Big climbing day

Yesterday was rough one. Probably top 3 hardest days on the bike in my time riding. We did 27 miles from Kingston to Jasper, and then came back. The route out included two category 2 climbs and some wide-open, fast descents. It was going to be an epic day.

I rode out with the fast kids and got dropped half way up the first climb. I caught them on the descent as we regrouped at the only turn of the route. We waited for some of the other kids to show up, and pacelined it across the valley flats to the bottom of the second big climb on the outward route.

The second climb wasn't bad until my bars came loose in my stem. I pulled up along Sherve, borrowed his multi-tool and kept riding while fixing the loose bolts. After I got it fixed, I attacked and dropped my group, chasing Jorgen Devon and Pat.

Once on top of the hill, we rode along the ridge and I got closer and closer to Devon on the descents, but he'd drop me on the flats. We were pretty evenly matched on the climbs. I pulled him within 15 feet on some of the big corners of the descent into Jasper. The Madone descends so well, and I got some good practice accelerating out of corners.

We refueled in Jasper and waited for some of the other kids to show up before heading back. On the climb out of Jasper I stuck with Scurvy and Rambo (a.k.a. Stovetop) for a while and then we dropped Scurvy. Stovetop and I caught Billy a little later and I won the sprint for the town at the top of the climb out of Jasper. We soon came on Burban and The Todd working on Todd's tire. It was shredded, so we kept riding and told the van to pick him up.


On the descent we dropped Stovetop, and I saw Pat sitting on one of the tight switchbacks taking pictures of people descending. He blew a tire and taco'd his wheel, so the day was finished for him. On the flats after the descent, I sat in behind Burban and we passed Kari and Megan before approaching the 2.3-mile category 1 climb.

This was the big climb of the day. I dropped Burban immediately and Stovetop quickly caught up. We rode together and found Sam (who was pretty bonked) and then my food kicked in.
I attacked and stayed away until arriving at Kingston again. The rolling hills on top of the big climb were brutal, but I descended as fast as I could and kept it in the big ring the entire time atop the mountain. With enough food, I was feeling good. I knew there was one more small climb into Kingston, so I used my Gu and stayed ahead of Stovetop. It was a good day.

I was fried last night and we returned to Wes's BBQ for dinner. I had a double bacon cheeseburger and some fries. Then I had a BBQ chicken sandwich. And two sodas. Awesome!

Today we're going mountain biking all day. Metal.