Yesterday, we rode the route of the Mt. Hood Classic, stage 4. Amateurs leave at 6:30 am, well before the pros who start at 10:30 am. The route started with a frosty 2 mile descent from the Mt. Hood Meadows parking lot to Highway 35 (yes, that is ice you see in the picture). Craig's Garmin showed a toasty 35.8 degrees. We figured going downhill at 25 mph must have factored in a wind chill factor to a little above 20 degrees, or at least that's what my fingers were registering. After another cold 10 miles we turned onto Forest Road 44 and started the category 1 climb followed by a 15 mile descent to Dufur. The rest stop in Dufur was at the The Historic Balch Hotel situated in this scenic little town surrounded by high desert and farmland. They assured us that not only are there good rides to The Dalles, Maupin and beyond, but that dogs are welcome. A good place to go back to. We shed a few clothes there (they even had drop bags on this ride!) and faced the next hill, the category 2 climb to the Tygh Ridge Summit. We met up with our friend Art, who is a very strong rider. He beat us up and won KOM (king of the mountain). Looking at our watches, we knew the professional racers had started. From Tygh Ridge we had one of the most fun descents I've ever done, into Tygh Valley. From there, however, we faced the 35 mile, steady 4500 foot ascent back to Mt. Hood Meadows. We shed more clothes at the 2nd rest stop and chatted with some friends who had started later than us, but had caught up. My friend, Sonja, had started 50 minutes behind us. She is very fast and we sent her along her way, knowing we'd see her at the end. We were constantly looking at mileage and our watches because our goal was to beat the pros back to the parking lot. Had we not spent so long at the 2nd rest stop, we might have accomplished our goal.
As it was, the lead car came upon us with 2 miles to go and asked us to pull over. The pros were 2 minutes behind us. It was pretty exciting to see the first group come up the hill, with Nathaniel English (white) in the lead, followed by Pat McCarty (blue) who won the stage.
We also saw our 'friend' Evan Huffman, whose Mom we had met Wednesday night at Mt. Tabor (We had fun shouting "go Evan" that night). I spotted him, #72, in his purple Team Yahoo kit, and yelled "go Evan!" He's only 20 and was in the 3rd peloton of pros, an accomplishment for a 20 year old (turns out he placed 26th for this stage!). He turned, smiled and probably wondered who those two amateurs were that were encouraging him on.
The last two miles back to Mt. Hood Meadows has an average gradient of 10%. While it was hard, it was really fun to have some groups of pros come by and encourage me on, or even offer a coke. One guy offered Craig a beer that he'd gotten at the 'illegal' feed zone turning on to the MHM road.
Speaking of 'feed zones', I really enjoyed coming upon signs that would indicate where food for the pros would be available. Volunteers had blue Rubbermaid boxes strategically placed at certain points along the route, filled with sacks of food the pros would grab and eat while riding, so they lose no time. There were also signs along the way indicating how many more kilometers there were to go to a zone, summit, or the end.
I highly recommend this ride to anyone who wants a challenge, accompanied with some beautiful scenery. We rode through gorgeous forests accompanied by the quiet sounds of birds, streams, and waterfalls. From the Cascade wilderness we went down to the high desert, an austere landscape of sage brush with occasional vistas of farmland, always with a view of the Mt. Hood in the distance, reminding us that our goal was to end at the the start; the alpine meadows surrounding the ski resort. http://www.tourdehoodride.com/
The End!
No comments:
Post a Comment