Look who my wife spotted in Harrisonburg Va this weekend.
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That kit is just adorable.
The white compression tights really make the outfit. 
Thanks for the photos.That was a lot of fun! I finished better than I expected to. My back had been bothering me most of the week and it finally loosened up a little bit before the climb up Reddish. I ditched the whole group I was riding with on purpose (don’t tell them I said that. I pretended to them like it was an accident) and rode the whole day solo.
Just kidding about the ditching part. Someone had a mechanical, I thought the group was ahead of me, so I hammered to catch up… turns out I was leaving them behind. Says a thing or two about my ride leading skillzeses.
The bike and wheels were right. I could have used one bigger cog for the first dirt road climb. My low gear was 39×25 and that wasn’t quite low enough for me to keep the pedals turning over at a pace that I like. I made it up the climb well, but my feet were moving pretty slowly.
Mark and Tim shopping for used cars
Top of the second climb.Great day on the bike. Can’t wait for next year’s ride.
Dirt
I’m glad to see everyone here made it out of WV in one piece. I’m sure Dirt got some funny looks while riding over the those private roads in some of that really rural countryside.
It really was just some beautiful scenery and the opposite of that for road conditions.
Top of the first KOM
Top of the dirt road…right past the cattle catcher
Bout 10 miles from the end, middle of Mennonite country.
The reason I signed up.I had done some training with a 32-12 rear with an SLX but I did not really care for the way it shifted so I replaced it back to the OE 25-11…a move I later regretted. I would have taken a slow weak shifting 32 over a decent feeling 25. There was a point on the first KOM climb I was cranking it out and felt a bang from the rear I checked it out at the peak and didn’t see anything and heard nothing else from it until the first dirt climb when I realized what I had actually done was begin breaking my chain, which did eventually let go. Carrying and extra power link and chain tool totally saved me out there. After fixing that it rode fairly well for the remainder of the day. There were many people out there without even a compact saddle bag…that is just brave. There were some points out there were I was totally alone…there is something I like about riding alone but there is always a backup plan to get help…out there that may not be the case. The drop off the side of the road was several hundred feet and there were no houses within sight. If you go over the edge or something bad happens you are as SOL as you could possibly ever be.
There was another point there I learned that it was indeed possible to stay upright at rpms as low as 30….28 though and it is all over. I recall at least two occasions when I said to myself…My wife was right…maybe I shouldn’t have done this….maybe the medio was the way to go…I can’t do this. I was reassure when I hit the time cut site and they said we were still an hour ahead of the cutoff time.
I know I will own the fact that I wore out my cleats walking parts of that ride. I had to give the hammies a rest for a moment. I wore them out despite having covers in my back pockets…I was having trouble standing on one leg.
Kudos to everyone who volunteered there, I left my First Endurance baggies, a $20, and my drivers license either at the second or third rest stop…they were returned well before I arrived, and my wife was a little worried to get a bag full of things that I had kept on me and she had not heard from me in hours. There were some of those
Now my next question…where do the rest of you all find areas around here to train for such long grinding climbs…training on the rollers in our area is nothing for a 3 or 4 mile climb.
I do not know that I will do that again (but I will most likely have to try again) but I’m planning on Mountains of Misery double next year.
I’m curious to know how many people attempted and completed the full loop. ~230 registered, ~180 finishers. Some registrants didn’t start obviously (e.g. Joe D), and some switched to the medio route.
@SteveTheTech 31459 wrote:
There were many people out there without even a compact saddle bag…that is just brave.
Brave, or just foolish. I had my usual stuff for punctures, a 2nd spare tube (although I lost it somewhere), a printed map of the course, and multitool though I didn’t bring an extra chain link.
I only slapped on a front 25 a couple days before the event – I was toying with the idea of using my standard 23 (which I’ve never flatted on) – very glad I did that, although the raised profile of the particular tire (Panaracer RibMo) made me feel a bit less confident on the descents. I’d also put on a new 11-28 cassette and new chain a couple months earlier in preparation, and a new Gatorskin on the back a few weeks ago. I could’ve probably used a lock-out front shock though too
@SteveTheTech 31459 wrote:
training on the rollers in our area is nothing for a 3 or 4 mile climb.
Agreed. And the dirt climbing is really different to anything I’m used to. On paved surfaces, if you get tired, you can mash a bit more or drop down to a lower gear and still go up, just slower. On dirt/gravel, you are constantly trying to make sure you have enough traction, and also avoid holes, sharp rocks, etc so there is no respite at all – you have to watch where you going much more closely, and you get much less momentum. If you stop it’s harder to get on your bike and clip in again. I’m definitely more used to riding as a “rouleur” than a climber. My wrists and especially left elbow (never quite been the same since my crash last year) were as sore as my legs after the event. My legs actually weren’t all that bad.
@SteveTheTech 31459 wrote:
I recall at least two occasions when I said to myself…My wife was right…maybe I shouldn’t have done this….maybe the medio was the way to go…I can’t do this. I was reassure when I hit the time cut site and they said we were still an hour ahead of the cutoff time. [/quote]
We hit the time cut offs with plenty of time to go but I knew I reached my physical limit around 68 miles – there were a few times later on the Reddish climb where my vision was getting “grainy” and a few times when I was riding solo later on when I was letting my eyelids close for a couple seconds at a time. I think I experienced my first true “suffering” experience on a bike on the last miles of that climb up Reddish. Looking down at your mileage progress is always a mistake when you’re going 5mph! 68.1… 68.1… 68.1… 68.2…
@SteveTheTech 31459 wrote:
I do not know that I will do that again (but I will most likely have to try again) but I’m planning on Mountains of Misery double next year.
Immediately after the ride I thought to myself I’ll never try that one again, but now I think I could be persuaded, especially if there’s the same great group of people to ride with. The scenery was indeed beautiful. But I’d like to be able to ride up something like Reddish or at least this segment a few times to train if I was going to ride it again. And I’d spend less time at the rest stops – I spent 1hr 20mins stopped during this ride – including 20 mins at the first rest stop alone.
I’ve thought about that Mountains of Misery double too (I think I mentioned it to Megabeth who replied something like how fun sounding a name for a ride it was – of course this was only a few hours after the Fondo.) I think after the Alpine Loop, Mountains of Misery would actually be easier even though it’s longer and more feet in climbing – assuming it’s paved.
@TwoWheelsDC 31491 wrote:
I like that a lot. Any reason to do the WW is fine by me. That actually looks like a lot of fun. Thanks for sharing.
@vvill 31494 wrote:
I’m curious to know how many people attempted and completed the full loop. ~230 registered, ~180 finishers. Some registrants didn’t start obviously (e.g. Joe D), and some switched to the medio route. [/quote]
I wish I had at a few points there.
@vvill 31494 wrote:
I only slapped on a front 25 a couple days before the event – I was toying with the idea of using my standard 23 (which I’ve never flatted on) – very glad I did that, although the raised profile of the particular tire (Panaracer RibMo) made me feel a bit less confident on the descents. I’d also put on a new 11-28 cassette and new chain a couple months earlier in preparation, and a new Gatorskin on the back a few weeks ago. I could’ve probably used a lock-out front shock though too
[/quote]I was going back and forth between my beloved 4000s in 23s and my older set of Ultra races in 25. If I were to do that again I would seriously hunt down a set of 25c CX tires or go with the closest thing Continental makes. I saw several people struggling with Gatorskins, but Conti only makes CX tires as small as 32c so I might have to come up with a solution that involves customizing my roadie or winging it with some 25s.
@vvill 31494 wrote:
Agreed. And the dirt climbing is really different to anything I’m used to. On paved surfaces, if you get tired, you can mash a bit more or drop down to a lower gear and still go up, just slower. On dirt/gravel, you are constantly trying to make sure you have enough traction, and also avoid holes, sharp rocks, etc so there is no respite at all – you have to watch where you going much more closely, and you get much less momentum. If you stop it’s harder to get on your bike and clip in again. I’m definitely more used to riding as a “rouleur” than a climber. My wrists and especially left elbow (never quite been the same since my crash last year) were as sore as my legs after the event. My legs actually weren’t all that bad.
[/quote]
My favorite part of that was standing up to give your legs a break…a mistake I made twice.
My legs are a little sore still but I think that may have had more to do with wine touring for several hours in the car the following day.@vvill 31494 wrote:
I think I experienced my first true “suffering” experience on a bike on the last miles of that climb up Reddish. Looking down at your mileage progress is always a mistake when you’re going 5mph! 68.1… 68.1… 68.1… 68.2…
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That sums it up perfectly.@vvill 31494 wrote:
I’ve thought about that Mountains of Misery double too (I think I mentioned it to Megabeth who replied something like how fun sounding a name for a ride it was – of course this was only a few hours after the Fondo.) I think after the Alpine Loop, Mountains of Misery would actually be easier even though it’s longer and more feet in climbing – assuming it’s paved.
I got an email from Mrs. Bishop this morning about a jersey question. I straightened it out, thanked her for all her hard work and said I would sign up now if there were to be a little less gravel. I would keep the first climb in gravel to skip Reddish, that is just overkill. IMO there is a difference between being difficult and being a poorly equipped.
I feel like the moutain climb at the end of MoM would be easier…not easy by any stretch just easier.
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