Ride report for the 1994 Bridge to Bridge Incredible Cycling Challenge Doug Meade and Kevin Lundy 18 September 1994 PRELUDE ------- If you attend a few rides with the Carolina Cyclers, in Columbia, SC, you are sure to hear a few stories about Mt. Mitchell and Bridge to Bridge. The Assault on Mt. Mitchell has been recognized as one of the hardest centuries; Bridge to Bridge is in similar terrain, but is still a relatively new event. This year's ride was only the sixth riding. There are other Fall rides in the vicinity of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Blue Ridge Brutal in West Jefferson, NC and the Hilly Hellacious Hundred in Asheville, NC, but neither comes close to Bridge to Bridge in number of riders or difficulty of the ride. (The slogan that appears on the t-shirts is appropriate: 100 miles of pure hill.) The ride starts in Hickory, NC at an elevation of 1040' and ends 102 miles later at the mile-high summit of Grandfather Mountain. While this is over 1000' lower than the finish of the Assault on Mt. Mitchell, the route is every bit as challenging. The hills start almost immediately, there is a long (almost 20 miles) climb between miles 55 and 75, then there are the final 2 miles -- over 1100' feet of climbing. The total climb for the ride is approximately 10,000'. Bridge to Bridge is sponsored by the Caldwell County Chamber of Commerce, in Hickory, NC. For information about next year's event, the address for the Chamber is: Caldwell County Chamber of Commerce P.O. Box 510 Lenoir, NC 28645 THE DAY BEFORE -------------- We arrive in Hickory late on Saturday afternoon. One of us wants to get a few miles on the bike, just to stretch the legs. Kevin is a good sport, and has confidence that Doug knows what he is doing, since he says he's done this before. From the hotel it is obvious that one direction leads immediately to hills and the other appears to be flatter. For once these observations are correct, but they don't consider the neighborhoods or traffic that would be encountered. Registration is uneventful. We pick up the free socks, t-shirt, and water bottle, then head for the (free) spaghetti. By the second plate it is obvious that we are going to have to find more food for dinner. By the time we start to look for a restaurant, all the Italian restaurants have more than an hour wait. This leaves Chi-Chi's time. As we pull up, we see that there are people waiting outside -- but not as many as at the Italian places. As we enter to add our names to the waiting list, we are surprised to see friends for Columbia. Jokingly, we ask if they can squeeze two more into their party. The response: No problem, we made reservations for two more, and those two are not going to join us. We could have made better plans if we tried (and we did try). We return to the hotel, make final preparations for the morning, and stay up until we see the football score from the South Carolina game. Neither of us gets too much sleep, and morning arrives much too soon. THE START --------- The ride starts at 7:30. We arrive at the start around 6:30. By the time we try to use the restrooms, the line for the men's room stretches almost to the (empty) ladies room. The registration workers (females) suggest that some of us use the ladies room. Without hesitation, we invade. Riders begin to assemble in the staging area at 7:15. About this time it starts to rain. The weather forecast is not good. The remains of a tropical storm are moving through the southeast; rain is forecast for the entire day. Neither of us is looking forward to 100 rainy miles in the mountains. But, what can we do. We're here, we paid our money, and neither wants to be the one to suggest that there is always next year. We are in a good position, not too close to the front, but not too far back either. This will not last, as we (read Doug) let too many people pass during the coast down to the bridge where the ride actually starts. By the time we reach the bridge, we are more than 100 yards behind the start line. The first segment of the ride (22 miles) consists of undulating hills with modest elevation variations (150'-200'). We work our way through many riders, and finally start to find a group of riders willing to share the work. Our pack continues to grow as the climbs increase in length over the next 7 miles. Kevin keeps telling me to relax; let others do some of the work. We have very different riding styles. Doug is a masher, while Kevin is a spinner. Kevin is also a much more strategic rider. It's difficult, with all the adrenaline in the system, but in the end we do manage to strike a comfortable balance. Around mile 25 we notice a friend (Brad) beside the road working on a wheel. Brad should have been in the lead pack. We are surprised that we are close enough to the lead pack that we see Brad still working on a flat. We both comment that Brad will surely join us in a few minutes on his push back towards the lead pack. The story comes to a sad end when Brad finally does pass us, on the back of a motorcycle with bike held high overhead. The next 13 miles leads to and through Lenoir. We decide to stop at the sag stop at the 41 mile mark. Kevin needs to do a little work on his rear wheel, which was so out of true that the brakes were rubbing, and we both need to replenish our supply of liquids. It's only after we stop that the size of our pack becomes apparent. While we were in the active group at the front of the pack, there were probably more than 150 riders benefiting from all of our work. We are stopped for about 15 minutes. After this relatively flat section, the hills begin to build again. But this is all foreplay. The real climbs begin at the 54 mile mark, when the route turns north on NC 181. The first stretch on this road climbs 1100' in 3.1 miles, then continues to gain 150'-300' per mile for the next 19 miles. The last 3.5 miles are on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Kevin pulls ahead on this stretch (one of the benefits of a spinner). We quickly start to catch riders dropped from our pack. In fact, only one rider passes us during the climb -- not that we are going all that fast ourselves. This climb ends at the Linn Cove Viaduct. The next 8 miles are a pleasant, albeit chilly and more than a little wet, descent. Doug becomes more cautious (conservative?) than usual hitting a max of only 45.5mph; Kevin pulls ahead, and registers a max speed of 52mph before his computer succumbs to the moisture. Miles 85 through 94 follow the ancient Yonahlosse Indian trail along the east side of Grandfather Mountain (US-221). (This is also a part of the Grandfather Mountain Marathon course.) Sparkling streams, spectacular waterfalls, and numerous vistas are all around. This is a truly wonderful part of the ride. The natural beauty makes it easy to want to relax and really enjoy the surroundings. However, thoughts soon return to what's left to endure. Just short of the 100 mile mark we pass through the gates to Grandfather Mountain. The elevation here is 4355'. We've been riding for just under 6 hours (the first finishers finished in just over 5 hours), and know that the worst is yet to come. There are still 2.2 miles and 935' of climbing before the finish. The climb comes in a sequence of steps. Many riders are stopped along the side of the road, others continue at slow paces. Kevin pulls ahead as he has done on all the other climbs. However, just one mile from the finish Kevin is stopped on the steepest part of the climb. He's been so patient all day (except the time he attacked during the `feed zone'), but stopping at this points almost ensures that the remaining distance will be travelled by foot; it's just too difficult to get started again after the previous 101 miles -- even in a 39-26. Kevin says to go ahead, he'll be OK. In the last mile, even though he's only moving at 4mph, Doug passes another dozen riders (and numerous others on foot). Just before the last push to the summit there is a small parking area. Many riders add a lap of this parking area just to get a break from the climb, and to build some momentum. Once back on the road the biggest obstacle was not the climb, but the cars trying to get to the top to meet riders. Doug crosses the finish line in an elapsed time of 6:36:06. The actual riding time was 6:18:12; the 276th finisher. Fifteen minutes later Kevin finishes. After a minor spill trying to get started after his rest, he decided to walk the rest of the way to the finish. POST-RIDE --------- There's not much room at the summit, so the organizers shuttle all riders to a park at the base of Grandfather Mountain. Once there we catch a bus back to Hickory. On the bus we share experiences with other riders, all of which finished about an hour earlier than us. The first finisher was, once again, George Meyer, in just over 5 hours. This year's field was noticeably stronger than in previous years. The first dozen finishers all finished within about 10 minutes of Meyer, and 5 or 6 dozen within 30 minutes. At some point in the return trip, Kevin says he knows why they give out socks at the registration. Anyone that has to walk to the finish is sure to need a pair of socks to replace the ones that got shredded during the walk. We have no idea if this is the real reason for this sponsors involvement in Bridge-to-Bridge, but is sure makes sense to us. After a day of off-and-on (mostly off) rain, but solid cloud cover, the sky starts to show signs of clearing. In all, while the times weren't quite as good as either of us had hoped, this was certainly a challenging and rewarding ride, in beautiful surroundings. The support was outstanding and the car traffic courteous. Both of us promised to be back again next year. A few more training rides in the mountains (always a welcome relief from the summer heat of the SC midlands) and we both hope to break the 6 hour mark. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Douglas B. Meade Mail: Department of Mathematics E-mail: meade@math.scarolina.edu University of South Carolina Phone: (803) 777-6183 Columbia, SC 29208 USA