Coming back from a weeklong vacation is not easy, so pardon the lack of punctuality on this post.
Things I learned in New Hampshire:
• Lake Winnipesaukee is wicked beautiful (and not an ounce of flat roads in the entire area).
• You can never eat too much Lobster.
• If you’re ever on the south coast of Maine, you MUST stop at Brown’s ice cream parlor. I think they have perfected the art of sticking a half gallon of home made ice cream on a single sugar cone (seriously).
• Riding 7.8 miles is no problem. Climbing 4400+ feet in elevation in that same distance, however is no easy feat (the locals say “it’s wicked hard” and “you’re wicked stupid for trying it”).
SO…Mt. Washington!!
I think they said it all before we started:
“Same distance as Alpe d’Huez, but 1,000 feet higher in elevation”
For those that don’t compute hill climbs regularly, that means a much more wicked steep climb than those French hills.
I’m not sure if we planned it right or not, but we arrived the day before the climb on Friday and took a short ride through the rolling roads of The Lakes Region of New Hampshire, and returned home to dine on some excellent baked Ziti courtesy of Ron’s (Baldy-Locks) in-laws, who’s house we stayed at. We figured it would be better to get the climb out of the way before wearing ourselves out over the next week, and it seemed to work out pretty well.
The next morning, we awoke bright and early to make the record-breaking time of one hour to get to the base of Mt. Washington (courtesy of Ron’s father in-law Richard and his chipped pickup truck). Arriving with almost three hours before the start gave us plenty of time to take in the beautiful weather which was a balmy 56˚ and sprinkling. With Mt. Washington being known for ‘the worst recorded weather in the world’ and the highest recorded wind speed of over 250 mph, we were skeptical of the conditions we would encounter on our climb to the heavens. As the time got closer to the start cannon going off, the weather appeared to be clearing toward the top elevations. But still, the weather has been known to change drastically (wicked fast) within a few minutes, so we were still a little hesitant to take off our under shirts, arm warmers, vests, leg warmers, etc. Eventually we did, and I think between the three of us, we shed about 30 lbs.
After the final pee and poop breaks before the start, we sat in our respective start groups with Ron and James in the second group, 5 minutes behind the elite group and Vern 10 minutes behind us in the fourth group. Watching Phil Gaimmon take off and sprint to the front of his group was INSANE! I can’t imagine holding that pace for the duration. I was still hoping to hold my projected 5 mph pace (seriously).As for the climb, it’s hard to explain. I’m sitting here typing, trying to find the words. Imagine Sugarloaf not leveling off at the top, and extending almost 8 more miles with only about three sections of flat (around 15% grade) road extending about 25 feet each. It’s a little harder than that. Luckily, the weather was probably the warmest and sunniest in the history of the climb.
“How did we do?”, you may ask yourself.
“Did any of us walk?”, you may be hinting at.
Well, Mr. Palsgrove finished in 01:20:34 – 30th in his age-group
Mr. Penrod finished in 01:30:30 (right in line with his projected goal of 1.5 hours) – 51st in his age-group
Ms. Veronica ‘Bronzey’ Geist finished in a very respectable 01:34:23 – 18th out of ALL women, and 3rd in her age-group!!OK, enough about the ride, now I can talk about MY GIRL!!!
THIRD PLACE BABY!!!
What a ride!!
I think we were all sitting around at the awards ceremony after filling our bellies with the complimentary homemade turkey dinner (with all the fixin’s and all homemade) just waiting for the ice cream to come when they announced Vern’s age group finishers. We all just paused for a second, not thinking any of us had done anything really spectacular by finishing this wicked pissa of a climb. “Did they just say Veronica Geist?”. We all looked at each other in amazement….then let out a huge cheer for our Cycle-Logic, Florida flat-lander, climber!!! What a ride. And to think, she had been asking to leave for the past 30 minutes.
The conversation immediately turned to how we could improve her time for next year. Gears, training, wheels, new bike (of course, a new bike was her first thought). After that day, I think Vern had a little more torque to her cadence during our rides through the rolling hills of New Hampshire. I found myself lagging behind while Vern would stick to Ron’s wheel on even the fastest climbs over the next week. I, of course used the excuse of looking for Moose and Bear as we passed the scattered lakes and ponds, but the truth is, I just couldn’t stick to Bronzey’s wheel.That girls is WICKED FAST!!
