Tuesday, January 1, 2008

 

The pace was 22-23 mph but the pace line made that an easy speed to hold. It had not started to rain yet, but the sky north (which I kept peeking at) was ominously dark. We saw Kate at Stateline. Jim and I wisely did not contest the "Stateline sprint."

Things changed quickly...

Coming through the 9W Nyack hills the pace popped up a bit and the rain started coming down. We went through the 9W jughandle in Nyack and once turning back onto 9W the rain was torrential and the wind was right on top of it. Jim and I both brought rain jackets but nobody slowed to put them on and neither of us wanted to lose contact with the field so we kept on going.

The field split into two at this time - Scot, Aaron and Chris took off, leaving Jim, Dave from Sid's, a Centerbridge rider and a rider in a full tri setup. Passing Toga in Nyack you could not see the road from all the spray. Dave wisely abandoned.

With about 5 miles to Bear, the two other riders took off and alas, Jim and I had the road all to ourselves. We climbed up to Bear Mountain and the weather turned even nastier - keep in mind that from Nyack to Bear it was POURING RAIN, but now air turned colder and it began to sleet.

 

Fingers and toes were no longer factors and I was never so happy to be 15 lbs. overweight. Jim, with his ridiculously low body fat percentage had to be dying in the cold. I'd call it 35 degrees, sleeting and windy. Due to the fog and delirium of the cold we initially missed the turn off to the climb up to the Inn, but a kind park ranger staring at us incredulously from her warm cruiser pointed us in the right direction.

We arrived at the Inn to find Aaron and Chris standing under the awning of the CLOSED FOR RENOVATION Bear Mountain Inn. They were shivering, putting on rain jackets (of course, let's put them on NOW) and getting some food in them. Aaron said that they had arrived five minutes earlier, that Scot had a flat earlier and that they had not seen Centerbridge and tri rider.

I took out some food, a camera (with no one to sign the card I wanted photographic proof) and my rain jacket (see snarky comment above). I was completely wet from head to toe, shivering like I never have been, could barely speak (yes, I know - a Godsend), and, all kidding aside, really concerned that hypothermia was setting in.

The worst part of the ride up were the downhills. With no energy being produced by my legs it was like being in a wind chill deep freezer. I have no idea what the real feel is, but do the math, soaking wet, 35 degrees, headwind and descending at 20+ miles per hour. At one point my water bottle froze to my cage. I had to pry it loose. Jim and I ate some food real quick, slapped on the rain jackets and got the heck outta there.

The climb up and out of Bear Mountain was really hard. I couldn't stop from shaking uncontrollably, my feet and hands were gone. I assumed they were where they were supposed to be, as they were then, when I looked down - wow, shockingly awkward sentence. Jim and I both agreed that we needed to stay near each other (we had been yo-yo-ing up and down the road) as a mechanical in these conditions would be lights out for the poor schlub and his punctured tire.

In Tomkins Cove we stopped in a little deli for hot coffee, some food and a bathroom break. We dripped so much on the floor that the owner began to follow us around with a mop and a grimace. The bad thing about that stop (no more than 15 minutes) was that we became just warm enough to feel the cold again when we headed back out.

 

For those playing the home game, it had been pouring rain from Nyack to Bear and now back down again. But the good news is that when we came to the 9W left turn just south of Haverstraw the rain stopped and it warmed up a bit. I actually felt pretty good.

The ride home is always faster (perspective I guess) and Jim and I attempted to keep a solid pace. The fact that we were heading home helped us to pick it up a bit and while the hills of Nyack and 9W were troublesome they were as difficult as one expects with about 70 miles of softening up beforehand, it was never Nuclear Bad - just really, really hard. Nothing quite like pushing 270 watts going 7.6 MPH uphill.

 

Coming into the city, we were d-o-n-e. Put a fork in us. We headed back over to St. Nicholas Avenue and took Fifth Avenue South. Mother Nature always has the last laugh as we had a headwind all the way home to Engineers' Gate.

Arriving there, we were greeted by Jack, Alex and Tamara. I was more tired than I expected and I guess being done with the ride causes it all to crash down around you. Jack had hot chocolate and sandwiches waiting for us. Jimmy looked like he just finished Paris-Roubaix with his dirty face. I just looked like I got hit in the face with a shovel - a big, wet, windy, hilly shovel. It was rather fun sitting on the bench covered in muck and dirt, having all the tourists staring at us.

It was a good day

I apologize in advance for any sloppy writing above, but I had to bang this out quick before I get sucked into the gravitational pull of the couch.

B,

 

More photos from the finish below, we waited until 2:05 PM but nobody else showed.