Gents Ride

I wanted to do this race for a while but getting a team together proved harder than I thought. The week before I had no team and just planned on going down and enjoying the ride. On Tuesday I got an email about being on a team and decided to go for it. When I got to Spring Valley in the morning I met up with my team and we made our way to the start line across the street. We started out at a good pace with all of us riding together at a comfortable pace. With a little leapfrogging we made our way to Preston together. They wanted to stop at the store, but I hate stopping so I continued on at a slightly slower pace. It is hard to ride slow with all the rollers on the course. You either have to hammer up a hill or coast down it. It was cold and windy and all I could think of was this video:



 I arrived at the checkpoint where there was water, coke, cured meats, cheese, the works really. Shortly after I stopped my teammates arrived as well. We hung out for about 10 minutes and then got back on the road. I decided to  snap a few pictures with the day old iPhone 5 before we left though.



35 miles to go.



The climb out of Forrestville State Park is always tough because your legs are not quite back into riding yet. I managed to climb every hill until the 92? mile mark. This Oriole hill is a pain i the ass at this point. truth be told, I don't know if I could climb it if it were at mile 5. Anyway, I got to the top and rode the rest of the way back to the finish. 99.7 miles. This felt like my best gravel race yet. I never went to a dark, f this, place or didn't want to be on the course anymore. The clock however would show that I was 8 minutes slower than in May. I analyzed some data and am still baffled by this, but hey, the clock doesn't lie.

I had a great time and am looking forward to the 2013 Almanzo/Gentlemans Ride.

The panoramic shot is not easy to take

It looks a little hazy, but the day was beautiful.