I’m glad we had a good crowd, about a dozen of us. It was interesting to note what varied representation we had from Georgia’s cities: Macon, Columbus, Athens, and Atlanta (not to mention the smaller towns of Gray and Monticello!). Our Atlanta riders were Jennifer and Korey; I’m so happy that two of my RAAM teammates were able to join us!
Jake has done a great job of organizing our PP rides all season. Here he is pumping up his tires before we head out. He has a cool electronic pump that I had never seen before – appropriate, since Jake is a mechanical engineer.
Although our PP rides usually begin in Macon, the Pine Mountain Challenge begins in Barnesville and makes a big loop to Pine Mountain and back. It’s always around 125 miles, making it the longest PP of the season.
By the way, I couldn’t help but chuckle during the first pee break of the day. Usually being the only woman rider, it was a novel experience to have pee partners! Jennifer, Korey, and I found a patch of woods a little up the road from where the guys stopped. As the three of us spread out and squatted, it kind of looked like we were praying. This was my prayer: “Please don’t let the guys leave before I can finish and get back on my bike!”
February must be one of our drier months because it seems like it’s always sunny for the Pine Mountain Challenge. Also, it’s usually one of the first noticeably warmer days after getting through January. Saturday’s sky was clear blue, too – beautiful! This sign at an inn on top of the Pine Mountain ridge summed up the day quite well:
The one real stop of the day was for lunch at Dowdell’s Knob on top of Pine Mountain. President Franklin D. Roosevelt often picnicked at this spot. With the beautiful view of the valley below, it’s easy to see why this was one of his favorite respites. Just a few miles away are Warm Springs, where FDR went for treatment of his polio, and the Little White House, which was a second home for him. Between the history, nearby Callaway Gardens, and the unique natural history of the area, this is one of my favorite parts of Georgia.
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| Who knew that FDR is a cycling fan? |
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| Korey, Jennifer, and me |
The Pine Mountain Challenge is the one PP where we have a sag vehicle. I packed a lunch, but Jake brought tons of provisions to share, too. Over the years I’ve learned from the PP guys that OCPs (oatmeal cream pies) make great bike food. I can’t vouch for the Moon Pies, though. I didn’t try one since I didn’t have an RC Cola to go with it.
After lunch I was ready to hit it hard for the second half of the ride. And that we did. Throughout the day, I sat in and never pulled or took part in the rotations because that’s the only way I have a chance of staying with the group for the whole ride. Even so – whoa! – sometimes it got tough! One time we were hammering down some road with a chip-seal surface, and I thought the vibrations were going to rattle my brains out. When we got through that section, my hands were stiff from gripping my handlebars so tightly.
Later in the ride, Jennifer went down in some sand and gravel at one turn. Thankfully, she wasn’t hurt too badly, but I hated that she crashed. The guys at the front of the peloton didn’t hear us when we yelled for them to stop. After our group tended to Jennifer, we all got back on our bikes and started pedaling again. We assumed we would catch up to the others at the other planned stop, a covered bridge several miles away. We didn’t see them at the bridge, and so we kept pedaling. It would have been nice to linger a moment to check out the bridge, but we didn’t want to get any farther behind the others.
The covered bridge was on a dirt road section. Wouldn’t you know it; Jennifer got a flat tire. (She’s not going to come down to ride with me anymore!) We stopped to fix it, and then here come the guys who had been in front of us! Not having a route map (d’oh!), they had taken a couple of wrong turns. I was glad that the whole group was now back together.
We had a few other mishaps throughout the day, including another flat or two and a broken derailleur. I had a mechanical myself about 100 miles into the ride, clumsily dropping my chain as I downshifted on the approach to a stop sign. It took me about 10 times as long as it should have to get my chain back on, mainly because my gloves kept getting caught in it. The peloton continued on, not realizing my difficulty. Fortunately, our sag vehicle saw me, and I got to motorpace back up to the peloton. Cool! We continued hard to the end, even giving it one last strong push up the hill leading back into the Gordon College campus before finally turning into the parking lot.
I don’t always feel it the next day after a long ride, but I definitely did this time because of the intensity. Originally, I had planned yesterday to do 50 miles’ worth of RAAM blocks. However, when I got up in the morning, I could tell that my body was too fatigued to go that far. Therefore, I changed my plans to do 30-40 miles’ worth of RAAM blocks, hoping to be on the 40 end. Alas, it was not meant to be. I did my first 20-mile block and couldn’t even hold 70% of my threshold power. I rested for 30 minutes and thought I had another 20-mile block in me, but when I got back on my bike, I decided that another 10 miles was enough. On the 10-mile block, I held only 57% of threshold. When I got home, I took a nice, long nap. I think that did my body a lot more good than another 10 miles would have.
PP rides are long, cold, and strenuous, but I’m really kind of sad to see the season end. It’s a great group of cycling friends, and there’s such a sense of satisfaction from working hard. Thank you to Jake for organizing all of the rides. Thank you to Jeff, Robbie, and A.J. for driving the sag vehicle on the Pine Mountain Challenge. And thank you to everyone I got to ride with during PP season. Now it’s time to look forward to Tuesday Worlds once Daylight Saving Time begins again. See you on the road!
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