Team Gran Fondo Heart of the South finally got together March 7 for a training ride from Brentwood, TN, down to South Pittsburg. From there they went east thru Stevenson, AL, before returning north back over the ridge and on home. Although the total trip was 265 miles, the team mainly focused on refining crewing logistics.
They divided into two "teams" of two riders each -- the first team out was Jeff Bauer and Alan Gosart. Jeff rode the first hour down to Almaville, where Alan took the next hour to Versailles.
For daylight riding, the crew did not have to stay immediately behind the rider but could do "leap-frog" support. This enabled them to keep an eye on the rider and help with any mechanicals, but still tend to any crew issues that would require they get out of the van. One of these situations arose during Alan's ride to Versailles, when Vida noticed a goat with its head stuck in a fence on Windrow Road. She jumped out and saved the goat, who had apparently been trapped for some time.
Add "animal rescue" to the list of duties for a member of Team Gran Fondo Heart of the South.
Catastrophe averted, the team quickly caught up to Alan just before Rockvale. At Versailles Road, Jeff came on for another hour, getting to Bell Buckle. Alan then finished up the team set by riding to Tullahoma. At this point, the riders had covered 80 miles in four hours ... all of it into a stiff 15-mph headwind!
Meanwhile, everyone worked on crew logistics. The trickiest part was navigation: How to call out turns to the rider, what to track on the cue sheet, how to tell the rider he/she is off course. This was compounded by the fact that the route was not in either of the GPSs in the vehicle, and that the cue sheet had some minor errors. This accounted for some mis-steps and confusion, but the team managed everything was grace and style.
Another logistical trick was bike shuffling. The team had to ensure that the rider coming on duty had his/her bike ready without cluttering up the tailgate rack, moving the "off-duty" bikes up on the roof rack. The team managed to develop a good protocol for this, however, and many other potential issues. This was part of what made the training ride so worthwhile.
The team was also able to test another ride issue during Vida Greer and Robert Hendry's turn. Vida took over in Tullahoma, while Jeff and Alan were able to "rest" -- although, for this ride, rest is relative because the "off" team has to replace lost calories and fluid, get kinks out of muscles, and drive the van and navigate the course.
Vida set a fast pace from Tullahoma to near Alto, where Robert took over. About 20 minutes into his ride, the team started the harsh climb up to Sewanee. Knowing that most crews would have to either slow down for climbs like this or burn up a rider, the Gran Fondo team had Robert hammer the first mile of the climb, and then put Vida back out for the next mile. Robert then took over for the rest of the climb, so that the team made it to the University of the South campus in less than 15 minutes from the base of the mountain.
As the shadows lengthened, Vida took over and brought the team back down off the ridge and into South Pittsburg, TN. Here, the team had a 15-minute break before Robert took over and rode into Alabama and thru Stevenson, where the team finally began angling northward and out of the wind.
Jeff took over near Bass, AL, as night fell, riding back into Tennessee and to the base of the long climb back up Hwy 56. Since it was now dark, the team had to stay behind the rider and could not leap-frog to swap off riders every mile on this climb. As such, Jeff did the first "half" of the climb before Alan came on. The second "half" turned out to be more like three-quarters, but Alan still managed to maintain an impressive average and soon had the team up and over that ridge, before descending back to Alto.
The team wanted to test their night-navigating abilities, as well, and so used a slightly different route for the return trip. Jeff had a fairly level course that mostly followed the Tour de Cure, riding back to Tullahoma. Then Alan enjoyed more navigational challenges (with a few missed turns) as he rode through the evening hours past the George Dickel Distillery in Normandy, TN, and back to Wartrace. Here, again, the team took a quick break, enjoying the hospitality of the coffee shop on the town square.
Their work done, Jeff and Alan shuffled their bikes to the roof and Vida hit the road. Although the wind had dropped with nightfall, it was still gently pushing the team in the right direction, and average speeds climbed in spite of the darkness. Vida rode to near Midland, then Robert took over to near Murfreesboro. Vida enjoyed the last harsh climb up Independent Hill and to the outskirts of Nolensville, letting Robert ride the last 20 minutes back to his house.
Total ride time was just over 15 hours, for an average speed of about 17 mph. If the riders can maintain this pace in April, they should be able to finish Heart of the South within their goal time of 35 hours.
