The trip to Nash-Vegas has come and gone. The weather could not have been any more perfect. Everyone was sunburned, although Garland went for the Smott look, and we didn't even have to use armwarmers. Shorts and short sleeves everyday with plenty of miles.
We got there on Wednesday and searched out a map to find our way from the hotel to the Natchez Trace. After picking a route to the trace, we quickly determined that we had found every hill between the hotel and the Trace. Garland, being the voice of reason, determined that the route sucked and would need to be replaced before doing the 1.2 mile climb everyday. We were excited to hear from a local Gran Fondo rider right before the climb that this road would get us to the Trace, but it sucks. Our cognitive skills had already worked that out, but it was okay for the first couple of days. We ended up with 33 miles.
The second day Terry and Bill got there for the first 100+ day. We did the awful route to the Trace, with G-Man's favorite climb and then had to put the reins on the T-Rent over a couple of the early slopes of the Trace. It seems that 30+ watts on threshold and 30 less pounds means you can rip it. Once we got the T-Rent under control, it was smooth sailing until we left Leiper's Fork. There was a massive head wind and once we climbed back up to the Trace, G-Man pulled a southpark and said,"Screw you guys, I'm goin' home" and turned around. We rolled a bit further and then rolled back to the big city lights of Nash-Vegas. Everyone got through the day realtively unscathed. We ended up with 113 miles.
The third day G-Man, on a solo recon mission to cut climbs the day before, had found a new way to the Trace that cut the 1.2 mile climb out. I hugged him for being a genius, T-Rent donkey punched him because T-Rent is now a climber and needs the altitude, and everyone else rolled along happily missing the climb. Once again, the reigns were attached to the T-Rent right out of the shoot on the Trace. We rolled along pretty well, did some tempo and knocked out the mileage. This is the day that we really overextended. For some reason, I could not comprehend engineer math, and decided that Terry was right about rolling to road 412, 58 miles from the hotel. G-Man was using chinese math and quickly calculated that this would put us at 116 miles. He slogged on, but was done at the turn around. Once we got there, everyone was tired and grumpy and the group split up, with Terry and Bill rolling on. We fought our way back, but it was ugly on the Trace coming in. We ditched the climbing at Leipers Fork and came in old Natchez. After much grumbling, we ended up with 118 miles.
On day 3, Spencer wanted to visit Franklin, TN. We rode out to visit the civil war memorial, but could not seem to find our way out of the city to the road we were looking for. It ended in extreme complaining and a good deal of tempo riding. We broke Garland, and after hearing the grunting, I learned how to shift when Bill says, "come on Dave". Apparently that is not come on speed up, it is come on I am cooked. Well, now I know. After another terrible section out of Leipers Fork into the head wind, I had the wheels come off completely on a climb and was pretty done for the rest of the day. T-Rent meanwhile had a resurgance and could pummel us at will for the remainder of the ride. We ended up with 83 miles.
The last day we rolled around slow, trying to recover, and more importantly found the catfish corner. The bad part is we had to do a horrible climb to get too it. 21 miles complete and a great training camp.
In the end, the funniest event of the week was Terry mimicking Bill coming out of Leipers Fork on the way home Saturday. He has the whinning and grunting down to perfection, and promises to work on the "Awe come on" for next year.
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