Two Gaps - Piece of Cake

So this weekend was my team's epic 6 gap ride - ain't no way I was riding 6 gaps or 130 miles given my lack of training to date. So, I did my own two gap version with Bradley. We started out in Pittsfield, biked over Brandon, past Lake Dunmore, and over Middlebury back to Pittsfield. It was awesome! Brandon was a piece of cake compared to East Mountain Road. Middlebury wasn't bad at all either - there were only two spots where I dropped down to an epic 3.8 mph, but cranked on through. Overall, it seemed much easier this year despite my 12/27 than it did last year when we biked Middlebury, Appalacian in my triple - granted App is much harder, but still. I was pretty much done once we arrived back in Pittsfield after 67.2 miles at a 15.8 mph pace (again, a great pace for me for the gaps, although I did draft off of Bradley the entire way back, and for most of the other flat parts of the ride - so amazing to draft!). Again, we faced ridiculously brutal headwinds on the way back on 100. I think I would have been much stronger at the end had I adopted a better eating strategy - OJ for breakfast, 4 cliff blocks at the top of Brandon, two cliff gels on the way to Middlebury - probably not enough fuel. I made up for it with a turkey club and B&J Coffee Heath Bar Crunch at the Pittsfield Country Store. So, next up three gaps in July. I'd like to do Middlebury, App, Rochester.

Oh, that's right, how'd the team do on the 6-gapper? Almost all of them did all 6 gaps - crazy! Even Todd managed to crank it out, asserting that we need to do it again in the fall once he's got his fitness back. Amanda said she'd never seen anything like Todd coming up Middlebury gap - bike creaking, gears churning, body weaving, sweat dripping, guard rail crashing - so amazingly awesome that he did it! When I mentioned doing it again this fall to Sol, he laughed and said it would take a lot of convincing to get him to do that ride again - that from the die hard, hills make you stronger, bike crazy, single speed mountain biking, pain junkie. Hmm, I don't think I'll be riding Lincoln any time soon. Maybe next year.