Hello Cyclists.

If you missed The Beat Goes On metric or century this weekend, you missed a quality ride with quality support, great SAG stops, great people who were riders or supporters, and some of the prettiest scenery in the world. It was put on by the Spruce Pine Community Hospital Foundation. This year, Randy Raskin and Dick Blomberg put a couple of twists in the ride that were positive. Mignon Durham is the exceptional organizer. These folks did a great job, as well as all the other volunteers.

I'll talk a little about my experience, but first let me give you the latest quote by John Cozad, a local cyclist from Hickory. We all know that Lance put this area on the cycling maps with his kind words, and so did Greg LeMond before him. John put it this way: "Riding here is like skiing in the Rockies. Once you ride here you don't want to ride anywhere else." Perhaps someone could point out to me where there are 35 miles or so of continuous flat road between here and Raleigh, and is it as pretty as this road that flows with the Toe and Cane Rivers?

The morning before the ride was a wet one at the Bicycle Inn. Two guests put on another pot of coffee, anticipating spending the day on the porch because of the rain. They rode. The start at the SPCH in Spruce Pine is about 14 miles by road, and halfway there the rain stopped and the roads were dry.

My ride started with leading the pack out of the parking lot. I looked great for about three minutes. I quickly hooked up with a tandem couple and felt better with them than staying in the pack. They would go fast downhill and a little slower up—just what I'm getting more inclined to do every day. Alas, I was dropped as I was last year in the same place, halfway to Bakersville. I could see other riders getting shredded off the back up ahead. The rain started again and the roads were wet.

I climbed Pumpkin Patch behind Caroline Camp, who did her first century here last year. She climbed every hill better than I and I descended faster, so we were kind of a team for a while. We rode Fork Mountain together and then 226 to Harrell Hill. Again she climbed ahead and I caught her on the descent. Same with Tipton Hill.

When I was descending I tried to point out the raised yellow line that can be slick, but I don't know if she could read my signals. On the way down toward Brummets Creek, Caroline skidded out. I rode back up to where she was and she was standing next to her bike. Her jersey was torn and her shorts had a tear about the size of a grapefruit, showing a big patch of strawberries. Fortunately her bike was unscathed, and she wasn't deterred from getting right back on the horse, so to speak. I believe one other rider skidded out near here. Somewhere out here the rain stopped, but for a short while the roads would be wet.

We rode down to the Toe River and then up Jacks Creek. We caught up to Chris Graebe from the Raleigh area and worked together until Caroline pulled off at a rest stop, at what locals call the "Sit and Spit Club". I wonder how many people know it's called that.

Chris and I rode together until the climb up Schronce Creek (toward the top of Bald Mountain) got steeper than I cared for and Chris dropped me like a stone. I went into a deep climbing meditation and just before descending down Bee Log creek I drank a Starbucks Double Shot espresso from a can. I don't think Lance or Hincapie would have usually done that, but I enjoyed it. The first two miles of Bee Log are "hairy", but the next five miles are sweet and flowing. There were pretty homes and gardens, old abandoned stores, and a church with grinding wheels in the foundation.

Down at the Amoco at Lewisburg, there was a rest stop where I joined Adam ONeil, Chris Graebe, and a few others. But I  had to change a tube in Adam's wheel. I picked up a couple of gel packets while there. Caroline joined us and we sailed off down Cane River Road. A paceline of six people or so is very pleasant when you're on an easy road with beautiful scenery.
Perhaps about 12 miles later "Joe" had a flat. We had to change it twice, as there was a hole in the tire and so we put a "boot" in it. I believe it was a Clif Bar wrapper. It was down to Adam, "Joe", and me (hi I'm Michael by the way). It was one of the tightest tires I have ever put on a wheel. Twice! This was before Huntdale. Supposedly there was a man that was married to Dale, and when he was asked where he was off to quite often said, “I'm going to hunt Dale” (I am not making this up).

Back on the road I could hear the train coming, but there was nothing we could do about it. It held us up at Relief. Supposedly "in the old days" the train operators would stop there and relieve themselves (I really am not making this up). At Green Mountain, Adam stopped for a soda and we three took a break sitting in front of the store.

At Red Hill we stopped again and I was able to chat with the volunteers there that I knew. I got an early start on the next hill, and soon Adam caught me before descending down to Loafers Glory (named after a bunch of guys sitting around loafing).
We rode back to Bakersville together and waited for Joe at Duck Branch. There was a great descent down Duck with an excruciating climb up Mine Creek. Adam and "Joe" waited for me there.

We blazed down Snow Creek and suffered up to Ledger (okay, Ledger got its name from the locals wanting a post office there, and they kept a ledger of the mail going through there).  We stopped at the store and rest stop at Ledger. I bought a cola to carry me the rest of the way to the Spruce Pine Community Hospital. Our amigos at the "stop" gave me ice and water for my bottle that I poured over my head. I told them not to give Adam anything (he was too strong). No mas. They did anyway.

Joe and Adam made me hurt on every rise back. But it was done quickly enough, and we were soon eating veggie chili, sandwiches, and such with almost black road-grit tans. It was great. We looked like we had ridden Paris-Roubaix.
In my "groups" we had rain as well as great weather, a crash, twp flat tires, and waited for a train. We rode on great roads, saw beautiful scenery, met great cyclists, and had a blast.

The Beat Goes On is a classic bicycle ride. Put it on your annual cycling calendar. The Dewey Hughes Memorial ride is coming up in Marion so be there or be square.

Happy trails,
Michael