0630 start for the "ride-proper".
A couple of us cycled to the ride, so in those cases, our rides started earlier.
Typical Carpenter Pond start.
Smitty performing the role that I usually do early in the ride.
That of keeping the pace reasonable.
I was happy to sit on the back behind Iva.
Who was happy to sit on the back as he had cycled in the West Jefferson area on Friday.
With Tito.
Those 64-year-olds seem to have become mountain-crazy.
Olive Branch Rd appears to have been paved from Carpenter Pond to Doc Nichols.
May have to do some routes in reverse,
To include Olive Branch from the highway to Carpenter Pond.
The 200 foot elevation gain is obvious on Olive Branch.
A stop in Creedmoor at Southern States to refill water bottles with fresh, chilled water.
And some of us visited their very nice and clean rest room.
We left Creedmoor by a seldom-cycled route:
Main Street north to US-15 North.
To Sam Moss Hayes Rd.
Just to be different.
Hester Rd from SMH to NC-56.
Hester freshly re-paved.
No markings yet.
Not even "pre-markings".
Nice line led by Smitty and Lee into Wilton on 56.
Approaching the light, Robert exclaims, "Hey! We were here last week."
He was referring to last Sunday's Kerr Lake Loop Permanent.
Rather than call out the next turn,
I went around and led the four-tenths of a mile to Old Franklinton Rd.
Smitty, Lee and I had a nice ride on that road.
I'm not so sure about Robert and Iva.
Suitt's Store Rd. Serving as the detour from NC-96 for auto traffic.
Smitty, Lee and I reached Kelsey's Western Wear Store, where we cut across the parking lot.
And hammered NC-96 northbound to Wayside Farm Rd.
Just after turning onto Wayside Farm,
We noticed that Robert and Iva were not in tow.
We waited when we got to Bruce Garner Rd.
Lee reminded me that Rob't and Iva might appreciate a rest.
After a goodly rest, we turned on to Bruce Garner Rd.
And Rob't immediately started drifting off the back.
And then, he "reverse dumped" me within about a quarter-mile of where he did same last Sunday.
He actually reverse-dumped all four of us,
But the others were already 100 yards or more up the road.
And riding faster than Rob't and me.
It took me at about three miles to catch the lead threesome.
Nice riding on BG / NL,
Until I decided to up the pace,
To up the overall pace.
We splintered on the Ghoston-Peed-MVC finish.
Smitty in about 15:37 from the bottom of Ghoston to the stop-sign near PUE.
Me in 18:00.
Iva in 19:21.
Lee took the alternate New Light to Pleasant Union Church Rd course.
He must have really slowed down because Iva crossed paths with Lee just outside PUE.
Robert arrived a few minutes later.
Completing his 13-mile "soft-pedal" leaving energy still in his legs for later in the day.
The above is my short story, and I'm sticking to it.
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With luck, an embed of Smitty's Garmin follows:
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My total stats, including to and from the "ride-proper":
Jul-22:
--> PUE: no-name 56-miler (probably never to be repeated) -->; 71.5 m.; 4h,17m in-motion; 16.7 mph.
_
The only person that I know who would likely connect to a UK website is the Mallet. However, I would normally expect the Mallet to sign his anonymous post. But, perhaps, in the heat of the moment, thinking about returning to the G-P-MVC battles, Paul "the Mallet" forgot to sign his comment above.
ReplyDeleteHowever ...
I did G-P-MVC (bottom of G to the stop-sign) in 18:00 on Saturday. If I had been two minutes faster on that 4.6 miles, then my avg pace for my ride from start to PUE would have been 17.1 mph instead of 16.9 mph. So ... whereas my 18-flat time took 0.1 mph off the 17.0 we were avging when we got to Ghoston, as 16-flat time would have upped my avg from 17.0 to 17.1. My recollection is that that is exactly what Smitty did -- his moving-avg at PUE was 17.1 as compared to the 17.0 it had been at the bottom of Ghoston.
Smitty didn't REALLY put a great effort into his pedaling until he got to the bottom of Ghoston ... then he was just "poof" ... gone. Most of the ride, Smitty did a better job of setting a pace that was appropriately just within the comfort zone for everyone on the ride. (Lee also did a good job on that front. I, however, did not.)
Finally, yes the 4.6 miles (not 5) in 15:23 does equate to 17.5 mph avg for G-P-MVC. That is consistent with raising his avg for the entire ride from 17.0 at the bottom of Ghoston to 17.1 upon reaching PUE.
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Btw, on a side note, IvaHawk proved the other day that the steep part of Peed is steeper than the avg for the Alp d' Huez climb. Of course, the steep section of Peed is only 0.2 miles long whereas the Alp is reported slightly longer than that.
...Martin
Smitty could definitely do GPMVC in 15min and some change. We used to race on this section and do it in the 15s regularly. I know Tito has cracked into the 14s on several occasions. I've done it in 15 flat with Tito way ahead of me.
ReplyDeleteLevi
I can lend support to all Martin and Levi said. Seen it with my own eyes. My best time this year is 17:55.
ReplyDelete