Over the past few years, I've celebrated my birthday with some type of cycling. Last year I was joined by Karel and my friends Garrett and Alvi for a 101 mile ride (with scenic views) and a little over 10,000 feet of elevation gain.
A few weeks ago I started to think about where I wanted to go for my birthday ride and I wanted to do something I've never done before. I was chatting with my friend Garrett and I asked him about riding to and on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Garrett is all for epic rides so he is a great person to consult when it comes to creating routes. Several of my cycling friends have ridden on the parkway but they usually start from the Flat Rock/Dupont/Brevard area. I asked Garrett if he would create a route that included the Blue Ridge Parkway from our area.
The first route he created started from Marietta (~10 miles from where we live) and included a loop around/on the Blue Ridge Parkway. This was exactly what I was looking for. However, I didn't want to drive to Marietta to start the ride so starting from home would add an additional 20 miles, which would make for a 137 mile ride. This got me even more excited because my longest ride on the bike was 131 miles so this would also be my longest ever ride.
However, I was told that a few miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway were closed due to Hurricane Helen (September) so we needed to revise the route. Garrett came up with the finalized route which got me super excited. Almost 140 miles and we were going to ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. And based on the route, I'm turning 25 😁.
With my birthday on a Saturday (May 31st), I didn't want to do this ride alone. Knowing that my friends would also be riding on Saturday morning, I sent out a few group texts and I was so delighted to see that almost all of my riding buddies were in for my crazy birthday ride. Because not everyone was able to do the entire 137 mile ride, Garrett created a "short" route (which ended up being close to 80-90 miles because most of my friends live near downtown Greenville).
I sent out the invites and we planned to start the route at 7:30am with the goal to finish the ride by 4:30pm.
We planned 4 bottle refill stops:
- Mile 25.8 (Caesar's head overlook) - unfortunately the water was running there
- Mile 45 - Downtown Rosman gas station
- Mile 88 - Country store gas station (Back)
- Mile 114 (gas station Hwy 11)
I packed my pockets with sport nutrition powder (I brought along 5 individual baggies, each with 90g carbs. Two bags of Never Second berry and 3 bags of Infinite Fructose. I also brought along a granola bar, packet of PB crackers and a Never Second gel (which I never consumed). At the gas stations I had a few sips of Coke, a few Pringles, a bag of Haribo gummies and the granola bar and PB crackers that I brought with me. I also consumed 7 bottles of sport nutrition + 1 bottle water.
Karel and I woke up at 5:45am and left our house on our bikes at 7:15am.
We rolled to "the rock" around 7:25 and met up with everyone. Ten people showed up!
We started the ride around 7:40am and made our way to Caesar's Head (CH). For those of us doing the long ride (Alvi, Seth, Yannick, Carley, Karel and me) we made sure not to take any pulls but instead, let those doing the short loop do the work. One of the riders had two flat tires so he decided to turn around.
When we got to the base of CH, everyone did their own pace. When some of the short route riders went on ahead, I was thinking to myself "We are doing an ultra, don't go out with the half marathon athletes." The weather was perfect, I started off with light arm warmers and gloves and took them off before the 6.5 mile climb up the mountain. It took me 43:39 to get to the top. Karel's back was really bothering him (he has serious disc/nerve issues which have been getting worse over the past year) so he was feeling worried for the rest of the ride. I told him he could turn around with the short route riders but he wanted to do the entire ride with me.
We took a picture at the lookout and Carley, Alvi, Karel, Seth and I continued down the other side of CH while the rest of the group reversed the route and continued on with their ride. It was a great start to a long day ahead.
27 miles down, 113 miles to go.
Once we got down to Cedar Mountain Cafe, we met up with our second group of friends who were joining for the next part of the ride. Sarah, Camillo, Tim and two of their friends joined us for the next 71.6 miles. This group started in Flat Rock/Saluda so they were also collecting a lot of miles today (130+ miles).
We started to make our way to Rosman which I was super excited for. I've always wanted to make the turn in that direction and we were finally exploring new roads. The terrain was very smooth and somewhat flat and we enjoyed a pretty fast pace (21 mph) for the next 18 miles. We made a store stop at a gas station to refill bottles and stock up on snacks. The mission for us was to fuel a lot!
The scenery was very beautiful and once we got onto 215, we started our climb. For the next 26 miles, we went up and up and up. Over 2 hours of climbing and we accumulated over 4400 feet (with only 665 feet of descending). The first 11 or so miles were gradual and it was my favorite type of grade - I could keep a nice rhythm and there were a few quick downhills to enjoy. Then the grade picked up and it was a little more of a grind. We made a turn on to the Blue Ridge Parkway and I was so excited to be in a new area. I've ridden on the parkway twice in the past but this was an entirely new experience for me and I was really happy to be with my friends.
The views were stunning. It was very windy (not Lanzarote windy ;) and getting colder. We reached ~5000 feet and we still had 1000 feet to go (and over 3 miles). We thought about turning around but we all decided we would go to the highest point and stick to the plan. There's great power in being with a group and with it being my birthday, I think everyone was up for the adventure.
We bundled up and started our descend. The 8 miles on 215 hwy was incredible. It was the most enjoyable descent with sweeping turns that required no or little breaking. I averaged 31 mph on the 8 mile descend.
We stopped at the Balsam Grove General Store around 90 miles, which was a true delight. We were all in need of refueling our bottles and getting some food but the owners of the store were so nice. I highly recommend stopping at this store if you are cycling around the Balsam Grove area of NC (outside of Rosman).
Throughout the ride, I wasn't focused on the mileage of how far we had ridden or how far we had left. I kept my computer screen on the navigation so I only focused on the segment I was in. I completely lost track of time and by the time we stopped at the country store, I realized it was getting close to 2pm.
We had such a great group. No one ever complained and everyone was in good spirits. There was no weak link and everyone supported one another.
Eight miles later, we said good bye to our second group of friends and it was down to five of us for the rest of the ride. Karel started to feel better so he and Yannick did some of the pulling.
It was nice to make our way towards Rocky Bottom as we were back to familiar roads. We descended on one of my favorite descends and made our way to our last store stop at the Holly Springs gas station.
I was also feeling very strong so I pulled for some of the long stretch on Pumpkintown. My good friend Carley was riding really strong and she ended up with over 150 miles on the day!
For 73 miles and 5:03 of riding, we averaged 14.4 mph and accumulated almost 8000 feet elevation gain. Thankfully, the major climbs were done so we were able to get our average speed up for the rest of the ride. We ended up averaging 16.8 mph for the entire road but for the last 68 miles (3:20) we averaged 20.4 mph. Because our stops were a little longer than planned, we ended up modifying the final route and made a direct route home on Pumpkintown and then from Marietta straight to Travelers Rest and then on the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
The final crew (And Yannick ran off the bike)
We made it home shortly after 5pm which made for a long time on the bike. But I've never been happier. I'm so grateful for amazing friends who showed up to make this birthday extra special.
And a big thank you to Garrett for creating my "25th Birthday Route."
As for the evening, we had pizza from my favorite place:
D'Als. Enjoy delicious homemade Carrot Cake (thank you George for making it for me!)
And celebrated my first birthday in 16 years without Campy but my first birthday with Sunny.
