Letape pre-ride summary. Riders: Mitch, PV, Shannon and me for the full monty, Eddie and Mike Z for Baldy Rd + Ski Lifts.
84 miles 11k of climbing.
The best way to describe this ride is... 84 mile and 11k of climbing. Looks like they will need to update the stats for Letape, that last 1k is "legit". We had good temps and there was very little in the way of traffic. Mitch, PV, Shannon, Mike Z, Eddie, and I all met at the Coffee Bean as planned. We departed for Baldy at ~6ish. We arrived at the Plot off of Mill rd and Baldy rd within an hour. We took off at a very moderate pace and I think we were all surprised at how much of a grind Baldy road was. PV was feeling good and created a gap that no one was really interested in chasing. On the way up, I had "gear ratio envy" as watched Shannon and Mitch make use of the low gears to spin up Baldy road. It actual got to the point where I had to go faster to make it easier which made it hard to ride together. I will be changing my gears as I really want to spin on the non timed sections. We regrouped with PV at the intersection of Baldy rd and GRR. We waited for Eddie and Mike Z and wished them well on their assault on Baldy. It was time for us to take the long descent down GRR and East Fork. The play by play at this point is non eventful, so let's skip to the goods.
GMR highlights
-GMR has been renamed to SMR. Shannon killed it. From my estimates, he would have been well in front of the first place Velo Viet KOM guy. By just trying to keep in sight it brought my speed closer to last week's KOM killer, Noah. Can't wait to see Shannon and Noah on this climb, team BRCM is legit.
-PV channeled his inner HTT and did well on the climb with Mitch trailing not too far behind.
GRR Highlight
-PV continued his push for pain whilst we just stayed in preservation mode. All of PV's efforts finally caught up to him and he started to feel the vert. We eventually caught him 3/4 way through the ridge. He almost wanted to throw in the towel on the Baldy climb, but his inner VQ prevailed and he stuck it out. It reminds me that I hit GRR with the same ambition last week and had to pay the piper on baldy. GRR is legit.
BALDY!!!
- We refueled at the Lodge and were ready to go. I was actually feeling pretty good at this point thanks to the experience from last week's ride and some caffeine.
- We started the climb from our perceived start point just past the lodge. Yes, the section from the lodge to the ice house sucks.
- I created a small gap early that I later lessened to let my legs rest before the switchbacks. Night and day difference from last weekend and actually rode up in straight line. Can't wait to get some more suitable gearing and see what I can really do up this thing. Shannon finished not too far behind, which was very impressive given his effort on GMR.
- PV rolled in a little later smiling! This guy is nuts, he pushes the pace the entire ride, is slightly bonked, and thinks we still need to do GRR back to the cars! His ultra endurance skills prevailed and he made the final climb! I feel sorry for whoever is racing MTB's against PV. PV's road skills are legit.
- Mitch rolled in and finished strong after overcoming a little bonk. He was happy with bike setup and gave me some friendly advice for gearing. We will have separate thread on this....
Pics:
Links to the rest of the pictures:
Pics:
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| Poor BMC, being adorned with ugly keg bottles and jacket. The crank breaker shows no mercy. Top of GRR. |
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At the top of GRR getting the layers on for the descent, burrrr |
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Not a bad place to ride, East fork sure is purdy |
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Lot's of runoff. |
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Mitch and Shannon descending East Fork. |
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Shannon at the ski lifts. His look of disapproval is upon realizing that that the warming hut is closed. No BEER! |
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Paul at the ski lifts! At this point he still thought we had to take GRR again! His new nickname is smiley cuz, who would smile if we they had to do GRR again after 11k of climbing? |
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Mitch at the ski lifts!!! He was quick to call me an "amateur" for running a standard crank with a 11-25 on this climb, I agree! |
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