Vote for Pedro!

This past weekend I was honored to be invited to represented Pedro's at the Rapha Northeast Gentleman's Race. Pedro's is a bicycle accessory company that supports a ton of grassroots cycling programs, including For Galilee Cycles. The Gentleman's Race is an unsanctioned race on supremely difficult courses. Teams of six go off in handicapped intervals with the first team to cross the line is the winner, even if they left before other teams. This years edition was in northwestern Connecticut on beautiful roads, both paved and dirt.

Pedro's put together a stellar team and we were pretty confident we could win the race. Only dramatic events would stop us. And they did. The dirt roads proved too much for seven of our tires. Yes, we had seven flat tires. Six regular clinchers, and the last, a tubular 100 miles into the ride that we couldn't repair. That was technically the end of the race for us. It was striking how many different styles of dirt roads we could ride on. Some were smooth, some had stutter bumps, some were gravelly, some were really rocky, some were nearly un-rideable. One dirt road was 45 minutes of riding up Mt. Riga. Right after we came down through Bash-Bish Falls, we went up another brutal climb that was nearly a half-hour, with twenty minutes on dirt.

The bottom line of the ride was to have fun and ride with some friends for a long time. We built bonds of friendship through suffering - for seven hours or ride time. It was over 10,000 feet of climbing. I burned 4,500 calories during the ride. Whoa.

At the top of the second longest climb of the day, about 80 miles in.

You did what?

Hold me back, cuz!