Well, we didn't exactly hit the mountains but we found some steep hills in southern Indiana. A friend, Tim, the owner of Rock & Road bike shop, and I, loaded up his VW Euro-van and headed south Friday evening. We had heard all about a ride near Bloomington, in Elletsville, Indiana, called the Hilly Hundred. It is a two day event with a fifty mile loop on Saturday and a different fifty mile loop on Sunday.
Along with several other regular riders from the Grand Haven area, we decided to make a weekend of the trip. Since the rides were "only" fifty miles there would be college football to watch in the afternoon on Saturday (& beer).
The start of this great adventure did not go so well. The trip down was made in torrential rain for almost the entire trip. The deluge stopped just south of Indianapolis. Our arrival at the venue required us to watch a safety video and check in. Tim and I were going to camp at the Ellettsville High School, where the rides would start on both days. We completed the check-in and proceeded over to our camp site. To say the ground was wet would be misleading, to say it was flowing would probably describe it better. We managed to find spots that were not completely underwater and pitched out tents. I mentioned to Tim I hoped my Thermorest mattress would float me above the wetness. As it turned out the tents did a great job, it was only our feet in the bike shoes that suffered. Why do those things have holes in the bottom?
The Saturday ride turned out to be a challenge in more ways then the hills. More rain moved in Friday night and it was still misting at 9am when we launched on the ride. Since it was raining I did not bring my camera. I was also a little nervous concerning the advertised gradient of the hills we would be riding. In the Grand Haven area, the maximum grade we encounter is about 9% on 5-Mile Hill. We would see 18% on Saturday and 23% on Sunday. My bike has a 39-26 low gear. Most people rode with a triple crank set.
The Saturday ride starts out with a short hill with a 12% grade. This was wet and covered with leaves. Twice I came to an abrupt halt when my back wheel spun out on the slippery surface. Once we got over that hill, conditions improved, at least the roads were a bit cleaner.
Both days have rest stops and lunch at 10-15 mile intervals. This is way generous! The food was great at all rest stops and fried chicken was served for both lunches. You could have made a real pig of yourself, but then you would be hauling more "stuff" up over the hills.
After lunch, Tim and I got hooked up with a group of 6 college students from Indiana University doing the Hilly Hundred as a training ride. Great fun, riding up and down the hills as a group. We were really moving along averaging about 40kph on the flats and stomping up the hills.
The last big climb of the day, Water Tower Hill, did me in and I was spit out the back of the group. This is billed as a 0.8 mile 17% grade climb. It was! I did manage to catch the group on the back side as they slowed near the end. I thanked them for dragging the "old man" around on their ride. What fun!
We spent our afternoon and evening in Bloomington, Indiana, watching football, University of Michigan and Penn State and fueling (& beer) for the next day. Unfortunately, Michigan was pummeled by Penn State.
The camping Saturday night was much better then the night before, as the deluge had subsided. The stars were out but we were tired so went to bed by 10pm. I was awakened in the night by some coyotes howling at the neighborhood dogs.
Sunday dawned nicely, with a bit of clouds and a great sunrise. Our group managed to get together at 9am for the start.
Along with 5500 of our best friends and bike riders.
Both days amazed me that there can be that many people in one place all riding their bikes at the same time. At almost no time on these fifty mile rides were you out of sight of many others. This was a truly eclectic group. All manner of bike, gear, clothing and ages and gender.
One of the longest climbs, is the Bean Blossom Hill. This one goes on for about 2 miles and has a 17% maximum. Most of the hill is a much more reasonable grade.
This is the view at the climax of this hill.
There is a screaming downhill after this climb. This downhill was the one really scary part of the ride, not so much the downhill itself, but one rider in the group I was in went off the edge of the road at around 35mph. He did a great job of keeping it under control and getting back on the road in an upright manner.
Lunch came at about 28 miles on Sunday.
Does this bagel make my face look fat?
The crowds at the rest stops and lunch were much heavier on Sunday, probably due to the improved weather.
Our group rode together for a while after lunch in anticipation of the crux move of this tour.
The Mt. Tabor climb.
This is a short wall billed as 0.2 mile and 20%, with 23% on the inside of the turn at the top. It was that and there was traffic, bikes and cars. The lead up to this climb has a nice down grade for several miles so I was flying along not really thinking about this climb. All of a sudden, the road ducks into some woods and seems to go straight up.
I geared down and started cranking. People were falling out all over, this bad boy was steep. I got into the surge forward, then pedal rhythm, until a car from behind and a car ahead tried to do the hill at the same time. The car coming up from behind passed me, then the car coming down, which had stopped at the top, all of a sudden started down the barely two lane road filled with, I am guessing, about a hundred riders and now two cars. The car that was going up that just passed me, decided it needed to get over for the downhill traffic, so it just made a turn to the right, placing it at about 45 degrees across the road and stopped. This left me with about 12 inches between the ditch and the bumper to get by. If I had stopped at that point it would have meant walking the rest of the way up. I was not going to do that! I did make it by and then took the path right up the center so that would not happen again. Success!
Holy crap, that thing was steep. I made it up onto the grass at the top of the hill to take a photo of Tim coming behind me, while my heart rate dropped below humming bird speed.
Tim is sneaking by in the left side of the photo on the orange/black Giant.
After this climb we rode along a ridge until just before Stinesville. This was great fun flying down the hill into this little village. The turns were mostly 90 degree and they had placed hay bales on the outside of the corners to cut down on the carnage. I loved it. I was chasing Tim down this hill right on his tail as we flew through the corners, free of the big crowds we had been riding in most of the day.
In a nice little park adjacent to the stream that runs through Stinesville, was the last rest stop. We took a short break here to replenish our water and a poddy break. Right out of the chute is Mt. Carmel Road hill. That was tough after stopping, then having to start climbing right away.
The last ten miles was into the wind and kind of rolling. That was tough. Tim and I did manage to grab on to a small group and do a pace line rotation into the wind.
The last big effort is a re-do of Water Tower Hill. Yep, you have to do that twice! It is a definite challenge, especially after two days of this stuff for us flat-landers. I was getting tired but managed to keep the tempo going and surprised myself getting over the top nicely.
The rest of the ride, as they say, is all down-hill. Well, not really, but its not bad.
I made it back to the campsite and sat down for a nice break.
This is a great ride in a very nice area of the country. The organization was superb, the food was great (need coffee at the rest stops) and the company was a lot of fun.
I love scampering up and down those hills, when you feel the need for speed, you have to get up before you get down.
For those who care to see the pain that was generated graphically, check out my GPS tracks at: Saturday: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17116641 and Sunday: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17116631
1 comment:
Sorry I missed it. Maybe next year.
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