Hoosic River Ride Highland Tour
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Well, that certainly kicked my butt. This turtle is humbled by today's many, many hills.
Much of the ride was in NY, but I also spent 10 miles or so in MA and a little less than that in VT. The official distance was 75 miles, I got 77.5 mi on my bike computer and a little over 75 mi on my Garmin. I'm choosing to believe the bike computer, given all the climbing and descending, which tends to cause the Garmin to underestimate distance.
Here are the map and elevation profile.
Note that the elevation profile is somewhat misleading... after that first spike (riding over Petersburgh Pass, an elevation change of a little over 1200 feet in 4 miles) the rest don't look all that bad... in reality this ride seemed to constantly be climbing, often over significant distances (several miles at a time.) The total elevation gain for the ride came out to around 5100 feet according to my Garmin, or 5700 ft according to MapMyRide... yup, somewhere around a MILE straight up. I first "broke" about a quarter mile from the summit of Petersburgh Pass (got off and pushed the bike) and then broke repeatedly after that, never for more than one or two tenths of a mile, but often enough that I lost track of how many times I pushed the bike uphill, and by the time I was 30 miles or so in, I was crawling up hills I'd normally crank my way over.
Actually, I wasn't even sure I'd do the 75 miler until I hit the point where it split off from the 50 mile course... going up the Pass I told myself there would be no shame in dropping down to the shorter distance, given what that climb did to my legs, and during the 2nd 4-mile climb from roughly 21-25 miles, I had pretty much decided to do just that. And then insanity set in and I kept on the course I'd signed up for.
Pretty countryside (other than all those damn hills) and I got a nice view of just how much of a plateau the Rensellaer plateau really is (it's impressive to see from a distance.) And some nice views across the Tomhannock Reservoir. Also, it's amazing how great cold water feels after 6+ hours of warm water bottles and hydration pack.
Overall, I thought the organizers did a nice job, with every aid station open when I got there (though they need an aid station around the 40 mile mark for the 100 and 75 mile riders) and best of all they kept track of who was still out there (apparently they were wondering where I was, since no one else took 7 hr 42 min to ride the 75 miler.) MUCH better than the Greylock Half Century I rode 9 years ago, where all the aid stations closed before I reached them and when I got back to the start, everyone was gone.
But I don't think I'd do it again without a LOT more hill work beforehand.
Also, I'd been thinking about riding up Greylock again, after the debacle 9 years ago... the ride up Petersburgh Pass may have cured me of that... time will tell...
JMH
2014 Event Totals
Run 140.6 mi, 33 hr 02 min
Bike 223.3 mi, 17 hr 55 min
Snowshoe 47.5 mi, 14 hr 38 min
Kayak 4.0 mi, 1 hr 3 min
states/provinces visited: AB, CT, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT
