HOH - What a ride!
The bike was ready, and I was amp'd up to get this ride in. I knew i wasn't going to sleep well, so I left
most of the prep work to the morning. Set the alarm for 6:00, planning on leaving the house at 7:45. Nice to be local.
Open my eyes a bit after 5:00 and have a major sinus headache. The nice, warm weather has kicked-off allergy season.
Couple of mucinex, and a bunch of caffeine goes in, and I put the headache on ignore while gathering the clothes and equipment.
Over 50F means bare legs. that's easy. I find 1 arm warmer. great, go with a long sleeve tech T. Short sleeve jersey, and
unzip the arms from my wind breaker for the
@pooriggy vest look. Gloves - that is a problem. I have no lightweight gloves with
pads - which means i can go fingerless, with something under them, or heavier gloves. HTFU, and just go fingerless. Did choose
the aero road helmet, but left the windscreen home. no sense scaring children. Summer weight shoes, smart wool socks.
In the pockets:
Food: 3 gu, two packs of blocks
Equipment: credit card, $40, two tubes, two CO2
On the bike:
1 large bottle with water
1 large bottle with hammer perpetuem - mixed heavy (swig of this + swig of water every 20 minutes or so)
cell phone
Forgot I hadn't emptied the back of the truck from working the day before - so that takes time and energy. Done, bike+stuff loaded, and off we go.
Get to the lot and park across from
@Santapez - he's doing his own thing, and i go about my own business. First thing i do is check the tire pressure,
and promptly break the stalk and nut off of the presta valve on the front tire. Great - it is holding air, ride to the start, and forget about it. Someone had a
flat between the parking lot and staging. That has to suck.
Headache has cleared up - a little adrenaline will do that. Say hello to all the familiar faces, had a few people I didn't recognize, say hello to me - all good.
Meet up with
@clarkenstein and
@rick81721 - and stage in the back. Wasn't really expecting 6 waves of riders separated by 5 minutes, we roll out at 9:28.
There wasn't too much organized riding in this group - 2s or 3s. Introduced myself to
@wonderturtle, using the sneak attack method. Just started talking.
Anyway - i probably contributed to Dave's knee issues, cause in the first 15 or so miles, i put up 12 PRs. Hit the 1st rest stop/clothes drop, and jettisoned the tech shirt and vest. Dialed it back after that - and things were fairly uneventful until pine hill. I know the road, but totally forgot about how steep the third up was. I stand for the first two sections, then make the turn - hmm - i'll just spin up it. Doing ok, i hear a truck coming up behind me. A Fuel Oil truck. Plenty of room, i work about 6" from the edge. Truck is almost on me, and i see two guys bombing down the other way. The timing is totally f**ked up, i can't take the lane to cut the truck off, he didn't back off the gas, so we were going to all converge at the same spot. He passed about 6" from my bars, and i was ready to ride into the ditch. it wasn't going to be a crash, cause mtb skills, but i was lucky to find one spot to put a foot down and lean away from the truck. I walked about 50 yards to calm down, and level enough to get moving again.
Just beyond this point is the "Where'd Dave go?" spot. Rode back down a bit, and realized he turned around. Got a txt a few minutes later.
Rick and I worked through much traffic, but took our time at the rest areas. Chatted up a few people.
A bit of a mental game after the last rest stop - 25ish miles to go, some rain. Got a little sketchy on the dh right after the rest stop - loose chat, and wet. just let the bike go - it wants to stay upright, just need to make the turn at the bottom. all good. There was one wet, paved downhill into a right hand turn - locked my rear tire for an instant, but recovered. Might have been wilson rd - blind turn, so was worried about oncoming traffic.
This fella wasn't so lucky.
Then, when i turn on stony brook (mile 69), the hopewell-amwell hump is on my mind. With my legs cramping, i am tempted to short cut the way back. There is a group of riders at the rt 518 crossing (mile 73), discussing the merits of bailing. That is when i realize,
this is the only climb that matters for me. I'm going to use my home field advantage. There are no surprises.
I want to write that I did this ride, not how next year would be the year. Wished Rick well as we hit the first climb. It isn't long, but it is steep enough. I line up the bike, start a nice, slow grind, and don't look up. A few people pass me, not a big deal - when i finally look up, i'm almost cresting the hill. My right leg was seizing, so it was mostly a 1 legged effort - but here comes the adrenaline again. Made it the rest of the way up the second part of that climb without issue, and turned towards the spring hill decent. Other than a car passing me, then slowing down, it was uneventful.
Finished with 5:47 moving time, and about 40 minutes in rest areas and helping out a fella with his inflator.
No flats, but my chain did come off the inside of the small ring on a hard downshift a couple of times. Didn't have any trouble shifting it back on.
Drank about 75 oz of water, and another 20 of perpetuem mix. 3 gu, a cookie, and a soft pretzel. Had a couple of beers afterwards - but skipped the food, because i had a dinner party to get to. they were taking bets on me showing up.
Was expecting to cramp all night, but they never came. Good hydration and food, decent dinner of seafood and steak, must have held them off.
Legs feel good today. Not like i want to go climb Zion, but good enough to think about jumping on the trainer.
Had a great time, and feel like something special was accomplished.
https://www.strava.com/activities/914297290