All Shook Down

Sunday 6/9/13 was the Tri County Shakedown and for the week afterwards my legs were fried. TCS was an 85 mile loop starting and ending near Ferndale with one “mountain” climb and two hellacious gravel sections. And without a doubt, the last gravel course, let’s name it “The Bergs of Cold Springs,” was the deep fryer in this leg-burner.

Third out of the shoot at 8:15, our team, the Wye-Nauts (punning on “why not?”) rolled from Ferndale to Wye Mountain via Garrison Rd, Barret Rd, State Hwy 300 and then up the “mountain” by way of Ross Hollow Rd. I’d never climbed Wye on Ross Hollow so this was the first of many surprises of the TCS. Ross Hollow seems innocuous enough. There’s a steep section about 3/4ths of the way up but once you get above the tree line it’s fairly smooth sailing. As a group, our team had been all business up to this point but after we put the main climb behind us there was a little chatter. I complimented DBall on the yin and yang of his sock choice that morning (he had a white sock on his left foot and a black on his right). John recapped some of his work week, which unfortunately included travelling with a slight gastrointestinal infection. Jeff commented on the beautiful weather. Jill pedalled.

Once over Wye we hit the rollers heading west from Little Italy. Up ahead we saw the “Old Geezers,” the first team to hit the road that morning at 8am. Just as we started to catch up to the Geezer party, a minivan pulled up and decided to sit behind the Geezers. Jill went on the attack and passed both the minivan and the Geezer gang. Finally the van moved on and the rest of us caught up with Jill.

With Little Italy and the Geezers now behind us, we hit our first gravel, a 9 mile logging trail called Tram Road. The road was dusty and the gravel was loose. We took a biological break about 1/4 of the way in and I think this is where I picked up the small group of chiggers that ate up my shins and inner thighs for the rest of the week. Bad idea stopping for the bathroom. But nature called. And then nature bit back. We rolled on. Then about halfway through Tram, John blew a tube. Dammit. Most of the teams caught up with us and passed by while John & Jeff struggled with changing John’s back tire. We saw 901 Racing, Lung on a Stick, Team Geezer, Arkansas Cycling and Fitness, Riders Ready, and Little Rock Mensa all roll by. It sucked. Finally neutral support drove up and got John together. Thanks guys. Off we went.

As demoralizing as that flat was, we weren’t the only ones to blow out on Tram Road. We ended up passing at least two teams who suffered the same fate as us. Once the passed, we were now the passers.

Thankfully we finished out the gravel section without incident and turned onto the oh-so-smooth highway again. We hit some nice downhills around Winona and then took a break at the store at the junction of Highway 9 and 10. Most of the teams were stopping here. The locals most have thought it was an alien invasion. Here, suddenly, on a quiet Sunday morning, appeared a swarm of cyclists wearing full kits and wanting food and drink. Some riders hit the convenience store for refreshments. Outside, Ian was passing out water, soft drinks, and snacks from the Chainwheel van. I had a Coke and a Gu. Mmmm.

After snacking we hit the road again for the climb to Paron. During this stretch John started complaining of abdominal cramps. Since he had been sick earlier in the week with a GI this was not a good sign. Word came up from the back of out little peloton that he wanted to drop out. Thankfully the gray Subaru Forrester that was the neutral support car drove up. We all stopped on the side of Highway 9 for a pow-wow. Justin Slarks, TCS organizer and all around solid guy, gave John a Coca Cola and a little pep talk. “The worst is behind you,” he told John. “You got this.” John rallied. We hit the road again with John suddenly leading the group. Nice work Justin. Or maybe it was the Coke. Adds life.

Speaking of life, Jill was really on fire Sunday. During the steeper section of the climb to Paron, she took the lead. I had a really hard time holding her wheel. Unbeknowst to either of us, we had dropped the rest of the Wye-nauts during the ascent.

After riding on 9 for a spell, we turned left for the Steel Bridge sections of the shakedown. There’s some pretty good rollers along this road and we were all starting to feel them. Also, it started to drizzle. Coming around a turn we saw the Chainwheel van beside the Chainwheel team. They looked like they were done. We pushed on. Later, we found out that one of their team members crashed. He was OK but the team was DQed.

All I remember about riding Steel Bridge is that it would never stop. We were looking for Thompson Dairy road. That was the turn to the final stretch. Or at least, what I thought was the final stretch. But Thompson Dairy never seemed to come. I pushed a little bit ahead of our group in the hopes of finding the turn. But we just kept riding on. Straight on. Into the rain. And down the road.

Finally the turn! There’s a quick climb before you hit Thompson Dairy and then a large tree when you make the turn. We regrouped under the tree and then set off on the last stage of our journey. Thompson Dairy goes through a little neighborhood. There are some pretty steep rollers. We made it through all this ok. It was still raining. I had my cue sheet out now becasue there were lots of turns coming up. This was the surprise section of the course that I’d never ridden before. Left on Avilla. Right on Goodwin. Left on Lake Norell. And then my cue sheet disintegrated in the rain. A team snuck up on us and passed us by. I sped up to keep that group in my line of sight as they took a right turn on Lake Norell. This road would lead us to the grueling series of gravel hills known as Cold Springs.

Cold Sprins. This was the hardest section of the day. Some of the descents were scary as hell. Plummeting downhill on a steep decline into a sharp turn on an unpaved road is no fun. Did I mention it was raining? Yeah. There were a couple of descents were I really thought I was gonna bite it. But even tougher were the ascents. Climbing in gravel is no fun either. I misjudged some of these and found myself in the wrong gear. It was total quad-torture cresting some of these bergs.

All that said, this section really got my adrenaline going. And seeing the team that passed us just up ahead, I attacked. Which was in really really bad form. This was a team race. We were supposed to compete as a unit. But during this section of the ride a switch tripped somewhere inside me and I just went on the attack. It was exhilirating and stoopid. I apologized to my team several days after the race. It was not cool to rush ahead. But I ended up plowing through these final hills alone.

All in all it was an insanely fun race. The course was challenging and surprising. And, as I said earlier, it took everything out of me. I was wiped out for most of the next week. Which is how a great ride should leave you. Completely drained. Totally fried. All shook down. But also wanting more. Here’s to the next gravel tour. Hopefully fall 2013???