D2R2

D2R2 Dirt, bikes, hills lot of hills!

D2R2 gets mixed reviews from the Kelly family. I had a great experience. My 111 mile ride and 15,500 feet of climbing involved meeting new and pleasant people, nice scenery, and nice climbs. Plenty of guilt free eating of junk food. Patrick describes his 60 mile ride as the most painful experience he has had on the bike. His trip featured a wrong turn down a very steep washboard dirt road, cramping, and walking his bike up numerous hills. Despite these challenge, he finished the ride in good spirits.

I had been looking forward to the ride for a while as a break from racing. My racing this year has generally been disappointing because I have not been achieving the results I'd hoped for in our local road races. Patrick had gone to a lot of trouble to rebuild "the beast" - my steel cross bike with 1:1 gearing so that I could enjoy my day of climbing on dirt. I had elected to run a 25 Gatorskin tire thinking that I would be able to go faster than if I used cross tires.

I was pleasantly surprised to see some folks I knew at the pre-ride breakfast. Mike and Bruce, my fellow Wyeth bicycle commuters and Anna Milkoski, a fellow road racer. Soon after we started rolling at 6 two others guys introduced themselves to me as fellow NEBC members. It's a large club, so even after a year I have a lot of folks still to meet it seems. I was determined to stay up with the front group as long as possible to take advantage of drafting. Also, I had no idea where we were going. The route involves 123 turns or intersections. It would take a long time if I had to continually pull out and consult the cue sheet. I'm really bad at this and have gotten lost each of the 3 times I've attempted a long ride relying on a cue sheet.

I met a woman named Paula who was also riding in the front group and very nice. I realized pretty quickly that my challenge of the day would be descending on the dirt. I didn't feel confident to turn on unknown terrain on the thin tires. This wasn't stopping the guys whole bombed down the hills no problem. A number of times I got behind I was able to catch up by descending fast on the pavement sections and by chasing. It became clear to me that I wasn't going to be able to chase back for 8 hours so if I didn't get off the brakes on the dirt, I was going likely not going to finish with these guys. I At 8 we got to the 2st stop and it was very annoying. About 15 guys that came in behind me (and Paula) jumped ahead of me to sign in, then while I was waiting to sign in, refilled their bottles and grabbed food. Most annoying about this and similar experiences I have previously had in brevets is the bathroom situation. While I was heading behind a barn to modestly do business the guys that had jumped ahead of me to sign in took off. I had to chase and when I caught up one of them (most had peed in the open at the stop) was peeing on his bike. I probably could have ruined my entire day by letting competitive feelings and gripes towards the guys build. I didn't have to because at 8:30 I was definitively dropped on a mile long rocky descent.

Not long after, I was rocking up a climb on pavement to the second stop when I got a flat. One guy stopped quick to help me pull the tire over the rim (not so easy for me with the Gatorskins). Another stopped to take a picture of me changing the flat which was funny. Anna encouraged me to catch up with her group which I was happy to do when I reached the stop. I had a nice time with her and her friends. We went through a muddy part, and headed up the infamous 27% climb. I lost traction in the soft group and crashed. Luckily I didn't take anyone else down with me. One awesome guy (George I think) stopped to wrench my foot free of the pedal and walk up the hill with me (putting up with my very bad attitude about walking up the hill). I enjoyed a wonderfully wickedly hot dirt climb with Anna and then started riding with a great guy whose name escapes me. We were close to the same pace, taking it easy. He reminded that after all it wasn't a race. I would get ahead on the climbs, then he would get ahead on the descents. It was great fun!

Then on rocky, fast descent, my front tire blew out and a spoke broke off the hub. I was able to safely get to the side to change the tire and tape the spoke. My new friend was concerned that I had wiped out when I didn't show up so he actually climbed back to check on me. Anna and friends and about 10 other riders blew past on their way to lunch, which I finally reached. I was able to borrow a floor pump there to fully inflate the front tire and mooch another spare tube just in case. I left lunch around 11:30

Out of lunch I headed uphill with a group of riders from NorthHampton, most of which I later found out were doing the 60 mile route. I realized this after I had been riding with them for some time and became very concerned that I was going the wrong way since I didn't know if the 2 routes coincided and had not yet looked at the cue sheet. Luckily, I was on the correct route and started riding with a guy named Todd from Northhampton. I was just finished griping to him about my previous mishaps when I slammed from pavement onto dirt and blew the rear tire. I could not believe it! Thankfully he was kind enough to stay and ensure the flat was repaired. We continued on and then found ourselves at an intersection clearly not on the cue sheet. I had been relying on him for navigation and he missed a turn (which did not have a street sign). We had descended quite some ways on pavement and understandably he wasn't thrilled about having to climb back up. He really challenged my comfort level on the climb - which felt as bad or worse than any of the climbs actually on the course. From then on, I was going to start paying strict attention to where I was going!

He stopped for water at the gas station at mile 92 and I kept chugging towards the final climb. I had hot foot in one foot and was looking forward to a nice break with shoes off. I was able to climb the 2.5 miles on dirt at my own pace while imagining the luxury of taking off my shoe taking electrolytes at the top. A summit has never been so wonderful. The volunteers up there were super nice, bringing me snacks while I stretched my foot. I was the only rider at the stop so had first dibs on bathroom, water, and all sorts of foods. The stop was fantastic and I will definitely go there again. It was an art gallery with a fanciful house and garden on top of a mountain. I was able to speak some with the artist and check out a portfolio of some of her work. Then a group of guys and Paula were getting ready to go, so I saddled up. Paula had gotten behind because she had trouble with her derailer. It seemed that Anna's group had gotten behind somehow (my guess is they also took a wrong turn). I started down a rocky narrow road and it didn't take long for the guys to start shooting around me. Paula and I decided it made a lot more sense to stick together than to try to keep up with the guys - even if we had to get out the cue sheet.

We had a close run in with a car on second part of the descent. We were in the right tire track of a narrow dirt road and a car came up. I couldn't pull over because the road was loose and I risked loosing control with the narrow tire. I couldn't stop suddenly because that would have risked crashing Paula who was on my wheel. The car didn't budge at all and came very close to my shoulder.

Following that thrill, we had a very cyclocross sort of descent on a rough unpaved road which was pretty exciting. Paula said they saved that sections for when we had lost most of our motor skills. So true, but we made it out ok and onto pavement for the last few miles.

Overall a great day!! A big thanks to everyone that gave me a hand with the flats and getting up after crashing. Next year I will try running a fatter tire to avoid flats. Also, I'll try to let go of the race mentality since the enjoyment of the ride greatly improved once I started looking at something other than the rear ends of riders ahead of me. One section along the Green River is particularly scenic. I didn't have a speedometer so I don't know what my saddle time was but we finished around 3 which left some time to relax before dinner.