Offroad Assault on Mount Mitchell

The Conclusion

It was a brutal ride, and I had a tough time of it on the singlespeed, but even now on my first day back at work, I look over at my bike i rode to work today and wish I was out on it instead of in here 'working'. I want even more wind blowing in my face and I want to feel some agony and I want to fly down a mountain and I want to ride and push my bike alongside other people feeling the same pain as me. When I first finished and for a day after, I really questioned my decision to ride the thing on a singlespeed bike, but now, only two days later, I think I would do it again the same way. Maybe i will ride gears next time, but I am not worrying about it right now. And when it gets down to it, I made it through and I enjoyed myself. My accomplishment was greater this way in my mind.

Lessons and Confimations

• I am not fast and i will probably never be. Maybe if I really trained and focused on it, but that takes the fun away from it for me, so I will probably just keep on and let my strength grow from consistency and longevity instead of focused training.
• Perhaps I need to take Mitchell more seriously. Staying up until 2am drinking beer and whiskey with the guys may be fun and all, but when waking up at 5am to get ready for a long day of brutal riding, sleep may have been a better choice. (But then again, I did still finish....)
• Singlespeed riding is fun, but when the point of a ride/race is to challenge the riders with excessive climbing up mountains to the point where the total elevation climbed is one of the main advertising points for the ride, maybe a geared bike would be appropriate. Then again, my main problem was getting tired trying to grunt up miles and miles at a time. So I would stop and rest or push my bike for a while. Maybe I need to train more on mountains if I intend to race my bike on mountains.
• There is this guy who lives in NC named Rich (aka., Team Dicky) who is a monster on a bike.
• Fast guys get done faster, but I get more bang for my buck. For my money, I got to spend 10 and 1/2 hours on the course while some guys only got half that time. Of course, a couple of guys got there money refunded for being so fast. I guess that's fair.
• Asheville always has a high temp of 79 degrees, strawberries grow all year there, and according to Fred, Wednesdays are always shirt-optional for all women. And there is also a great selection of beer in that town.
• Ensure does not work as well for me as I had hoped. And ORAMM is not that best venue to try out new stuff to eat.
• Vienna Sausages, on the other hand, are a miracle food.
• Slamming a Red Bull 5 minutes before the start is not advisable either.
• I need to take mini-vacations more often.
• Ergon Enduro grips do feel pretty good.
• I think I would like to have disc brakes next year.
• Fred and Libby are great people to road trip with. They move about my speed and with similar motivation. And Fred is good about keeping everyone updated about the status of the Tour de France.
• Bent Creek is a super fun place to ride just outside of Asheville. Thanks to Libby, I got to know it pretty well (at least the one loop and nearby trails).
• Yeungling isn't considered a premium beer in NC, but it is still one of the best anywhere.
• For anyone who wants to see a good example of an "ugly american", go visit Gatlinburg and see how many people spend their free time and vacation dollars. It is a a place in the mountains for people to get away from real life and waste their money.
• Every mountain town in America that is even slightly tourist oriented has several Pancake restaurants.
• The blue ridge parkway is not a very safe place to ride a bicycle.
• The blue ridge parkway has a fun descent.
• Next time I am going to get a subway sandwich to pack and eat in the middle of a long ride.
• Ivan is country strong.
• Ellsworth should pay Chris Wilkins to test bikes for them.
• Todd Branham is a masochist.
• Bruce Dickman is a generous person and a great guy to have around at events like ORAMM.
• Stranahans makes good whiskey.
• Lynskey makes pretty bikes.
• Justin is a tough mofo.
• Thad is fast and strong and knows how to track down good cabins.
• Eli can ride a long time.
• The beer team is the toughest team out there. With 11 starting snake creek in March and 8 lining up for ORAMM, we easily had the best team showing at two of the hardest events in the Southeast.