Total mileage: 3729.8 miles
Well today was the day that we have been thinking about for months; in my case it has been since February which is when I first heard of the 12 mile climb with an eight percent gradient. At breakfast you could feel the nervous energy as we were all ready to get on our bikes and see what we were made of. First thing first we had a great hot breakfast provided by our host including a French toast casserole, an egg casserole and some fresh fruit. Definitely what we needed to get ourselves up and over this mountain pass.
Everyone started to get their things together and the pump up music was blasting, everything from Bike and Build classics to Carmina Burana. With my ABCs done and good lucks given to everyone left Jessie, Bri and I headed off.
Thankfully after the first hill past the Mobile station we stopped at yesterday, there was a flat stretch for about a mile before the climb started; a much needed warm up for our legs. About three miles into the steep part Marcus comes up from behind me and shoots ahead. He was currently on a mission to beat the record to the top of the pass and needed to maintain a 10 mph average to get there under 1:15. A few minutes later jack drives down the pass in the van shouting words of encouragement and taking video. From there things really started to get steep and I had an OH SHIT MOMENT when I realized that I had no more gears. Oops. That meant that I would just spin it out until I reached the top.
Half way up the mountain Jack drove pass again and yelled out the window that the hardest part was over which was super nice to hear and gave me a bit of motivation to kick it up a little. Soon we were over 9000 feet - a new high elevation for our group.
A few miles from the top things flattened out a bit and we took in some great scenery including Tioga Lake. I was on a mission and did not stop of pictures, but snagged a few from teammates.
And then out of no where the entrance to the park appeared and the climb was over. I pulled into the parking lot pull off and was treated by cheers from those who had made it. I finished the climb in 1:54 which was under my goal of two hours so I was happy. Jack had mentioned a few months ago when we were chatting on the phone that I would be in good enough shape to just walk over the mountain and he was right. Marcus, however, crushed it and got to the top in 1:10 - BEAST MODE!!!
At breakfast I had suggested that we all wait for everyone to arrive at the top for a group picture and dance party. Riders started to trickle in and after two hours everyone had reached the top at 9945 feet. Things culminated in a spontaneous dance party.
While there was celebrating, we still had 60 miles to cover so we all hopped on our bikes and headed into the park. The first ten miles were all downhill which was a nice surprise end rest for our legs. From there however there was a lot of confusion. Jack had told us that as soon as we reached the top of the pass it would all be down hill which turned out to be false. The rest of the afternoon was a series of climbs, with three especially large ones that took a lot of energy out of us. The one good thing was that the ride in was beautiful and had a lot of different kinds of landscapes.
The three of us did stop for a picture before we found lunch and the woman was able to get Half Dome in the background, probably one of the most well known parts of the park.
The ride up until lunch had been pretty low key. With shoulder and windy roads we found ourselves pulling over toilet cars and RVs pass us. After lunch, however, things started to get crazy on the roads. Drivers, were becoming very impatient with us and there were several close calls with cars nearly running us off the road as they attempted to pass us around blind corners and realizing that a car was coming in the opposite direction and they needed to pull back into the lane. There was an RV who passes us, almost taking the three of us out, pulled off the road a few miles later only to then repass us and nearly take us out again. Despite going the speed limit cars were still passing us over a double yellow line. The three of us wanted to yell out to them that they should slow down and enjoy some of the park. There is no point in rushing to get from one end of the park to another to take in more beautiful scenery.
Just before our final major turn off we decided to take a mental break in the gas station. The mental 10 turned into a mental 40 filled with ice cream and iced tea. The two groups behind us had just as many problems which was equally frustrating. To add insult to injury there were tons of people in the parking lot drinking which only made us more nervous to get on our bikes and head further into the park.
The last major stretch was a huge descent, a drop of early 7000 feet. Under most circumstances we would be elated at this kind of a descent, but because of the wind and crazy drivers we were on edge. We tried to take the lane as much as possible, but some drivers were trying to pass in an unsafe way and we ended up on several occasions just running ourselves off the road into the dirt to allow them to pass us. Definitely not the best strategy, but when going that fast it is hard to break and find a place to stop and watch your surroundings and use proper hand signals.
At the end of the day we were excited to get into the host, write it off as a bad ride in and still be excited that we had conquered Tioga.
What did make up for it was the outfits SOCO wore when they were presenting dinner
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