Post by 1yellowtire on Jun 26, 2005 19:18:18 GMT -5
Given Bill's recent posts, I thought I had to post something about Blood, Sweat and Gears, so here goes:
Although you probably think BS&G is in Boone, it actually starts in Valle Cruces, so Scott made us (Scott, Gibbs, Jennifer, Stacy, Heather and I) reservations at a B&B in Valle Cruces. Because Gibbs is now a big-shot, Scott and I had to pick up Gibbs' registration packet in addition to ours--he showed up after work. As usual, Scott and I tried to make conversation with anyone riding a DeRosa. Also as usual, people wished we would leave them alone.
At any rate, Gibbs and co. eventually met us at a restraunt called Good Eats, which was surprisingly good and even more surprisingly, Italian. If you do the ride next year, it's pretty good pre-ride food.
The ride was supposed to begin at 7:30, but for some reason, didn't begin until about 20 minutes later. The beginning of the ride is not too bad. After wrapping around a couple of small towns, it moves to the parkway. The pavement there is not as nice as the stretch to Waterrock (more like the stuff towards Cherokee). Except for the guy who tried to run into me at 40 mph, that section was pretty nice. We found a big group at this point in the ride (which included Tom and David Forkner), and stayed with them until about the 50 mile mark, when people started to drop off.
The big climb on BS&G is Snake Mtn. It's got a number of switchbacks, but is shorter and steeper than Cullowhee Mtn--they claim it reaches 18-20%, but Scott only saw 17% on his cpu. At any rate, it's steep. Gibbs (of course) dropped us there and he stayed away until the end (eventually beating us by about 6 minutes).
Snake mtn. is really the defining part of the ride--because it comes around the middle of the ride (as opposed to the end like Mitchell, or Bridge to Bridge)--you can't blow it here (although a number of people apparently did). We saw at least two people get off to walk their bikes (both of whom were from Florida).
Scott and I topped Snake and we were feeling really good. I struggled to keep up with Scott on the descent (big surprise), but we picked up a couple of people and worked with them on the flats.
There are about 10 miles or so of fairly flat stuff and then there is a climb that is almost identical to Ellijay (similar distance, similar grade). We were feeling great here and dropped a bunch of people.
After the climb, we regrouped with two others (one of whom was the guy who almost ran me off the road before). We worked with them until the end. The last 20 or so miles kind of suck. There are a bunch of small, but fairly steep climbs. Everytime you think you're done with them, there's another. We cussed a lot.
In the end, Scott and I finished at 5:35 and Gibbs finished around 6 minutes faster. Overall, a very nice ride with three big advantages: (1) it's a loop, so the logistics are not bad; (2) there is enough climbing to be tough (~9,000 feet--not the 13,500 they advertise), but not enough to kill you; (3) the big climb is not at the end.
Although you probably think BS&G is in Boone, it actually starts in Valle Cruces, so Scott made us (Scott, Gibbs, Jennifer, Stacy, Heather and I) reservations at a B&B in Valle Cruces. Because Gibbs is now a big-shot, Scott and I had to pick up Gibbs' registration packet in addition to ours--he showed up after work. As usual, Scott and I tried to make conversation with anyone riding a DeRosa. Also as usual, people wished we would leave them alone.
At any rate, Gibbs and co. eventually met us at a restraunt called Good Eats, which was surprisingly good and even more surprisingly, Italian. If you do the ride next year, it's pretty good pre-ride food.
The ride was supposed to begin at 7:30, but for some reason, didn't begin until about 20 minutes later. The beginning of the ride is not too bad. After wrapping around a couple of small towns, it moves to the parkway. The pavement there is not as nice as the stretch to Waterrock (more like the stuff towards Cherokee). Except for the guy who tried to run into me at 40 mph, that section was pretty nice. We found a big group at this point in the ride (which included Tom and David Forkner), and stayed with them until about the 50 mile mark, when people started to drop off.
The big climb on BS&G is Snake Mtn. It's got a number of switchbacks, but is shorter and steeper than Cullowhee Mtn--they claim it reaches 18-20%, but Scott only saw 17% on his cpu. At any rate, it's steep. Gibbs (of course) dropped us there and he stayed away until the end (eventually beating us by about 6 minutes).
Snake mtn. is really the defining part of the ride--because it comes around the middle of the ride (as opposed to the end like Mitchell, or Bridge to Bridge)--you can't blow it here (although a number of people apparently did). We saw at least two people get off to walk their bikes (both of whom were from Florida).
Scott and I topped Snake and we were feeling really good. I struggled to keep up with Scott on the descent (big surprise), but we picked up a couple of people and worked with them on the flats.
There are about 10 miles or so of fairly flat stuff and then there is a climb that is almost identical to Ellijay (similar distance, similar grade). We were feeling great here and dropped a bunch of people.
After the climb, we regrouped with two others (one of whom was the guy who almost ran me off the road before). We worked with them until the end. The last 20 or so miles kind of suck. There are a bunch of small, but fairly steep climbs. Everytime you think you're done with them, there's another. We cussed a lot.
In the end, Scott and I finished at 5:35 and Gibbs finished around 6 minutes faster. Overall, a very nice ride with three big advantages: (1) it's a loop, so the logistics are not bad; (2) there is enough climbing to be tough (~9,000 feet--not the 13,500 they advertise), but not enough to kill you; (3) the big climb is not at the end.
