The Cascade 1200 is creeping up on me. There’s only 7 weeks to go before it starts. I thought I’d throw up an image of the elevation profile I’ll be dealing with during this loop around Washington, 770 miles and around 40,000 ft of climbing, all in under 93 hours.
I better continue the hill training rides I’ve been doing …
I’ve added some photos to the previous posts, it was warmer than it looks 🙂
I shed various layers as the day went on and the elevation went up …
I rode out along the west side of the river to Lake Chelan with most of the group. We had a double paceline going into the wind which made good time. Then we fragmented once we turned into Navarre Coulee road for a nice climb on quiet roads up to the lake. I arrived there over an hour ahead of schedule, for meeting Susan and the kids, so pottered around at the SIR food stop for a while until they arrived. Then headed into a nearby campground with a play area for the kids to run around and explore.
Eventually left to ride back by myself along the way I’d come. Unlike last year, this year I actually had a tailwind all the way back which made the ride much more pleasant than the slog at the end of the 200K last year.
All in all, a good way to end 4 days of riding in the sun.
Lake Chelan
Mileage: 76 miles
Average Speed: 15.8 mph
Elevation Gain: 3860 ft
A shorter day today as we were all going to go to the carnival in the afternoon. I followed the same route up Badger Mountain that I rode last year (after omitting a 20 mile loop at the start before the main climb).
Susan and the kids met me near the summit and then we all spent some time hanging out at the top before a speedy descent back down to the Inn.
Near the summit
At the summit
Mileage: 52 miles
Average Speed: 12.3 mph
Elevation Gain: 5558 ft
All of the group were heading out on the same route today and we picked up speed taking advantage of a light tail wind (and Chris Ragsdale pulling the group along). I was on my regular road bike today which made sticking with the group easier. Gradually the lead group whittled down as we kept going at about 25mph.
Once it was down to 5 people I got dropped on a hill and settled down to riding with a couple of other people as they caught up and we formed a second group. Legs felt good up the first main hill but felt the distinctive feel of a rear puncture towards the top. Stopped and took a while to fix it only to get on my bike and ride around the corner to find the SIR support stop nearer than expected. Would have walked up and fixed it there if I’d known!
Thankfully that was my lot of punctures over for the trip.
Had a nice long climb up Stemilt road and then decided to do the “bonus” climb up the Mission Ridge ski area to test the legs. That climb was reminiscent of Mt. Baker, except at a steady 10% rather than 6% grade. Then it was all downhill back to the Inn and a nice Italian dinner.
Mileage: 78 miles
Average Speed: 11.7 mph
Elevation Gain: 9631 ft
