Vermont is spelled with a capital “V”, surely no coincidence. With the loads of mountains and climbs available, it had to start with a “V”. I mean, if it was mountainous enough to draw a runaway “loose” nun who left the church for a sailor, it must be good, right? (Great nordic skiing there””Trapp Family Lodge, if you are there in the winter months as well).
Anyways, being a seventh generation “V”ermonter myself, who was raised on a family farm on Rogers’ Hill in West Newbury, VT (which was hand cleared and settled in 1763 by my G-G-G-G-G-Grandfather and still owned by my father) I have a deep love and feel for VT, liberal politics notwithstanding. So when I heard about the 200 on 100 “Dumptruck of Awesome” that was available, I just knew that I had to do it. And not only that, I knew that I had to share this beautiful “Ode to the V in Vermont” with all of my best cyber-cycling-soul mates. Okay, soul mates might be going a bit far there, but you get my meaning.
So, enough with the intro.
Break out the rollers, get on the trainers, find your winter gear; lay off the seconds, nurse that one glass of booze, hold the toasting to one drink, dodge Cupid’s chocolates and shoot the Easter Bunny because training for this bastard started yesterday and you’ll be paying for it on the 28th of June, 2012 in spades!
See you in the pre-dawn hours on the Canadian border with our eyes firmly fixed on the prize of the Massachusetts border. Let’s drive this dump truck like Mel Gibson leaving the compound in a post-apocalyptic world, baby!
Route and location details on the Cogal Event Page.
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@Ron
Pedro's levers, they're bomb proof. Never broken one even on super tough beaded mtb street tires.
@Buck Rogers
+1 Beauty.
I'm impressed there are a few readers ready to rise to Rob's Musashi bait.
@Roger
As for logistics, we are hoping to have a support vehicle on the ride that sticks with Steampunk (as they are his friends:) but you need to get to the start and get back from the finish on your own.
That is the way of the Cogals: You have a start point and a finish point and then everyone meets at a place for drinks afterward. Anything more than that is golden.
There might be more support or transport, but it is best to plan on having your own set up.
@Buck Rogers
Funny how many of us have similar backgrounds... I am a part-time taekwondo instructor and full-time student. Made it to first-degree this past year with a rank promotional testing next month. It is a great cross-training exercise for cyclists... lots of good stretching!
@Buck Rogers
Yes. Still trying to work out the details of having a former student come down and drive in support, which means we can carry some extra wheels, etc. And save folks on the road. The van won't be sticking with me, but there will be some extra fine pieces of dental floss linking my handlebars to the rear bumper, especially on the climbs. Stay tuned on that front.
I've looked at the MapMyRide site, which doesn't really give the best sense of the climbing involved. Can anyone identify the steepest hills and how steep/long they are?
Also, driver is quite interested in filming the event; he's a very talented filmmaker, so that could be neat, too.
Working out the logistics of how to manage group/groups on the road will be necessary. My sense is that in order to actually finish, we're going to need to maintain a pace of ~28kph for a very long time. That could be a big ask...
@936adl
+1 on that.
Maybe a UK cogal is in order? Has such a thing been done before?
I've only been logging on for a relatively short time but i've come across quite a few UK velominati already, and if the Aussies can do it...
@Steampunk
Will the pygmy pony and zircon encrusted tweezers be in the van?
From 100-200.org:
The route actually gets progressively harder in terms of climbing. Mt. Snow is a tough test, almost 6 km at 5 percent. You go from nearly the lowest elevation of the ride to the highest in a relatively short span.
But Eden looks like a good gun warmer, then there's some gradual decent into Waterbury, probably some great paceline kms. Then you climb out of Waterbury to the base of the Granville Gulf and then straight up over the Gulf. Then the decent back down the Gulf will be a nice reward. Then comes the real climbing.
Up Killington you go, appears to get steep towards the top. Then there's a decent hump in the short decent to the base of Terrible Mountain, a good climb in its own right. There's a decent decent down to East Jamaica, but once you get there you have the long steady climb up snow. Then a decent and some rollers to the finish.
Just be happy we aren't climbing the big gaps. That ride doesn't even count Granville Gulf as a climb, you can see it between Middleburg and Lincoln though: http://www.northeastcycling.com/six_gaps.html
Higher Resolution Mt. Snow data: http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=mppqfoqvvtmnuebd