day 3: 5/28

Today was the second day of the trip. 

Before the ride, Backroads had organized a yoga class @7:00am. Stu, Walter and I went. I need to do more yoga.

We began the ride at the hotel and did part of a loop called the Gran Fondo Switchback Challenge. The route takes us north into North Carolina.

There is a segment on "hard packed dirt". We beg to differ. It was gravel on top of hard packed dirt. It was not fun. I don't understand the appeal of gravel grinding or the spring classics on cobbles. Amazingly, there are tours that you can pay to go on that will take you on cobbles.

Here's Mike and Stu up ahead. It is hard to believe I didn't fall off my bike trying to take this picture.

Mike got a flat from a slow leak and we are pretty sure it came from this stretch of road. Luckily, we were right by the support van so our guide swapped out the wheel. I wish I had taken a picture of that.

We arrived at a town called Saluda for lunch. Some of the riders had lunch, turned around and went home.  We decided to do at least some of the Gran Fondo Switchback Challenge route. Walter had gone ahead once when we had stopped so when we got to Saluda, he had already left with Kelly, a strong rider from Hattiesburg, MS. Mike, Stu and I had arranged with the guides to skip some of the ride and to shuttle to the end of the loop and do the 17 switchbacks back to Saluda.

Here are the data from the morning's ride before we got into the van: https://www.strava.com/activities/2404940789

I hadn't taken a picture of the bike before, so here it is at the lunch stop in Saluda. It is a titanium frame from some manufacturer in Europe with a carbon fork and Backroads slaps their stickers on it. They are equipped with a rack and a bag that I took off yesterday and never put back on. The drivetrain is full Ultegra Di2. It is the first time I have used Di2 and it takes a little getting used to. On more than on occasion, I went down when I meant to go up and up when I wanted to go down. But it is effortless compared with mechanical Ultegra.

At the endpoint of the loop, we got back on our bikes to do the rest of the Gran Fondo route. Walter and Kelly went ahead while Mike and I fiddled with our computers and our tour guide Kayla fixed that flat.

Stu decided to skip the climb because he had some issue going on with his foot. He took the van back to Saluda but rode from Saluda back to the hotel.

Because Walter had at least a 20 minute head start, we never caught him so Mike and I rode together. When we got to the base of the climb, we did what Mike always says: "climb at your own speed". His climbing speed is much faster than mine so after about a half dozen switchbacks, he glanced down, I saw him look down and gave him a thumbs up. It's a good thing he never saw me after that because I probably wouldn't have been able to take my hands off the handlebars to give him a thumbs up or anything else.

Here is the view from the top of the 17 switchbacks. I took a selfie as proof but I will spare you that since that ruins the view.

We arrived at Saluda to have lunch. By that time, everyone else in our group had headed back except Walter, Kelly, and his wife. Kelly and his wife (the only one riding an ebike on this trip) left and then the three of us rode back.

The return brings us back into South Carolina.

The route included some nice descents and one long climb back to the hotel. Some of the group were out at the pool and cheered us in. Amazing how much that helped.

Here are the data from the second part of the day: https://www.strava.com/activities/2405025604