Mining Country Challenge, Sat 3.20.10

I decided back in November that I was going to conquer this advertised monster of a ride. So, of course, I really slacked off on my riding in November. I slacked off more in December, January, and then February came...uh, yeah, I better pick it up! Having only ridden a tad over 600 miles in 2010, I packed up my bike and drove up to Superior to start.

45 degrees, 30mph howling winds found me with nothing but my (proud wearing, I might add) Two Wheel Jones kit and arm warmers. I hunkered down in the truck until 7:45, then threw my helmet and shoes on, got a 1 mile warm up in spinning up the town streets to find where the sun was shining. It wasn't an organized start, but a start on your own type ride. I latched onto some unsuspecting souls and away we went, east on 60.

It was miserable. 30 mph crosswinds, darn near freezing temperatures, crazy drivers, sometimes little to no shoulder, and the first 20 miles were all uphill! I kept telling myself that I had one more gear on the bike that no one else had...the FEAR GEAR!! Hills really aren't my favorite, so I stuck it in low gear and spun as best I could, trying to pace myself for the advertised 96 mile ride with over 7000 feet of climbing.

After passing the first SAG stop and having a 1/4 of a PB&J, the going got a bit easier with some flats and a little downhill. Wait, there's more hills ahead. Ugh. I think the entire world passed me, but I made it to the top. Then, the reward on the backside...I got up to 49 mph on the downhill swing of that hill somewhere SE of Globe and NW of Winkelman. At that point, I didn't care how many cars were behind me or riders in front, I was flying!

At the 80 mile mark came the skull and crossbones for me. 3 miles of heavy duty climbing with the final 1 1/2 miles a true 10%-11% grade. That about killed me. Already spent from goinghefarthest I've ever been in one day (notice, I didn't say "sitting"), to look up at this monster hill and realize my legs are already feeling like lead balloons was rather intimidating. I stuck it in the lowest gear known to man, thought I would fall over on each revolution, looked about 5 feet in front of me and slugged away. I just counted, "one...two...three...four...one...two...three...four" over and over again until I reached the top! I didn't stop, didn't fall, and even passed two riders. Okay, one had given up and was walking to the top, which just provided me with more motivation. I think I picked it up from 3.8 mph to 3.9 mph when I passed him.

The rest was pretty much downhill into Superior again and I finally grabbed a group's wheel and coasted into town with them. Looking at my Garmin, I had only gone 92 miles, so I headed back onto the course, going backwards. I was going to ride 100 miles in a day, if it killed me. I got the strangest looks when people saw me going the other way. I was 2 miles short when I got back into town. It's amazing how far 8 miles is when you're totally gassed! So, I putzed around Superior's roads and then found a spot and did about 40 figure 8's in a parking lot to get my 100 miles in.

If you like climbing or just a challenge, this ride is for you. Of course, the craziness is interesting too. A Fry's truck came within 2" of hitting my left elbow just before the Queen Creek tunnel, the crosswinds literally blew me off the road into the gravelly shoulder, dead smelly skunks were about every 15 miles, I had to miss a dead javelina on the shoulder, the Bicycle Haus and Carlos O'Brien teamies can haul bootie, and one needs to come prepared for cold windy weather.

I will never look at Usery the same way again. I might still be slow, but it's an easy climb now!