Cherohala Report

What a great weekend!! On Friday, Cathy, Kenny, our friend Christopher (as opposed to our son Christopher) piled into the car and drove to Tennessee for the ride I've been anticipating for the past 6 months with alternating bouts of angst and excitement.

I watched the weather carefully and was thrilled to see that the forecast from 10 days out was holding and there was no rain expected on Friday, nor Saturday. The heat however was another story, that I'll get to in a few minutes.

Mea Culpa
First, I have to apologize to the residents of Tellico Plains, TN (all 6 of you) for insinuating that there's nothing to your town...this was the first time I spent any time at all actually in Tellico Plains aside from the ride start and finish, and I was surprised to find that over in a little hollow, behind some trees there are several blocks of an actual town.

Friday in Tennessee
We arrived and checked into our cabins Friday afternoon, then left to go to the reception area where the ride organizers had set up to hand out ride packets (water bottle, t-shirt, ride number, and prophetically, Bullfrog Sunscreen, along with some other swag such as stickers and tea). Not knowing exactly what to expect from the food part of this soiree, we were happy to find fruits and several types of bread, along with some dips. On the downside, if we had eaten enough to satisfy our appetites, there wouldn't have been enough left for any of the other 350 people showing up that evening. Luckily, we discovered an old (and I mean old) house that had been converted into a Pizzaria, where we had an absolutely delicious and enormous calzone. By this time Russ and his wife Katie had arrived and were having dinner with us, when Russ spotted a bottle of hot sauce for sale...he decided that this hot sauce was worthy of purchase because according to the label, this hot sauce was "Scorned Woman" I guess in order of sauce heat, you would go mild, medium, hot, nuclear, Scorned Woman.

The cabins were comfortable, and it was no fault of anyone but myself that I was awake at 3:30 a.m. and unable to fall back asleep. Mostly at this point it was angst, wishing I had put in more miles, more climbing and more speedwork. The usual second guessing that I'm prone to engage in, no matter how well prepared I am. Two previous rides of miserable agony had preconditioned me for what to expect.

When my iPod finally started playing Matchbox Twenty's Push at 5:30 a.m., it was still dark outside, but I was ready to go anyway. I took a few minutes to put some last minute flat repair kits together for Cathy and Kenny (who were also riding, albeit shorter distances). Russ and I loaded the bikes onto the cars and we all headed off to the Tellico Plains High School for the ride start.

The Details
Kenny and Christopher headed off 30 minutes ahead of the main pack to get as many mile in during the cool morning as possible. Russ and I
hooked up with Jeff Mills (who drove in from Tulsa, OK), Doug Daughetee, Dom Sutton, and Dan Watson from Birmingham and left with the other ~400 riders who showed up. (Cathy and Katie waited until the main group had gone, then left behind us to avoid the stress of riding in such a large group).

Now, the way this ride works is pretty similar each year. For the first two miles smaller groups form as riders settle into their pace and gel into groups of similarly minded riders, pace-wise. Then to further seperate the faster riders from those looking to just survive, the first uphill begins. It's not horribly long (1/2 mile), nor is it terribly steep (6-7%), but it does its job very well. It was on this hill that I made a grave tactical error...I went to the front of the group and hammered up this hill like it wasn't there. Cresting the top of the hill I looked back and saw Jeff Mills pounding up the hill after me and I realized my folly. I looked for Russ to apologize for the price we were about to pay for my stupidity (riding in front of Jeff), but he was dropped.

To his credit, he eventually chased back on, but by that time, I had abandoned the Jeff Mills/Dom Sutton/Doug Daughetee group and drifted back to the Dan Watson led peleton where Russ was just catching back on.

One thing I noticed is that the first 20 miles of this ride are 1) incredibly beautiful,
and 2)ridden at a very fast pace that doesn't feel like an effort at all. According to my HR monitor, the first 20 miles has nearly 1000 feet of climbing, but I rarely even noticed the uphill sections.

Arriving at the first rest stop, we saw Kenny and Christopher leaving, and the Mills/Daughetee/Sutton group pulled out about 2 mintues behind them. I looked around and didn't see Russ anywhere, and thought he had been finally well and truly dropped. When he rolled in a minute later, he explained that his chain had been dropped shifting on the last climb up to the stop.

We left 5 minutes later and after a few miles through the lakeside hills, we dropped down to the road that follows Lake Chilhowee up to Tabcat Creek, where the Tail of The Dragon begins. As we crossed the bridge over Tabcat Creek, I decided to push myself a bit (as it had been a pretty easy ride to that point), and cleared the 11 miles and 318 curves in 50 minutes (all but 2.5 of those 11 miles are climbing, the picture at the top of this article is of Kenny climbing in the T.o.t.D., showing both road curvature and slope).

After Rest Stop #2, which is at the top of the T.o.t.D., and straddles the Tennesee/North Carolina border, Cathy and Katie and Kenny and Christopher (Russ and I had ridden with them along the lake, but they fell behind on the first of the climbs) caught up to me as I was reloading water bottles. From here the road drops at a 12% grade for 3 miles and delivers you at the foot of the dam where Harrison Ford jumped in The Fugitive. Here the headwinds began and I was pretty much on my own at this point, with Russ feeling the full wrath of the Dragon through the 7 miles up Tapoco Canyon to the 3rd rest stop.

Leaving the stop, I crossed the road and entered the Joyce Kilmer Forest, winding my way along the shores of Lake Santeetlah, past Rattlesnake Ford campground (yeah, I'll be camping anywhere with the name "rattlesnake" in it..uh huh) and began the real climbing at mile 69. For the next 5.5 miles, I learned new lessons in pain and agony, with the temperature reaching 98 degrees, no shade at all, and several long sections of 9% grade. I ran out of water a mile from the rest stop at the 75 mile point, and when I finally dragged my carcass up there, I was dissappointed to find that they were out of ice, and had been long enough for the water to be warm. Cathy and Katie were waiting at this stop for me, and Kenny and Christopher were in the car as well. Russ was nowhere in sight, but I figured he'd do the smart thing and climb into a SAG truck for a ride to the top of the hill.

I struck out to finish the next 8 miles of climbing that would take me to the top of the Cherohala Skyway.



This part of the climb isn't as severe as the first 5 miles, but still reaches 8% for the final mile of the section. Luckily for me, some clouds moved in and the temperature dropped considerably. About 3 miles from the top I saw a SAG truck drive past with Russ' bike on the rack. A minute later, Cathy drove up behind me and Russ was in the van, having managed somehow to make it to the rest stop at 75 miles. That was impressive to me because I know how badly he was hurting before, and I know how badly the climb hurt me in the heat. I don't know how he did it, but he did.

At the top, I stopped quickly for a water bottle reload, Cathy wanted a picture or two, and then started the real fun...the last 32 miles, most of it downhill. The exctptions to that being about a dozen .5-1.2 mile long climbs strewn about down the mountain. The steepest of these is 8.1% and 3/4 mile long. The longest is 1.2 miles and is 5%. Naturally, each of these dozen climbs comes after a significant downhill section, so my legs where good and cold and those climbs felt like a kick in the teeth. Ouch!!

At the last rest stop, Kenny, Christopher and Russ decided they wanted in on the fun, so they joined me for the last 18 miles of the ride back into Tellico Plains.

Summing up
I finished the 115 miles in 7:34:00. That's nearly an hour faster than last year (I did it with a seperated shoulder and had to walk the steepest pitches) and 2003 (nasty cramping at mile 65 slowed me down badly on the climb). I felt really good on the climbing sections, rarely using my bail out 27 cog, and relying primarily on my 23 and 21 to keep my cadence comfortable (I like to pedal a little slower than Lance).

I was frustrated with my inattention to detail as I had filled several ziploc bags with Orange Heed, and several others with Blue Raspberry Accelerade. both powders are white and when I selected my bags for my pockets before the ride, I thought I had grabbed 3 of each. In reality I had taken 5 Accelerade and 1 Heed. I like variety with my hydration and at this point, if I never drink Raspberry Accelerade again, I'll be just fine.

My preparation turned out to be just fine. I actually lost time and left the group I was riding with when we came upon Kenny and Christopher riding along Lake Chilhowee. We dropped out of the group and rode with them, tacking 10 minutes onto my time for that leg compared to previous years. I also lost some time (7 minutes comparatively) in Tapoco Canyon, as the headwinds battered me about and I didn't have the shelter of a group this year to keep me fresh and the speed up. Again, my climbing felt great, though it hurt badly. As Greg Lemond once said, "it never hurts any less, you just go faster."

Cathy rode 10 miles (I am really careful not to overload her and make her hate riding, and that 10 miles was really hilly). It turns out she could have done more, but I played it safe.

Katie made the full 27 miles to the first rest stop. WOW! I'm impressed. She wasn't to thrilled with the 2 final climbs along the way, but hey, you take what the road gives you.

Kenny and Christopher had a goal of riding 50 miles to earn their Cycling merit badges. They rode 75. Kenny hasn't touched his bike in 4 months, so I thought his accomplishment was something of which he should be proud (though I wish he'd prepare better next time, he could be really really fast if he just put in the miles). Christopher did his mileage and was a horse at the end, pounding his fist on the table and dictating the pace through the final canyon, into another headwind that we never felt.

Russ made the first 75 miles, then did 18 more for a 93 total. Not bad at all, especially when he has a total of 700 miles on his bike this year, and hadn't ridden a single mile since our 80 miler two weeks ago.

As for me, I did better than just survive. I felt strong the whole way and only when the excessive heat on the early slopes of the Skyway did its best to demoralize me, did I wonder if I might not make it all the way.