Great Pumpkin Ride 2015

Great Pumpkin Ride 2015

This ride was like no other I've ever been on.  It was nutty from the get-go.  George Perry and I drove out to Warrenton, VA for our first entry into Fauqier County's finest road ride.  Not quite a century, the mileage was supposed to be 67 miles.  I ended up recording 74.3 in 4 hours 48 minutes.

Strava Stats Here

George and I started out riding together for the first 10 miles.  We were supposed to continue for the next 57.  Somehow George snuck by me on a downhill and I didn't notice.  So I ride on for a few miles, slowing down, letting everyone pass me, and eventually I turn around.  Did George have a mechanical?  Pull a muscle?  Is he dead?

I ride ~8 miles in reverse looking for him.  To be honest, I was pretty confused as I was absolutely positive he did not pass me.  I send a few texts to him asking WTF?  Eventually he gets back to me and he's waiting at the first rest stop for me.  So then I get my game on for the next 2 hours trying to catch him.  This was the best part of the ride as I was really moving.  I took a quick break to capture my thoughts about the current situation.

All good things must come to an end.  We each got a really nice shirt for the event.  Unfortunately, I tucked them into my water bottle holders under my seat.  One of the shirts came loose and wedged itself between the brake and wheel.  I happened to be going pretty quick on a downhill at the time my back wheel locked up.  Let's just say it's a bit unnerving when descending and this happens.  The skid mark is impressively long.  Rob is my SAG savior who drove me to the 2nd rest stop, where I would meet up with George.

 

     

As you can imagine, I had a few choice words I wanted to capture after this incident.  I really did think my ride was over, but the rest stop 2 mechanic had a tire and tube for me.

And then I find out that maybe my ride isn't over.  I'm waiting for the Rob the SAG support to help me out and get on the road again.

Whoa, there's a familiar face!  George and I actually met up again to do some riding.  George was a trooper on this ride, not the specimen Danny Clarke is, but still did well.  He hasn't been riding much and just the other day he rode 30 miles and about keeled over.  George claims his finest miles were the first 20, which I believe.

Rest stop 3 was at the Old Bust Head brewery.  I can think of worse places to stop.  We enjoyed a fine IPA and were treated to more local talent. I'm a fan of good beer and local talent!

We eventually finished up the last 12 miles from the brewery.  The last 6 miles were all uphill and I'm pretty sure George enjoyed it immensely.  I mean, why else would be taking so long to soak up the surroundings?  And since it is the Great Pumpkin Ride, I treated myself to some pumpkin pie at the finisher tent.  I'm looking forward to this event next year.  The roads were lightly traveled, it was well organized, it's a really cool shirt.

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Shenandoah Fall Foliage 2015

Oh no I didn't, it's true, I didn't.  The original plan was to travel south to the Shenandoah and ride back to back Sat/Sun centuries.  It was a good plan, a hopeful plan, a failed plan.  Turns out the Shenandoah is a lot more hilly and windy than I had envisioned.  It turned out to be enough spending 6.5 hours riding through the countryside of 98 miles on Saturday.

Fortunately I've got my fraternity little brother living in Staunton, VA. Seems I get down there a couple times and year and he is certainly the host with the most.  The ride weekend overlapped homecoming weekend for the mighty Buffalo Gap Buffalos.  We attended the Friday night football game and saw the king and queen get their caps.  So many memories of WT Woodson came through my mind, but I can't remember any of the homecoming people.  The Buffs won a lot to a little with a competent running game.

I got an early Sat start to make the police escort at 8am.  At registration it looked like a bunch of people had spent the night at Shelburne Middle School, where the ride starts today.  The beginning of the ride was cool, fingertips were a little cold.  The sun was shining and it was pretty good weather.

12 miles in we hit our first rest stop.  The lady in charge had obviously spent some time planning for our visit.  I can only describe the scene as something Hansel and Gretal would love, a complete Candy Land buffet.  There were so many sweets, cakes, cupcakes and cookies.  For us century riders, this ain't the kind of food I'm looking for, especially only 12 miles in.  I grabbed an oatmeal bar and got on my way.

There were ~1200 riders registered for the festival.  That's a good number of riders spread out among several different ride lengths.  You know what else there are a lot of in the Shenandoah, yep, Cows!

Cows are everywhere and below are some shots of a few friends I made.  Lots of farms are very pretty, rolling grass, many cows spread out in the field.  Some other cow plants you can smell coming.  OMG, the vileness that is a group of messy cows is outrageous!  The air is thick with the unbelievable scent.  Guess what the road looks like next to these big cow plants?  Yea, packed with cow crap.  As I rode along the crap was flung around by my wheels, hitting my face, the air was filthy ... AGGGHH!

This century had a different feel than so many others.  It was definitely "locally" run.  For example, no one serves lunch mid-way through a century ride.  The food comes at the end.  However, here there was a huge potluck at a town hall with all kind of people eating.  Riders, kids, old people ... looked more like a church congregation lunch than a biker event.

Here's a sample of the local entertainment.

Quick clip from around mile 78.  Totally underestimating the climbing and the wind on this ride.  There are very few flat areas and even the ones that are flat have a headwind.  It's great when you have to climb into a headwind, bonus!

Similar recap with just a little more fatigue, more miles behind me, and more climbing.  I'm not saying this is Mountains of Misery climbing, but it definitely took a toll.  Ride was around 5,000' of climbing.  The wind and bumpy roads definitely added to the physical toll.

Lots of up and down

In the end, I think opting for a single century was the right call.  I went out to eat with Matt's family and friends and enjoyed the steak salad with a tall one (2x).  We stayed up 'til midnight waiting for the homecomers to get back from their night of bonfires, cow tipping, line dancing and all the other things "country people" do :-)

Logans Steakhouse

Click here for Garmin statistics

Click here for Strava statistics

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MoCo Epic 2015

I've ridden the MoCo Epic twice before, in 2013 and 2014.  There were some differences in this ride as opposed to the prior two.  Let's start with the obvious, I don't think I've ever been thrown down as hard as I was yesterday.  25 miles in the ride I approached the bottom of a descent and had to make a sharp left turn to ascend.  I don't think I even saw the little sapling of a tree with really mean intentions.  That sapling hooked my left handlebar end and turned my wheel left .. and yea, I kept going straight.  Right arm extended I was body slammed down on the packed rock surface.  OMG, it took a few seconds to figure out what happened.  Fortunately no one was around to see the charade.

70.11 miles in 7 hours and 45 minutes.  Pretty good days ride.  I'm legitimately sore today from not only from that smash-down but the 70 miles of banging over roots.  It's the equivalent of operating a jack-hammer.  In hindsight, it would help to train on mountain bike trails for a mountain bike ride.

I'm pretty happy with the effort.  In 2014 I was so tired I bailed and only rode 50 miles.  And surprisingly, I rode a little bit faster this year than in 2013 ... go figure.  There is nothing about these events that makes me think I'm getting faster with age.

Start of Ride

Ride started at the crack of 7AM.  It was a gorgeous day with a hint of a brisk fall in the air.  The first few miles were a little chilly on the fingers, but as the sun came out it turned into really nice day.  I think I started near the start of the pack.  I didn't finish at the end of the pack, so all is well.

Sunrise (which I normally don't see)

I was a bit nervous about this ride because I knew how hard 70 mountain biking miles can be.  I've been training this summer for the Reston Olympic Tri so hopefully that would help out on this ride.  As the miles passed I didn't have any issues, except that mile 25 debacle.

Pickles and pickle juice, ew!

About mile 40 my phone pocket-dialed someone.  So I had a quick call with Michelle.  I think she panicked a little bit because she answered and I wasn't saying anything.  I was struggling to get the phone out of my pocket.  She's probably picturing me at the bottom of a ravine, making my final dial.

One of several creek crossings

The dude in the picture above didn't have any issue crossing the stream.  However, the guy behind him started yelling expletives as I was riding away.  I chuckled, because it was pretty slippery at the end of that crossing.  I'm sure he took a small bath.

Here are a few videos taken along the way.

Garmin Statistics (click me)

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