Prep Ride for Horribly Hilly Hundreds & France

With all the racing the past 2 months, I haven't been able to get in any long rides. I should have been out on the boat with my family (can you say, dog house?), but instead, I opted for the longest ride of my life (137 miles), with Painman, Horrigan, and Baker (It was the longest ride for all of them too). Not to be outdone, Casper joined us en route from Northfield, and trumped us with 164 miles.

Of course, longest ride alone wasn't enough. Jordan and I went reconnoitering down near Maiden Rock in search of the nastiest hills I could find. I was not disappointed. I put together a 50 mile loop starting in Hagar City that had no less than 7 nasty steep, long climbs. The gradients on most of them averaged over 10%, with ramps up to 17%. Our cumulative vertical for the ride was over 8300ft. Good prep work for the Horribly Hilly 200K next weekend, as well as our France Trip.



Luckily, we got all our problems out of the way at the start of the ride. We were supposed to start at about 9AM, and we actually left right around that time. We were to meet Casper in Prescott. Right away, I had a tire rubbing on my frame, and I went home to fix it, while the guys waited in downtown Hudson. Once I rejoined, a big group of GP riders with John Redmond and Casebeer rolled through. They stopped downtown, while we kept going with Redmond.

On the other side of the I94 bridge, Painman had to stop to fix a chain problem. It was skipping on the lower derailleur pulley. After messing with it for 15 minutes, we decided to go back to my house and try a new chain. New chain, same problem. Finally, we figure out the lower pulley had a split in one of the teeth, causing the chain to ride up and skip. Luckily, I had a spare pulley. After the fix, Painman said his bike had never run so smooth. We finally got going again at about 10AM.

As we headed out again, I stated we probably won't be back until around 6PM. The others were like, "Whatever". They knew I had morphed the day's ride route into a tough one. Little did they know.

We saw Pmax and a couple others in Afton. We also bumped into Tony Carter. Lots of guys out riding. We finally caught up with Casper right in front of Afton Alps on St. Croix Trail. He already had nearly 40 miles in. We took it pretty easy on the climbs in MN, knowing it was going to be a long day. However, we did tempo it a bit in the flats down to Prescott.

After a quick stop in Prescott, the plan was to ride straight down 35 to Hagar City. There are 2 good climbs on 35, and the guys just couldn't contain themselves. Casper decided to push it, and Painman and Dr. P couldn't resist. Baker and I hung back and conserved. We had 50 miles in by Hagar City. We refueled, and headed out for the tough 50 mile loop.

The first climb was particularly brutal, and the same 3 pushed it, with Baker and I continuing to conserve. The descents were twisty and awesome. We stopped in Maiden Rock about 15 miles into the loop. I warned them the next 35 miles were going to be even more brutal.

I suffered on every climb. The gradients were just too steep for me. Thankfully, I had a 27-tooth cog, which I still struggled in at times. We all battled our mental demons from miles 80-100, with the exception of Casper. Everyone, except Baker ran out of fluids. Man was it hot out. Finally, we made it back to Hagar City, knowing we still had nearly 40 miles to ride home.

We were all pretty wrecked, except Casper. He was simply a machine, pushing every climb, roller, and flat section. Our stomach's were all completely messed up, that eating, and even drinking, was difficult. We just sat on the step of the Gas Station and stared at our food, wishing we could simply absorb it, rather than eat it.

After what seemed an eternity, we reluctantly headed for home, while Casper headed back to Northfield, via Red Wing, on the Cannon Valley Trail. Every mile was a mental challenge. Not much talking, except to say things like "Can we back off a little?". We limped into my driveway just before 7PM. 137 miles in 7:40. Definitely the toughest ride I've ever done.

So I took 4 days off this week, did 2 time trials, and my longest ride ever. Does that count as rest?