The Missus and I have always made a point to celebrate birthdays with the celebrant selecting the dinner meal. Due to school, work, sports schedules, and day of the week, the gathering was often held on a different day either before or after the actual birth date. Not quite an unbirthday but not the real date either. This time it was the Missus’ birthday that was celebrated late but the meal prepared by the boy child was worth the wait. The only preference provided was a juicy meat with a sauce. Apparently, it was sufficient guidance as once again, the 3-course meal was exquisite. The appetizer was home-made amaranth crackers and toasted, sliced baguette bread with white fish, white beans, and sumac dip. The first course was a scrumptious turnip greens salad with walnuts, cherries, and an orange vinaigrette. The main course was roasted duck breast with cherry sauce, green beans with duck egg aioli, wild rice, and sweet potato biscuits. Dessert was a very tasty chocolate pots de crème. He never ceases to amaze me with his culinary creativity. Many of his dishes require multiple steps or even days of preparation before serving.

Added a new fruit flavor to the list of muffins: pear and walnut. Took a few liberties with the recipe based upon my vast (nearly yearlong) muffin baking experience. Used a combination of bartlett and Anjou (red) pears. Didn’t realize peeled pears are a little slimy. Fun fact: pear skin has double the amount of fiber compared to a similar sized apple. Also added butter and more wheat flour than called for in the recipe. Yogurt was called for but couldn’t find pear yogurt although both Yoplait and Tillamook (never heard of) make it according to a Google search. Used plain Greek yogurt instead. Recipe also called for putting the walnuts in a food processor but didn’t want walnut dust. Started with walnut nuggets and used a rolling pin over the bag to break them up a little but not pulverize them. Tasted pretty good.

First post in many months. Not really a case of writer’s block but as time passed, just seemed a little daunting to cover all of the things that continued to happen in my world of cycling and food. I can say without any reservations that 2021 is a year of bikes and muffins. Why is that? Well, I’ve added three bikes to the stable without retiring any existing one. First bike purchased was a new, primary road bike – a Cannondale Hi-Mod SuperSix E-TAP (SRAM Red 12-speed) Disc. Quite the challenge to find kits, helmet and shoes to match the lavender but I managed. Second bike took up permanent residence in our Florida vacation home so I’m no longer forced to drive with my bike if I want to ride while spending some time in the sunshine state. There weren’t any Cannondale’s available so now I have a Wilier Cento 10 SL (red/black) with Ultegra Di2, ENVE Foundation 65 wheels, and Quarq power meter. The color scheme was much easier to accommodate. Finally, I’ve wanted to dip my toes in the gravel world but had my sites only on the Cannondale Topstone. Finding one was a long-time coming. First, Cannondale shuffled their line-up and the 2020 model (Topstone Carbon with SRAM Force E-TAP) wasn’t available in 2021. The only E-TAP model in 2021 was the Lefty. Eventually found a Topstone Carbon 5 in California (thought I had one from North Carolina but that fell through) and had it shipped to me. Had the local bike shop swap out the Shimano Ultegra GRX mechanical drivetrain for SRAM Force AXS E-TAP (12-speed). It’s a rather fetching shade of dark purple. Photos are posted on the Bikes I Ride page.

Needless to say, I’ve had ample opportunity to ride all three bikes this year. While CV-19 has once again eliminated most racing opportunities (I refuse to enter Criteriums), nearly every organized ride on my wish list was held. Some events had rather anemic rest stop offerings but I usually carry my favorite stuff. The plan was to add new states to the list of places I’ve cycled and even a new country – Canada. My list of planned events through August are listed below:

Gran Fondo FL

long weekend in Asheville, NC

Redbud Ride – London, KY

Ocean to Bay Century – Fenwick Island, DE

Six Pillars Century – Cambridge, MD

Agony in the Alleghenies – Covington, VA

Tour de Madison – Syria, VA

Storming of Thunder Ridge – Lynchburg, VA

Horsey Hundred – Georgetown, KY

Triple Peak Gran Fondo – Winchester, VA

Phoenix Challenge Skyline Double Century – Front Royal, VA

Loudoun 1725 Gravel Grinder – Middleburg, VA

Absolutely Beautiful Country Ride – Copley, OH

Gran Fondo National Championship – Asheville, NC

Bike to Beach (Autism Awareness) – DC to Dewey Beach, DE

Teeuwen Memorial/VA Age-Graded TT Championship – Chesapeake, VA

Reston Bike Club Century – Reston, VA

The year started with a couple of stays at our FL vacation house. The first trip was with the Missus while the second trip I hosted another rider from the same local bike club. The second trip lead to my first Gran Fondo experience. Who even knew there was a San Antonio, FL? If you’ve never participated in one, the format is a little different from a USA Cycling sanctioned race and an organized full or metric century ride. There are multiple distances offered with various names and distances but the Gran Fondo is always the longest distance. Regardless of the distance, the event has time sections. Overall and age-group placings are determined by the cumulative time completing the timed sections. The overall time required to cover the entire distance is not a factor. As a result of the format, placing well is significantly influenced by the strength of the group of riders around you. A strong group enables a fast time over the timed segment while saving energy due to the benefits of drafting. Granted, hilly or climbing timed sections greatly reduce the drafting affect. Unless the entire timed section is a climb, a strong group still offers energy saving opportunities because you can hide from the wind and practice wheel sucking skills. On the other hand, you could be one of the stronger riders in the group and do a majority of the pace setting or pulling while the group follows in your slipstream. Certainly not the optimal scenario. Surprisingly the FL Gran Fondo route had over 3500 feet of climbing in just under 96 miles. The elevation was predominantly rollers but still more than expected. Probably more surprising was doing well enough in my age category to qualify for the National Championship category at the Asheville Gran Fondo in July.

Most of the organized rides were new ones for me but there were also a few repeat rides. Did add a new state to the list. Actually spent two different weekends in Kentucky riding the full century one day and the metric version the following day. Too much time has passed to summarize each event but I enjoyed most of them. The only ride on the list that was canceled was the Solstice Ride. It’s a 3-day event from Westport, CT to Montreal in Quebec, Canada. It covers 400 miles and 22,000 feet of climbing. Another victim of Covid as the Canadian border was still closed in mid-June. It’s on my list for 2022. Had a blast in Asheville and riding Mount Mitchell and stopping at George Hincapie’s hotel. Thunder Ridge on the Blue Ridge Parkway was cool but the climbs in the Triple Peak Gran Fondo and Skyline Double Century were brutal. Even managed a trip to visit my parents while also completing a new century. Unfortunately, it rained for most of the ride. The only sanctioned race was the Teeuwen Memorial TT. It was the first time back on the TT bike outside and first TT event since the unfortunate incident with a guardrail back in 2019. Finished first in my 5-year age group (3rd in the standard 10-year age group). Won’t dwell on the fact I thought the distance was 20K, not nearly 21 miles. Reading is fundamental and I epically failed on that one. Summary totals for the events include 1,961 miles and 126,346 feet of climbing.

The next cycling adventure is on the Great Lakes Seaway Trail along the eastern part of Lake Erie and much of Lake Ontario. My sister is providing SAG support and my parents volunteered to come along as well. The plan is to provide daily reports of that trip so stay tuned and come back in September.

Now for the year in muffins.

Muffin baking took on a life of its own this year. What started as a fun hobby turned into just a bit of an obsession. Searching the web for new recipes consumed just a bit of time during the evening hours. Even encouraged the participation from the Missus and children by picking new flavors. Amazingly, didn’t make a bad batch – except for the time I left the melted butter in the microwave. The key is finding a good recipe but made several adjustments along the way: adding matching flavored yogurt makes a difference; most recipes don’t include enough fruit; substitute half oil ingredient with apple sauce; cream cheese filling can be included in many flavors; if milk called for, can use skim, whole, buttermilk or even half-n-half and heavy whipping cream. Interestingly, can’t always find canned pumpkin and fresh rhubarb has a very small availability window. Now have quite the collection of muffin tins: large, standard, mini, and square but the preferred size is the large tins. Even included a couple of gluten free flavors. Below is a list of flavors made:

Apple cinnamon

Banana – with either walnuts, chocolate chip, or peanut butter chip

Blackberry

Blueberry

Bran – with raisins

Carrot cake

Cheesecake-stuffed French toast

Cherry almond

Chocolate – with chocolate chips and or peanut butter chips

Cinnamon crumb cake

Cranberry orange with glaze

Gluten free cinnamon raisin

Gluten free blueberry

Gluten free chocolate chip

Gluten free Nutella

Ham and cheese

Hearty ham and cheddar cornbread

Lemon poppy seed

Mincemeat*

Nutella

Nutella-stuffed cinnamon sugar

Pumpkin and cream cheese with pecan streusel

Peach streusel

Peanut butter

Pear and walnut*

Raspberry streusel

Sour cream and chives

Strawberry oatmeal

Strawberry rhubarb

Whole wheat, oatmeal, and raisin

* haven’t made yet but on the list

Also had a minor family celebration as we all sat down together for dinner in early May for the first time in over a year. To commemorate the occasion, we had suckling pig with homemade apple and raisin stuffing with roasted parsnips, fondant potatoes, and creamed spinach. Desert was a gin and tonic loaf.

The summer is winding down with Labor Day nearly upon us but I have one last cycling adventure just around the corner. I’ll be able to add another state to the places I’ve cycled and scratch the itch of my inner pharologist. Stay tuned if interested…

Time to hang a new calendar, which still depicts lighthouses from around the world, on the bulletin board but the days don’t feel much different. CV-19 is still running rampant: VA is reporting over 5000 new cases a day; a new variant was discovered in the UK and subsequently reported in 9 states; vaccinations are now available for identified populations any may be available to all by late spring/early summer. The political world has truly run off the tracks with absurdities and inane statements from all sides but don’t even get me started on that mess. My only comment is, now let’s see what Team Donkey can do since they won.

The cycling world is trying to recover – held the 3 grand tours over a condensed and shifted timeline but several postponed one day Spring Classic events were cancelled. The traditional first stage race of the season, Tour Down Under 2021, is the first victim of the new year. Still unclear what the 2021 local USA Cycling season will look like. The current calendar of events is filled with blank pages. On the positive side, many recreational, charity, and other cycling events are being advertised and planned. We’ll see.

Established many cycling personal records in 2020 but only one was really performance related – just lots of time spent on the saddle peddling away: Total miles 15,626 miles (10,319 in real life); 814 hours (551 IRL); 652,290 ft of climbing (487,297 IRL); longest single ride 150 miles, 9:05, 13,665 ft of elevation; new locations of Mississippi, Washington, and Idaho, and two cycling trips; Bicycle Adventures Epic Empire Builder (Seattle, WA to Glacier National Park, MT – 9 days, 759 miles in just under 45 hours and climbing 39,475 ft); Natchez Traces Parkway (Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN – 4 days, 446 miles in 23.5 hours with 13, 832 ft of climbing). Unable to better 40K TT effort of 57:05 set in June and FTP continued a downward slide as there wasn’t much structure to the riding for the last half of the year. Although did start the Zwift 4 Week FTP Booster on Christmas Eve, again. Completed in back in the fall of 2018. FTP was about 25 watts higher then and found the workouts were exhausting. Not enough recovery days and just shredded the legs. Only improved 3-4 watts over the 4 weeks. Starting with a lower FTP this time, and finding the workouts far more manageable and not as difficult. Complicating the picture though is a 3x/week leg exercise routine (3 sets of 15 jump squats, left leg fwd lunges, right leg fwd lunges, and squats with 25-lb dumbbells). Haven’t increased sets, reps, or weight over past several weeks but still experience quad DOMs after every session. Legs feel thick and out-of-saddle climbing is very uncomfortable the day after. Following the Boost, will borrow from 2018 and 2019 training plans developed by a teammate who is currently posting incredible power numbers at a lower weight than previous years. Would be great to capture some of that power magic.

This past fall, spent fair bit of time in the kitchen improving baking skills – mostly breads and cakes. The Missus did her yearly Christmas cookie extravaganza at a slightly lower output. Even so, have to spend a bit more time in the saddle to work off the few additional pounds gained enjoying the following products.

The Missus’ Christmas Cookie portfolio

Time rolls on. Autumn is in full swing: leaves are beginning to turn and create their postcard worthy landscapes, daylight hours continue their downward crawl, cooler temps are here to stay, and daylight savings time ends in a couple of weeks. In normal times, not ready to label CV-19 influenced environment the new normal yet, outdoor rides will shortly be relegated to predominately weekend affairs. Length of long rides decrease and hover around the metric century mark. Often a time to reflect on the previous cycling season – what went well (awesome epic adventures), what didn’t go well (USAC race calendar), lessons learned (high mileage great for fitness (CTL) but doesn’t necessarily translate to improved performance (40K TT) – and planning for next season. The great unknown. Not overly confident there will be a full USAC race schedule. Nothing has really changed – no CV-19 vaccine – many areas are experiencing rising infection rates and the service-based economy is still at reduced capacity. Most short term predictions paint a depressing picture with the dynamic duo of CV-19 and the regular influenza strain wreaking havoc again during the winter months. With that cheery outlook, difficult to imagine a return to the normal racing season in 2021. Likely that USAC-sanctioned TT events will return but not so sure about road races (don’t care about criteriums – they’re just crashes waiting to happen).

Will defer discussing 2021 plans for a few sentences while recapping a few recent rides. Participated in my third (Tidewater Classic USAC road race in Feb and Bike To the Beach in July) organized ride of the year, Culpeper Century. The ride reached capacity, 500 cyclists, covering 3 distances (100, 60, or 30) a couple of weeks before the scheduled date. Several accommodations were made to emphasize social distancing where practical. No same day registration, no mass start, packet pick-up times based upon distance, face covers required when not cycling, and lots of hand sanitizer. Weather cooperated although it was a bit cool at the start ~ 43° F. First opportunity to wear thermal, long-sleeved VLR team jersey. Add a sleeveless base layer, knee warmers, and a head covering and good to go. Eventually removed the knee warmers and head covering. Finished the 101 miles, 6614 ft of elevation in 5:19 moving time, averaging 19 mph. Never found any groups going my pace so rode it solo.

Two days prior to the Culpeper Century, rode the popular SkyMass route with a small group as part of a birthday ride. As the story goes, the guest of honor requested this route as he had never experienced the pleasure of riding Skyline Drive. SkyMass is an 80-mile loop with 7K ft of elevation that includes the first nearly 32 miles of Skyline Drive exiting at Thornton Gap towards Luray then climbing over the Massanutten Mountain ridge and returning to Front Royal. The birthday honoree wasn’t the only one unfamiliar with the route. While the Skyline climbing portion is longer, the Massanutten portion is substantially steeper. Everyone survived to tell wild stories afterward although the British contingent did spoil things a bit by discussing soccer trivia with the manager at Pavemint.

Returning to the quandary that is 2021 cycling season, the plan is to focus on 40K TT effort for 2021. Even if there aren’t any sanctioned events, the flat 40K course isn’t going anywhere. So there’ll be lots of SST workouts with goal of holding as much power as possible on the TT bike for 55 minutes. The non-competitive cycling goal is to traverse the Great Lakes Seaway Trail along the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario. It’s a 513-mile scenic byway that doesn’t have much challenging terrain but it passes lots of lighthouses (another minor obsession) and traverses a new state, New York. And if the CV-19 situation improves, the excursion will also include a detour to Montreal and cycling in another country.

The Missus continued her exploration of pie recipes and made two chocolate-based varieties: Tarheel Pie (essentially a brownie in a pie crust) and Mississippi Mud Pie (chocolate custard ice cream pie). As always, both pies were delicious.

August has come and gone and Labor Day is right around the corner. Covid is still impacting everyday life – work from home, on-line education, mostly virtual cycling events, etc. and there is great uncertainty as time continues its forward march towards cooler temperatures and less outdoor activities. However, cycling and food continue to remain a constant in my life. The Missus recently celebrated her naming day and naturally received gifts of both flavors. From me she received a new bike, a Woman’s Cannondale Quick1 (and yes, we discussed the purchase prior to executing and she rode several models before the final selection). The bike was an early birthday present as she’s been riding it for a couple of months now. She finds the upright position much more comfortable than the traditional road bike. She enjoys her rides as it also improves her running.

Our son and his girlfriend prepared a Nordic-themed four-course dinner: cucumber salad; fish (cod) soup; halibut, mussels, gratin potatoes, and barley, and; Nordic potato mud cake. All truly delicious.

On the following evening, our daughter brought a chocolate cake.

On the cycling side of the ledger, finished the structured portion of the year on a truly disappointing note. As mentioned previously, primary focus for the last part of summer was on achieving a PR on a local, very flat 40K time trial course. Twice each week was spent on the trainer creating massive puddles in the garage doing SST intervals ranging from 8 – 15 minutes. Had good workouts and not so good ones. Attempted another taper for the week leading up to the planned day but legs never felt good during the final 10 days. Weather forecast was crappy – remnants of Hurricane Laura were threatening to make a complete washout of TT day. The following day was supposed to be mostly sunny but the wind was going to be unfavorable. Monitored the forecast constantly the day before and it appeared there was a good chance of being rain free for a small window early in the morning. The window would be just long enough for a warm-up and the TT effort. Cool down would likely be in the rain. Obsession won and woke up early and departed before 0500 for the 110 minute drive. Roads were mostly dry enroute to the course but drove through rain about 20 minutes away from the course. Weather gods smiled upon me, again, and moved the rain away.

Roads stayed dry, wind was favorable, humidity was high but legs just didn’t have it. Power numbers were on target at the mid-way point but just unable to maintain. Finished a disappointing 25 seconds slower than best time although it was second best time. There’s always next year and I will return to once again attempt to reach my goal.

In preparation for my next cycling adventure, Labor Day weekend was dedicated to century rides. Saturday was 102.85 miles and 4780 ft of elevation in 4:56; Sunday was 101.46 miles with 7940 ft of climbing in 5:38, and; Monday was 100.5 miles and 5335 ft of elevation in 5:23. Legs were extremely fatigued by the end but the weekend should prove more than adequate to complete my next cycling Bucket List item – Natchez Trace Parkway.

Maybe as a reward, or maybe just because the Missus enjoys baking, lots of pie was available.

Hard to believe that July has passed and it’s been nearly a month since the awesome Epic Empire Adventure concluded. Have returned to the local roads and routes with a few forays out to Shendandoah and Skyline Drive. Two primary cycling goals took precedence and continue to be a primary training focus: crazy Gran Fondo and 40K Time Trial (TT). Motivated by 100 mile+/10K+ elevation rides posted on Strava by a former local rider who is now across the pond, decided to emulate long days in the saddle. It certainly wasn’t a competition – afraid that would end badly with very disappointing results. Completed a couple of preparatory rides and then scheduled the big day. A group of five of us started together but only three planned on covering the entire route. The others had time constraints (or weren’t quite as obsessed). The weather had been brutal leading up to our CGF, mid 90s with equally high humidity. We started early, 0700, in an effort to beat the heat and the goal was to cover the distance. There would be plenty of PRs without making it a race. There were three primary climbing efforts, Blue Mountain (Southside), Skyline (Front Royal – Thornton Gap), and Tanners Ridge Rd/Fire Road to Great Meadows. We had tackled the first two climbs the previous week. Crossing Blue from the south is certainly the easier route and I’ve ridden to Thornton Gap dozens of times. Last time on Tanners Ridge was 4 years ago. It’s probably the hardest, sustained climb in the area. It’s about 3.5 miles long with the first mile averaging around 15%. Tacking on the fire road extension (gravel) makes it nearly a a 5-mile climb averaging 8.1%. Since Tanners was part of the CGF, put the 50/34 chainrings back on the bike and kept the 11-30 cassette. The pace was steady, but easy. One rider turned around at Dickey Ridge Visitor Center, one rode east on 211 from Thornton Gap while the 3 of us headed west. We hit Tanners Ridge at the 84-mile mark. It was every bit as brutal as I remembered – there’s no lead in or gradual slope. Once you make the right onto Tanners Ridge, the wall starts immediately. My first experience on Tanners Ridge was demoralizing – had to stop about 2/3 of the way into the first mile. Legs were exhausted. Restarted and paper-boy’d up the remaining steep section. No mid-climb stops the second time and now the third time. Wasn’t 84 miles into the ride either of the two previous times and the goal this time was no paper-boy-ing. Ha, success! Made it to the end of the paved section first and had an opportunity to recover. Temperature was noticeably cooler compared to the base of the climb. Regrouped and continued the climb, on gravel. It wasn’t a terrible surface but it did require more concentration. Arrived at Great Meadows for a well-earned rest/refueling stop. Thankfully, most of the sustained climbing was behind us although there were a couple of inclines until we reached Pinnacles. Then we had a nice 8+ mile descent into Sperryville. The rest of the ride was generally flat but the heat was more of a factor. We returned to the start point just shy of 150 miles so naturally a continuation was necessary. Ride summary (all PRs): 150.56 miles, 13,665 ft of climbing, 9:04 moving time. What a day! Link to actual route is below.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/33685438

Surprisingly, the legs recovered well over the following days. The next goal was the annual cycling fund raiser for autism awareness, Bike to the Beach (B2B). It’s a 103-mile ride from DC to Dewey Beach, DE. It was the first organized cycling event since Covid cancelled everything. Numerous accommodations were made to increase physical distancing: multiple start times and locations, color-coded rest stop areas and even grab-n-go options. Weather forecast predicted nothing but wet the entire day; from DC all the way to DE. Fortunately, they were wrong. There was a fair bit of wet pavement along the way with the some light rain in spots but most of the ride was precipitation free.

The other cycling focus is a 40K TT effort on a pancake-flat course. According to Strava, 0 ft elevation change over the course. Climbing is easiest to maintain a higher percentage of my FTP, then road bike on flats, followed by TT. Completing two TT sessions on the trainer per week, gradually increasing intensity and duration. Goal is to average ~ 300W for the effort which should lower my current PR of 57:02

Now for the culinary portion. Since I was only able to enjoy one slice of the peanut butter cake my daughter made before I left to cycle the PNW, she made me another one. Not nearly as rich but just as delicious.

While not a contest, but differences in culinary efforts between my son (restaurant worthy) and me (peasant fare). You be the judge.

A delayed birthday meal prepared by my son and girlfriend

Not to be forgotten, the Missus had a busy peach week – both cobbler and pie

Due to the continued modifications forced upon every day life from Covid-19’s continued presence, Father’s Day celebration with my daughter was delayed by a week. In truth, one of the most significant impacts to our regular routine is the disruption to our regular Sunday Family Dinner. Family dinner was always a staple of maintaining quality time for a military family with two very academically and athletically active children. We’re fortunate that our adult children still live close enough to continue family dinner, although limited to a weekly occurrence. For most of spring, our Sunday dinner was the same as the rest of the week – just me and the Missus. Certainly not a bad thing but also not the same as having both children and their significant others join us.

This time my daughter showed off her mad baking skills with a peanut butter cake. Peanut butter is a favorite of mine and when she offered to bake a cake, I was looking forward to it all week. The cake did not disappoint! Peanut butter is in each of the layers as well as the frosting. The recipe actually calls for 3 layers. Dare I say that might be too much. The two-layered cake was just pushing the limits of “too rich” but 3 would have crushed it. Naturally it was served with Breyer’s Reese’s ice cream.

It’s a couple of days past Father’s Day and it’s also day three of no cycling activity. Pulled a back muscle and it turned in to back spasms while attempting to complete an every day domestic chore. It’s slowly improving but no where near comfortable. Laying down aggravates it the least followed by standing then sitting. Anti-inflammatory meds and muscle relaxers haven’t done much to alleviate the pain. It’s my first experience with a muscle spasm and I always naively scoffed when professional athletes were scratched from a game due to spasms. Ignorant no longer and there will be no more “suck it up, buttercup!” attitude. It is truly an unpleasant experience.

The real entry is about the fabulous dinner my son prepared for Father’s Day. It was a cassoulet (French casserole) that would have been welcome at any restaurant in Toulouse. It was quite the undertaking that required multi-day preparation. He used duck, pork shoulder, homemade sausage made from pork shoulder, white beans, a hearty ragout, and various herbs and spices. He accompanied the cassoulet with fried duck skin. For dessert he served poached pear with homemade syrup and whip cream. I’m not a big fan of pears but that was a truly delicious end to gastronomic delight.

The cycling continues with more of it being in the garage on the trainer. The weather forecast is just dreadful: rain for 12 out of the next 13 days. I’ll survive, especially knowing the next Bucket List item will be front and center in just over two weeks. No spoiler alert. All in good time. Today’s entry isn’t about cycling but a meal prepared the other night – ravioli lasagna, sunny Mediterranean bread, and raisin rum bundt cake for dessert. A great feature with the ravioli is that it can be different every time it’s made. Depends on the types of fresh ravioli used – mushroom, sausage, cheese, etc. Ingredients for the bread include dried tomatoes and olives. Only used the bread machine to make the dough, then baked it in the oven. Naturally the bundt cake includes California sun-dried raisins and Goslings Bermuda Black Rum.

I’ve ridden on Skyline Drive dozens of times but the furthest I’ve ever gone is to Skyland, the highest point on the route and around the 42 mile mark. One of my non-racing goals for 2020 was to ride the entire length of Skyline from North Entrance in Front Royal to the South Entrance in Waynesboro. A total of 105 miles and nearly 11,000 feet of climbing. I’ve completed numerous century rides that included lots of elevation but never that much climbing. Even the vaunted Mountains of Misery (MoM) near Blacksburg didn’t have that much. Granted, the grade of the two primary climbs of MoM are significantly steeper than those on Skyline but the total elevation change is less than Skyline.

The original plan was complete the ride in mid-April. Then COVID-19 entered the picture. Initially I thought I was still going to be able to ride it as planned as it was still opened to cyclists and hikers. Well that changed and it was closed to all. It reopened the last week of May and I set a new date, Friday, June 5. Turned out my SAG support (The Missus) had a work conflict and I rescheduled for Monday, June 8. Turned out Monday was a much better day. Weather was fantastic, temps in the low 60s at the start and the oppressive humidity that was present for the previous several days (to include Friday) disappeared.

Started the ride a little after 0830 with the intent to meet up with the Missus at Panorama, a little short of the 32 mile mark. When riding Skyline solo or during Phase 1 of ‘re-opening’ in Virginia when many of the park’s facilities were closed, I carry 4 water bottles; 2 in frame cages and 2 more in a behind the saddle cage. Yes, it adds weight to the bike but I don’t like to conserve fluid intake during a ride. I want to be able to take a drink whenever I want and not have to worry about always keeping some fluid. Since I had SAG support, only 2 bottles were necessary. I’m a big fan of Science in Sport (SIS) products and use their gels and GO electrolyte powder. The gels are isotonic which means consuming fluids with the gels isn’t necessary to facilitate digestion and absorption. My preferred gel flavors are vanilla and apple. Back in the day I was a fan of the PowerBar energy bar and gels but the bars became too dense and it became a challenge to find the gels. I was also really like GU peanut butter gels but they stopped making them. Too many folks with peanut allergies and it affected the production lines of other flavors. On long rides I also bring Smucker’s Uncrustables, a peanut butter and jelly pre-made soft bread sandwich. Today I only needed to have a few gels with me along with the GO mixed water.

The goal was to keep the climbing efforts within Z3 (roughly 250-290 watts) and everything else easy spinning. Since I started the ride inside of the North Entrance gate and mile marker 0 is outside the entrance, I knew my Wahoo ELEMNT Roam wouldn’t reflect the full 105 miles of Skyline. It was a shortage I could accept. As mentioned above, the weather was spectacular and there wasn’t a lot of vehicular traffic on a Monday morning. I made it to Panorama in a little over 2 hours. Not my fastest time but it was a marathon, not a sprint. About 30% of the distance and 36% of the climbing was completed. After a quick bio break, topped off water bottles and a additional gels, and a brief chat with the Missus about her run starting from Elk Wallow, I was off to the next stop – Big Meadows.

I covered the next 19 miles and 2800 ft of climbing in 82 minutes. I was approaching the 50% distance mark and exceeding 60% of the climbing. First time to Big Meadows and the furthest I’d ever been on Skyline. Now, every pedal stroke would establish a new PR. Still had over 53 miles to go so the ride wasn’t over. Refueled with a banana, Uncrustable, and water and the Missus provided fresh water bottles.

Next stop was Loft Mountain at mile marker 79. Another 92 minutes and 28 miles with 1900 ft of elevation were behind me. Scenery, even on poor visibility day, is impressive and today was no exception. Only took pictures at the stopping points. The Missus had the camera and could stop at any of the overlooks she wanted.

Refueled and covered the next 26 miles and 1500 ft of climbing in 82 miles. Mission complete: Roam reflected 104 miles with 10,666 ft of elevation gain in just under 6 hours and 21 minutes of moving time. Total time was 7:11. Time to go home and eat – Chipotle was providing the evening’s meal.