A Flatlander Heads for the Hills

Funny things cross your mind when an nice easy ride meets a brutal headwind. Some friends and I rode in the Easter Hill Country Tour this past weekend. If you are not familiar with the ride it is three days of fabulous scenery and hard riding. This year we rode 210 miles in 3 days and climbed close to 10,000 feet. Friday was supposed to be an easy ride and it might have been except there was a 20 mph headwind the last 30 miles (70 total) that turned every little hill into an Everest. This is when I started thinking.

The next day was a 110 mile ride with 5800 feet of climbing and, thankfully, nearly as much descending. The first climb was much harder than it should have been and I started having doubts. The funny things started crossing my mind as well. It occurred to me that I was not the strongest rider, the youngest, oldest, fastest, slowest, best or worst looking and I might not even be having the most fun. In fact I was pretty much right smack in the middle with no shining qualities to set me apart from the crowd. at this point I really had to wonder what I was doing facing a climb I was not sure I could even get over, Condor’s Nest.

The wind from the previous day was back, slightly less forceful but painfully apparent. I managed the first two pitches and had a small epiphany. This climb was doable. I got buffeted around in the rock chute at the top and there was a chip seal and crosswind induced shimmy when I hit 45 mph on the final descent but I did it and by god it was fun. Well, fun in a very painful sort of way.

So what is the point in these challenges? Your friends may tell you that you rode well and they are absolutely sincere but there are hundreds of other riders who don’t even know you were there. There are no awards or medals and no record is kept of your finishing times or accomplishments. It is a deep personal reward for me, and for the friends I ride with. Randy is too big to be climbing but he does it and is thrilled to finish. Tad was in the worst shape in 15 years and finished the 110 with little complaint. We all rode our best for ourselves and succeeded. That is the point in doing these rides.

It should also be noted that Tad had another reason to finish. A cycling friend, Carl, is undergoing treatment for colon cancer and Tad dedicated the ride to Carl, in some small way we all did. Even though Carl is a stranger, he is a cyclist and that makes him family.