Hill day for Kent Hill

After yesterday's marathon hill-climbing session, riders approached today's route with some trepidation. A local resident whom Kent had ridden with on the Bike Virginia Tour suggested an alternate route that would detour around many of the steepest and longest climbs. Based on this info, the group decided to split into a mountain group and a detour group. Kent, of course, opted for the official America by Bicycle route, the one over the climbs.

I was in the climbing group also, and we headed toward our first climb. The first hill gave us a good workout, and after a quick descent we found ourselves faced with the next, and longest climb. An earlier rider had left an ominous message at the base of the hill.











It was quite an effort that brought our group, now known as "The Full Mount-y" to the top. The climb was between 10 and 14 percent for several miles, which would probably make it a ranked climb in the Tour de France. These pictures show most of our group climbing. You can almost see the sweat dripping!







Once again, everyone made it successfully over the top. Another series of descents took us to the next challenge, a one-mile stretch of wet dirt road. It was slippery, but firm, without much gravel.




We carefully negotiated the dirt, but were each quite taken aback when we passed two bikes, arranged at the side of the road at a culvert as if they were wrecked. We each first thought it was whoever was ahead of them on the descent until a closer look showed them to be just a cruel joke. Ha Ha!

Having survived the worst (maybe) of the route, we faced a new challenge. We were expecting a sag stop soon where we would rest and refuel. Unfortunately, there were two places where those two roads intersected, and the sag stop was set up at the first one, which we never went by. We entered the road about a mile up, and kept going, expecting to see the sag cars around each "next corner". We finally pulled over in the village of Antrim, and got preliminary snackage at the local market.




A series of phone calls finally brought our support to where we were, and with it the official snacks, including this donut being wolfed down by Kent.


After munching out, our tired legs felt better, and we passed through miles and miles of the beautiful New Hampshire scenery.



Our final challenge was the infamous Joe English Road hill. This is a staple of the America By Bicycle route, a final test of our mettle, our worthiness to continue on to the coast. Here, the group stops at the bottom for a picture.



It was a brutal torture test in the 91 degree heat, but we again prevailed! Several miles of rolling hills brought us into the industrial Manchester area, with all the traffic and noise we really not been missing. Tomorrow- on to the coast!!