Your Weekend Cycling Ride Reports - September 23/24
09-27-17, 05:34 AM
#26
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Hillier Than Thou
https://www.strava.com/activities/1200393460
This ride has been on my radar for awhile and after 3 years of chickening out at the last minute I finally rode Hillier Than Thou. Sunday was a little warm for NJ in September(90*)
The day started off with mild temps of low 70s at 7:30. The organizers decided to have 3 of their team riders do the neutral rollout instead of using a car. But someone forgot to tell the riders where the first turn was. Road was marked on Friday and town milled it Saturday LOL. So we all missed the first turn and had to double back
After getting back on coarse things were going well, then at mile 30ish after the first rest stop all hell broke loose. First there was this little wall .4miles long and 300ft, then came the big mamma Fiddlers Elbow a little over a mile long with 600ft gain and a section that hits 23% per strava
. After that things settled down with JUST some 10% climbs.
Next challenge was Iron Bridge at mile 48. Whoever built this road needs to be slapped. This one starts at about 10% then you hit the bridge and you think you are done LOL. After the bridge the road kicks up into the high teens % at least at the top there was a rest stop. That stop looked like a bomb just went off with all the riders walking around with blank stares.
Now with the 2 "hardest" climbs behind me I realized I had 52 miles to go and another 6500 feet of climbing ahead of me! For me the day was awesome. I rode every climb without weaving
and I survived the heat, Other riders weren't so fortunate.
Now for the bad. No real food at the rest stops, not even PB&J. Gu and Blocks and energy bars only. A couple poorly marked turns. Food at the end was good but there was a wait for burgers when the later riders came back and only water and watermelon gu drink.
To wrap up. Yes I did suffer, yes I had a great time, and YES I WILL DO THIS AGAIN!!!!
105 mile 12,785 feet
Sorry for the long report. But I'm really excited I finally did this ride!
Here are some pictures
This ride has been on my radar for awhile and after 3 years of chickening out at the last minute I finally rode Hillier Than Thou. Sunday was a little warm for NJ in September(90*)
The day started off with mild temps of low 70s at 7:30. The organizers decided to have 3 of their team riders do the neutral rollout instead of using a car. But someone forgot to tell the riders where the first turn was. Road was marked on Friday and town milled it Saturday LOL. So we all missed the first turn and had to double back
After getting back on coarse things were going well, then at mile 30ish after the first rest stop all hell broke loose. First there was this little wall .4miles long and 300ft, then came the big mamma Fiddlers Elbow a little over a mile long with 600ft gain and a section that hits 23% per strava
. After that things settled down with JUST some 10% climbs.Next challenge was Iron Bridge at mile 48. Whoever built this road needs to be slapped. This one starts at about 10% then you hit the bridge and you think you are done LOL. After the bridge the road kicks up into the high teens % at least at the top there was a rest stop. That stop looked like a bomb just went off with all the riders walking around with blank stares.
Now with the 2 "hardest" climbs behind me I realized I had 52 miles to go and another 6500 feet of climbing ahead of me! For me the day was awesome. I rode every climb without weaving
and I survived the heat, Other riders weren't so fortunate. Now for the bad. No real food at the rest stops, not even PB&J. Gu and Blocks and energy bars only. A couple poorly marked turns. Food at the end was good but there was a wait for burgers when the later riders came back and only water and watermelon gu drink.
To wrap up. Yes I did suffer, yes I had a great time, and YES I WILL DO THIS AGAIN!!!!
105 mile 12,785 feet
Sorry for the long report. But I'm really excited I finally did this ride!
Here are some pictures
09-27-17, 08:42 AM
#27
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Got 86 miles in on Sunday...from Chicago to the Wisconsin border and back. Honestly, I should have kept it at 60 miles or so. I started wearing down in the 95F heat lol.
09-27-17, 12:06 PM
#28
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Finally got out on a weeknight yesterday. 33 miles of my usual Davis Is. ride. Still hot, but it felt better due to lower humidity and sun setting sooner. It was a pretty strong ride.
09-27-17, 12:53 PM
#29
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I was dog-slow this year, but that's OK. I've done the "lap of Waikiki" before but just didn't feel in the mood for it this year. Now it's been 2 years straight that I didn't get rained on anywhere -- I think that's a record. That makes up for the Metric Century this year where it was raining so much I blew it off.
scott s.
.
scott s.
.
09-27-17, 06:26 PM
#30
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https://www.strava.com/activities/1200393460
This ride has been on my radar for awhile and after 3 years of chickening out at the last minute I finally rode Hillier Than Thou. Sunday was a little warm for NJ in September(90*)
The day started off with mild temps of low 70s at 7:30. The organizers decided to have 3 of their team riders do the neutral rollout instead of using a car. But someone forgot to tell the riders where the first turn was. Road was marked on Friday and town milled it Saturday LOL. So we all missed the first turn and had to double back
After getting back on coarse things were going well, then at mile 30ish after the first rest stop all hell broke loose. First there was this little wall .4miles long and 300ft, then came the big mamma Fiddlers Elbow a little over a mile long with 600ft gain and a section that hits 23% per strava. After that things settled down with JUST some 10% climbs.
Next challenge was Iron Bridge at mile 48. Whoever built this road needs to be slapped. This one starts at about 10% then you hit the bridge and you think you are done LOL. After the bridge the road kicks up into the high teens % at least at the top there was a rest stop. That stop looked like a bomb just went off with all the riders walking around with blank stares.
Now with the 2 "hardest" climbs behind me I realized I had 52 miles to go and another 6500 feet of climbing ahead of me! For me the day was awesome. I rode every climb without weaving and I survived the heat, Other riders weren't so fortunate.
Now for the bad. No real food at the rest stops, not even PB&J. Gu and Blocks and energy bars only. A couple poorly marked turns. Food at the end was good but there was a wait for burgers when the later riders came back and only water and watermelon gu drink.
To wrap up. Yes I did suffer, yes I had a great time, and YES I WILL DO THIS AGAIN!!!!
105 mile 12,785 feet
Sorry for the long report. But I'm really excited I finally did this ride!
Here are some pictures
This ride has been on my radar for awhile and after 3 years of chickening out at the last minute I finally rode Hillier Than Thou. Sunday was a little warm for NJ in September(90*)
The day started off with mild temps of low 70s at 7:30. The organizers decided to have 3 of their team riders do the neutral rollout instead of using a car. But someone forgot to tell the riders where the first turn was. Road was marked on Friday and town milled it Saturday LOL. So we all missed the first turn and had to double back
After getting back on coarse things were going well, then at mile 30ish after the first rest stop all hell broke loose. First there was this little wall .4miles long and 300ft, then came the big mamma Fiddlers Elbow a little over a mile long with 600ft gain and a section that hits 23% per strava
. After that things settled down with JUST some 10% climbs.Next challenge was Iron Bridge at mile 48. Whoever built this road needs to be slapped. This one starts at about 10% then you hit the bridge and you think you are done LOL. After the bridge the road kicks up into the high teens % at least at the top there was a rest stop. That stop looked like a bomb just went off with all the riders walking around with blank stares.
Now with the 2 "hardest" climbs behind me I realized I had 52 miles to go and another 6500 feet of climbing ahead of me! For me the day was awesome. I rode every climb without weaving
and I survived the heat, Other riders weren't so fortunate. Now for the bad. No real food at the rest stops, not even PB&J. Gu and Blocks and energy bars only. A couple poorly marked turns. Food at the end was good but there was a wait for burgers when the later riders came back and only water and watermelon gu drink.
To wrap up. Yes I did suffer, yes I had a great time, and YES I WILL DO THIS AGAIN!!!!
105 mile 12,785 feet
Sorry for the long report. But I'm really excited I finally did this ride!
Here are some pictures
I burst out laughing at your description of Iron Bridge and the rest stop after.
It was two years ago but I remember it vividly.
09-28-17, 07:03 AM
#31
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09-28-17, 07:38 AM
#32
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kbarch and atwl77 thanks! They had a cutoff of 5:30 (10 hours) but due to the heat they didn't enforce it. I didn't hang around but a buddy told me there were people still rolling in at 6:50
