the ride took me 2:45, while the return trip took me 1:45 for a total ride time of 4:30. In the end I got 10,000 vertical feet of climbing and built up a huge appetite.

Like Oil and Vinegar

Sunday was the Monsters of the Midway Criterium that is hosted by the University of Chicago Velo Club. The course is a four corner crit consisting of two long straightaways and two short connector sections. It seems that last couple of years I do about one crit a year just to remind myself that I don’t really like racing crits. I raced the Cat. 3 event, and it was pretty uneventful. As the course is really simple there was a 99.9% chance that it would end up in a sprint finish, so I essentially sat towards the back of the pack for 50 minutes, making sure no one got off the back. I think I did a really good job of this, and no one got off the back until the last two laps. I ended up finishing with the pack, and didn’t really contest the sprint. The good part of the race was that I never felt like I was ever really on the edge, and hopefully that will bode well for Lake Geneva this coming weekend. Based on reports, Lake Geneva will beat the cicada hatching by two days. After that we are in for 3-4 weeks of hell. Riding, especially off-road, is going to be awful. Luckily I will be heading to Asheville, NC on May 23rd for five days of road riding. I am really pumped to get on some nice roads with actual climbs, and I think it will be a good final tune-up for the Big Ring Classic on June 3rd.

North Carolina Trip-Day 1

Day 1 started off bright and early in Cincinnati. John aka Art Vandelay and I headed south on I-75 towards Black Mountain, NC, which is just outside of Asheville. The drive from Cincy to NC is about 6 hours and covers some beautiful country through Kentucky and Tennessee. Coming up from South Carolina was Mark aka Meat Bikini and Josh aka Equalizer Guy. We were to meet up with Mark and Josh at the cabin of Mark’s relatives. This is where we would be staying and the base camp for our riding. I wasn’t sure what to expect by the description of the place being a cabin. As John and I discussed during the drive there is a large spectrum that encompasses the different types of cabin; anywhere from a mouse infested dirt floor cabin to a nice home that happens to be in the woods. As we arrived at the cabin we were pleasantly surprised to see that the cabin was definitely towards the end of the spectrum of “nice home in the woods”. After catching up with Mark and Josh, who for me it has been several years since I have seen the two of them, we unpacked the bikes and headed out for our fist ride. Mark decided to stay at the cabin and relax as he had been up for 24 hours + at the Vet clinic where he works. After reviewing the topo maps we picked our poison and headed out for a couple of hours on some beautiful country roads. This was my first chance getting to ride in NC and was amazed at the quality of the roads, along with the amount of climbing available.

After riding we headed down to Black Mountain for some dinner. We found a really good Mexican restaurant and I stuffed myself on fajitas. We then headed back to the cabin to watch some South Park and drink some Goose Island Matilda. Day 1 was great and that was only the start.