Adventures and Such

  Welcome back, party peopleeeeeee. So, I left off at Confederate Breast Works, starting day 2. I think I had half of a cold, smashed cheesy bean n' rice (CBR) from Taco Bell and a honey bun for breakfast, which was not nearly enough calories for the deficit I was already in. Marty and I got rolling at about 6:30am, headed just across the Shenandoah Mountain Highway to hike our bikes up a super steep service road to start the approximately 20 mile section of single track which was the Shenandoah Mountain Trail.  It basically runs the ridgeline of the Shenandoah Mountain range, but skirts around to the side of the knobs (high points along the range) as opposed to going up to each top. This gives the trail a largely off-camber profile. There was more HAB scattered throughout the trail as well. Some sections were extremely rocky and technical and others were smooth and flowy. And it didn't take long to heat up. The humidity was high and we were glistening with sweat within 30 min...

PC: Chris Blankenship Holy shit! That was intense! I've finally rested my mind and body enough to attempt this write up. The  Rockstar Challenge  is an annual event put on by the Virginia Endurance Series (VES). There are three route options: pavé, 165 miles with 10k feet of vert, gravel, 250 miles with 25k feet of vert, and trail, 270 miles with 40k feet of vert. All routes are a point-to-point from Harrisonburg (Rock Town) to Roanoke (Star City). The 2022 grand depart was held 6 days ago on April 23.  Several months back, I had dangled this race in front of the Bad Idea Club and, to my surprise, I actually got a bite. Justin Mace decided to just go ahead and sign up for the race and then tell me the ball was in my court. Well, I happily obliged, opted for the team category, and preparations began.  As April arrived, and several bike trips/races had come and gone, Justin realized his life schedule was just too busy and he didn't have the time for the full event but ...