This was Hilly Hundred weekend, which meant that Bike Wave, and therefore me also, was in Ellettsville from Friday until Sunday. This year, for the first time, I actually rode in the Hilly. I suspect that it wouldn't be quite as bad if I were just a participant rather than also a vendor.
The main reasons that I had trouble with the Hilly are my own. Being overweight, for instance. Having quit smoking only 3 days prior probably didn't help, either.
There were some reasons out of my control that I wanted to mention, however.
Dust. I mean BAD dust. It was everywhere. The vendor tent was apparently set up over the barest, driest, dustiest, most parched bit of ground there was at the high school. On Saturdays, the vendors work for 14 hours. Try breathing a brown, visible dust for 14 hours straight and then riding 40 miles. I was hacking up brown goo all over the roads of Ellettsville and the surrounding environs. VERY poor planning. I know of two vendors who said they are never coming back. Never mind the fact that most of our inventory is now destroyed.
Elevation/Climbing graphs. Am I the only one who noticed that up until the day before Hilly, the climbing graph for the Sunday 40 miler showed 1831 feet of climbing? That is what I based my decision to ride on. I felt confident that I could handle that amount. During the ride, it felt like a LOT more than 1831. When I got home, I saw that the graphs had been replaced and that it WAS a lot more than that... They changed it to 2707 feet. That's almost a thousand additional feet. Shouldn't they have posted that BEFORE the Hilly?
For those who never look at the graphs, here's a before and after....
Before the Hilly
After the Hilly
Just some other general criticisms of the 40th Hilly Hundred:
Food. I arrived at the lunch stop around lunch time - noon. The vegetarian selection was meager to begin with, with the major selection being peanut butter and jelly. There was no peanut butter. There was no promise of more ever arriving. The non-veggie selection was fried chicken. Fried Chicken on a bike ride???? Very poor planning.
Vendor harassment. Several attendees in the vendor tent witnessed someone from CIBA harassing the guy with the RV bike racks. A comment was made about "people who don't pay" in front of customers and other vendors. VERY tacky. As it stands right now, he won't be returning. I don't blame him.
A woman with a flat tire was told by SAG personnel that she could either go back to the start or sit on the side of the road. She was already 6 miles in and had no desire to go back. How hard would it have been to have taken her to the first rest stop or *gasp* give her a long-valve tube?
All in all, Hilly is a good time. I think, however, that it used to be a better time than it is now. Perhaps I'm jaded because I've seen it from a vendor's point of view.
Anyway, if you go to my cycling log book you can see the pitiful amount of time it took me to ride the Sunday short course. I had to walk the bike up 4 or 5 of the hills. Especially Mount Tabor. lol Still, I did complete the whole thing, which was my major goal for my first time.
