Fancy gap va weather feel5/17/2023 ![]() I would only let the bike go full-speed if the pavement was smooth, the corners weren’t tight, and there were no gusty winds. Not much flat on the BRP! What were the downhills like? I would focus on good technique while enjoying the sights and sounds of waterfalls and birds. I would vary my hand position on the bars and alternate sitting up and leaning back to rotate muscle groups and stay fresh. I really enjoyed the long climbs when it was a peaceful, cool, section of road without a lot of passing traffic. I saved the 36t cog for the really long or steep climbs. I climbed with my chain on a 36T chainring and used mostly the 32t cassette cog. The grades were mostly in the 5 to 8% range, but occasionally up to 10%. Some of the climbs were several miles long. I climbed well on the V20, and paced my effort with my power meter. ![]() It seems there is almost nothing flat on the BRP. The words “relentless” and “never-ending” come to mind. That’s a pretty low finger-per-mile ratio. I got only one middle-finger salute from a young man in a pickup truck. They recognize that we are on two-wheels, also, and subject to the elements, as they are. The motorcyclists seemed to be very respectful. Many, many motorcycles, often in groups of two or more, passed us. Near the cities (Roanoke, Asheville, etc.) there would be a lot more cars, but they passed carefully. And if you were wondering about wheel-slip while climbing hills in the rain on a FWD bike, it did not occur. I wore a lightweight fluorescent yellow jacket when it rained, mostly to keep the chill away and improve visibility to cars. On a warm day, I would rather climb in a light rain than full sun. We rode for seven days and I estimate that I rode in the rain an average of about an hour a day on four of those days. ![]() I can only recall one torrential downpour while we were on the parkway, the drops stinging my cheeks as I hit top speed on the downhills. Yet we started riding south in almost perfectly cool, partly cloudy conditions. The week leading up to Day One was one of the rainiest weeks this part of the country has ever recorded. I think the S40 would have been a great choice for this ride, too. It’s the bike I raced in RAAM last year, and I’m very comfortable bombing down hills on it. I debated which Cruzbike model to ride, but settled on my V20, in large part because it has electronic shifting and I figured (correctly) that I would be doing a lot of shifting. ![]() The sun shineth on Jill and Alvin Why did I choose to ride a V20? That’s why you’ll see in photos Alvin and his girlfriend riding traditional bikes and the rest of us on Cruzbikes. He asked Maria if he should ride his Cruzbike or his traditional road bike, and she told him to ride his traditional bike because she’d like to grow the event to include the at-large cycling community and wanted a mix of bike types on the ride. In his first race on a V20 last year, he set the recumbent course record in the 26 mile event at the hilly Texas Time Trials. Alvin is an incredibly strong cyclist and a Cruzbike rider. There probably is no better BRP cycling guide in the world than Alvin, and he tells great stories that kept us entertained at every meal and scenic rest stop. Our group was led by Alvin Maxwell, who has made this journey ten times. L to R: Tom, Paul, Maria, Jim, Lucia, Alvin, and Jill Who was your Guide? Everyone set up a simple Facebook fundraising page, and off we went. A total of only six riders and one crew took up the challenge. A lot of people took one look at the elevation profile and opted out, or they couldn’t get a whole week off work. She’s been leading an annual hiking expedition across the Grand Canyon, and she wanted something equally epic and tough to do on the east coast. The idea to have a group ride the entire BRP together started with Maria looking for a unique and physically-challenging fundraiser for brain cancer research. ![]() I will organize this piece in a Q & A format, and hopefully in the end you will have a good sense of the whole event. Having just finished cycling the most popular Parkway in the US, here is my story. Today, the Parkway is operated by the National Park Service and attracts more visitors per year than any other unit of the National Park System (Park, Monument, Battlefield, etc.). Construction on the 469-mile road began in 1935, employing thousands of people during the Great Depression to cut roads and tunnels through the ancient Appalachian mountains on the western edge of Virginia and North Carolina. The Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP) twists and rolls through some of the most beautiful land on this green earth. ![]()
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