Garrett County Gran Fondo - Diabolical Double - Cycle

Wisp to Friendsville

Defining Events: Derailleur jamming on White Rock, Twice, causing me to fall over, Twice.

Rolled with the group down off from Wisp and just gawked at all the snazzy bikes as the legs started to warm up. Went over the first little hill with no problem at all. Hit the White Rock climb in full stride. Kept telling myself to go slower, but on a steep hill you can only go so slow. So when the pitch had me going slower than my legs could grind out sitting down, I stood up. When I stood up, my pedal forcefully stopped at the top of its cycle, and I fell over. After struggling to get unclipped and keep my bottle from rolling all the way back down the hill, I got righted. Functional check showed that my wheel had been yanked out of the drops but once that was fixed and the chain re-aligned, everything seemed good to go. Walked down the hill a bit so I wasn’t on the steepest part and off I went. Not a mile later, on another moderately steep rise, I stood up again, and had to repeat the whole process all over again.

This time, after I got going, I realized the chain was fully engaging my biggest cog, seemed like a limit screw issue. If that got screwed up with the first fall or was screwed up at the start I will never know, but I took 5 minutes to flip my bike over and get it adjusted. Spun through the gears for a couple of miles and declared the problem fixed. It never acted up again for the whole ride, in spite of my chain getting insanely dirty.

Nutrition: Water, a couple oranges, a banana, 1 gel.

Friendsville to Scenic Overlook

Defining Events: Climbs and descents. 1xcat 2, 1xcat 3, 3xcat 4.

Starting as soon as you leave Friendsville, the road goes up. It continues that way, interrupted only by brief descents all the way to the Scenic Overlook on 214. The descent on Sam Friend was pretty sweet with a couple switch backs to keep you on your toes. Harmon to Bear Creek is probably the flattest stretch of road this course offers before you get to Deer Park. It was kind of fun hammering down through there.

Looking back, it is this section that makes the whole ride so Diabolical. 5 categorized climbs, and many of them didn’t seem all that bad. However, they all played a part in wearing down my legs and using whatever nutrient stores I had.
Nutrition: 2xPB&J, a couple oranges, a banana, water, 1 bottle heed, 2 cookies.
Scenic Overlook to Howes Market
Defining Events: Bowman and Miller
2 HC climbs. Bowman Hill and the back side of Killer Miller. Some fun descending on twisty back roads, but really this section is defined by the two monster climbs. Bowman Hill just goes on forever, and after a tantalizingly short descent, it goes up again. The one thing Bowman has over Miller Rd. is tree cover. The exposure of Miller put it on equal footing with Bowman, in my mind. The views from the top of some of these climbs was sometimes just as memorable as the climb, though right now I can’t recall exactly which climbs had the best views.
Legs were definitely burning at the top of Bowman and Miller, but they recovered quickly and still felt like they had some strength left in them.
Nutrition: A gu on the road, PB&J, oranges, Heed and a Hammer Gel. 3 endurolytes

Howes Market to Westernport
Defining Events: flat on Blue Lick, lots of short uncategorized climbs before smoking the brakes into Westernport.
1 Cat 4, 1 Cat 2. This looks like a downhill run into Westernport on the profile, but it is everything but. Blue Lick Rd. is a 2-3 mile stretch of hard pack dirt road. The first mile is slightly down hill and relatively smooth. It’s after the road takes a sharp left and heads back up hill that things get interesting. As I was rolling through the downhill I thought I felt my tire go flat, but I wasn’t slowing down, so I kept rolling. That is until I reached the first slight up hill. Changed the tire with no major issues, just a few growing pains with the air chuck.
Back on the paved road, I started to hear my bottle cage rattling, but didn’t feel like stopping to fix it, until it flopped over and caught my pedal at top dead center, thereby forcing me to stop and fix that.
The rest of this section was characterized by me telling Christy at the top of several uncategorized climbs that it was all downhill from there into Westernport, oh how wrong I was. Even though the legs still felt somewhat strong, all the climbing was already starting to soften them up quite a bit. Eventually the descent did come. It’s a good one, until you reach town and the pitch gets way too steep, after that my only option was to smoke my brakes. Worried for the first time ever that my brakes might give out and leave me in a bad situation.
Nutrition: Coke, oranges, 2xPB&J, goldfish, Water, 3 endurolytes.

Westernport to Deer Park

Defining Events: Closed road, long steady climbs, Horrible WV drivers. First leg cramp.

This section features 3 cat 1 climbs, and some of the best descending on the course. The climb from Luke to Jennings Randolph is a steady, 6-7 mile constant up hill. By this time, we were just spinning in our granny gears. The party line along this part was “Are we really going uphill.”

The Lake at the top really made the work worthwhile. Only real compliant about this section was the drivers. Traffic was light, but it seemed like every car that went by was intent on being as much of a nuisance as possible. This includes getting passed by trucks going ~75mph, a car racing a dirt bike, and a bunch of SUVs that seemed to have a magnetic affinity to our bikes.

The descent from Elk Garden into Kitzmiller was a definite highlight of the ride. The road was just twisty enough to make it interesting, but not so technical that it was scary. It was in Kitzmiller that our ride was almost completely derailed. Just after leaving town we were stopped by a cop who had the road closed, it was going to stay that way for at least an hour, no way through.

Luckily, just as we were getting back into town, and before too much dread settled in, the couple that had been leapfrogging us all day came down the hill. She had the sag number, and with sketchy signal we were able to relay the message. Five minutes later, Steve the sag guy showed up and convinced the cop to allow us to walk our bikes past the accident. We were back in the saddles and climbing again.

The last 10 miles into Deer Park really seemed to drag on, but eventually I saw Steve up ahead, camera in hand. Also at that checkpoint were the two liveliest ladies we had encountered all day. They had their aid station well arranged and were able to get us refueled and back on the road with little interruption. The best aid station of the day.

Nutrition: gel, Oranges, Water, something salty. 3 endurolytes at Deer Lake and 3 on the Climb into Elk Garden.

Deer Park to Wisp

Defining Events: Fighting Leg Cramps while pounding along the flats. Dreading Wisp, and riding out of my skin to get to the top.

All told, probably the least eventful of the sections we covered, but definitely the most action packed. We absolutely hammered this section (15-17mph). Our chances of making it before dark seemed a bit bleak when we left Deer Lake, but stopping was clearly not an option. My legs were on the brink of locking up this whole stint. If tipped my heel out the wrong way or dipped a toe or something, my quad would seize up.

Somehow, in spite of all this, I managed to plow my way through the cramps all the way up Wisp to an awesome summit finish. After passing a Tour de France style cheering sectionChristy and I rode right past the finish gate, and had to turn around to get our pictures taken. After blowing the 180 and cutting off the main road onto the grass lead in to the finish, I was still leaning as I began pedaling on a gravel patch. A quick correction kept me from going down, but I don’t think it would have mattered much if I did. A crawl to the finish line would have been a small challenge to overcome on a day like that.

Luckily I was able to come to a halt and get my feet on the ground, but that’s all I could do. As the assembled masses began congratulating Christy and I, my legs were in full blown cramp mode. Screaming wasn’t even an option, all I could do was dance from one foot to the other, and at one point I even lifted both feet off the ground and just balanced on my bike. Eventually A strong arm secured me in an upright position and my bike was removed from beneath me. Free to walk around, the cramping quickly subsided, and all that was left was to covet to reflect upon a long day of suffer over BBQ and Beer.

3 more finished behind us, which was great to see for a number of reasons. Foremost of all was that the organizers did not pull anybody that wanted to finish off the course. The sag vehicles escorted them all home as darkness descended.

Nutrition: 3 more endurolytes along Lake Shore Dr.


More endurolytes, clean drive train, easier pace in the beginning.

BBQ ribs and chicken, corn, potato salad, and an IPA.


Hills, maybe my old crappy bike, years of experience. I.E: Way out of my league on this one.


One of the best run races I've taken part in thus far. Sag support was phenomenal, especially with Steve helping us sort out the road closure issue. I was amazed at how well those two guys covered 180 miles of road. Aid stations were fully stocked all day long with excellent supplies and cheery volunteers. They even had the post race buffet fully stocked until the last finisher had eaten.

P.S: T-shirt as a finishers medal was a great idea.