by Organized cycling events are back now that the pandemic has receded. The 2021 edition of the B2VT was my first such ride. Back in March, when the organizers were putting the B2VT together, Vermont was under a hard quarantine, but New Hampshire was not. This year’s route, instead of taking a left hand turn into Vermont and Okemo, took a right hand turn to Mount Sunapee. The change in course did not make it any easier.
I had intended to eat a nutritious meal and got to bed early on Friday night. I did not. Instead I stayed up late, having a few beers with cycling friends and Mrs. Doug. Then Boo decided we need to get up at 3:00 am, depriving me of an extra 45 minutes of rest.
A bit bleary-eyed, I packed the car and headed to Bedford but failed to take the directions with me. I’m usually following a convoy of cars with bikes on them. I assume that any car in the area with a bike on it at 4:30 that morning was headed to the B2VT start. Today, I was the lead car and blew it. I missed a turn.
Even with the wrong turn, I was ready for an early group off the starting line. We were lined up at 5:00 am, ready to pedal the 140+ miles to Mount Sunapee. I was joined by fellow Kinetic Karma Teammates Tyler and Dan. Tyler brought along Stew and Scott. Dan brought along Chris and Bob.
We were packed into a group of thirty to start together. Our group meandered uneventfully along Route 225 to Route 119 heading towards the Primo climb. Fellow Team Kinetic Karma rider Chris joined us for his morning ride. Chris pedaled off while we pulled into the rest stop to refuel. That’s me, Stew, Tyler and Scott looking happy at mile 38. Scott seems more aware that we still have over 100 miles to ride.
The climbing continues after that first rest stop, all the way up the New Hampshire border. The seven of us had managed to regroup after the rest stop and tackle the rolling hills of Southern New Hampshire together.
Safety was not great on the road. One rider blew through two red lights without stopping. When I caught up, I nicely asked him to not run red lights and stop signs while wearing the B2VT jersey. That bad behavior reflects poorly on all the B2VT riders and it gets back to the organizers causing them problems. The reaction was not positive and words were exchanged.
The second safety incident was when I was behind a large group of cyclists all across the road. A group of motorcyclists loudly, aggressively, and dangerously passed them. The cyclist called the motorcycles out as jerks. I called out to the cyclists that they were four wide across the road and didn’t give them the motorcyclists a safe way to pass. When the next car came, they quickly pulled to the right and gave the car room to pass. At least one safety discussion worked.
Then came the Leviathan climb at mile 75. It’s a sharp right turn onto Route 63 and immediately heads straight up. Four miles with an average gradient of four percent. It’s not horribly steep. But it is twenty to thirty minutes of grinding it out. For me, it was 23:34. A new personal record. I think my CRW Devo climbing socks helped.
Just downhill from the Leviathan summit is the second rest stop. We took our time with fluids and food. Personally, I find the biggest challenge for extra long bike rides is getting enough calories and water into my body during the ride. It’s really hard on hot day like this. The sun had come out. There were long stretches of road that lacked tree cover, leaving us baking in the hot sun. My data, estimated that I had burned 7500 calories during the ride. There is no way to get that many calories into your body during the ride. You just have to manage the deficit.
We were thinking about taking another stop between the second rest stop and third rest stop at mile 110, but didn’t. In retrospect we should have made that extra stop. The roads were rolling and we had tree cover. I was feeling relatively refreshed from the long stop. I thought we were all doing well.
At one point I was at the back of the group and heard a roar coming. I called “car back” to signal the line to tighten up to the right. To my surprise, the roar was not a car. It was a line of two dozen cyclists wearing the exotic colored number tags of faster B2VT cyclists. They flew past us. They must have been 10 to 15 miles per hour faster, tucked into tight aero positions on fancy TT bikes.
At the third rest stop, Stew was not doing well. Heat exhaustion hit him hard. Dan and Chris were behind. Bob went ahead to save some time to get back home earlier. We convinced Stew to walk down to the nearby brook to cool off. I shoved my head into the water. It was fantastic. It washed the dirt and salt sweat off. It cooled me down. I was feeling ready to attack the next 30 miles. (I wasn’t.) Stew felt better, but he was done. That turned out to be a great choice.
What came next was the hardest part of the ride. At mile 120, we hit the steepest inclines so far in the ride. The Lempster Hill climb was brutal: almost a mile of 9% grade. There were dozens of cyclists walking their bikes up the hill. Many others were off their bikes, bent over, trying find the strength to climb the hill. To add to the sense of misery, gravel riders on the Vermonster were flying down the hill while we were grinding up. (The tables were turned when we crested the climb, getting to fly downhill on the other side, while the Vermonsters had to grind up.)
The three of us were drained. The thoughts of showers, beers and burgers were luring us to the finish line. The last section of the ride was sparse with no place to stop. Tyler was out of fluids. I saw a car with a bike rack on the side of the road and hoped it was support car. I pulled up and asked if she had any water. Fortunately, it was a support car and we were not accosting a random stranger. Tyler filled up his bottles. I’ve never seen a better looking bottle of water. The bottles were ice cold. I could see the condensation dripping own the sides. I decided it was also a good time for me to get some cold liquid.
It turns out there was a corner store with 8 miles to go. I’m not sure we would have made it. With our prior stop, we were able to keep going.
There were some menacing looking clouds in the sky. We only hit a few sprinkles. The drops felt good. A brief downpour would have felt better.
We could see the back side of Sunapee looming ahead. We were going to finish.
The showers were cold. Ice cold. Too cold for anything more than brief soap and rinse for me. The burgers and beers were great. Lots of smiles.
It was a brutal ride in the middle of cycling season. My cycling season culminates in raising money for cancer research and treatment at the Pan Mass Challenge. (Donations to support my ride are always welcome. https://profile.pmc.org/DC0176 )
Will we ride the B2VT again next year? Ask me when I’ve had time to recuperate.
