Daily Summary

Not The Day Expected

This was going to be by far the hardest day of the trip. A massive 20 mile climb up to 9,000 feet. Then, traversing a plateau that supposedly has moose all over it. Then, a long descent into town for a total 0f 102.2 miles and almost 8,000 feet of climbing. This route would honestly be a tough one even for the most serious cyclists on a good day. 

I’ll first recap what I think was my well thought out plan and then discuss how it all went off the rails.

The Plan

I love long hills when I’m healthy, but I knew I had to be careful today with my leg. While the total climb was over 20 miles, “only” 15 of it was steep. I broke the steep part into 3 phases. You can zoom in on the pictures if you want details. The first phase was 7.5 miles at an average gradient of 6.3%.  That’s no joke, but the maximum was 9%. I felt that my leg could handle it, and it did, though I could tell it was fatiguing.

For perspective, many of the big climbs in North Georgia or Tennessee where I ride will have a climb like this and you’ll end at the top of the mountain. Here, we were just getting started the mountains are so big…

The second phase was about 5 miles at an average gradient of over 8.5%. It has sections at 15%- 18%. Those are crazy! As we drove it, I realized that I was smart not to try and do it today. The third phase is another 3.5 miles at 5.9% average with a 14.6% max.

My plan was to hop into the van after phase 1. Then, if I felt great, skip phase 2 and finish the ride starting at phase 3. If my leg bothered me, I’d skip phase 3 as well and just start from the top of the hill. That would have me miss only 5 or 9 miles of the 102 respectively. 

Even as I hopped into the van, I thought I’d likely give phase 3 a try and only skip 5 miles. So what went wrong?

The Reality Of Today – Part 1

We got up before 5:30, had breakfast at 6:00, got ready and started out at 7:00 with temperatures in the low 40’s, with a lower “feels like” and, of course, rain. It was a less than perfect start for sure.

As we started, I didn’t think about the angle that however cold it was where we were, it would be worse at the top of the mountain and the plateau. You can see in the pictures how things looked at the start, then the mountains we were going up, and finally a picture with a diagonal line in the middle that is the road (which looks steep from a distance).

The next picture shows some snow at the top of the mountain. At that point, I thought it was from before. Then, cars started coming down with snow on them. Next, a snowplow went by! At that point, I was wondering what we were heading into.

As we went up, we basically got into the clouds. The one picture shows clouds pretty much just above us.

As I hopped in the van after the first part of the hill, I still figured I’d be doing most of it. The guide told me that there were reports from some drivers coming down that it was slushy and snowy up there. Hence, the snowplow. If so, they’d make us all hop in the van.

The Reality Of Today – Part 2

Over the next couple miles up, we had to help one person with a mechanical issue and then go rescue another who couldn’t make it up. At that point, I decided I’d just ride up to the top to avoid making him do another stop and to make sure we’d be able to ride based on the conditions.

You can see what we found at the top. A decent amount of fresh snow, especially for mid-June. But, the roads were clear. The issue became that I was all wet from sweat still and now warmed up. I stepped out into the barely freezing air and realized it was going to be very tough to warm up again, especially with downhills coming. People were only able to move 3 – 4 mph up the steep hills, so we were over 4 hours in and barely 30 miles covered, with 75 to go.

Next, a guy from Minnesota and a guy from Michigan declared they were done for the day. That gave me pause because they ride in cold weather all the time. Then, the one gentleman mentioned to me that I should put on dry clothes or else the wet clothes would make me cold pretty quickly and possibly cause hypothermia. Of course, I never thought to bring an entire change of clothes because I already had so much stuff on.

The Reality Of Today – Part 3

After standing and shivering for a few minutes, a couple of us decided that it just wasn’t worth it. This is supposed to be a fun summer cycling trip. Not an arctic, brave the elements challenge.

At that point, 5 of 8 of us were done. The other three made it up the hill and said they’d press on. About an hour later, the one gentleman out front, who I thought for sure was going to finish given how strong he was going, asked to hop in the van because he was just too cold. At that point, I knew I made the right decision! We were also 6.5 hours in and only at mile 45.

The other two decided to push on and ended up getting to the hotel more than 11 hours after the start. They were miserably cold but somehow pushed through. Luckily, as we descended the mountain in the van, the temperature rose by over 20 degrees and ended near 60. So, once the two others got off the plateau, I’m sure it was far easier.

The Upside

I’m bummed I missed so many miles. Had the weather been more typical, it would have been a great ride. However, tomorrow is another 100+ mile day with lots of climbing and then the final days before the next rest stop are no walk in the park. This is the hardest week by far.

The upside is that I got a mostly rest day and am teed up to enjoy the rest of the week. A couple more big climbing days after this would have been tough. The other good news is that there are no other hills in the next month that I think would challenge my leg. And, it does seem to be slowly improving. I’ll be energized in the morning for tomorrow’s ride!