A tale of 3 riders

Here's a comparison of 3 riders at Blood, Sweat & Gears. ----->

Boyd Johnson is an ex-Columbia Cat. 1/Pro who lives in Greenville. He set the course record this year and you should check out his insane training schedule. If you want to be a pro cyclist look at his website to see what it takes.

Here's his description of BS&G:

Blood Sweat and Gears ride in Boone, NC. This wasn't a real race, but it's one of those rides where all the racers show up and it turns into a race. The nice thing is the terrain is much harder than any actual race that will be put on this year.

The course started out climbing pretty much right away. The pace is always fast on the first climb to weed out the majority of the riders who start the event. Usually there is a group of about 60-70 who make it over the first climb. About halfway up, I got to the front and upped the tempo. I carried on the front all the way to the top and there was about 30 people left in the field at this point.

I knew I was feeling really good today and made it a point to get to the front on every climb. I would set a pace on the front during the climbs and get away solo. At the top I would wait for the group and hang out for the flat and downhill sections. There was another major climb about the 60 mile part and I knew that would be where the final selection was made. I sat on the front from the bottom of the climb and soon found myself alone. I set a tempo the rest of the way up and had enough time to grab a couple waterbottles at the top. I set off solo but not super hard and soon two guys came up to me.

We rolled it from the bottom of the descent and built up a lot of time on the chase group. I found myself dropping the guys on the climbs, and there was one more big climb (2 miles at 8%). I opened a good gap and tried to go solo from this point, but got caught just before another mile long steep climb. I got to rest a little before the climb, so I hit it again on the climb and got away. . .this time for good.

I tried to keep a time trial effort going, but it was hard to keep threshold on the slight downhill. There was one more short steep climb a few miles before the finish. I only had about 30 seconds at the base, and I cracked hard when I reached it. I was worried about getting caught again but soon found my rhythm and opened the gap again. From there I descended and rode the last mile and a half into the finish. It ended up being a new record for the course, and I was feeling great when I finished. This is a big confidence booster for nationals. . .even if it's not a "real" race.