Monday, we were on our own as the organized training rides do not get started until daylight savings. I printed some cue sheets from the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club web site before we left home so we were set if we could not find any group rides. Frank Obusek @ Liberty Bicycles hooked us up with great ideas for climbing plus he directed me to his site with topo maps. http://www.mountainmapper.com/sarc.htm - Southern Appalachian Roads. We were psyched to climb Elk Mountain as the local pros do the TT up the 7-mile climb with one of the fastest climbs at 20+ minutes (Andy Applegate). I had the “Elk Mountain Scenic” cue sheet and the racers ride that loop backwards so they can climb Elk Mountain. We drove the loop because Asheville had rain and ice on Sunday. The climb was amazing. When we drove to the top, it was snowy, icy and sandy for quite a bit. Then the descent on the North side still had ice and sand and we did not want to ruin our vacation with crashing on our first day of riding so we opted out of the mountainous climb. We did an out and back of Elk Mountain Scenic ride – the club ride direction. When we got to Ox Creek Road at about 21.4 miles, we rode as far up as we could until we hit the ice and sand. When we turned around, we made the right decision as the water, ice and freezing air just coming down a minor grade with winding roads were sketchy. The temps on Monday got into the high 40s. Pretty much of the ride was rolling with one 2.7-mile gradual climb and another for 2 miles. We were stoked! I also subscribed to the Asheville Bicycle Racing Club Forum to see if anyone would reply to my goober-fredericka posts looking for locals to take us out riding. Andy Pooser called me and we were set for a ride with a group of guys for Tuesday. Woohoo!
Tuesday
We met Andy Pooser and Brian Jones down from our B&B at 10 a.m. We rode Riverside Dr/Route 251 NW. It reminded me of River Rd with the Stick (Scott Haverstick) guys. We did tempo for 25 minutes + because at the point there was a blip in the road with my heart rate hitting 174, I popped off. I won’t even torture y’all where my head was going because I knew we had at least another 2 + hours to go. Brian pushed me back to Brad and Andy as we rode to “Flat” Creek Road to meet Mike Jackson. Pee break number one as we met Mike. Hum. “Flat” Creek Road. I asked is it really flat? Mike said, “well, the road is flat compared to the dirt roads around here and there’s the creek”. Great. The ride was awesome. So far the roads are similar to PA except for a few more rollers that roll a little longer and higher. And the views are just amazingly beautiful with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. We rode about two and half hours on tempo rolling roads with lots of unchained dogs. One set of beagles chased us down. It was so funny as one was taking a crap and couldn’t decide to finish business or run us down. Another long-haired bear of a dog did circles around me as I tried to sprint from his gnashing teeth. Oh I am so slow. I think I saw the dog laughing as he ran around me. Brad found a fellow climber in Mike and he is going to take us out tomorrow to climb Craggy Mountain. They say it is an average 6% grade. I think we will be riding from 2200’ to 5322 ft at the top. I’ll try to give you a “fluffy” email about the ride. With all the fabulous food we have been eating – I am still a stuffed pig. Hopefully today's ride won’t be so bad as I have at least 3 hours to digest.
