Asheville North Carolina - Training Trip

Asheville - Highlights and ride graphs.
We were short this year of our miles from years past. This was more or less because as the week dragged on, we all became very tired of riding in the rain and in the path of wheel/tire spit. My bike clothes, even after two washes still have sparkly bits in them from the granite in the road burrowing into my socks, knee warmers, bibs and rain jacket. The rain itself was not an issue, the temperature was in the high 50's or low/mid 60's most of the days, which made the riding less painful in the wet. We started out Wed, with a group of 17 riders to Marshall. Thursday rolled around, 15 riders. Friday was about 12, Saturday about 8 or so and Sunday a meek 5. I went to go ride, no matter the conditions. There were some disappointments of last minute cancellations, but no skin off my back really, their loss, next year I am getting deposits I think from everyone interested in going. Many of us burned through at least one set of front and rear brake pads, which was quite amazing, considering all the downhill we did in the rain. I can't believe how fast that rubber burns up in the rain on downhills at 45 miles per hour. We did have some new additions to the group this year. A few more women. Laura, Amy, Ginger, Alicia, Cara. Rock star awards go to Ginger and Laura and Alicia for making the climb up Mt. Psgiah (151). Super Rock star award to Alicia for being the only woman to continue on & join us on the hatelful / hurtful day to Hot Springs and back. Ben B., Ben A, Layne, Tim S., the OSU Wood Bros., Danimal, Glen G., and Marty, rounded out the boys. We all rode very well as a big group on Wednesday. I was impressed with everyone and their fitness. We all got on very well and didn't have too many issues. We did run into a few bumps waiting on some people and some mis-communication and lack of acurate people counts when we stopped at one point Friday. The weather was not nice, it was cold and windy and frustrating for some that turned around and went back to the warm and toasty hotel.
The hotel was amazing, perfect and super swanky. They treated all like rock stars and even got cleaning towels out and a hose for us to clean our bikes every day.

Miles - 215 Climbing - about 20,000 feet Total Rides - 5 Total Rides in the rain - 4 Near Accidents - 1 (a shoe slipped out, while rider was near the yellow and an on coming car). Flat tires - 3 My total Calories Burned (kj) - 19,514
Group sets of Brake pads burned through - 8

Sunday at the 7:30 a.m. wake up call, the sun was creeping into our room. Wow, it was like I just got transported to the beach. We could see the beautiful mountains in all their glory and beauty - finally. It was going to be a good ride. We had 5 show up in the lobby for the last official ride. Tim and I decided to re-route the ride and hit up Elk Mountain Road, to the BlueRidge Parkway, to Town Mountain Road for the superfast finish back into town. It was a great hurtful 5 miles of climbing after our short warm up out of town.