RR: Counting Coupe

[andy aka rut]

I met up with Fuzzy John (Sho-Air) and my roommate for a ride. Our original goal was to do the CC.
We left the cars at 9:30 heading up Blackstar. At Beak's Place the bikes were almost parallel to the ground-the ice cold wind was howling! We time ourselves on a regular basis to the golf ball. With the high winds we were a little off track.
It was now time to climb the 3 b!tches. Man those were extremely tough in the winds. I had a base layer, 2 jerseys, arm warmers and a jacket. My nipples were piercing through all of them. Brrrrrrr. We arrived at the top of Motorway in a little less than 2 hours. Not quite when we wanted, but we are training, right?
Scott (roommate) and I were worked, but we decided to press on to the end of the blacktop on Maple Springs. The winds were minimal compared to the Main Divide, but the black ice was on every water crossing. We passed a few riders coming down and even caught a few climbing. One looked like OCRider, but it wasn't him. Anyway, we got to the top of the pavement and my roommate decided to bail out. I should have joined him, but I "pushed" on. For those of you that don't know Fuzzy, he is really fast. He finished 6th in the VQ last year and he was on a rigid singlespeed. Yeah, really fast. Fuzzy would wait for me every couple miles. We finally made it to the top of 4 corners.
I couldn't stop, if I did I would have cramped up and died.
The winds to the peaks sucked balls. Doing the descent to the Joplin trail we had to pedal the whole way down. If we stopped pedaling, we stopped moving. Sucked balls! The first switchback to the peak had a headwind that would have tipped over a semi. I looked down at the GPS unit to see I was climbing at 1mph. I'm surprised it wasn't reading feet per hour. Oh it was so painful and of course freezing cold.
We finally made it to upper Holy Jim (there is no snow on the back side of the peak.) Fuzzy and I found a spot out of the wind and enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Soon we felt our fingers and toes again. Upper Holy Jim was in great shape. Soon we were on Holy Jim. Man, that trail is FAST! The trail was cleaned recently by the Warrior's Society (myself included.) There are sections of the trail that you can see pretty far ahead and you can really rip.
We finally made it to the trailhead and started the long ride back to cars at Blackstar. I was out of water, out of gu's and out of energy.
We ended up going to Wahoo's for some grub. Best food I have ever had.

[Geronimo]

That ride sounds insane. Literally. Pushing on through the wind and cold takes alot of commitment. Congrats on finishing in those conditions.

[Keith B]

......2hours from the start to top of Motorway (?!!!!!!!) Or 2 hours from the ball/blob to Motorway?

[andy aka rut]

Originally Posted by Keith B

......2hours from the start to top of Motorway (?!!!!!!!) Or 2 hours from the ball/blob to Motorway?

Sorry Keith, but it was just under an hour to the ball/blob from the gate and 1hr 56 min from the gate to the top of Motorway. Come join us some time!

[Pain Freak]

Nice job Andy and better story, I was feeling the pain just sitting here (maybe I need to find another sitting position?)

[Sprockethead]

Nice report Andy, that ride didn't sound fun at all. Making it to the top of the Motorway in under 2 hrs, wow, you guys are fast!

[Kid A]

Ole chit man, Crazy fast time for those conditions!!!! Congrats for time and completing

we rode b-star on saturday and wind was pretty strong. almost got thrown a few times by turns around first cow catcher. think first time i have ever had to drop gears on decent to mash through head on wind (f'n nuts).

btw- is fuzzy the rider with the hella long beard. saw some guy riding with OCrider on b-star as well on saturday (maybe not same guy)

[andy aka rut]

Originally Posted by Kid A

btw- is fuzzy the rider with the hella long beard. saw some guy riding with OCrider on b-star as well on saturday (maybe not same guy)

thanks guys! My goal is to be top 25 in the VQ/top 10 on the singlespeed. It's going to be a tough one.

Kid A- yeah that's Fuzzy. He is really cool and crazy fast.

[pshloss]

I think Fuzz passed me about 3 times in the 6 hours of OC. Dude was flying as part of a 2-person team, I think.

[Abui]

Originally Posted by andy aka rut

thanks guys! My goal is to be top 25 in the VQ/top 10 on the singlespeed. It's going to be a tough one.

Kid A- yeah that's Fuzzy. He is really cool and crazy fast.

Different degress of toughness, from 2006 VQ:
Top 25 = 7:18 !
Top 10SS = 8:41

[andy aka rut]

Originally Posted by trekker

Different degress of toughness, from 2006 VQ:
Top 25 = 7:18 !
Top 10SS = 8:41

No doubt there Trekker. I hope to be finishing in 6-6.5hrs. There are a ton of ss'ers this year and I know of at least 5 that can consistently beat me. There have to be a ton that I don't know. With that in mind, I hope to finish top 10 in the singlespeed division. This will be the 6th time I've done the VQ and I think I have finished outside the top 25 once. I hope to get back in. :-)
I've been training 4-5 days a week and plan on doing the Old Pueblo race as well as the Fontana events coming up. On a side note I actually didn't "train" today. I played over at San Juan Trail. Added the back loop in and found the love and joy of biking again. That single track is too much fun!!!