Tour de Burg

 

The Tour de Burg is an annual event in Harrisonburg, Virginia. It dates back 24 years when Mike and Chris decided that they wanted to ride multiple epic days during the time that the Tour de France was happening.  They would hammer out big back-to-back-to-back-to-back, etc...., days in the mountains of George Washington National Forest. Every year more and more friends would join in this hillacious sufferfest.  And then sometime in the early 2000's, it officially became an unofficial event, attracting the most hardcore mountain bikers around.  Soon, non-locals got wind of this event and would make the annual pilgrimage to this mountain bike mecca.

The director sportif himself

I had heard about TdB for about 10 years.  But, for various reasons, I just couldn't make it happen.  Or perhaps it was because I was intimidated by it.  There are no GPX tracks and no to minimal course markings; the only way to find your way along the stage is by listening to the Mike's pre-race briefings and the one page PDF file that is sent to you the week before the event.  Not to mention the big names that come out to play:  Jeremiah Bishop, Sue Haywood, Kyle Lawrence, Lindsey Carpenter, Cheryl Sorenson, Libbey Sheldon, to name a few.

So when I got a text message from Melissa asking if I had heard of it and was I interested, I answered yes and yes and immediately cleared my calendar.  Now, it had been in my head that the whole stage was "raced."  Apparently I had not heard of "slumming."  I was pleasantly surprised when Melissa told me that only certain sections were timed and that the transitions were at party pace. There were 2 timed sections per stage and after the first one was a lunch break.  However, the lunch break only lasted 1 hour after the first person finished the timed section.  And if you didn't make that 1 hour cut off, you either had to bleed out your eyeballs to catch up to the peloton as they made their way to the next timed section or get SAG'd out in a vehicle.

Stage 1

Talk about throwing the baby in the deep end!  This rookie's legs were screaming and heart rate soaring as this stage immediately started with a timed section, a 6 mile single track loop.  It began with a 2 mile, 1200 foot climb up Big Hollow Trail.  Super steep and super rocky, I was happy that my skilz were there, but damn, there were no flats where I could get a quick breather.  I ended up with some HAB as my lungs could not keep up with the oxygen demand. I got a brief respite on the Hone Quarry Ridge Trail, as it rolled along, but was still technical as the rocks were hidden by tall grass, which made for a few squirrely episodes.  The 1.3 mile descent down Heartbreak Trail was super rocky with several rockslides to negotiate and some ledgy drops. 

 

top of Big Hollow

Heartbreak

I came into this race knowing that I did not want to do anything stupid or above my pay grade, for fear of ruining my France bike-cation at the end of the month.  So I chose to race hard, but also ride for the experience and take some pics along the way.  Still, this 6 mile timed section took a 1:09.

At the finish was lunch.  I managed to have about 30 minutes to fuel and prep for the next timed section.  We slummed on the pavement climb up close to Reddish Knob.  This timed section included a chunky ATV trail up and over Flagpole Knob and a full mountain descent on Meadow Knob Trail to Cliff Trail.  The descent was chunky and I was having to focus the whole time; kind of felt like the Heartbreak descent in Pisgah.  I did stop at the overlook and take a few photos.

Cliff Mine Tr vista

With about 1/2 mile left on Cliff Mine, my handle bar clipped a tree and down I went ... hard!  My bike and I looked like we were engaged in a game of Twister.  After freeing myself from Blaze, I was bruised and battered, but not broken.  Blaze's handle bars were all catawampus and in the process of trying to straighten them, I managed to give myself a 2nd degree burn on the knee from the searing hot brake rotor.  Well, THAT woke me up!  I had to walk down the trail a few yards, making sure all parts (bike and body) were working before I mustered the courage to finish out the descent.

The second timed section took 1:26.  For the day, it was 24 miles, 4600 feet of climbing, and an elapsed time of 4:42.

Stage 2

We started out with a 4 mile gravel slum over to the first timed section:  Up Magic Moss Trail and down Dowell's Draft Trail.  I was happy for this little warm up, as I think my legs were still in shock from yesterday.  Magic Moss was a 2.5 mile, 1000 foot climb.  It was very smooth and buttery, compared to the previous day.  Despite the overnight rains, the trail was hero dirt.  The Dowell's Draft descent was a hoot.  The grasses along the edge were really tall, making this trail half-track.  With it being slightly off-camber, it was a little slickety-slick at speed.  My brain was having a hard time processing at these high speeds and so had to back off, after I about slipped off the mountain.

Familiar with this, from SM100 race.

Time for this section was 47:35.  I grabbed some food from the SAG and caught my breath.  BTW, the SAG lunch stops were a cornucopia of awesome items:  sandwiches, soft drinks, chips, pickles, hummus, wraps, trail mix, candy, and fruit.  No one went hungry!  From there we bushwhacked up and over a ridge to hook into a trail that dumped us out onto pavement. We then slummed (party paced) down Deerfield Valley on a long paved slight descent which felt oh so good!  Then began a gravel climb up to the beginning of the second timed section.  I loved these transitions as it gave me a chance to recover and make new friends.  This section was a 10 mile traverse of the North Mountain Trail, followed by a 3.5 mile screaming descent down Chimney Hollow Trail.  By now, the pecking order had been established so we all staged ourselves appropriately.  I was glad to be towards the back, as this trail had dense undergrowth, including briars and nettle.  I pitied the poor fool who had to "break trail."  This section was stunningly beautiful, the trail near Elliot's Knob was rocky and slicker n snot, and the soul crusher was the 5 HAB sections that climbed 700 feet to the top of the Chimney Hollow Trail.

Slummin' through Deerfield Valley

North Mountain floral gauntlet

Near Elliot's Knob, the F-bomb section of North Mountain

The upper part of the Chimney Hollow descent was quite chundery and I unleashed a few F-bombs.  The lower section smoothed out and was ridiculously fast!  So ... much ... fun!

lower Chimney Hollow

This section took me 2:45.  The day's totals were 43 miles, 6000 feet, and total time of 6:24.

Melissa and I had every good intention of heading to dinner that evening, but where we were staying in Mt. Solon, it would have been an hour commute, and we were tired!  Every night at 7pm, dinner was served at Hillandale Park in Harrisonburg.

I knew I needed to recover as best as possible, which meant getting off the legs, squeezing the legs with my Elevated Legs, and getting to bed early.  I needed a solid 9 hours of sleep, which I did manage to get every night.  The stages would start between 9 and 10 am.

To be continued ...