The Epic "Vermont Six Gap" ride

I woke up on a Friday morning and headed west. I had 450 miles to get to Vermont where I was meeting Marko and Brendan from Connecticut and Scott from Serotta in New York. We all converged on Branbury State Park to camp. The drive was nice through Maine and New Hampshire and of course Vermont doesn't do anything but beautiful. The campsite was set up on a hill with a rock cliff back drop and a small waterfall feeding a stream that ran next to camp. After a great taco dinner and socializing we retired to our tents to sleep four hours before doing the hardest ride any of us had ever attempted.

Last lobster rolls before rolling out of Maine. : (

 

Morning rollout on the hardest ride of our lives

It all started out pretty enough but the first of the 6 mountains was at mile three. The second and most severe was at mile 26. At mile 29 Lincoln Gap pitched up to an average of around 18% for a mile. It became so difficult that we all were tacking back and forth across the road just to stay upright. I was only turning the pedals at 45 rpm which is half the normal cadence. Therein lies the rub. I was putting out almost my maximum 20 minute wattage for 21 minutes but pedaling so slowly that it was agony and the lactic acid built up so bad in my muscles that they were screaming at me to stop. I convinced myself to keep going 100 feet at a time. When I finally reached the top where my stronger friends were waiting for me I was cooked and I still had 100 miles and 10,000 feet of climbing to go. It was going to be a long day. It was so hard, I failed to take pictures. Later someone commente on Strava that it wasn't that hard of a ride based on the numbers and it is true that I have done many rides that were longer and had more climbing but none of them had Lincoln Gap. That climb will always be remembered as the one that set a new level of suffering against which all other climbs will be compared.

At mile 70 we stopped for a well deserved lunch and rest. Scott looks ready for both. These guys were a real treat to ride with and it makes me miss my boys all the more.

Brendan was amazing. He did this ride in denim capri riding pants. He floated up the mountains on wings.

I saw this view alot when I was close enough.

Another mountain to climb.

And another

And another still

And one more.

At the end of the last climb we found renewed strength and raced to the bottom in a fast two man pace line and I even ended up on the first page on the descent on Strava for the first time all day. After a quick sprint up the hill to the campsite we all headed across the road to swim in a beautiful lake to cool off and rinse away the days grime. It was  a great accomplishment but there was little time to celebrate as the next day I jumped in the Prius and drove 510 miles back to Waterloo Ontario on my way to Georgian Bay.