Cheat Mountain Challenge

What have I gotten myself into? Thats exactly what I was thinking as I looked over the course profile for the Cheat Mountain Challenge in Snowshoe, WV and read through some of the teams that were going to show up for this ride. I should be focusing on the races coming up this weekend, but on a whim I decided to look over the registration info for CMC.

The Cheat Mountain Challenge may on paper be presented as a scenic, supported century ride through the mountains of West Virginia, however I had been assured it is undertaken "race-style" by the team mates who had roped me into riding this event. Indeed even as I was registering I was presented with several choices for start times, one of which was "8am-Choose this time if you think of this ride as a race". As this was going to be my first CMC, a smarter man might have opted for a different start time, however I texted my team mates who all assured me they signed up for the 8am start...thus in the face of being considered a "weeny" I also opted into this time slot. I figured how hard could it be, right?

Well pretty hard apparently. I mean 110 miles with 10,000 feet of elevation gain is no joke in itself, but there is a difference between doing that at race pace and doing that at your leisure. I asked Ben (Cat 3 from Parkersburg) what they usually averaged on this ride, to which he answered close to 20mph for just a little under 6 hours....not the answer I was looking for. With a course with this much climbing, that is most definitely race pace. That is goin for broke race pace actually. I looked at the course profile and it resembles some of the harder stage profiles for the TdF this year. There are four major climbs and one smaller one. And when I say major, I dont mean the namby-pamby 1-2 mile climbs of central Ohio and West Virginia either. I mean full on, 10 mile slogfests with multiple switchbacks, thousands of feet of elevation gain, and taking at least 35-45 minutes EACH to climb. This is gonna hurt.

The CMC draws some fairly big names so the peloton is most assuredly going to be full of some heavy hitters (last year Jeremiah Bishop showed up at CMC as a training ride for his already stellar mountain bike race season). Ben's experience last year doesn't instill confidence in me either. Right after the start of the ride there is a 7 mile climb that effectively forces an early selection in the pack. Ben made it in the group of 20 or so riders to top out as the "lead pack" and hung on for a large part of the day. Each climb whittled the pack down by a few guys here and there, until there was a group of less than 10 riders off the front. At mile 60 the course once again turns upward for a full 10 miles of climbing. It was here that a group of five riders attacked, detached, and completely dropped the remaining few riders of the lead group. Ben was among the casualties left behind to finish in the chase group, several minutes off the "winning" time. Oh, and did I mention its a mountain top finish? Thats right, we climb up Cheat Mountain to the Snowshoe lodge to finish off the day. This little cherry comes in at 104 (out of 110.2) miles and will prove to be an extra special treat for those of us lucky enough to even make it there (there is a considerable drop out rate on this ride...).

Dont get me wrong, I am not complaining. The CMC is going to be fantastic! I am staying in the lodge with a few team mates and we will have full support all day long. Plus I am getting some swag from sponsors and the ride organizers to boot! Heck I am just hoping to finish the thing, but Ben seems to think this is The Ride for me. It definitely is going to be interesting to see how I stack up against some "actual climbers", you know the ones that are used to massive elevation fluctuations versus tons of foothills...I even heard that there is a contingent of Jelly Belly (Pro Team) staying in Pennsylvania which is definitely close enough for them to drop by...I am hoping to do nothing more than hold my own on this one. As of now I dont really anticipate attacking and just have a goal of making the initial selection on the first climb. Then we will see how long I can hang on before being spit off the back. It should be alot of fun and I will be sure to chronicle my experiences along the way!