It took me 8.5 hours to ride 110 miles. Holy crap that's a long time, you may say. Well, there was at least 12000 feet of climbing, though my Garmin tells me it was more like 14k, but regardless, that's a hell of a lot of climbing! Particularly on a time trial bike too. The weather also decided to be weird, and it rained for the first time since maybe early June that I can remember. The ride was certainly an adventure.
The ride started in Auburn (1400 feet elevation approximately) and up and up and down and UP and down and up and up and up and up and (etc) and down and up to Robinson's Flats (6700 feet elevation). Then you turn around and go down and up and down and up and down down down and then down and up and rolly rolly rolly and up and then back to Auburn. I got to see some amazing scenery and towns that I would never have even known existed did I not ride a bike. I also rode with two great people, one who provides great insight on work/job/career and the other who is super speedy and a very nice person.
The century was very well run, the event director was found at many of the rest stops since he was driving around the course. The volunteers were super nice and the food was awesome! I even had an ice cream bar at the top, though that proved to be not such a smart idea since the temperature was dropping and dairy doesn't go down so well while biking... ha.
I felt generally okay on the ride, there were some extremely tough parts: Iowa Hill - over 1.75 miles climb 1400 feet; the 13 mile climb (mostly) from China Wall to Robinson's Flat which was over 2000 feet elevation difference including the last 3 miles which was about half of that; the short steep hill on Spring Garden Rd in Foresthill; the annoying rolliness of Foresthill Road from about miles 95-105; and the freaking hill from the bridge up into Auburn that I ride whenever I do the Folsom Lake Loop that no matter how many times I do it, never gets easier!
As I said, the scenery was fantastic though. Going up Iowa Hill I was like dang, if this wasn't a time trial I would totally stop and take photos, though I guess that would make continuing up the hill a serious bitch. Also along Foresthill, named quite correctly. It's basically a road cut up a hill in a forest. Lots of trees and as you were climbing up, you could start to see the tops of the surrounding hills/mountains since you were so high up. Truly amazing. The one downside was the rain during the descent of Foresthill Road. Never a fan of rain on the bike, even less of a fan when going downhill.
Still, overall a good ride, good people, good conversation. Will I do it again next year? Of course, this time the 140 mile version! And I will practice more on Iowa Hill. It wasn't as bad as I was warned, but it certainly wasn't easy.
2 comments:
aww so proud of you. sounds like you had a lot of fun!!
Sounds like a great race. I went to my first triathlon Saturday and really enjoyed watching my son wear himself out! It was a perfect day--cool and cloudy, but not cold or rainy! Fun!
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