Man, you gotta respect that mountain. Not terribly steep (I would estimate around 8% in sections) but it goes on for 12 miles. I did it this weekend without dropping under 9 mph at any time not going full steam but it was still hard; kind of made me think about Lance going up the Alpe D'uez at 15 mph and how tough that would be. For those of you that don't know, it starts outside of Morganton in the foothills of the Appalacians and goes up to the Blue Ridge Parkway.