Durham hammer

Good ride on Sunday...Headed out to Durham with Mark where we met up with Louis, Martin, and Toby.



The call I got from Louis on Sat. afternoon said it all..."Hey Tom I want to do an endurance ride, 60km, no stopping" Nice!
 From the main parking we headed right over to GM/WW, and then over to the Wilder property, down to the Brock track - really nice change up. Mark & Martin took a left to start heading back, and Toby, Louis and me made our way over to three rocks (all of us on single speeds)...the plan was to climb the back of dagmar (biggest, baddest hill in the area) once or twice. I had been leading the group today, and fully expected to get passed on this climb...it didn't happen? hmmm is Louis having an off day, or am I getting stronger?

We all agreed that one climb of this hill was good enough, and we started to make our way back to Durham...this is a good 10k return with lots of ups & downs,,,I kept the pace high...and did my best to drop both of them....they were not having it...Toby always on my wheel, Louis maybe 20 meters back.

Louis ended up breaking a chain on one of the steep little ups, and had to walk out to the road. Me & Toby decided to race to the top..about 1.5k with overall 40 meters of climbing...we took off, climbing a bunch of switchbacks...Toby right on my wheel...once we got to the double track, he pulled out and passed me :( f*$%# anyways...(I love racing this section)...I relaxed my upper body and just concentrated on moving the cranks over faster, trying to catch him. In the end, he beat me to the top by about 100 feet...I was gaining on him, and I would like to believe if there was another 500 feet of distance I would have caught him..but who knows..although he said he was tired..he may have had more in the tank. Damn! :)

All in all, 34k, just over half what we planned...but the intensity more than made up for it. My legs are feeling it today.
Click here for our route..no HR data