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06-03-06, 08:20 PM
I did the 3MM ride today and it is out of Pilot Mountain, NC. It was formerly called the 3 Mountain Metric but they added a Century this year so they changed the name. It has 3 really good climbs that are all up and back and range from 1.5-2.5 miles long and I'm guessing average around 8-9%.
Of course I signed up and rode the century-which turned out to be 95 miles....but I missed a turn so I got in a few more miles anyway. I wish I just done the 75 mile option that most folks do. The routes split at about the 60 miles mark and I was the only one that opted to do the century with a group that I had hooked up riding with. So, I was out there solo for about 20 miles and the wind picked up pretty good so it was a lot more work than I'd planned.
I normally restrict my stops but since I was solo and just marking the time and miles I stopped at a couple rest stops. One of the ladies was slicing a juicy fresh orange and I could have stayed there all day eating them as fast as she sliced them. I think she enjoyed slicing them for me as much as I enjoyed eating them.
On top of that the biggest climb of the day, Pilot Knob, is the last climb at about 80 miles so I had that to look forward to.
After the climb up Pilot and about the last major intersection a volunteer was controlling traffic for us and was wearing all the right safety gear. It was a blind intersection and he motioned for me to continue to ride on through but was also motioning with the other arm for cars to stop. Before I got to the intersection he was pumping both arms trying to get cars coming into the intersection to stop. The car finally stopped........but just a few feet from his knees. While I couldn't see the car coming I started braking based on what I saw the volunteer doing. It turns out the driver of the car was an elderly gentleman who couldn't see very well or hear very well. His wife was with him and was yelling for him to stop as well. That could have been disastrous......
I did manage to finish strong. I pulled a group of 8 the last 3 miles and held off any sprints to boot. I think my time was 5 hr 50 mins with about 8 mins of stops. I showed there was about 7700 feet of climbing-there were LOTs of hills between the 3 climbs.
I alternated drinking gatorade and water this ride and that seemed to keep my stomach in better form.
http://home.triad.rr.com/threemtnmetric/
Of course I signed up and rode the century-which turned out to be 95 miles....but I missed a turn so I got in a few more miles anyway. I wish I just done the 75 mile option that most folks do. The routes split at about the 60 miles mark and I was the only one that opted to do the century with a group that I had hooked up riding with. So, I was out there solo for about 20 miles and the wind picked up pretty good so it was a lot more work than I'd planned.
I normally restrict my stops but since I was solo and just marking the time and miles I stopped at a couple rest stops. One of the ladies was slicing a juicy fresh orange and I could have stayed there all day eating them as fast as she sliced them. I think she enjoyed slicing them for me as much as I enjoyed eating them.
On top of that the biggest climb of the day, Pilot Knob, is the last climb at about 80 miles so I had that to look forward to.
After the climb up Pilot and about the last major intersection a volunteer was controlling traffic for us and was wearing all the right safety gear. It was a blind intersection and he motioned for me to continue to ride on through but was also motioning with the other arm for cars to stop. Before I got to the intersection he was pumping both arms trying to get cars coming into the intersection to stop. The car finally stopped........but just a few feet from his knees. While I couldn't see the car coming I started braking based on what I saw the volunteer doing. It turns out the driver of the car was an elderly gentleman who couldn't see very well or hear very well. His wife was with him and was yelling for him to stop as well. That could have been disastrous......
I did manage to finish strong. I pulled a group of 8 the last 3 miles and held off any sprints to boot. I think my time was 5 hr 50 mins with about 8 mins of stops. I showed there was about 7700 feet of climbing-there were LOTs of hills between the 3 climbs.
I alternated drinking gatorade and water this ride and that seemed to keep my stomach in better form.
http://home.triad.rr.com/threemtnmetric/