Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Hotel New Hampshire

New Hampshire is far away. Like super far. North Eastern NH is even further, like 15 hours away.
The race math of riding up Mt Washington is bad. Like really bad. It is a mass start hill climb, so the better you do, the worse the race math. You are basically looking at 28 hours of driving for 1:20 of racing.

I wasnt signed up to race, I just cruised up with the Johnsons for the experience of it all, or maybe because I just had nothing else to do.

Action packed.
- Wednesday, leave Pittsburgh at 5 pm
- Thursday, arrive NH at 8 am, ride 50 miles with Turner to the base of the mountain.
- Friday, eat some sweet pancakes, ride 100 miles in 5:20 with 3 passes involved, including the Kancamanagus Pass eat some sweet pasta for dinner
- Saturday is the big day! Turner and I drive up to the top of the mountain to drive the J, and Ed back down. It was the most insane weather I have ever experienced. Im not exaggerating. I opened my car door and couldnt close it again because of the wind. There was about 10 feet of visibility, and the temperature was 34 degrees. The wind was apparently 70 miles per hour.
Race canceled. No seriously, done, over, like not happening. No refund (300 bucks), no anything. Maybe a meek apology. The definition of "not sweet."
So we head back to our rental house and head out for a sweet ride over HURRICANE MOUNTAIN ROAD, which was like 3 miles at 20%. More passes and notches than I can remember. Basically just super beautiful riding. 77 miles.
- Sunday, we woke up and packed and cleaned and rode over bear mountain, then turned around and rode back over bear mountain. Awesome. 67 miles.
Leave NH at 4pm and arrive home at 8am Monday.

So much stuff happened that I dont really remember it all.

2 comments:

Chris Mayhew said...

Those guys are such a scam. They get free advertising in Buycycling to really hype the market. They get use of a road that arguably should be open to the public and they feel no shame at taking your $300 (or more next year).

What a bummer. It is one of the most beautifully painful experiences you'll ever have.

You should totally go, dude. Get some sponsors. You'd top 5 no sweat.

Who the hell takes 1:20 to get up that mountain??

Captain Insano said...

It's amazing that the entry for that race fills up a year in advance with a $300 entry fee, spontaneous race cancellation with no reimbursement or rain date and a prize list straight outta Glengarry Glen Ross:

1st place: A Caddilac
2nd place: a set of steak knives
3rd place: you're fired