TGT1

Haven't made up my mind yet. how tomorrow goes will be determinate.
wear long sleeves or put DEET on the back of your arms though. The skeeters have been voracious the last two weekends.

They seem to only go for the back of your arms though and leave your legs alone.

pterodactyl

. . . speaking of girls . . .

Are there any other ladies celebrating America's independence by riding free from motorists on GMR this Wednesday?

This will be my first GMR ride and I hope to make it to the ski lifts - but I'm pretty slow.
If anyone cares to offer encouragement - I'll be the tall girl in the Swami's Cycling Team kit that matches her '94 Lemond perfectly

diphthong

diphthong

calamarichris

Or go fast enough to ride the little blighters of your wheel. Mosquito top speed.

jimincalif

I'm planning to gather at Boulder Springs ~0745, roll at 0800. Hopefully with a few others too.

TGT1

Well, my left arm must go slower than my right one since that's the only one that got chewed on last time.
The problem with your web link 2kmh speed limit is skeeters can draft too!

I got even and killed a few thousand on the way down though.

Still not decided on the 4th. If I do go I'll go for a semi alpine start (6:00) and you'll all still probably catch a slow old geezer like me.

calamarichris

We'll keep an eye out for you. One of my favorite tricks is eating plenty of garlic. Years ago when I went camping with some friends, we had a deer tick problem and everyone was terrified about Lyme Disease. Everyone had ticks on them, including me, except my two hapless ticks were staggering around on me, trying to find a place to bite the beast that didn't taste like garlic. In addition to having the fewest ticks, neither of mine had imbedded their heads into the meat.

JimmyNH

You mean girls other than Rick? Because once he decides what to wear... he goes up that mountain like a bat out of hell and kicks my Assos even on his worst day. A friend of mine might join us, but as of today she is still undecided. And as ooga-booga said, there will be tons of people on the road, you'll never ride alone. In any case, say "hi" if you see me. I'm easy to spot - the only guy who wears a helmet that looks like human hair. And I'll be really slow, still getting over a cold.

f4rrest

I'll probably end up on AC tomorrow, since it's rideable from home, and driving to GMR doesn't appeal.

Have fun up there and post pics.

furiousferret

Showed up early and decided to ride solo as I had to get home before 1300.

There had to be 2,000+ riders going up, it was nuts. Haven't seen that many cyclists in a non organized event ever. GMR is one of my favorite climbs so always a good time, but I should have brought more water as I ran out 2 miles from the ski lifts.


Some pics, I don't know anyone in them: https://www.strava.com/activities/1681385445

jimincalif

DrIsotope

Be sure to go to your Activity page for GMR and click on FlyBys-- it just scrolls and scrolls and scrolls.

i definitely did the most distance on the day. By like... a lot. I guess most people are too sensible to ride 108 miles with a 5,000ft climb in the middle.

TGT1

I had things to buy, people to see and burnt offerings to prepare so I turned around at the shack around 8:00

The scene on the way down was incredible! A couple of hundred riders on their way up, and one lonely skateboarder trudging up the hill towing his board and helmet up with a string.

I can just imagine what the scene at the lodge was like an hour or two later.

Wonder what next year will be like?

Rick@OCRR

calamarichris

Every day in the mountains is a good day, and every day on GMR is a great day, but it was especially magical without cars.
Driving up from Carlsbad, we got a pretty late start, I picked up a thorn and had a little GI trouble after eating too much garlic the night before. The flies were thirsty and swarming all over me while I was changing my flat, so pterodactyl kept going. While I was changing it, dozens of riders offered help, but one guy was out of water, so I gave him half of one of my bottles.
It was so cool to see so many riders (and one or two outright weirdos) out enjoying the mountain, and I saw Stefan, Tunavic, TrojanHorse, JimmyNH of course, and it was such a wonderful festive day! We're getting a hotel room next year.
Pterodactyl is super pumped on climbing now and wants to do the Pikes Peak Gran Fondo. I've climbed Pikes twice before, so I already knew there is only1/3 the oxygen at 13,000 feet (with still over a thousand to go!), but I just learned it's WELL OVER TWICE AS HIGH as Mont Ventoux. (14,110 vs. 6,200 feet.)
Can't wait for next year! Wish every weekend was the 4th of July!

TrojanHorse

We saw your lonely skateboarder zooming down the hill - I think I started up the hill at about 8:15

What a great day to be on a bike! Imagine what that hill would have looked like with 2,000 cars, hmm? Unpossible.

Saw Chris go zooming by - almost didn't recognize him without his La Vie Claire jersey.

TGT1

I had the preamble /flag jersey on and the orange camelback. Had to have passed you on the way down I got back to the car about 8:50

calamarichris

Sorry I didn't stay longer. Pterodactyl is a competitive little smack-talker and always trying to beat me.
Then at the Village, we had to go wait in line at the Forest Service latrines where I found my chamois had split down the middle. Kinda made for a cool descent.

jimincalif

Waiting in line for water at the lodge:

JimmyNH

You are definitely NOT in the "my girlfriend kicks my arse" category, but now that I know her, I reckon she is fully capable of doing it some day.
It was great seeing you boet, and meeting Pterodactyl.

JimmyNH

Yup, it was a great day on GMR. Not just for cyclists. I saw skateborders, runners, hikers. I don't know if they'll ever employ a genious in the municipality that will help them figure out that closed GMR benefits a lot more people than a few crazy motorists that use it when it's open. I reckon they can close it at least once a month between April - October.
A couple of things that I'd like to mention:
1) Guys, when going UP, keep to the right and leave as much of road as possible to the guys that descend. I was descending towards the village when a guy in a BCI jersey (hope not Jimincalif) who was climbing on the left side of the road, decided that he must move to the right. Thank god I missed him by a foot or so, otherwise even a good doctor wouldn't be able to determine which body parts belong to which guy. And it wasn't just him, I was bumping in guys like him throughout the day.
2) About 6 miles from the village, I caught up to a guy who was standing on the side of the road, dying for water. I gave him half of the water in my bottle. Chris said that he had to bail out another guy for the same reason. C'mon gentlemen, even a cat can ration his resources. I understand if it was unusually hotter than forcasted. But by SoCal standards, it was outright cold for this time of the year (70F at the village around 11:00 AM). How can you run out of water?
Anyway, a little ranting for otherwise great day in the mountain.

TGT1

I cut it short early and only had two nimrods in the wrong lane to contend with, but I'd guess as the day wore on it would have gotten worse.

Bad part is both of them looked old enough to know better!

As early as I headed down it was down right chilly on the descent.

jimincalif

DrIsotope

Other side of the coin, the speed demons should be adjusting their descending to account for the fact that there are about 100x as many bikes going up the hill as usual. Wanna blast down the mountain? Try the morning of the 5th.

I went down Baldy Road. I saw one other bike, and maybe 3 southbound cars. Went as fast as I wanted, problem free.