Tour de Blast and/or Barlow Trail Century
 

Ok - been getting back into riding now for a bit. Started last year and ended with the STP and felt good after (was 2 day though). This year my buddy and I got a jump on our limited training and have been doing some nice rides. Last one was the RACC 100 miler - great ride and nice climbing. We found the Tour de Blast and signed up for it as well as 1 day STP this year.

Well I just came across the Barlow Trail Century which just happens to fall on the Sunday after the Blast ride.....

Guess I am either trying to talk myself out of doing the Barlow ride or trying to talk myself into doing it as well as the Blast ride.... I do like hills but no matter how you look at it that is a lot of climbing.....:eek:

Anybody do both in the same weekend?

Thanks,
Ed

Ugh. As you said, that's a heck of a lot of climbing.

I'm doing Tour but no way am I doing back to back. After putting in a legit hard effort on any ride. esp. one with climbs - I need next day to be easy. My training for Tour and other hill climb rides is going well. Today was a hill climbing repeat day - did Cougar Mountain 3 times in 21 minute avg. Cougar is our toughest local long climb - 2.72 miles - 8.5% grade (that's avg in spots I am sure it is 12%) and total of around 1,200 feet of vertical.

I have yet to do tour de blast, but I love Barlow trail. Even with the ridiculous heat last year... it was a true sufferfest, but it felt nice to finish. Haven't had as much time on the bike this year, so doing them back to back would probably kill me, so you may want to just go with one. I will say the females that ride barlow from rivercity are even better than the scenery around Mt. Hood. :)

Hey neighbor. I have done both and there is no way I would do them back to back. Both are fun rides but that is a hell of alot of climbing.

Jakey are you going to do the Barlow this year?

Probably

Well looks like my limited ride days are getting even harder to get to so it looks like I am sticking with the original plan of just doing the Tour de Blast.

Still have the one-day STP to look forward to ;)

Will save the Barlow ride for next year.

Ed

I just signed up for the TdB as my first big organized ride.

And the STP for my second...

The key for stp is get an early start. Either way you will always be on the road with alot of other people, but if you can get a jump on the HUGE crowds... you will be thankful. ...nothing like waiting forty minutes to use a porta-potty.

The back to back rides of Tour de Blast and Barlow Trail sound sick don't they? That's why me3 friends and I are going to do it. What the heck, there's two weeks to recover before one day STP.

Whoops... only two weeks from TdB to STP? I am so unprepared... and I'm planning on the "one day"... oog.

TdB tomorrow - rest well today - it's hammering time!

Who else is doing Barlow Trail Century on Sunday? Raise your hands. See you guys out there.

Did the TdB today... had a lot of fun! Ate well, conserved energy, and had lots of pep at the end. I'm feeling better about STP!


Support for TdB was very good. Lots of tasty treats and drinks. Big thumbs up!

I concur - I thought it was well supported and turned out to be a great day for a ride - the scenery is amazing and to ride through the blast zone up to Johnston Ridge is pretty inspiring. The climbing is pretty good prep for any long ride like Ramrod. The hardest part for me actually was the very looong descents - it's great to coast at 32mph+ but after all the climbing it made the legs stiffen a fair bit. I did it in 4:45 and was pretty happy with it (it's 83 or so miles and billed as 6,200 feet of elevation gain). next up: STP and Ramrod.

Had a great time at TDB – what a great ride with awesome scenery along the way. I liked the climbing – Gamin informed me that we did about 6800 feet or so of climbing though the website says about 6200 feet total. The food and drinks were great at the rest stops – seemed easy to get in and out of though we spent to long at the top but was nice to waddle around and check out the views. Look forward to trying this again next year – though I hope that the Barlow Trail ride is not on the same weekend like this year.

Next up – One Day STP.....:eek: Hope I am ready.

Ed