I rode in this road race for the first time last Saturday. It was sponsored by http://www.swoutfitters.com/ , a really sweet Christian camp that is impacting this generation for Christ. The race was part of a fundraiser day for the camp, so I took a few of our guys from http://www.ridgestudents.ridgeviewchurch.net/ and let them experience all the cool recs that the camp has to offer. But, in order to come out for all the fun in the afternoon, they had to volunteer during the bike race in the morning.
One of my high school students, Andrew, decided he wanted to ride in the race with me. He is in great shape, is a cross country runner, and a fantastic MTBer. But he had never done a road race. He borrowed Erin's bike, and signed up for the 55 mile race that I was doing. The race is in it's 4th year, so they are still working out a number of bugs in the organization of the event that could really make this race do well. The 55 mile race only had 8 people sign up for it, while the 21 miler and the 40 mile sprint relay were much better attended. For some reason no one wants to ride a bike for 55 miles. I wonder why?
The course started out with a 2 mile fast downhill, followed by a 3 mile fast paced section with small rolling hills, and nice smooth road surface. I took off pretty fast, averaging somewhere between 20 - 25 mph for the first 5 miles. I glanced back to see that Andrew had dropped off from the pace, and knowing it would be a long day, and that there was no reason to make him suffer so early, I eased off until he caught back up to me.
We had been warned at the beginning of the race that the final 5 miles would be torture. However, very little had been said to us about miles 5-15. It was ridiculous. The climb was a continuous grade for all of 10 miles. It took us all of an hour an 15 minutes to complete - How miserable!
Then we got to take a fun 6-8 mile decent into the Nantahala river gorge which made the previously horrible climb almost worth it. Somewhere in the fast downhill, my sunglasses flew off and disintegrated into a thousand tiny pieces. There goes 10 bucks down the drain.
Climbing out of Natahala was painful again, but this time traffic had become an issue. We were on 19, which is the main drag through the gorge, so the hill was less difficult to climb, but cars were not as friendly as one might hope, and made this part of the ride stressful.
Andrew and I made our own pit stop at a gas station for a power bar, because we were both feeling very weak. Snowbird provided a number of water stations, but we really needed some bananas, apples, or granola bars... our fuel tanks were empty. I chose the Cliff bar, and he chose the Powerbar...I made the right choice. BTW it was funny to see people's looks when we walked in with tight shorts, jerseys and numbers on. They acted like we had beamed in from our alien spacecraft!
Next we headed on to Andrews, NC. The race course took us through a very beautiful valley alongside of a small airport. Getting down and around this airstrip took much longer than I would have liked. Andrew was really hurting now, unable to put any power behind the pedals, so instead of making time up on the flat section of the race we ended up losing more ground. Nonetheless, we circled the airstrip, and came to Fairview Rd followed closely by Pisgah Rd, the final climb of the day.
All the hype over this climb was not worth it. We were expecting a series of switchbacks like the ones on the Hincapie challenge at Paris Mountain. This climb had a few, but really was not nearly as difficult as the earlier climb in the race. We made it to the last water station, where the girl told us we had 1 mile to go... she lied. There was about 2.5 -3 remaining. Distances driven in a car should never be taken for granted. We agreed to race it out to the finish, and I beat Andrew to the line by about 1:30, and we came in 4th and 5th place just under the four hour mark. I was really proud of Andrew for a great effort his first time out.
So I found out a few days ago about the paris mountain downhill race! The Greenville News did a great article on this weekends festivities.
Now if you will click on the small picture link for the race pic/vid site, you will notice these guys floating over the same rock with brilliance and ease. they look so peacful don't they? Aren't they looking like it is a bunch of fun?
So this little beaut has been my ride to work for the past week. My buddy Ryan affectionately calls it the liquorcycle. Here is why I am riding it. Since Austin and Eve joined our commune, they noticed that everything we need is within a 2 mile radius from our home. If homeless guys and bag ladies can ride to work, why can't I do it? Especially if I am going to call myself a cyclist.
As I have talked about on here before, I do have a nice bike that I could ride each day. However, I have found it to be too difficult on a day to day basis to put on the tight shorts and clicking shoes and a backpack. This ghetto bike is most definitely a beater. I am proud to say that 5 dumpster bikes are represented in its current formation. And although it is probably the heaviest thing I have ever pedaled, I have enjoyed pedaling to and from work, the grocery store, and Phil's music. Also, if it does get stolen, or if I get hit by a car, the loss is not too great.
But when I strap my helmet on, and fill by crate full of gear I am looking pretty styling let me tell you. Yet, my truck has not moved in 4 days. I am getting unbelievable gas mileage. Pretty sweet deal huh?
This is my new bike! I can't tell you how excited I am to ride it! My buddy Wes from NGU emailed me a couple weeks back to let me know that he was going to get rid of this bike. He had started biking a while back, but never really gotten into it as much as he thought he would. By reading through my blog, and talking to me at different times - he knew that I really enjoyed to cycle.
After talking to Wes, our friend Dana called us and asked if we knew of anyone who was selling a bike, because her friend was just getting into the sport and needed something inexpensive. If you have followed my blog very closely this year, you know that I had gotten a new play it again sports bike a few months back. You see where this is going right? Yea, Erin saw it coming too.
We were able to sell the Trek bike for exactly what we bought it for, which meant I now had some spending money to go back to Wes and make an offer on the Allez bike. The reality is, I couldn't offer him nearly what it is worth, but the dude took what I offered him anyway, and he gave me all kinds of extras like a computer, shoes, clips, a pump, a chain tool, water bottles and water cages! What a guy huh?
As far as the bike goes, it was such a great gift you gave me to allow me to buy it for basically nothing. I have ridden it only a couple times seriously, so I am still figuring out what I like best about it. The real deal is that the bike is incredible. It seems light as a feather, it shifts really well, and it has enough low gears that I can pull my girls in the bike trailer without feeling like my legs are being dipped in a volcano again and again.
The computer on it seems to be really sweet, but I can't quite figure out how to use it. Hopefully Wes has an owners manual somewhere on it, because right now I feel like a caveman with a stick when I try to use it. The shoes are probably a size too big, but the gearing of the bike means that I don't have to work the pedals nearly as hard as I have been in the past, so they will be just fine.
I would like to buy a new helmet that would match the new bike. This is purely a pride thing, but basically my bike now is like the cool kid at school who doesn't want to hang out with the loser helmet kid it used to hang out with. All in all, I am very appreciative for it and want Wes to know that I am going to get a ton of use out of it...
THANK YOU!
I met Mark today to ride for lunch... it was anything but the perfect ride. First we were both about 15 minutes late, construction on Hwy 29 set us back. Then, when I arrived, I realized that I didn't have any bike shorts with me. Fortunately I did have some gym shorts, but the ride is much more unpleasant without all that extra padding. Mark arrived with no shoes, helmet or gloves. I had some flat pedals which he was able to use, and he put his black dress shoes back on. We had a great time, but I am dead tired because of it. Croft is a trail with a great deal of up and down, so Mark and I had decided to ride our single speeds... It was a decent ride considering all the reasons why we could have given on it, but Croft is not meant for single speeds... not until I get into better shape anyway. Maybe next time!
