A few of us were able to take time off from work to get an early start on Friday. Tyler, Robert, and I met in Greenville, SC, on Friday afternoon for a chill ride. We rode on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. We picked up the trail near Falls Park in downtown Greenville, rode through the Furman University campus, and went to the end of the trail in Travelers Rest.
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| Tyler and me |
That evening, most of the rest of the team joined us for dinner in downtown Greenville. While we waited for everyone to arrive, we checked out the food festival that was going on all along Main Street. I even saw this lovely praying mantis among the big city goings on:
At last we all were there, and we went to a terrific Belgian restaurant that Robert and I had discovered on a trip to Greenville earlier this year. It's called the Trappe Door, and it serves an excellent selection of craft beers (many from Belgium or other European countries) and authentic Belgian food. Here's Van, enjoying a lambic called Vichtenaar.
After dinner we drove to Tryon, NC, where we had rented a house for the weekend. Along with a couple of spouses and Tyler's baby, there were 11 of us. The house was just big enough for us and worked quite nicely (at least after we went to the grocery store and bought some soap!).
We divvied up the cooking duties for the rest of the weekend. Robert and I cooked breakfast Saturday morning. Then, we hit the road for our first day of riding as a team.
Our first climb was rather deceptive. It was about a 4% grade for several miles around the reservoir that serves Greenville. Several teammates thought this might be the first of our two big climbs for the day. Oh, no. The real fun was still to come. In the meantime, we had a most pleasant stop in Saluda, NC at the Wildflour Bake Shop. As you can see, this is a popular stop for local cyclists!
We fueled up with various pastries, e.g. a pumpkin ginger scone for me. I also enjoyed taking in the decor. I'm still trying to teach my chickens to do this:
Before we left, we asked another cyclist in the parking lot to take a team photo of us:
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| Chad, me, Robert, Tina, Tony, Jeff (a.k.a. Stony), Van, and Tyler |
The view from the top was stunning. I don't know what this plant is, but I love the feathery, red tops.
Also, you can see a few clouds; however, even in the short time that we rested at the summit, the cloud cover increased noticeably. We decided to descend and head back to the rental house pronto.
As tough as the climb was, the descent was perhaps even tougher. I'm not a very aggressive descender. Most of the guys finished before me. Van was riding carbon wheels, which melted from the friction of his brake pads!
We correctly predicted that Van wouldn't be able to ride all the way back to the house. More on that in a moment...
The group continued on, but somehow we got split up. Chad, Robert, and I made a turn onto a particular road just as the rain caught up to us. Robert commented that all we needed now was for the paved road to run out. Wouldn't you know it - about two seconds later (literally), the pavement ended! Fortunately, the dirt road wasn't too bad. It lasted only about a mile before dead-ending into a paved road. We lingered there for a few minutes.
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| Robert and me. I always say that with my very round, full face, I have enough cheeks for three people. The angle of this picture makes me look like I have enough cheeks for five people. |
Between the first monster climb and the rain, I don't think anyone was too disappointed to forgo the second big climb that was originally planned. We headed back to the house, which was less than 10 miles away. Before Chad, Robert, and I made the final ascent up the driveway, Chad had to stop for a little swinging:
The others got back to the house pretty soon...except for Van. Tyler had called his wife Ginny, who had come with us on the trip, to pick Van up. The only trouble was that Van had forgotten to take his cell phone with him, and he didn't stay put! Tony also went out in search of Van. They eventually found him, and we were glad to have him safe and sound back with the group. By the way, Robert had fortuitously brought an extra set of wheels on the trip, which Van was able to use on today's ride.
We all took showers and enjoyed relaxing for the next few hours. Chad, our Beer Czar, brought an excellent selection of brews, including several flavorful seasonal ones. Stony must have had pre-dinner (lunch + supper = lupper?), fixing himself this delicious looking salad:
Maybe this is what allows him to put the rest of us through the Stony Grinder.
After a while, Tony, Tina, and Chad cooked dinner. Tony and Tina prepared penne pasta with a choice of sauces: bolognese and Cajun chicken cream sauce. I wish I had had enough room for both, but I opted for the Cajun chicken. It was outstanding!
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| Tina stylin' in her compression socks as she prepares the cream sauce for the Cajun chicken |
After we ate, we enjoyed modern technology, checking out various songs on Pandora and iTunes. We started with a tribute to the 80s, the highlight of which was Safety Dance by Men Without Hats. We watched the totally cool video, which has kind of a Renaissance flair. This is one of the happiest songs I know. When I hear it, I have to perform the Safety Dance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjPau5QYtYs
Then, Chad the music maestro played us an assortment of remakes.
After a good night's sleep, it was time for Day 2 of team camp. Van and Stony cooked breakfast on Sunday morning.
Those are cranberry and walnut pancakes that Stony is cooking - yummage!
Not to be outdone was Van with his eggs and sausage:
After having breakfast, packing, and cleaning up, we departed in our vehicles for a remote start from Hotel Domestique, George Hincapie's resort near Travelers Rest, SC. When we got there, it was about 60 degrees and rainy. Our intended route, to include a seven-mile climb at 6% up Caesars Head, sounded a little more daunting after our tough climb up Skyuka Mountain the previous day. Thus, we came to a consensus. We would drive back to Robert's and my house in Monticello and ride from there. Everyone else had to go through Monticello on their way back to Macon anyway. Not to mention, it was 85 degrees and sunny in Monticello...
Robert and I planned a 41-mile route as we drove home. It was a good bicycle ride, but I could tell that most of us were feeling the effects of the previous day's ride. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise that we didn't do the Caesar's Head climb. Even so, it was tough enough to get back in regular group ride mode, averaging nearly 21 mph. I hadn't had a good group ride like that in over a month. Commenting on how a ride like that is such valuable training and you just have to work through the pain, Chad said, "It's better to get your ass kicked today than get it kicked tomorrow."
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