Going Long and Hard.

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
We be in Saratoga. Doing some Saratoga shit.

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Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
:Counting on You:

Funny, Saratoga stuff usually means betting on horses, going to The Parting Glass, and chatting up Skidmore Girls.

I'm having an '80s flashback that someone reworked Zappa's Valley Girl into Skidmore Girl....but no luck on the internet.

Maybe you can check out Glory Dayz, I heard Cyndi Lauper will be there. :cool:
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Saratoga 600k.

This event was a hootin' good time. The ride started at the RBA's house at 4am. We had to be there at 3am for bike check, which was stupid early.

Our group hit the front early and pulled a nice, steady pace for the day. This was our last qualifier for PBP so we didn't want to overextend and risk DNF'ing.

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Beautiful country roads up past Lake George, Lake Schroon, and then Lake Champlain.

Went across the border into Canadia through a super ho-hum Border Guard. Wouldn't sign our cards, went through my bike, took forever. Blah.

There was a bike path not too far in that went all the way up to Chambly. Was super cool but somewhat crowded.

We ordered grub in French to practice. Or, at least I needed to practice. David is from there and Line is from Europe and speaks all the languages, I'm an uncultured swine. Also, Poutine isn't vegetarian.

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Afterwards we went back into town so I could eat dinner.

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Back through the border into 'Merica where the Border Guard was significantly nicer. Signed our cards, stamped our Passports, talked about riding. Cool dudes.

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Hit our Sleep Stop in Prattsville? Burg? Right around 10pm. Quick shower and we hit the restaurant in front of the hotel. Closed. Boo. Quick Google and basically everything was closed. At 10pm on a Saturday Night? Hoppin' town. We ordered a bunch of pizzas and ate them in the lobby of the hotel.

Started nice and late so we could take advantage of the free Hotel Breakfast. 6am.

We took an extended break at the AuSable Chasm to do a little bit of Tourist stuff being we weren't time crunched at all.

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Rest of the day they put me on the front to do what I do, pull at 20mph for 100 miles. Was super fun. Weather was perfect with a rain shower every now and again.

Ended up back in Saratoga in 36 hours. 22 moving. We was out there having a good time and it showed. Team spirits were super high at the finish and in the days since. We're going to Paris!!

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iman29

Well-Known Member
just a casual " 20 mph pull for 100 miles" its amazing what limits you can push yourself beyond and this becomes your normal.

Amazing stuff thanks for sharing. you could write a book just on the last few months of endurance rides and i would buy it.
 

ekuhn

Well-Known Member
Excellent write up and one hell of a ride. Your strava data only showed 11,000ft in 384 miles. Was it really that flat?
 

Steve Vai

Endurance Guy: Tolerates most of us.
Excellent write up and one hell of a ride. Your strava data only showed 11,000ft in 384 miles. Was it really that flat?

Yeah, it was a little rolly at the beginning and end, pancake flat otherwise. However, there was a hell of a headwind coming off all the lakes.
 

Juggernaut

Master of the Metaphor
Wind, the great equalizer. :)

Hell of a cool trip. Why am I starting to think a coast to coast Rando will eventually be on the menu.
 
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