Freewheeler’s of Spartanburg 200K Brevet
From a Stoker’s Point of View
(March 25, 2006)
(For those of you, like us, who are not familiar with Brevets, they are ultra distance unsagged events on unmarked roads. We did not realize this until after we had registered to participate.)
Team Blaine’s first experience with a Brevet turned out to be a great experience in spite of “not so good” weather conditions. We left Asheville at 5:15 AM on Saturday morning, March 25 to drive to Spartanburg for a 7:00 AM start. The weather at our house was cold and snowy…nothing in the forecast to indicate that would happen. As we crossed over the mountain by our house, the roads were already white. Ron was glad our neighbors were sleeping when we left or they would have really thought we had lost our minds! But we headed on for the ride. The weather in the Upstate was also colder than expected but it actually helped us with all the climbing we would have to do. Most of the day the temperature stayed around 50; however, it was windy with a temp of 41 on top of Caesar’s Head Mountain…no lingering at that rest stop! A bit on an insight on how cold it really was…Ron encountered a young rider in the men’s rest room on Caesar’s Head. He and several others had gathered around the hand dryer to warm up. The young guy’s friend asked him what happened to his tooth. It was so cold that he broke his tooth when he had bitten into his Power Bar. (Now that’s cold!) Not concerned about it, he went on and completed the ride. We later saw them at a convenience store warming up with cappuccino. An interesting note was that we were amazed at the riders in shorts as cold as it was, and they hung in there and finished the course. What determination!
We noticed that Brevet riders (around 40 riders and only 2 of us women) seemed to be more “laid back” than riders we had encountered on other rides. I guess it was because they knew that with 128 miles and 12,877 cumulative feet of climbing ahead they had to take it easy. To our amazement, we easily stayed with the lead group for 30 miles. At the base of the Greenville Watershed we let them go on…the climbing had begun and we didn’t want to burn ourselves out early. Somewhere along the route going out, we rode with an interesting man from Pennsylvania who is training for RAAM. Conversations with him made the ride more enjoyable. We later hooked back up with him on the way back off Caesar’s Head. There was a tandem couple from Charleston who do ultra distance rides, and they gave us helpful hints as we closed out the last 20 miles of the ride. Fatigue was setting in, but they helped keep our minds off it. Everyone on the ride was so supportive of one another. It was not uncommon for people to wait on others to catch up at stores, intersections, etc. If a rider made a wrong turn, others would help get him back on course. There was a tremendous feeling of camaraderie throughout the day.
For the “nitty gritty” of tandeming this event…Camp Old Indian was a tough “grunt hill” both going out and coming back. I felt better on the Watershed climb because it was long and steady enabling me to get in that “all day climb mode”. Ron was great in coaching me to not push hard. We had a terrific downhill ride on Gap Creek road hitting in excess of 51 mph. I failed to realize that we were going to have to climb back up to get back to the finish point. The climb up Caesar’s Head was a bit short of brutal. There was 1900 vertical feet of climbing over 6 miles. (Our speeds were between 3 and 7 mph.) It was long, long, long and steady, steady, steady climbing with a couple of steep spots thrown in. I almost had one of my “famous meltdowns” near the top. Ron kept miscalculating how much further we had to go. Not a good thing to do to your stoker! In retrospect, I had much rather climb up that mountain than come down. There were 400 other cyclists coming up for the Assault on the Carolinas as we were coming down, not to mention all the cars on the road. It was s scary experience. However, after crossing back over Highway 25, the low traffic conditions were so we could ride side by side with the other tandem for almost 10 miles without a car passing.
The ride back to Spartanburg was done on pure joy, adrenaline, and 20 miles of strong tailwinds, which allowed us to cruise along at an average of 23 mph after already riding 100+miles. After conquering Caesar’s Head, we knew we could get back. Even the climbs back didn’t seem so daunting. Our average times (ride time: 9:16; total time 11:10) and speeds (13.8 mph avg.) were nothing great, but we had a blast on our beloved “Seabiscuit”!
Many thanks to Bethany Davison and Freewheeler’s of Spartanburg for a wonderful ride!
Ron a Marcia Blaine
TailWind Members
Posted: 04/19/06