Day 3

Today was an excellent cycling experience. The weather was very good, virtually no wind, temperatures 62 degrees at my 8:30 start and 75 degrees at the finish of 70 miles in Orchard Gap, Virginia. There was very little traffic, unlike yesterday’s finish in Roanoke. The topography was interesting, hilly with some flat sections.

I started the morning with a 9 mile climb of over 1,687 feet. I pedaled thru the 8 to 12% gradients in my smaller compact gear. The second large climb came at mile 40 to 3,215 feet. I had a total of 6,804 feet of ascent for today, much of it from these two climbs. They were both so difficult I barely could average 6 miles per hour. The good news was most of the rest of the ride was made up of rolling hills, with nice flat or down hill stretches that I could sprint thru at 25 to 30 miles an hour. These quick climbs and sprints made the day interesting, and not as tiring as the massive climb (see Paul Sherwin) I did yesterday at Apple Blossom.

The scenery was different today, I rode thru numerous pastures and farm land, many with daises and other colorful flowers growing. There were numerous overlooks, with views of such well known places as Mount Airy (see Andy Griffith).

I developed significant pain in my left knee from climbing today, my quad-tendon. I'm used to this, just hope it doesn’t pop on one of the big climbs.

We finished at mile 190; we’re spending the night in Fancy Gap. We progress into North Carolina tomorrow, I’ll be more than half finished at my target mile post 260.