How about a 160 mile ride from Weston to Williamstown, MA. 160 miles, 13,300 feet of climbing. It sounded good a month ago.
As the date drew close this week, I started to get nervous. Really nervous. What was I thinking? I've never ridden that many miles in a day. Much less with that much climbing. I started to wonder if I could even make it.
We met at 515a yesterday. Seven of us -- a mix of Posse, Macs and Brueggers riders -- Lebo, Mike Moran, Alan McEwen, Grahame Wells, Guiseppe and Eric Cohen. That's a strong group.
The Route - thanks to Bruce Cohen and Jeff Packman, we stitched together a route across the entire state, finishing with Mt. Greylock. Not a beast in itself, but one tough climb with 145 miles in your legs. What stands out in the profile is that 75% of the climbing comes in the last 60 miles:
OK, back to our story. We meet up at 515a.
Sun's up and Eric's circling...
All here -- where's Grahame??
There's no such thing as an epic without a Sprinter Van...
Then we hit the road and hammered, not stopping for the next 60 miles. Then we met Karen Wells (Grahame's wife), our awesome one-woman support for the day at 78 miles in lovely Belchertown, MA.
The next 40 miles were beautiful -- Bruce's portion of the route put us on beautiful roads through central Mass.
Lunch stop in Northampton at mile 95 was a longer break. Peace march. Farmers market. Great, funky town.
At this point, we'd climbed 5,500 feet and still averaged 19mph.
From here on out, it was climbing city. And it was 85 degrees. I started to cramp right on the first big climb out of Northampton (that first big bulge on the profile above). Guiseppe was awesome -- he dropped back and said, "hey, this is a social ride, not a race. I can't have you spend 60 miles by yourself!"
I haven't fought cramps off for that distance before, but between Guiseppe's encouragement, Lebo dropping back every once in awhile and fistfuls of endurolytes, I made it mostly with the group to Pittsfield and mile 135.
Karen followed us at this point to the base of Greylock 10 miles up the road. We filled our water bottles for the 8.5 mile trip up to the top.
A mile later at the visitor center, a Berkshire cycling club guy shouted, "you've got a big group. Where are you guys from?"
"Just outside of Boston, MA."
"So, where'd you park the car?"
"We didn't, we rode out here."
"You What!?!"
Greylock starts with 10-12% grades and it's a heartbreaker. At this point, I'm wondering if I'm getting to the top by sundown. It's slow going. And its Hot.
Thankfully, the climb mellows out and even has a few flats mixed in.
But, at 3 miles from the top, the switchbacks kick in. They kicked me, then Mike, then Eric. Everybody suffered up. But,
Eric Cohen flys by the camera...
We were spent. Wiped. 153 miles and I was wondering if I had the gas to make it down (yes, down). Here, Guiseppe and Grahame collapse at the top.
The lantern rouge makes it up!
We flew down the hill to Williamstown and ate just about everything in site.
Final tally: 160 miles. 13,300 feet of climbing. 7,000 calories.
A B2B alternative is born?
