A Folky Elk-Painted Ox

So what kind of ride was in store for today? There is no racing, we have our new kits and there are super cool roads near Asheville to ride. Lets do a little climbing. Plus, we need to get used to the climbing feeling in the legs before the Roan Groan race on June 7th.

61 miles and 6700 feet of climbing. Any ride that is more than a 100 meet per mile, is a good climbing ride. The profiles shows the main climbs of the day.

The start up the BlueRidge Parkway from the US 74 exit is a familiar one. It looks really cool when you increase the vertical exaggeration and look it over several miles. This is a great section to get in some good interval work. You can go hard for a good 3 miles without much change in grade. For kicks and giggles, you can even circle back and repeat!

Elk Mtn is a climb that I really don't enjoy that much, but if you live in Asheville and you're a cyclist, then Elk is a must-do climb if you haven't done it before. So the main objective of today was to introduce these climbs to someone who hasn't done them before.

Paint Fork Gap is another one of "those climbs" that is a short one, but a beastly climb. It has pitches and grades approaching 18% if you hit it head-on. After the first initial grades it lets up to 8% to 10% before it tops out. Get in your granny gear and try out Paint Fork Gap.

The last climb of the day was Ox Creek. It is a good one to finish on and the bottom mile is a stiff 8% to 10% until the right hand hook part way up. After that it lets up to a nice 6% to 8% until it tops out. Time to descend the parkway to Folk Art Center.

"I've never done a bike ride like that before" was the comment I got after the ride. Then a little later, "that was the best bike ride I've done since I've been riding".