Gonzo

This past weekend Kevin and I rode Gonzo Pass. Kevin mapped out a ride to mimic one stage of the cancelled Montreal to Boston pro tour. Our ride was mapped out at 87 miles starting in Ashland and riding north to Woodstock up and over Gonzo Pass and back down Rt. 25 and back into Ashland.

We hit the road at 9:30, it was a cold 39 degrees or so. I don't know why, but the night before when I was packing I convinced myself that all I would need was thick socks so I left my shoe covers at home. In retrospect this was probably not the best decision. Not only was it pretty cold but there were was also a near constant 15-20 mph headwind the whole ride north to Woodstock. This made it tough to warm up and neither one of us felt like we ever got a good pace going. When we hit Woodstock we took a quick brake before we started our climb. From Woodstock it is a 5 or 6 mile climb to the top of Rt. 118 with an average 8% grade.

As we pulled out of Woodstock it started to rain. I was already underdressed for the cold temperatures as it was, and now that I was riding in a cold rain I was border line miserable. However at this point we were half-way out so to turn around didn’t make much sense. About half way up the pass two riders coming down, yelled back “it’s snowing up there”. Perfect, now I can be cold, wet, rained on and snowed on, but again; half-way up a climb we were not going to turn around.

I reached the top a few minutes ahead of Kevin and pulled over and waited, this also was not a good idea, it just gave me time to cool down, but I took that time to take my shoes off and try and squeeze some life back into my painfully numb toes. At that point I really wish I had my shoe covers. When Kevin reached the top we both agreed to take the quickest way back, but at that point we were still and hour or two from Kevin’s place so there really was no “quick” way back. As we headed down the other side of Gonzo Pass the rain was coming down as sleet. The next 3 miles we were doing 40+ mph while on the brakes, the road was slick from rain and the sleet stung your face like some kind of acupuncture. This was probably the scariest descent I have ever done on my road bike.

At the bottom I couldn’t stop shaking, my hands and toes stung from the cold and my face felt raw from the sleet. We rode on into the town of Warren and hit the first convenience store we could find. I bought a cup of coffee (of course it was luke-warm at best) and some toe warmers. From here on out life was good, I had warm toes, the sun came out, and we had a good section of flat road to get the heart rate up and get warmed up again.

So I learned my lesson, always pack for the worst case scenario and hope for the best. I think this would have been a great ride if I had some warmer gloves and toes, even in a little rain. The foliage was peak, so the ride had many classic New England views. This was a fun climb and will definitely be on the list of road rides for next year, probably sometime in the summer or early fall.

Time: 3:56.24
Distance: 70.23 miles
Ave: 17.8
Max: 43.2