Day 2 featured a tough ride from Brevard, NC up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The long climb up along 276 passes by the Looking Glass Waterfall which is pretty spectacular. On the way up, I was joined by a local Cat 1 who races for Brevard College. Nice guy and the company kept the climb feeling lighter.
Once up on the Blue Ridge, I cruised for about 10 miles and caught up with Ethan near Devil's Courthouse. The view along the route was remarkable--all you could see were (literally) blue mountains in every direction.
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Following the Blue Ridge, we descended along 215. Our profile map had us convinced that we'd already done all of our climbing for the day, but Ethan and I got gutted by about 10 more very punchy, tough ascents. By the time we wrapped up our 5.5-hour, 8200-vertical-ft ride, we were both totally hosed. It was time for some delicious BBQ at Hawg Wild BBQ.
Day 3 was an easy spin for just over 3 hours. We still banged out about 3,000 ft of climbing, but it seemed like child's play. Cruised up to Saluda--a very cool, mountain-top town--and then did some descending and more climbing. Once back at the Domestique, Ethan and I crushed some delicious panini and just unwound for the remainder of the day.
All in, a very successful weekend. And some interesting numbers comparing this year and the same 3-day weekend in 2014:
- 2014
- 11:39
- 174.6 mi
- 6610 kJ
- 12,400 ft gain
- 2015
- 14:16
- 211.7 mi
- 8288 kJ
- 20,217 ft gain
And to wrap things up...
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