In Praise of Expedition Speed: A Sort of Ride Report of the 115km route of D2R2.

A guest post from Dario about the D2R2, because I wasn't there to see how it was:

The ride couldn't have begun better. Sandy Whittlesey (D2R2 founder and promoter) and his progeny, Fin, smiled at our motley, nearly arthritic crew. We knew then and there that it was going to be a great day of riding. Accompanied by friends Dave and Ken, Peter, Bruce, and I rolled out at about 9 am on one of the most perfect days of riding this summer. The different routes of the D2R2 all have their challenges, namely many steep hills and lots of loose gravel and sand. There is also the most incredible scenery and certainly some of the nicest people you'll ever meet, anywhere. I saw other riders, more fit than I, young and old, hammer up and fly down hills with 6%, 8%, 12%, 15%, 20%+ grades. (Personally, I refuse to go down anything steeper than 20%, even if I make it up the hill to begin with.) D2R2 is renowned for the hard men and women who tackle the 150km and 180km routes. But it's chief accomplishment is to bring together under one tent (literally) the different kinds of cyclists (racers, experienced randonneurs, tourers, and supposedly fit recreational riders, such as my companions and me), in what is easily one of the great cycling events around. (Granted I don't do big group rides much and I don't get out much.) So, rather than sing the praises of the seasoned racers and the bikes of the famed frame builders present at D2R2, I'd rather chant the virtues of expedition speed and its well-intentioned practitioners.

What is expeditions speed? It's all relative of course, but it's as fast as you can ride in six inches of snow without blowing up. It's making it up Patten Hill Rd. (a very steep, longish hill on the D2R2 course) with a smile at the top. It's riding the flats at conversational speed. You have to be able to chuckle, if not laugh, at expedition speed. It's making sure that you are all together especially when someone is a little slower. It's when the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. It's stopping when you can because you can. You know that you are at expedition speed when one of your mates stops to take a pee and before he can say "go on, I'll catch up to you guys", everybody is stopping for a nature break. Expedition speed is about the clock, but not about besting your record, but about making sure you're home for supper in time. "Chi va piano, va sano, e lontano" goes the Italian saying (He who goes slowly, goes safely, and far) is the way I put it. And, there is, very fortunately, different ways of riding at expedition speed.

For example, my fellow expeditionists and I recall the amusement provided by the jeep track, just off Packer Corner Rd at about mile 19 of the course. Y'know, the one that's marked with a very evident "Posted" sign on the tree. By the time we reached the exotically named Abijah Prince Rd, which according to Sandy W.'s cue sheet, reads "Jeep track gets more civilized", we were already nostalgic for the barbaric singletrack section we had just ridden. Bruce, I realized, is a consummate artist at riding in surplace. Using less than one to one gear ratio, he is able to negotiate obstacles and steep pitches by keeping up a consistent rhythm. It isn't as easy as it sounds. If I were to go that slow, I'd fall over.

If you ride slow enough in any case the major climbs begin to resemble one another and this in a curious time-warp continuum way can prolong your ride and, hence, your life. You can try to go fast up Ames Hill Rd (mile 29), Pennel Hill Rd. and Phillips Hill Rd (miles 49, 51) and the previously mentioned Patten Hill Rd (mile 58) and then when you realize that you've used up all your gears you stop, lean over the bars, feel like you can't go on, catch your breath, and then pedal some more. And if you apply this tactic assiduously, you eventually get to the top of the hill. I hadn't realized that Ken had perfected this art. He was our trailblazer and he frequently paid for being so avant-garde. Once recovered, he bounced back to his immense credit and deep satisfaction.

Now let me tell you how real expedition speed cyclists approach Pennel Hill Rd., which is an excuse for a road, by the way. It's really a long sandbox set at a 15% pitch. Turning right off of Rte. 112 S, Bruce declared that we should gear down. As Sgt. Rock might say, "Smoke 'em if you got 'em". I mean it's not like I had been in the big ring all day. So, we made lots of crunching and grinding noises while sliding around in a few inches of sand as we rode in circles at the bottom of the hill. A flock of ducks crossing the road? Or more likely, we resembled the newly arrived souls on the shores of Purgatory. We knew we had to go up the mountain, but we would rather have hung out at the beach. As each of us tried to make our way up the hill, I happened to remember (about 100 meters up, DUH!), Jan Heine's advice about very very steep hills: Sometimes it's faster to get off and walk. Sage advice. So I walked fifty yards or so. I cleared the rest of the hill, but only because I wouldn't allow myself to roll backwards.

There were many other memorable moments in which our well-honed expedition speed techniques were put to good use. As Sandy emphasized in his pre-ride email, try to stay within your limits and you will enjoy yourself immensely. This we did. Thank you Sandy!

Look at that smile! And that was before the ride.

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D2R2 poll

D2R2 is coming up again. Should I ride it? I can't decide.

I haven't been paying to ride things so far this year. I haven't even renewed my USAC license.

So, vote on the right. Read more!

PTDD

That stands for Post-Traumatic Detour Disorder, but I kid. The route of this year's De Tour de Connecticut was the same pleasant route as years' past (mostly) and the weather was beautiful, but the pace was bordering on traumatic at times. And since I don't ever want to consult a cue sheet, I hung with the lead group all the way until we rejoined the Air Line Trail in Goodwin State Forest. I probably would have hung longer (despite my growing opposition to the pace), but I got a stick in my wheel and didn't have the fortitude to sprint back up to the group. I rode the airline trail back into Willimantic in solitary and found about half of the lead group at the spring. We also picked up two riders and I couldn't figure out how they got to the Spring before me, because they never passed me. Shortcut.

We got some quasi-substantial food in Willimantic center, Lance smoked a cigarette and we were off once again. We rode the new section of the Airline Trail that a farmer had tried to appropriate by adverse possession for several years (can't acquire property from the state by adverse possession (public policy reasons) & the state can't acquire property by adverse possession either (that's a taking under the 5th Amendment)). The false flat into East Hampton never gets any easier.

We stopped at the library to fill water bottles, pee and wash faces. I was eating WAY better this year and finally conquered Champion Hill without blowing up. I was surprised to discovered that it's not actually that steep of hill when you still have some energy in your body. I parted ways in the Meshomasic and rode home.

I'm not sure who ended up finishing with Salem, but they must have beat last year's time by like a half an hour. According to Strava, even my laughing group (after my leaving) finished in under 9 hours. It took me about 10 hours because I rode out to the start.

Then, I showered and drove to New York to go run as one on Sunday.

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Salem cancels Detour so that he can go ride around in circles at Winding Trails

That was my terrible attempt at an April Fool's joke. Even to the eight people who would get that joke, it's not even funny.

Anyway, Salem sent out his annual email alerting people to the upcoming Detour de Connecticut. You should come do it. Here's what he had to say:

With the long tail end to winter this year, it took some time before I could check on the route, but all is pretty much well and The Basics for this year's ride have been posted. From last year on, the date is the last Saturday of April (Sunday rain date) which puts us on 4/27 for this year. Again, any questions should be posted to the blog as a comment to the most recent post and I will answer it there for you and all. Hope to see many of you out there in a month.
detourdect.blogspot.com
Cheers,
Salem

So, there you have it.

Also, the Winding Trails race is actually the week before the Detour, so you can do both. Read more!

Couldn't ask for a better day aka Tony rode the furthest

Today was the De Tour de Connecticut (this is where it went) and a higher power decided to give it the greatest weather ever. Unlike last year, I drove out to it and was on time. Of course, nothing can ever be that perfect, so I forgot my pump in the car. I rode back to retrieve it and gave myself an extra mile or so. The pace started quick, so I thought I wouldn't catch anyone until Willimantic or so, but I started catching friends with whom to ride a little bit before the Bolton Notch. Eventually I caught the main group out in Coventy or Andover or some place like that.

We rode and rode. This year's route had more dirt, provided by a slight different (and better, I'd say) route, and a muffin stop. I cannot stress how good of a time I had, even though though my lead group bona fides were dashed when I bonked going up Champion Hill. I guess Jesse and Salem are the true hardmen. Also, I need to pack more food.

But anyway, thanks to Salem for putting together an awesome ride.

And, Tony rode to the ride!

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Another D2R2

Cool guy with a cool jersey.

The D2R2 is getting super popular. Almost 1,000 people signed up and despite Hurricane Irene, it appeared that a lot of them and more showed up. The expansion does not seem to serve as a detriment to the logistical execution of the event. It's super-well run and the volunteers are awesome. Also, there are so many roads that they easily absorb the thousand riders. None the less, the increased popularity is making it lose its weirdness and gain some feel of a charity ride. Obviously, I have no claim to cred, because this is only the third time I've gone up there. I can still observe, though.

Anyway, Dario, Peter and I rode the 100k in matching jerseys with camaraderie and style. We managed to miss a turn on the return trip (which made for a lengthier trip and had a pretty sweet road descent down Shelburne Road), but since I didn't want an asterisk next to my name, I rode up and down Hawks and Taylor Roads. It perplexed the people going down the road as well as my riding companions. My 100k became more like a 125k. It was fun, but the 180k is better. The majority of the highlights of the 100k are from the 180k and the 180k has even better parts. It's nice not to commit to waking up at 4am, though.


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D2R2 on the eve of a hurricane

There must be some symbolism. Read more!

Dented the rim on my favorite wheelset

I've been on some nice rides lately, but I seem to have developed some bloggers' block, because I don't know what to say other than that they were fun and involved bikes. There wasn't anything deep or philosophical and I didn't take any pictures. I suppose that sort of ride is the ideal kind, wherein it's only about riding your bike. Very zen (none were fixed, though!).

Very zen pipe smoking!

I went on Salem's ride. Although, I spent only about 5 miles of it with Salem. I rode from my house to the Manchester meeting point, but I was late and didn't catch up until Willimantic. Then in Willimantic, well Windham, the pace picked up and it was just Tim and me. In downtown Willimantic, I picked up some fine Williglass and got a flat and discovered that my spare had a hole in it. Fellow Beatblogger, Tony, had a patch kit, patches were flying around and soon I was on my way again (with a patched spare, too). It's a great ride and just as much fun the second time. Though, this time I rode it on my road bike with 25s instead of a 'cross bike with 35s. It would seem my memory of the amount of pavement was greatly exaggerated. The loose stuff was pretty slow going. I ended up not technically completing the whole thing, because I rode home after the Meshomasic, rather than ride all the way back to Manchester. It started raining again and I thought Johanna and I might be going to a play. I tried to take the ferry, but it wasn't running.

Pipe smoking and beer drinking. No better way to prepare for Salem's ride.

Yesterday, I rode with the group that used to ride on Wednesdays. It was a nice, long and fast ride around the Meshomasic. I was feeling good and riding pretty well. Sadly, I dented the rim on the front wheel of my favorite set (blue velocity arrowheat laced to xt hubs). Not terrible, but it's definitely a dent. Oh well.

Also, I broke a spoke last Friday. What am I doing to wheels!?

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Wound update

My gross wound from this weekend is getting better, but walking to work is actually pretty nice. Time to collect my thoughts, look at flowering trees, say "good morning" to people, document things on see click fix. Also, I've ridden passed this bike balcony at least a hundred times without noticing it.

Rain was threatening this morning and I wanted to see if I could pedal. I can, so it looks like I'm still on for Salem's ride on Saturday.

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Suitably epic

While we didn't get a Nor'easter of snow in Hartford, it did rain and was kinda gross. No one else wanted to ride with me on Friday afternoon, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. So, in the twilight drizzle I rode off in the boardwalks of the Hockanum. Descending the stairs behind the East Hartford town hall, two nice young men with bmx bikes warned me that it was slippery and pointed at muddy pants. Of course, I'm Brendan the awesome mountain biker. Therefore, I crashed about a half mile later. Believe it or not, wet wood with a fine coating of river mud is slippery. My left foot still hurts. Other than that, it was a pleasant Friday evening ride.

That was the warmup for yesterday's reconnaissance ride for the Detour de Connecticut. I don't want to divulge too many details, because it should be something of a surprise for those who embark. At 113 miles, it took me about an hour and a half or so less than the D2R2, but I also stopped more during the D2R2. It's though, but I recommend. It's funny that rides like this beg so much comparison to D2R2, but I guess that's the ride that most accurately captures the New England dirt road zeitgeist.


Of note is definitely how ignorant I am of CT east of Willimantic and I bet most people are. When riding on dirt and paved roads out by Riverton, the Barkhamsted Reservoir and all those scenic places out to west, you'll still see some cyclists because it's still relatively close to some population. But, when you head out that way and the biggest population center is Willimantic, nary cyclist (or person, really) is to be seen. It's cool, our suburban state generally doesn't feel so remote.


So, mark your calendars for May 7.

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Weekend outing

As you may have heard, the D2R2 now has a more formidable little brother, the Green Mountain Double. It's 205 miles long has 25,000 feet of climbing (4,912,578 meters). 80% of it is on dirt. Sandy sent some pictures (including one of a place called Swearing Hill, that has a 62% grade and swears at you when you on it) and intimidating words ("a double century in miles only, it rides like a sextuple") of it to fellow snails. Unlike the D2R2, one must qualify to ride it by doing a 300k brevet, double beforehand or something to prove you're awesome.

I have no idea if I'd actually be able to complete this ride. The longest I've ever ridden in a day is about 120 miles. I'm pretty sure that I can do a double and plan to try in the spring. This, however, falls into the category of ultracycling (I mean, it's on their website) and I doubt that I'm an ultracyclist.

Nonetheless, I have begun training. Johanna and I went up to the mountainous green state this weekend. I rode! On snow! Up hill both ways! With studded tires! for 16 miles... It was very pretty, though. I have no idea how people do 100 mile races or 350 for that matter (1100??). Actually, I could probably manage a 100 mile race with checkpoints.

So, anyway, perhaps I'll take a weekend in June to ride Sandy's new impossible ride.

Swearing Hill, I can't wait. Photo credit to someone (I didn't take this picture.)

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Doing it again

Another year that revolves around the D2R2. Sandy added a middle distance 72 mile version, but I signed up for the 112 again. I can't recommend this ride highly enough, so sign up today before the price goes up. Read more!

D2R2'd

Early yesterday day morning, I picked up Dario, with whom I was wearing a matching jersey, and set for the great bicycle summit at D2R2. To get pumped, I played some François Couperin for the ride up. We arrived, did some bathroom work, messed with bikes, shook hands with Sandy (who invented D2R2s and hails from West Hartford), Dario wrapped himself in a tubular, we signed in our start time (6:41am) and we were off.


Our plan was to go slow, so we went slow. The staggered start of this year was nice, because we stayed out of a group, creating little impellment to attach oneself to a group and ride their pace.
The first section to the top of the hill in Heath has a lot of climbing, but nothing super steep until the hill up to the first check point. It averages 15% for like a mile or something crazy like. I was worried that I was overgeared with my lowest ratio being 34:32 (with 700x32c wheels, that's a 28.7" gear), which for most people is pretty low, but is it for a weakling like me? It was ok: I found that if I maintained a bit of momentum and stayed on top of the gear that I could work it. It was still pretty difficult, though.


My brush with mechanical problems also came during the first section. There was a "thump thump thump" coming from the rear end of the bike, whose frequency was related to the bike's speed. At first I thought I'd picked up a pebbled and it was hitting the chain stay, but upon investigation, it appeared that a knobby had partially detached itself from the tire. We asked a couple riders if they had a any glue and one nice had some rubber cement. He was in a hurry, so he gave us the cement and rode off. I glued it on and it held for awhile (about a mile). I glued it again and the realized there were other knobbies falling off, and to some extent, my rear tire was falling apart. I glued what appeared to be the other worst one, but was fairly certain that this was futile. Another mile and the "thump thump thump" returned and then after a big descent it ceased because the knobby had fallen off and I was riding on the patch of casing underneath. With the thumps gone, the tire problem wasn't distracting me anymore, so I was able ride normally. I returned the rubber cement to its owner at the check point. And, by the end of the day, learned that you can ride pretty far on casing.


When you get back on your bike after checkpoint 1, you learn whether or not you were pushing yourself too hard at the beginning. I felt great, unlike last year. Royer Road comes pretty soon after the checkpoint, which is the closest thing to mountain biking on the route. It's great. Section 2 has Archambo Rd (the 27% gravel wall) and Hillman Rd, which along with Patten Hill at the end, are the hardest climbs on the route. Archambo is a pretty crazy little road, as in, why did they construct it without a switchback? Even the other side of it, which is paved, is very steep. It can't possibly be drivable ever in the winter, but people live on it. Almost immediately after Archambo is Hillman Rd., which is deceptively difficult because it's gets steeper in 200 yard stages (for about a mile) and each stage has a looser and looser road surface. There's some descending, a final climb up Franklin Hill Rd. and then some more descending to lunch.

Lunch was great this year! They had an excellent vegetarian sandwich & pasta salad for me and roast beef and ham for meat eaters. No cold baked potatoes (as I've often queried, what's up with Vermont (the lunch stop is in Guilford, VT) and cold potatoes on bike rides?) this time. I also ate a bunch of cheetos.


At this point, I had ridden considerably ahead of Dario and when he arrived, he was cramping up considerably. Sandy gave him a bunch of salt, but things looked dire. Intelligently, unlike me last year, he decided to take Green River Rd. back to Deerfield and confine himself to 80 miles for the day. I was sad that I was now the lone snail.

After lunch is when the true D2R2-ness of the D2R2 sets in. Everyone is spread out and the roads start to feel lonely. Maybe it's just the contrast from the lunchtime hubbub or maybe the roads really are lonelier, but for either reason, when you meet up with the cop in Leyden who's handing out water and Gatorade, you're pretty sure that the Leyden Police Department is comprised of the world's greatest public servants.

You go up and you go down, then you hear some bagpipes playing at a wedding. I caught back up with the Rapha guys, who seemed to be having some kind of problem on the side of the road, but they smiled and waved off my offer of assistance (when I saw them again at the finish dinner, one guy had a torn jersey, so maybe it was a crash or something). I got to the Green River water stop and then went down a section of Green River which was one of my favorites from last year. But, this year, I guess we've been having a big drought, because instead of being verdant, it was totally parched. I ran into Joe from Enfield, whom I met earlier in the day because he recognized me from this blog.


There are a couple of switchbacks off the river, when I (and several others) cramped up last year. Not so, this year!

Things flatten out for a few miles in Colrain before the intimidation that is Patten Hill. Going down Deerfield Rd. into Colrain, I drafted and then passed a Jeep. That was kinda cool.

And, then there was Patten Hill: the source of so much agony and angst for me. I mean, I've thinking about this hill all year, to the point that when I got to it I realized it existed in my mind more as myth than reality. Don't get me wrong, it's a really nasty hill. It starts off with pavement at like 15% or something, then flattens out on dirt, the steepens up again progressively until the top-- whereupon you eat salted watermelon and pickles.

But, I cleaned it and I cleaned all the hills this year, and I finished (complete with corn maze). Except for a chaffed but, I felt pretty good. I couldn't think of a better reason to get up at 4:00am and toil for twelve hours.


One final thought, with the weather so nice this year, I wonder if anyone set a new course record. Read more!

Less than a week

Now that primary season is over, we can focus our undivided attention on the D2R2. Last year's debacle weighs heavily on me. I wonder if other participants conflate D2R2 to be a measure of their person; I am. I've ridden about 600 miles in the last two weeks. Is that enough ('cause it's not really that much)? I don't know. It's serious, man, like I'm living in a Gatorade commercial.

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The gears of D2R2

D2R2 is now less than a month away. I'm scrambling to figure out what bike to ride. I had a long haul trucker, the ideal bike, but I don't anymore. I have lots of suitable bikes, but none with the drive train and gearing needed for such a long weird ride. In fact, it's as if I've purposefully surrounded myself with bikes that all have some kind of short coming.

What I thought was a brilliant plan was to put compact cranks (50t & 34t) on my road bike with one of those megarange freewheels (14t-34t). I still think it's a brilliant plan, but I can seem to put a 34 inner ring on the bike without the chainring rubbing the chainstay. I could probably do something with the bottom bracket, but I'm not entirely sure what to do.

It took considerable work to get to this point, because my plan was to swap out the 34t from my diamond back with a 35t from an unused set of kludgey xtr cranks with an improperly install spider (not my fault, this is how I got them). After doing some things you're not supposed to do to bike parts, I finally got everything put back together, only to learn about the chainring rubbing problem.

My solution is to run the 34t chain by itself upfront in the outer position, but I'm concerned about cross chaining with a 7 speed freewheel. So, I've also bought a six speed megarange freewheel (13t-34t).

After all this stupid stuff, I'm probably going to end up riding my Stumpjumper again, because I'll want bigger tires.

PS. Sorry, the thunderstorm yesterday confined me to the basement, so I've got no bike ride to talk about.

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The stupid things I do

Last year, I had big plans for the D2R2. Sadly, my big plans were met with failure. I was really hoping to be successful, because then I'd never have to do the 18(6? 7?)0k ride again. I could do the fun 100k ride, because I'd have the long ride under my belt. But, I've got nothing under my belt except weakness, so I've signed up for the long ride again. Ugh!


Conversely, these things can be filed under the awesome things I do category:

Soba with kickass spinach and fried tempeh.

Curry noodles with dumplings and bok choi.

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Expedition speed

I'm not going to attempt to take credit for the term "expedition speed", but I'm going to do all that I can to propagate it. Dario and I first heard Salem mention it last Thursday whilst we rode slowly through the beautiful and shotgun filled Glastonbury Meadows.



If I understand correctly, expedition speed is another way to say that you're going slow. However, unlike regular going slow, you must have an intent look on your face, gritted teeth and an inflated sense of importance. You probably should wear some wool for good measure. It's perfect for riding this time of year.



A nice thing about expedition speed is that you don't even have to go very far if you believe that you life is part of an ongoing expedition. Thus, my ride to work this morning as well as my mountain bike ride at the reservoir yesterday were all part of the same expedition. The same went for my ride with El Prez and Dario on Saturday, the snowy powerline ride last Tuesday, the hike I took on Sunday with Johanna and the trip across the street today to buy a sandwich. Heady and philosophical, right? I mean, I have no idea where I'm going.

Also, unlike an expedition, expedition speed doesn't require you to carry camping gear or ride a Surly Big Dummy. That'd be totally inconvenient.

I think this may be a little bit like Rapha and their epics, but we do it mainly in color and have mountain bikes. I'd gladly switch to black and white if Rapha started giving me some free clothes. I think my cell phone camera even works better in black and white.

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Unrelated, but two observations:

1) Those of you who frequent the reservoir are probably familiar with the very rideable two foot drop on the blue trail about midway along the ridge. Well, the big winds and falling ice (or something) has fell two trees right there, so you can't ride up the hill on the other side, they effect made a 50 foot fence. I'm wondering if a chain saw will be needed or a log stack can be made. Any thoughts those of you who are good at trail maintenance? Should I start being a CT-NEMBA trail ambassador around here? Do they have enough of them?

Drop off in the background.

Fallen trees.

2) The NYT's Spokes blog is generally lame (like the beat bike blog), but they had a very interesting post today about the history of bicycle clubs in the US. I guess the League of American Bicyclists did a lot to maintain the color barrier in cycling (though they have apologized)... sort of like how they want to make cycling in Connecticut seem terrible. Read more!

I'm a failure, or my D2R2 ride report

So, I went on and on about the D2R2 for a long time and on Saturday I got up at 4:30 to drive up with my old Stumpjumper to Deerfield and partake.

I was tired.

My bikes was tired.

It was early when I left.

I registered, got my cue sheet and other attendant documents, ate some bagel stuff and set out around 6:20. The morning was still nice and cool and these were seeming pretty pleasant. The first 30-something miles to the first checkpoint were rolling and pretty. There was a tough 15% climb up to checkpoint, but at the top was a very pretty field of sunflowers. I ate some more bagel stuff and put some water in my camelbak and continued on.

Pretty field of sunflowers.

Things were still pretty good. Royer Rd. was a fun little diversion and I cleared the 27% climb on Archambo Rd. The climb right after that was pretty difficult and I actually ended up walking a few hundred feet. Things went up and down for awhile, with one pretty fast hill (that I'm told claimed a collarbone and caused at least one bad crash) eventually bringing me to the 60 mile lunch checkpoint at the Green River. I ate a cheese sandwich and some trail mix and got more water.

Getting ready to leave after lunch, these are some of the very few mountain bikes that I saw.

I was still feeling pretty good and fresh and climbed out the river valley. I rode with another guy for awhile and I followed him on a wrong turn up a very steep hill. I stopped half way up to consult the map and the cue sheet. He continued, but eventually came back down to tell me that the road ended and became a hiking trail. I started to feel a little bit weaker around this point, but not that terrible. After a few miles, there was a Leyden Police office handing out gatorade and water. I drank a bottle of gatorade and thanked her for her hospitality. There was some more climbing that brought me to a farm with two bottles of warm water sitting out. I thought this was the optional water break that the cue sheet described and I sat under a tree on a picnic table, ate a cliff bar and pour one of the bottles into my Camelbak. After descending a big hill back down to the Green River, I realized that the optional water station was in fact there. So, I guess I was just stealing water from the farmers. But, they smiled and waved to me when I sat down, so maybe it was a supplemental thing to be nice. Who knows. Anyway, thank you to the farmers on top of the hill on North County Road in Leyden.

Meeting up with the river, there was this very pretty and pleasantly flat four miles.

Uh oh. Switchbacks are coming.

After that, there were switchbacks coming out of the valley. Heading up, several people were cramping up. I felt bad for their plight, but soon realized it was contagious because by the end of the first switchback I was cramping, too. I paused, grimaced, walked it off and got back on the bike. There was a bunch more climbing and near the top, I started to cramp again. I drank a bunch more water. Ever since around 10:00, it had been pretty hot, so I had done some considerable sweating, but I had been good about drinking water. In fact, I'd probably consumed like a gallon or so at that point. I rode & walked some more up and until the conclusion of the hill and was hurting a bit, but I was also at like mile 90 at that point. Only 20 more to go and I was certain I could push through. Climbs were starting to get pretty tough, but flats weren't too bad. This area dropped back down into a valley again in Colrain. Up ahead was the hideousness of Patten Hill, but it was pretty flat up until there. Those flats, however, were starting to put a strain on me. I knew that I'd probably be walking almost all if not all of Patten Hill.

It was true, I arrived, clipped out of my pedals and started walking. It seemed that there were still a lot of people behind me, because suddenly all these people materialized behind me and rode passed me. It was only at about 2mph faster than me, but they at least remained on their bikes. I tried getting back on, but the cramps would over take my legs. I think it's about 3 miles to the summit and I walked almost the entire thing. I have no idea how long it took, probably over an hour or something and I was totally defeated at the top and collapsed on the side of the road. A very pleasant guy on a Cross Check gave me some shot blocks along the way. I had devoured them, but no cramp cessation. The checkpoint was maybe 200 yards away and it was totally flat. I remounted and could barely pedal, but made it. I was done. I ate some food and salt and some more electrolyte stuff, but I was cramping everywhere: legs, hands, chin and feet. I got some encouragement, because there was only ten more miles and I thought that I'd be an idiot for giving up with ten miles to go and it was almost all down hill. But, I got back on the bike, I locked up and knew I was done. Norman, a volunteer and owner of Flye Cycles (of Sunderland, MA), gave me a ride back to the start/finish. My cramps subsided as I was driving home.

So, I learned a valuable lesson about these things called electrolytes. I ate well and drank well, but sweated all the salt out of my body. The race organizers put out tons of things that I should have been eating and drinking, but I made poor decisions and I had to scratch with 10 miles left, but with 15,000' of climbing done. I'm pretty disappointed in myself.

In terms of bike selection, I'm still wondering if a mountain bike was the best choice. Most people were on 'cross bikes or touring bikes. I was able to bomb down hills and pass everyone (not that it was a race, but it was a much more confident descender), but I was always passed on flats and most climbs. I only saw like two other mountain bikes.

In other news about scratching long rides, happily, fatcyclist seems to be ok after crashing out of the Leadville 100.



Here's a cool map of the whole thing. Read more!