Scott Snape reporting on the Assault on Marion.  Chuck Rice and I decided to do this ride about 5 days before the ride.  We opted to drop a car off at Marion on Sunday so that we could finish and head straight home.  We left Clemson at 4:40 AM and dropped Munchkin off at my office and then headed to the Spartanburg Auditorium.  We arrived at 6:00 AM and had just enough time to get ready and stop by for a bathroom break.  Following Erik's and John Millon's advice, we tried to crowd in as close to the front as possible.  We were 10- 15 rows back from the front, but everyone was not as packed in as we were led to believe, so it really was not bad.  6:30 rolled around and we were off.  About 500 yards in Chuck dropped his chain, but what I heard was "Scott, I broke my chain".  Oh crap! It was going to be a bad day. 

Well it was just off and quickly remedied, and we were off again.  Although I still don't know why I was intent on moving forward and leaving some of the chaos behind, I continued to draft, move around to someone who was faster and draft some more.  My heart rate was showing that I needed to slow down, but as opportunities kept opening I kept pushing up.  As we left town and things started stretching out, we got with a group that was continuing to move forward, passing slower riders and making good time.  Finally out about 20-25 miles, the front of Our group could be seen just a few hundred yards ahead.  The group was mainly made of those with numbers to go for Mitchell, and we were making good time.  Did we miss a turn???

Although I am sure we were no where near the front, I am guessing that maybe we were now in the front 1/3.  Our group was averaging 20.5 and we were at about mile 36 when chuck dropped his chain again.  I stopped with the thought that we would be going again and would try to get back on with the group again.  Chuck then said that his pedal was loose so we took a minute to figure it out and were now all alone.  It turned out that the cleat had separated from the shoe and the screws that were left all look impossibly short to get reattached to the shoe.  Chuck was apologetic but as we rode on it was only about 2 miles to the first serious climb and my legs were already trashed.  I told Chuck that his stop had little effect on our traveling with the group as I would have surely been spit out the back and dropped on this big climb.  We made it to the water and food station at mile 40 and got some more fluids, some food, and asked to borrow a screw driver to fix Chuck's pedal.  After some more analysis, Chuck felt it was risky to take it all apart to try to reattach the cleat.  He could use it effectively as a flat pedal as it was, but if it got where he couldn't leave the cleat on the pedal it might become useless.  He decided to leave it alone and continue on.

We were starting to be caught by riders that were going to Marion, and went another 5-10 miles when we came upon a resurfacing project that had backed up what looked to be the whole large group that we had been with.  After slowly negotiating new Asphalt, we were back on the road.  My legs started to feel good again as we were cruising over some rollers through a valley as we passed the 55.5 mile mark.  Where's the chicken??  This ride is supposed to be over! We continued on although never with a stable group.  We would pass some, some would pass us.  I was faster on the descents and Chuck would power up the climbs.  I was having problems dropping to my granny gear for some of the steep climbs but kept moving for the most part.  If the climb and the descent were about the same distance I could mostly keep up, but as we were typically climbing more than descending I was loosing ground. 

Chuck would pull over and wait for me on occasions, and I think that he was starting to feel the heat.  At about 60 miles, somebody turned the temperature up!  The climbs got bigger, the temperatures were now much hotter, and Chuck was suffering the heat although it did not seem to effect his climbing.  We stopped at mile 62 for more water and food and knew that the finish was not far away.  What we didn't know was that there were two big climbs before the end!

Chuck pulled over to wait for me in a shaded driveway and exclaimed that he was going to have to sit down and cool off.  Although I would have done that with him,  I really didn't want to give my legs any reason to stiffen up as the rest stops alone were just enough to make it painful to get going again.  He was about as bright as his orange jersey!  I took my water bottle and dowsed him on his head and down his back and that seemed to cool him down so we kept going.  On the next climb,  I heard the exclamation,  "The heat is getting me".  Another shot from the water bottle down his back and on his head.  As we continued up the climb I was really starting to suffer and was ready to be off this two wheel butt kicker.  We passed two guys that had just gotten off and were walking.  As we finally got to the top of the last climb and made several turns before the descent I was expecting to see Chuck, but he obviously had put the hammer down with the idea that he was ready to get off the bike as well.  On the last descent I was winding up speed, as a rider was literally swerving from one side to the other and as I was passing yelled out which side I was passing.  He almost ran me off the road, but luckily I had not picked up too much speed yet, and slowed enough to get by and continue on.  That would have been a terrible end to the ride at the 72 mile mark.

The last rolling flat area seemed like it took forever as I kept looking for the campground at 73 miles and it was actually out past the 74 mile mark.  As we pulled in to the campground and got cooled off and into some comfortable clothes we kept seeing people heading out for Mitchell,  and just wondered how badly they would suffer climbing in what was now 96 degree heat. 

Ride time 4:20 minutes
Average speed 17.1 MPH
Calories burned 4721
Average Heart rate 151
Max Heart rate  167
Max Climb Grade %  14%

Thanks for everyone's interest and support and thanks to Chuck for doing this ride with me!  Mitchell next year??  We'll see!