We have certainly been cursed by Aeolus, the God of the Winds, but on the other hand, at least it wasn’t raining – yet. Anytime you spend over 7 hours in the saddle (moving time), it is a long day. Today we were closer to 8 hours given the block headwind coming from the East. Now it also looks like things might be shaping up for an epic finish on Monday with a wicked Nor’easter coming into the Boston area this weekend! I’ll refrain from speculating on the weather for now – we can’t control it anyway. But today was a tough ride.
Once again we had to order breakfast from the menu at the Hilton Garden Inn in Corning so we started a little later. Our route today was 101 miles with over 6,000 feet of elevation gain. So, we rolled out at 7:45 AM sharp with the sun straining to shine over the mountain ridges and warm up the 42 degree air temperature. Mornings like this always present you with a dilemma – with a fairly big climb coming up just 4 miles into the ride, do I dress for warmth now and do I go with less with the expectation that the climbing will warm me up quickly? For me, I had on my bibs, arm warmers and leg warmers and full fingered riding gloves, windbreaker and a headband that covered my ears. At the end of the day, I had shed the gloves for the fingerless type along with the headband and windbreaker. The descents with fewer layers are just too cold for me so I was expecting to shed layers as the day got older.
The first few climbs weren’t too bad but it usually takes me 8-10 miles to get back my legs into riding mode. The good news was that most of the climbing was to be done within the first 50 miles of the ride. We made it to the first SAG stop in Watkins Glen feeling pretty good but with some steeper climbs just down the road. Our guides did a great job today with 2 road closure detours, the 2nd and last of which was at our lunch stop near Ithaca, NY at mile 53. Ithaca seems like the college town that it is with the highly esteemed Ivy League school of Cornell University and Ithaca College nearby. One of our riders, Matt G. went to Cornell and took a detour down memory lane through the campus.
But, only 90 minutes or so into the ride, as the sun got maybe 30-40 degrees above the horizon, the winds kicked in and stayed with us the rest of the way into Brewster, NY. It is pretty demoralizing to be pushing hard and getting only 11-13 mph with that wind roar in your ears. So we tried to keep our paceline intact when we were off the climbs as we can make better time taking turns breaking the wind. I will say that we also seemed to have some angry drivers today. Maybe it was because in some areas the shoulders were narrow or non-existent. We all got buzzed a few times during the ride, and some of the worst seemed to be the truckers along the route. But, the farmers always gave us some grace as they worked their tractors in and out of the corn and hayfields today. New Yorkers are famous for their ill-mannered temperaments, but the people who make their living in the NY farmlands seem the exact opposite.
With a final SAG stop at mile 77, we had just 24 miles to reel in to make it to the Brewster Inn. At mile 94 we had one final climb of 1.4 miles and 400 feet or so oelevation gain. Having climbed almost 5,800 feet at that point, I was dragging a little as we crested the final hill. The climbs combined with the nagging headwinds today put us at 7 hours and 48 minutes in the saddle – and my Strava app indicates 4,792 calories burned. I don’t know how accurate that figure is but I surely at a lot at our group dinner this evening at the Inn.
Hopefully tomorrow’s ride should be a little more bearable. It looks like the wind won’t be as bad right now and we’re scheduled for 92 miles and 3,700 feet of elevation gain as we head out of Brewster for Piseco, NY. It’ll be our coldest morning yet, so I’ll be bundled up again. But the fatigue is real.
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