It was another perfect day for cycling, especially for the big climbs we had today. When you are doing big climbs, you don't want to have hot temperatures as the energy required for continuous climbing will already make you work up a sweat. The nice cool temperatures of today were just what the doctor ordered. Jeff from America by Bicycle and I wanted to do the ride and climbs of today together, as we both enjoy them immensely. We started out after his truck load duties were all done, which meant we were dead last to leave the hotel. It wasn't long until we caught up to the trailing end of the riders and after 4 miles, we had a very steep hill. This allowed us to leave a big gap between us and the riders that we just passed. Jeff was energetic today and by the 9^th mile, I had trouble keeping up to him. I later caught up to him by the 1^st SAG. Joe was there as well and both had some cute humor about my finally getting there. We left the SAG together and helped to pull Alex, who we caught up to and was trying to catch up to her mother, who had left 90 minutes before her. We did catch up to her mother about 10 miles up from the SAG. Alex and her mom then rode the climbs and the rest of the day together. In the meantime, Joe, Jeff and I headed towards the next big climb of the day. This was a 10 miler, up to 8 or 9% grade. At the base of the climb, Joe dropped off as he wanted to explore the Appalachian trail, which he plans to completely walk sometime. Jeff and I instead hit the hills standing up and kept powering up, passing other riders along the way. We made the climb quite easily and would have been the 1^st to the next SAG, except we stopped for a quick kielbasa and sauerkraut at a roadside stand. Still, it wasn't bad getting there in the top 5 or 6, as we had started the day at the end of the pack. On the descent down from this part of the Green Mountains, I recorded video and you can see it from the link below. I topped out at 49.6 MPH.

After leaving the 2^nd SAG, Joe, Jeff and I headed for the last climb of the day. It was another 3.5 to 4 miles to the summit of Hogback Mountain, which is part of the Green Mountain chain in Vermont. The climb was another good one, but the descent was a bit frustrating. Every time that we thought that the descent was starting, another small climb would appear. It took a while for the ups and downs to end, and for us to really get a good descent.

Along the ride today, we passed through both Bennington and Wilmington on the way to Brattleboro. All of these Vermont towns are very pretty. They are what you expect to see in Vermont: the quaint streets, the Victorian houses and shops, and the rivers that seem to like to flow through them. Large trees shade the streets and antique stores adorned the shopping areas. It is a very pretty part of the country.

Tomorrow is another tough climbing day and there is one optional climb that most people are planning on avoiding, however I plan on riding. It is the climb up Sullivan Hill. Apparently, this hill is about 1.5 miles up, but at a grade up to 20%. I've ridden grades like that before and even steeper. For those that have never had that pleasure, let me try to describe it. A 20% grade will require you to be in the lowest of gears, at least one of them. Your heart will be pounding likely past your maximum safe zone. Your ears will hear the beats of the blood flowing through your veins and your legs will feel like they are burning. After a while, every pedal stroke will come with some additional pain, which you learn to ignore. Your lungs will be demanding more and more oxygen, but your breathing will have a hard time to keep up. You won't be able to stop pedaling however, because at any angle over 20% there won't be enough time to re-clip onto your pedals if you do. You will see the top in the corner of your eye, and that is what keeps you going, knowing that it has to end at some point. Sound like fun? Well, the satisfaction of doing something hard has its own reward: knowing that you did it.

Here's the video from the 49.6 MPH descent (after about 45 seconds I am in the mid to high 40's for speed):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvZWoOqQdhI

Here's the GPS data from today:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/43534214

Let's see what tomorrow brings.