greenmon's folly: Sept 28 - Oct 1 Cycle North Carolina

Ready for my ride

Cycle North Carolina is part of North Carolina Amateur Sports, a 501c3 organization promoting physical fitness, health and skill. I rode a SAG vehicle driven by Chuck Hobgood on day 1. Chuck is president of the organization. The mountains to the coast bicycle ride was conceived just over 15 years ago when the then director of NC tourism went to a conference at which his counterpart from Iowa was boasting of its bicycle tour. Not to be outdone by Iowa, the NC director immediately set in place such a ride for NC. The folks at NCAS picked up the idea and ran with it. Now in its 15th year, the annual ride from the mountains to the coast attracts over 1000 participants a year. I hadn't even contemplated a road ride 6 months ago, but somehow I got interested in this and here I am.

Playing tourists

Nanci agreed to be my "personal SAG". She thought that stood for "some awesome gal". So we headed to the mountains and played tourists for a couple days. As the event drew nearer, we started seeing more bicycles and met other riders everywhere we went. We met two fellows loaded down on their touring bicycles on a BRP pulloff. They were camping along the way to cycle NC and were to ride it with touring bikes. The last night at the hotel, a Penske truck pulled up and unloaded an almost endless stream of bicycles. There were bicycle jams in the hallways that evening.

No big deal. You can drive here.

I can never remember the Black Mtn Crest peaks. Here they are.

Late September Blackberries

Cycle NC camp at Spruce Pine

We briefly made an appearance at camp Saturday night. The small town was overrun with us. We decided to eat in another town where the restaurants might not be as crowded. At Vance's Toe River Lodge with Blind Squirrel Brewery we found a neat country setting for supper. Hen of the Woods was on the menu. It was really Chicken of the Woods but I was thrilled nonetheless.

A chilly start.

It is in the high 40's when I start. The first descent is on Rt 226A out of Little Switzerland. Known by motorcyclists as the "Diamondback", it is a 9 mile route with just over 200 curves and 2000 feet of elevation loss. The ride down was spectacular. At 8 in the morning there was no traffic, none, except bicycles. I descended at dizzying speeds and was so glad I had my brakes worked on last week.

After the descent I met Gary, one of the fellows I rode along the coast with back in April. He helped me pump up a soft rear tire and rode into the first rest stop with me. I took advantage of the air pump there to make it nice and tight.

Cyclists roll into Marion

Mission Hospital's unique smoking cessation program.

On the road

Rest stops are spaced every 10-20 miles, packed with lots of fluids, high energy foods, fruits and my favorite, PB&Js. Along the route we had a great view of Tablerock with Lake James in the foreground. As I descended another small hill about 12 miles from the finish, I blew my front tire for seemingly no reason. There was another fellow at the same spot with a flat. He had already called a SAG which was there. So I decided to ride in the back the final 12 miles rather than change a tire with my pitiful pump. As I stepped out of the van, there was my car with Nanci in it waiting. We gave a gal a ride to her hotel since she had to have a wheel replaced on her bike.

We had a great time roaming around Morganton. I found out later, we overwhelmed several of the downtown restaurants catching them short on staff and food. Tent city was walking distance to downtown and it was a short day. I recall it was only a 50 some mile day of which I rode only 38.

Heading into the rest stop

Monday is a bit longer ride. It is 68 miles to Troutman just south of Statesville. Starting at 7:30 I was feeling real good. At about mile 14, a really steep climb took a lot out of me. About half the cyclists around me were walking it, as I did.

Rocket Man is disabled when a wheel fell off

Just outside of Newton, I passed Rocket Man in his fiberglass hull over a recumbent. Just 50 feet in front of him, I heard what sounded like fiberglass hitting pavement. Turning around I see his left wheel laying on the pavement and him sitting in the listing spaceship. After about 10 minutes of trying to figure out how to fix his wheel, a SAG pulls up and I hand the problem off to them, gladly.

The final 10 miles are a real struggle for me. I have to walk a couple hills in Lake Norman State Park. The road into Troutman is busy and drivers are impatient, passing us with oncoming traffic. I didn't like that especially when I was quite tired and not wishing to constantly be pushed onto a narrow shoulder. Traffic in Troutman is worse. It is stop and go with absolutely no shoulder. Several of us are not able to negotiate getting onto the road at one intersection. We final have to cut off a car and just get out as a group into the stop and go. I was glad when we arrived at tent city. Nanci was really aggravated at the traffic too. We decided we would not return that evening to Troutman. Instead we headed from our hotel to Statesville.

My average speed for the day was 12.4 mph and I finished at 2pm. It was a hard day for me and I did not look forward to Tuesday which would be 81.5 miles.

We're in farm country

Tuesday I am off to another 7:30 start. There are lots of us on the road early due to the length of the day. I passed some beautiful countryside today. Things went smoothly to the first and second rest stops. Krispy Kreme made an appearance at the Salisbury rest stop.

Krispy Kreme smile

After rest stop three, about 5 miles to Denton there was trouble on the road. Someone has tossed a bunch of thumb tacks on the road. I went through without picking one up but saw 4 flats on the roadside right there and numerous more embedded in tires at the Denton rest stop.

Tacks in the road

Denton went all out for us. The elementary school emptied out onto the sidewalk to cheer us as we rolled through town. The rest stop they provided had sandwiches, chips, drinks, music and a very welcoming atmosphere.

Denton welcomes Cycle NC

It is just 20 more miles to Asheboro. There is one final rest stop 7 miles out of Asheboro. The route in is on old NC 49. It is a never-ending series of rollers with no flat stretches to recover. It takes some out of me but when I get to Asheboro city limits, I'm revitalized. There is one final hill on Redding that is the steepest of my 3 days. After that it is all downhill. I roll into the Y at 2:15 and feel much better than the previous day's finish. My average speed today is 13.2 mph.