Blood, Sweat and Gears

[profàvélo]

If you intended to do the century, I hope you're already signed up...it's sold out. You can still do the 50. I have to check and see if they got my registration before it filled up.

[GLC1968]

So I suggested to my DH that we do this ride (the half option) in a half-joking manner...and he wants to do it.

We live in GSO and ride a lot of rolling hills...are we gonna get our asses handed to us on this one? (the milage doesn't scare me as we are comfortably at 60 miles...it's the terrain).

Anyone with experience care to comment?

[profàvélo]

I'm not familiar with the 50-mile route; it splits very early from the century. See one of my earlier messages in this thread for a description from the ride's web site. From the description, sounds like you'll be fine.

[skibum]

This was a great ride and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about doing it. On the drive up on Friday, it poured rain so I was worried we would have bad weather for the ride. But, Saturday morning was cool and overcast, perfect temperature for a ride. It warmed up some during the day but never got close to the upper 90's I've been riding in lately.

The route was beautiful -- country roads with little to no traffic and gorgeous scenery. The support was great, I saw lots of SAG vehicles along the route and there were people stopping traffic at intersections to make sure you got through safely.

I did the century route which was challenging but not too hard. I was wishing for a few more gears on Snake Mtn (I did the ride with a double, 12/27 on the back) but other than that, the grades weren't steep so you could just spin up the hills.

The only downside was the rest stops. When I went through, there always seemed to be long lines for water and gatorade and each was a separate line so you had to wait in line twice. It seems like there could be a better way to set things up so that would go more smoothly. And, the main food items available were bananas and pretzels. Great cycling food, but for that long of a ride, you want variety. A couple of stops had some cookies and PB&J so they tried to mix it up a little. But some PB-no-J would have been nice as well as something like granola bars. But, the food was plentiful and I got all the calories I needed to make it through the ride so I can't complain too much.

Overall, it was a great ride and I hope to make it back next year. I wish I could ride in that area more often. Those of you who live close by are very lucky!

[profàvélo]

to what Skibum said. I think everything was covered. Except for the part where I broke out my triple for Snake Mountain.

My only other complaint is that the T-shirt is exactly the same, year after year, with perhaps a slight variation in the shirt color (tan/gray/beige...).

It was a fun day. I hope Skibum got a post-ride massage; it was awesome!

[skibum]

Except for the part where I broke out my triple for Snake Mountain.

I should have broken out a triple, or a compact, or even my 30t rear cassette. I forgot to mention that due to lack of gearing, I had to walk part of Snake Mtn. I hated to do that but didn't feel so bad once I realized how many others around me were walking too.

I hope Skibum got a post-ride massage; it was awesome!

I missed the massage. Bummer!! I could have used one!

[GLC1968]

Thanks for the updates!

We will definitely be putting this one on our schedule for next year!