Reconnaissance ride

This afternoon I went for a little reconnaissance ride up Metcalf Rd -- the steepest climb found on the 100 mi course.  With my legs feeling pretty tired from yesterday's ride, I figured this was a great opportunity to see what it'd be like to hit this climb at 70-mile mark on the big day.

Metcalf Rd starts off flat, and begins to incline slowly until all of the sudden you're faced with series of very steep turns.  The hilly section of the road only lasted for about 2 miles, but I found myself having to stand up frequently...and I was completely exposed to the sun during the entire climb.  Needless to say, the climb was definitely not easy and I'm glad I test rode it.

Back in the car, the instrument panel showed that it was 90 degrees outside -- 10 degrees warmer than up north where I usually ride.  If the we're greeted with the usual July weather on the day of the ride, I'll probably be battling 100+ degree temperature on this road.

Steeper than it looks

Halfway up (full-size image)

Comments

[Max]

Thanks for the Metcalf Rd. review, I have been wanting some info on it. I'm only going to be doing the 65 mile ride, due to timing issues but it still includes this climb. Do you think a 39/53 with a sram 11/26 will work, or should I put my compact on? It is only 2 miles but... looks very nasty. Saturday I did a 75 mile ride with 2400' of climbing no problem, but the max grade was only like 9%. Metcalf has some 15+ stuff I hear.

[Demetri Mouratis]

Thanks for the photos. I did the 65 yesterday and Metcalf kicked my but. A recon ride would have been a good idea but it was a pretty tight schedule since I only signed up a week in advance.

Great blog. Love it. Contrats on the century.