This past Saturday morning was great weather and a big group from the Billings area decided to take its Saturday ride up to Molt, Montana for breakfast and then do several more miles to justify the big caloric intake. Steve Mysse sent out an email boasting of KOM points, downhill attacks and a TTT along River Road that peaked my interest. The big question...would anyone barf???
So we rolled out at 7:45 am and headed up "the Hogback" aka. Molt Rd. This is a nice 700+/- foot climb that stair steps up to the top of the Rims. You HAVE to take a look a the web album for some nice shots of both Saturday and Sunday's rides.
Of course, I ended up setting the pace up the first, long climb up the hogback, and by the time we got to the top it was only "Lawyer Mike" and myself. I pushed it pretty hard and pulled off to let Mike lead, and me to recover. We climbed together to the top then rode easy while the others caught up. Yep, another tough climb with another tough Billings "Club Cyclist."
Breakfast was AWESOME. Great food at the Prairie Winds Cafe with live Bluegrass music (playing every Saturday to a packed house). Randy was the brave soul that ordered biscuits and gravy. I had the French toast.
Then we were off for the downhill attacks on Buffalo Trail. I climbed this a few weeks ago into a stiff headwind, so descending it today was nice. It is a 5 mile descent with a few saddles that lent themselves well to attacks. I gave everyone a look and took off...
The chase was on. Wayne countered with a nice punch. The group was beginning to break up. A slight uphill came and I jumped. I dug hard until the faint taste of coffee grounds and syrup started to come back up, but it was enough to shake Wayne off my tail and solo to the bottom.
It was there that we said goodbye to the women, Nancy and Pam, who headed back into town. The five of us, Wayne, Steve, Randy, Chris and myself headed for Laurel and eventually home. Randy attacked while we were chatting and almost escaped at the climb outside of Laurel, then we all settled in for the ride to River Road.
My first time on River Rd. I found this rolling, country road to be real nice. We set into a 5 man paceline, and with the prevailing tailwind, proceeded to crank it up. The pace whittled it from 5 to 4 to 3 and to finally just Chris and I sprinting to the sign at Duck Creek. It felt good to finally work hard for a few intervals. This definitely wasn't the Tuesday Hell Ride in Missoula, but it was a good effort for my former racing legs. Who knows, maybe I will race again one day!
Saturday's Total: 67 miles
The Sunday ride was posted to go up the Beartooth Highway to the pass at 10,900 ft. Wow!
I have always wanted to ride "the biggest ride in Montana." This is one for the books and with just a few weeks left in Billings, I had to take it on. So under drizzly and uncertain conditions, Susan and I headed for Red Lodge.
Soon we were climbing in earnest and soon we were all alone to conquer this mountain on our own terms. I had one of those once in a lifetime rides. The mountain was a huge challenge, but I felt good. The weather was challenging, but not miserable. I climbed well, despite having 65+ miles on my legs the day before and was first to the vista and then to the Wyoming state line. State line is at 10,290' roughly 3 miles and 600' from the true summit, but the weather seemed to be turning and the wind was blowing 30 mph or so. It was at this point we all decided that we'd had enough and turned around for home.
We climbed about two hours and descended about 90 minutes. Coming down was interesting as my rear hub/freewheel began to make a horrible sound and vibration. I had to keep pedaling to keep it form screeching. Lucky for me we had a strong headwind all the way back to Red Lodge. Wayne and I double teamed it and pushed through the wind and back to Red Lodge.
Total miles: 50 + 2 beers and lunch at Bogart's.
It was a good weekend of food, riding and camaraderie. Thanks to all the guys and gals of Billings, MT to put on such fun rides. See you next week!
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