Imagine what happens when you go from being the guy capable of delivering the hurt on a ride to being the guy that gets that hurt delivered to you. Bike racing is fun, type 2 fun of course. The first weekend of Project Echelon team camp is in the books. It was everything to be expected; and then some. Here are the stats:
Total Distance: 212.3 km (132 miles)
Total Time: 6 hours 29 minutes
KJ: 4,452
Day One
We started out with a weather-induced audible. For those who came in from anywhere other than Wisconsin or Minnesota, the weather in Winston-Salem was a cruel shock. It was literally 65 F when I pulled up to the house last night wearing a long sleeve shirt. When we woke up this morning it was 37 F with wind chills in the 20s. A lot of the Project Echelon guys have some well-developed helmet tan lines from an extended time training in Tucson. About an hour into the planned ride the grey skies opened up and it started to snow. Between that and the ever-changing headwind, the idea of 100 miles of riding was a bit of an emotional stretch.
Part of the group continued on for the full length, so if you are curious why Dr. Stephen Vogel has the endurance to easily handle the 100 km of Clarendon, that’s the reason. A bunch of us turned it into a solid 80 km day with more than enough laughs, followed by 30 minutes in the sauna.
It is great to be out there with a 15-person two up pace line. We know that there is a big day coming tomorrow and a lot of smack is starting to be talked about it already. We will see who can back that talk up.
Day Two
Camp really started in with full force today. There were two substantial climbs that were set to be showdowns for the steady power guys and the climbers. Of course you can not just start a ride at the climbs, so we had to put in a good 90 minutes before the first climb, and the land around Winston-Salem is anything but flat. You have to love constantly rolling terrain where you very rarely have flat land to just crush the distance.
We hit Pilot Mountain and the guys went into action. I have been ridden off wheels before; but I was not prepared for them to do it with such ease. I would have loved to at least have made them try. You know, maybe a desperate early slope dig so that you earn that respect. Pilot Mountain is steep, and the road turns a lot and often. The group splintered and with the pitches and switchbacks people quickly got out of sight and very much out of mind. Lesson learned, elite bike racers are in fact elite.
The road between Pilot Mountain and Sauratown Mountain was steady and refreshing. The climb up Sauratown does a great job of kicking you in the teeth in the first couple of meters. The initial pitches are double digits and then you just open up into a wonderful headwind slog. After that initial pitch the group again split up with the guys who wanted to play bike racer throwing down the watts. Tyler Stites took the win putting down just under 400 watts for the 11 and a half minutes, which is super impressive given that up Pilot Mountain Stites put out over 400 watts for just under 12 minutes. Just for comparison, amateur national TT champ Zach Gregg set his best power numbers for that time period just chasing Stites and his partner in crime, Ricky Arnopol, who traded pulls all the way up.
Mercifully, after that, the ride hit cruise. It wasn’t quite yet at survival mode for me, so we still have hope.