17 July Finish; 18 July

Today is another off-day for me, so I'm going to fill you in on the details from yesterday. Will's post yesterday at lunch didn't quite capture the significance of the 'hills' we climbed yesterday. If you noticed, we'd only ridden 25 miles as of mid-day. We usually try to get a minimum of 40 in before lunch, so the afternoon ride in the heat won't be so long and we don't hve to push so hard.

We left Charlottesville, VA on US-250, then turned up into the hills and climbed our way up various county roads back to US-250, where we stopped for lunch. We picked up a couple hours later after lots of eats and a nap in the shade and rode a few hundred yards uphill to where the real fun began: the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway is great; little traffic and beautiful vistas.

We climbed to an elevation of over 3,000' ( I think 3200' or so) Which was nearly 2000' above the valley floor. We climbed, and we climbed, and we climbed. I was climbing at about 8-10MPH, though sometimes slower. We all climb at different paces, so I eventuially found myself alone and a few minutes ahead of the other guys, with just my bike and a few deer to keep me company.

I ran low on fluids, but Will was well-placed at an overlook with a cold bottle of sports drink, which he handed to me on the fly. I drained the bottle and dropped it before I passed the end of the overlook-it was kinda neat; I felt like I was on le Tour de France.

After a couple more hours climbing, (27 miles on the Parkway alone) it began to cloud up and rain. The cool-down was nice, but it got super-windy and the rain started to sting, especially after I began the descent into the next valley and started hitting 25-30MPH. I had a nice coast down to the next turn, where I stopped to wait for Will, Matt, and Brian to catch up. It started to rain a bit harder, and we rode the final 7 miles or so in the rain. When we made the turn, we were rewarded with a 5 mile downhill with steeply banked hairpin turns. It went from fun to scary pretty quickly. On the way down, I was hitting 32-35MPH so quickly that I had to pump the brakes the whole way down; my hands got cramps from riding them so hard, and I was still going 30MPH. It also chilled me to the point I was shivering with goose bumps at the end of the descent-we ended just before things got really dangerous. At the bottom, we high-fived each other before quickly changing into dry clothes, stowing our bikes, and grabbing a hot bite to eat at Gertie's Country Store, in Vesuvius, VA, where they are very hospitable and have free camping behind the store for cyclists. We didn't have to cook dinner, so we were able to get in another hour of sleep, and we ate a cold breakfast this morning, so the riders left a little earlier than usual; let's hope this gives them an edge over the hills today.

I am sitting in front of Stonewall Jackson Barracks at the Virginia Military Institute as I write this; I've popped into the museum and now I have to find the fellows for lunch. That's all for now.

At large,
Michael