Yo, Mama!

Mama be mean...

I have just returned from the wilds of southwestern Virginia and yesterday's running of the Mountain Mama Cycling Challenge. This ride begins in Monterey, Virginia and, if you do the Century version, takes you on big loop in two states, three counties and over nine mountains. I have ridden some of the challenge rides in the region (Mountains of Misery four times, Blue Ridge Extreme once) but had never had the chance to do this one. My friends at PPTC told me it was a great ride but that I would have to book a room as soon as I could. They were not kidding: calling in May I got the last room in town

I left Washington, DC on Friday afternoon--still not early enough to avoid a traffic jam in Fairfax--and drove to Staunton, Virginia where I had a late lunch at Cranberries Grocery and Eatery, a health food place with a little cafe in the back. There is a nice selection of tasty items and the groceries are even interesting to look at. Staunton, not being terribly far from Charlottesville, is enjoying the reflected popularity of that place. It now has a little shop selling Porsche cars and the former Western Asylum for the Criminally Insane is being turned into fancy condos. I have been to Staunton to enjoy the Shakespeare theatre there and stayed at the recently restored Stonewall Jackson Hotel. A charming place in the Shenandoah Valley that I hope success will not spoil. An Americano with caramel and a biscotti at the Daily Grind and I was off to Monterey.

Monterey is 45 miles from Staunton on Hwy. 250. It takes well over an hour to do this drive as the road constantly twists and turns and climbs over three different ridges. I was feeling a little queasy by the time I finally arrived in the town, which is the county seat for Highland County. It is the region's metropolis, which is not saying too much as the population is around 200. Hence the problem in finding a place to stay. There are several little bed and breakfasts in town and in front of each one there were cars with bike racks. I was staying at a 1950s motel, that was both tobacco- and alcohol free. Actually, I was staying in a separate room in the owners' house since everything was booked up. There was no airconditioning, which concerned me a bit since it had been around 90 F in Staunton but up here in the mountains the temperature was not really an issue. I was given a little fan so everything was fine.

I looked at the town, which did not take very long, then drove over to the local high school where I registered for the ride. I then walked over to one of the few restaurants in town, where I enjoyed one of the greasiest grilled cheese sandwiches in history with a not-very-impressive salad and some ice tea. Unfortunately, I was not feeling very well due to the heat or the long drive or something and I went back to the motel and went to bed early. I felt as if I had heat exhaustion and slept very badly, constantly waking up. I drank two bottles of water I had brought with me and in the morning felt somewhat better. For breakfast, I could not face going back to the restaurant so I had bananas and plums that I had brought along.

Ready to roll

Rolling up to the high school, I met up with Damon, a triathlete from DC that I had ridden the Mountains of Misery with in May and a group of Potomac Pedalers. Everyone rolled out at 8 am for the ride, which headed back towards Staunton along Highway 250. There was no traffic and the air was cool and comfortable. I rode with Damon and George, a fellow PPTCer who had ridden with me at the Cheat Mountain Challenge in September 2005. The road began with some climbs and I found that when I pushed too hard that my head hurt so I had to relent a bit. Otherwise I felt good and the Tarmac, fresh from a rear derailleur/cable tune-up, ran like a clock.

The Pendleton mill

There are not a lot of turns to make in Mountain Mama and everything is exceptionally well-marked. After a slow start getting over the first two climbs, I caught up with a little group and we did a nice paceline. Soon we were in West Virginia and I stopped to photograph an old mill in Pendleton County (where everything seems to be marked with an historical plaque), with some cyclists passing by. At this point, there was a sound like a gunshot and a rider with a nice titanium Merlin pulled off the road with a flat tire. I went to give him a hand; the tube had blown the tire right off the rim. He had just changed it and did not have another spare. I discovered that instead of the usual two tubes in my seatbag I had one so I could not give him one (Murphy's Law) and since he was not sure of the cause he thought he would get help from one of the sag wagons.

One long, hard century ride

I continued along the road and soon caught up with Damon and George at the next food stop, which was near Mile 50. We kept on together and I was delighted to see that we passed the 100 km mark in less than four hours, which was not bad at all considering all the climbing we had been doing. But then at Mile 75 things became harder and we started the first of a series of steep, long and exposed climbs, followed by exhilarating descents. It was slow, grinding work but I enjoyed it. Well, except for Snowy Mountain, Climb No. 6, which was unusually hard and long. There was a food stop at the very top and I certainly welcomed it. My feet were getting really hot, so I was able to refill my water bottles and then rest in a chair for a bit with my shoes off. Then we headed off onto another descent where I quickly reached 75 km/h...

"John Henry" symbols used to mark the route; the century ride was the white one, and the other colours were for different distances

The last few climbs were hard but I felt that I came through quite well and we rolled back into Monterey around eight hours after we had left, with an actual ride time of 6:54 for 162 km. That evening a group of PPTC riders got together at the biggest B&B and we had a potluck dinner--according to my bike computer I had consumed 7900 calories for the day!-- and enjoyed reliving the ride.

Green and hilly: the Mountain Mama landscape

Rather than drive back along the windy road, I had elected to stay and extra night in Monterey and returned relaxed to Washington, after stopping for breakfast in Staunton and at a Farmer's Market in the Plains for fresh produce from West Virginia.

The Virginia Civil War Century: Alone with History for 100 Miles

In Fredericksburg at the Military Cemetery

Mr. G.C. Moore of the Potomac Pedalers has prepared a cue sheet which presents a 100 mile tour covering some of the famous Civil War battlefields of Northern Virginia. Since I have already ridden Maryland's annual Civil War Century, put on by the Baltimore Bicycle Club, I thought I would take advantage of the superb Spring weather and do the Virginia version as a Do-It-Yourselfer, that is, with no support. Unfortunately, I could not find anybody else to come with me today, so it really was a true DIY in every way! But the starting point, the Stafford High School, was only about 45 minutes by car from downtown Washington, DC, so I could sleep in a bit after yesterday's Skyline Climbfest and still have a good ride.

I rolled out from the High School at 9:45 am, calculating that I would probably be back around 4:30 pm. The route has some surprisingly busy stretches on it and there are signs of suburban sprawl all over, particularly in the stretches around Stafford and Fredericksburg, both reasonable commutes to DC. The very well-prepared cue sheet was easy to cut up into four small pieces, although they tended to slip out from the alligator clip I use to hold cues against the brake cable so I had to stop a few times to reposition them to prevent them from falling out. So I otherwise had no clue where I was and how to get back to the car I was very careful with them.

After the initial busyness of Shelton Shop Road and Mountain View Road, things got much quieter as I rode into the countryside (including a stretch of the interestingly-named Eskimo Hill Road!), stopping briefly on Potomac Run Road to look at the typical swamps found in the Tidewater region of Virginia. There was very little traffic now and I spent a few moments looking at the birds flying around the marshes. But once I left this bucolic stretch, I came to new suburban development just past the commuter train station named, like much else in the region, after General Robert E. Lee.



With 18 miles (29 km) under my wheels, I arrived in Fredericksburg and visited the cemetery located on Marye's Heights. In December 1862 a series of battles took place around the city, most of them ending with disaster for Union forces. With more than 100,000 men available, the Northerners should have been able to take the town but the Confederates had fortified the heights and controlled all access. Unwilling to use their imaginations, Union generals, headed by Gen. Burnside, who would go own to demonstrate startling heights of ineptitude at Antietam and go down in history for his sidewhiskers (reversed to become "sideburns") simply threw more troops at the entrenched Southern forces. The artillerymen on Marye's Heights had a clear field of fire over a half-mile of open field below and not a single Union soldier made it to the stone wall at the base of the hill. The Sunken Road has been reconstructed, along with the wall, and is near the Battlefield Visitors' Center.

Four miles down the road one comes to the main part of the battlefield park, which is very extensive. I rode down the beautiful Lee's Road, passing through dense cool forest, before climbing a bit and heading towards the battlefield at Chancellorsville, which also looks like a big forest rather than a park. Nearby is where the battles at Spotsylvania Courthouse and in the Wilderness took place but they were not on this itinerary.

When I turned onto Road 610/Old Plank Road, I was confronted with an angry headwind, probably gusting at around 20 mph (32 km/h). Unfortunately, the 610 section went on for some 17 miles! At one point I stopped at a country store to load up on Gatorade and rest a bit as I was getting tired. The climbing from the day before and the relentless headwind were beginning to take their toll. This area in Culpeper County seems to have a lot of turf farms. They look very nice, but do nothing to block the wind. Oddly enough, it actually rained on my a little bit although I was riding in bright sunshine. There was one little black cloud and the strong wind was blowing a few sprinkles my way.

By the time I reached Kellys Ford, scene of a major cavalry engagement in March 1863, I was pretty toasted. I rode by the Inn at Kellys Ford, a fancy equestrian place, and stopped for a moment to consult the cue sheet and have a drink near the public boat landing on the Rappahanock River. I saw another cyclist go by--only one of three I was to see all day-- and thought I would follow him and sit on his wheel and recover. While he looked pretty fit he was going so slowly that I just passed him, put my head low and continued grinding into the wind. But things looked up as I passed through the little town of Remington and turned on Road 651/Sumerduck Road. Now I finally had a tailwind, and I made the most of it, cruising at a steady 42-45 km/h (26-28 mph). I passed a very unfriendly-looking US Army training base, the Warrenton Facility and was curious what kind of training they might be doing there...it is apparently something to do with communications and the CIA. According to the Internet, that is.

Suddenly I was at mile 82 (Km 132) of the ride and now I was facing the headwind again. There were a series of little hills through some subdivisions and the miles were just creeping by now. I was concerned that I had taken a wrong turn somewhere--not something you want to do so late in a century ride--but the right road turned up as indicated but it seemed so much further than the 3.2 miles (5.1 km) on the cue sheet. Stefaniga Road, which also had a few little climbs that hurt, was great--3.4 miles of fresh new asphalt!

I was happy to see the McDonalds on Garrisonville Road as I knew that my ride was almost over. It had been an excellent day, with great weather and comfortable riding, and I pulled into the High School at exactly 4:30 pm, as planned. This surprised me as I thought the headwind would have taken a lot of time to overcome. It is far, far harder to ride a solo century than with a group where you can rest in a paceline so I thought my 6 hours of riding was pretty respectable, particularly since I had accumulated nearly 12,000 vertical feet (3650 m) over the entire weekend of riding.

I think that as more and more subdivisions are completed and the sprawl moves even further out it will become difficult or dangerous to do this ride in a decade or so. However, between Chancellorsville and Kellys Ford there is still lovely green forested countryside and that will probably be there for the foreseeable future.

The statistics:
Distance ridden: 165 km (102 miles)
Altitude gained: 1737 m (5700 feet)
Average speed: 27.21 km/h (17 mph)
Maximum speed: 67.71 km/h (42 mph)
Riding time: 6 hours, 3 minutes
Beer consumed: switched to Indian chai iced tea given that it was very hot outside and I was alone