Biking Like a Viking

Yesterday I did something incredibly ill-advised. I rode the Horribly Hilly Hundreds ride. It's a very challenging ride through the non-stop hills in southwestern Wisconsin. The organizers recommend a triple chain-ring and a 27 tooth rear cog. Oops. I have a double chain-ring and a 23 tooth rear cog. Oh well, not much I can do about that. It'll be good training right?

The weather was nice and sunny. Unfortunately, it also climbed to temps in the mid-90s, just to make things a little more fun. Thankfully, there were plenty of water stops. I went through 8 bottles of fluid.

The ride covered 70 miles ( a wee bit more than 100k ). It contains 5,700 feet of climbing. Most of the climbs were grades over 9%. Ouch. Horribly and Hilly indeed. The coup-de-grace however was the finish. A 3.5 mile slog up an 11.4% grade to the highest point in Wisconsin, the aptly named Blue Mound. This was absolutely brutal. Your legs are utterly smashed at this point. There were a lot of people who gave up, and were walking their bikes up the hill. I'm proud that I didn't end up walking. I managed to ride up every single hill, even if that meant pushing out of the saddle, and managing 20-30 RPM.

I survived, I finished, I didn't walk, and I got the jersey to prove it. :)