The Great NEK Cyclo-Madness

Today, the day of the great event (start time 9am) I get an email from MadDog:  "What are we doing?  Do I need an ice axe or a bike?  A bike?  Okay, road or mtb.  Mtb?  Okay, I only have a road bike...".  MADDOG! 

Dogman is leading the pack (w/ MadDog, BH and myself in tow).  We'll decide the exact route on the ride, but it'll be sufferfest for sure.   The graph the elevation profile of the  route is shown here (the "Shark's Tooth").  MapMyRide route and profile is here.

Maddog's Trip Report:

    I guess I should have checked this route profile beforehand. Wait a minute, that's not a route. You can't fool me, that's the profile from the jaw of a tiger.

    And so the story starts...

    1. Brian couldn't make it, but his friend Howie does. So Howie and I share the ride to the tiger den.

    2. We're slightly early - 45mins to be exact. And DogMan is nowhere to be found. But Al is. So we hang and chat with Al while waiting for Mutha - tour the gardens, socialize with Trudy. Nice.

    3. My bike (the metal interconnected tubes and two tires is DOA. Both stems on the tube and tires non-functional. And my spare tube had been slashed. Howie threatens to kill me for not having a backup strategy. Somewhere there's a pic of my equipment only while my body is being searched for. Fortunately, I am grateful that Mutha's IT training has reinforced the concept of fully redundant (everything). He rolls in with a spare riding resource.

    4. After a 48 second comfortable descent, the teeth of the tiger began to bite, and hard. My mind (and biking) were wanting to climb, but the engine-room was maxed out (on the first hill) - I knew it would be long and painful day (I wouldn't have wanted it any other way).

    5. Apparently one of the design parameters for today was that we could not spend more than 3 minutes on the travel surface, if the road name did not have the word "Hill" in it.

    5. Cabot, Calais, Woodbury, and whereever we else were just gorgeous. Theatres, Sinister Brooks, hills that never end, sheep, and great landscapers.

    6. Sorry to admit it, but RedBull & Woodchuck Cider get an MD endorsement. Gatorade does not.

    7. Woodbury has much more interesting geology than Cabot, et al.

    8. Thanks for sharing the ride today for those who showed (Al, Howie, Mutha). Where DogMan, Steve, and Brian were, who knows.

    I will definitely be counting my sheep tonight.

Mutha's Trip Report:

Just a few elaborations on MadDog's report:

• Howie is the EverReady Bunny - UNSTOPPABLE!
• MadDog is a sandbagger - OUTSTANDING!
• Al is the Terminator - UNTIRING!
• The weather was gorgeous - INSPIRING!
• Minister Brook Rd. was heartwarming - OVERJOYED!

Thanks to all for financing the expedition and to the great job done on the last climb up Danville Hill.

DogMan's Trip Report:

    Return To Minister Brook

    This is why one lives in Vermont!

    Awesome weather, awesome venue, awesome company (sorry Mutha but I can still use awesome right?).

    Howie gets top kudos for never cracking, even after the up hill spill on Chartier and the whole drag back through Woodbury and up Danville Hill. It isn't always easy to crash going up hill, and even harder to then get back on your bike, tackle the "wall of chartier hill", "sears truck pathway", "wall of woodbury", "bothfield bonk" and then hit danville hill.

•     If MD had an appropriate bike and rode more than once a year, he would bury us all.
•     Mutha is nipping at my heels, and doesn't even look tired.
•     The sheep were good (not in that way).
•     The pizza was good, not sure why no one else had the sense to get some.
•     The garden tours were good.
•     The red bull was good.
•     The woodchuck was good.