Barnsley to Horn Mountain

Garmin Connect Ride Data
Photos by Quellet Cycling

We had many of our regular group up in Indiana doing the 160 mile RAIN (Ride Across Indiana), but here at home we had a great 80 mile NARC ride starting from the Barnsley Gardens and heading out to Horn Mountain. I only a few guys reported to me in emails that they were attending today's ride and the best news was that Paul Deshane and Alan Ezzell were planning to do a lower intensity ride, which fit in with my plans as well since I did intervals most of last week and I needed to also ride at a lower IF (intensity factor).

The main group of guys broke away early in the ride and I was with them, but it was more effort than what I was supposed to be doing. I rode up to the ride with Gary Quellet, but since he and Edgar were in the other group I only did a few miles with them. I also noticed a couple of guys behind me and I was concerned that they would get lost so I dropped back to see how they were doing. Further back was Alan and Paul staying at their consistent pace. Along the way we picked up Wayne Williams. At this point we had six guys in our group and my goals was to stay somewhere close to 170 watts with occasional peak outputs in climbing or avoiding dogs.

I had never climbed the west side of Horn Mountain, but it wasn't quite as bad. I kept my watts low as did Paul and Alan. The three of us were at the summit at near the same time, but descending all of the guys descended much faster. I had to put on a hard pace to catch up with them, but fortunately they were soft pedaling to allow me to catch up.

From there we stayed together to the end staying in our perspective zones, but the roads were flatter and the speeds picked up. The last couple miles going back to Barnsley Garden were a slight uphill gradient and that was the first time of the day my legs were feeling the effort.

Overall the weather, the route and finally getting to ride with Paul and Alan for the first time this year was a pleasure. Of course it was only because they were riding at a lower intensity factor. Wayne was also there with me for most of those miles and I enjoyed riding with Wayne.