Caesar's Head and the Assault on the Carolinas

If you want an idea of what it's like to climb one of the great Tour de France cols without travelling to Europe then head up to the Caesar's Head climb on Hwy 276 in South Carolina. It's not Mont Ventoux but you'll climb 2100 feet in 7 miles at an average gradient of 6%. It's not a steady gradient as it has an easier section midway up which gives you a chance to recover for the steep sections and hairpin bends ahead. Add in some narrow parts and a rough road surface and you have a very European climb, at least George Hincapie and Lance Armstrong thought so.

George Hincapie's hometown is Greenville SC about 25 miles away and Caesar's Head was one of his favorite climbs in his Tour de France days when he would train on it regularly with Lance Armstrong.

A good way to see the area and climb Caesar's Head with other riders is to enter the Assault on the Carolinas which is held every year in April. The spring classic takes over the host town of Brevard NC and has a limited entry of about 1200 which usually fills up before Christmas. If you're feeling flush, you can stay at Hincapie's boutique hotel "le Domestique" near Greenville which is the base for the Gran Fondo Hincapie in the Fall, another great way to see the mountains of North and South Carolina.

Hincapie and Armstrong's bikes at the Hotel Domestique

There's a lot more good riding in this area. For road bikes the Blue Ridge Parkway is great and gives you access to Mt Mitchell which from the Ashville Folk Arts Center is an out and back ride of 66 miles with 7000 feet of climbing. For mountain bikers the Dupont Forest has spectacular waterfalls and well kept trails which cater to all levels. The Holy Grail of mountain biking, the Pisgah Forest, is also close by for the elite rider.

For AOC route information click here:

Following Fausto Coppi

The Stelvio Pass in northern Italy is the second-highest paved mountain pass in the Alps climbing 6,140 feet in the 15 miles from Prato allo Stelvio to it's summit.

Fausto Coppi on the Stelvio in 1953

It is August 2019 and I am there to ride in the tracks of one of my heroes, Fausto Coppi. It was on the Stelvio in 1953 that the legendary Italian cyclist made one of his most famous attacks. He dropped the race leader, Hugo Koblet, by three and a half minutes on the climb to steal the maglia rosa and secure his fifth Giro d'Italia victory. Now, the highest peak in the Giro is always known as the "Cima Coppi".

Each year on the last Saturday of August the Stelvio National Park closes the pass to all traffic except bicycles. This is Stelvio Day, when 12,000 cyclists descend on Prato allo Stelvio to climb the Stelvio then descend the Umbrail Pass in Switzerland to the alpine village of Santa Maria on their way back to the Prato.

Passing an alpine village.

We are staying in Santa Maria and it is from there I start my morning with the easy 13 mile gradual descent to kilometer zero in Prato. Then the fun starts. 

Climbing the wall

The first 5 miles are the easiest, with an average gradient of around 5% but this changes when I get to the first hairpin bend #48 - what the? I thought Alpe d'Huez was tough with 21 corners. Oh well 47 to go and from here on up it'll be a steady 8% with some steep bits in the turns.

Looking back down the pass.

It's going to be a long climb at 8% so I shift into my lowest gear 34/32 early and ride steadily with those around me. No heroics. We count down the corners as they go by, there is a water station, I stop from time to time to munch on Clif bars and take pictures. The weather is perfect and the scenery is magnificent. On the big climbs I always wear my SLBC club jersey - the one with "It's just a hill get over it" printed on the back pocket. As usual it is good a conversation starter and brings a certain amount of humor to the climb.

Looking ahead you can see the summit from here.

Four hours after leaving Prato and 6000 feet of climbing later I have passed corner #1 and shortly after find myself in a bicycle traffic jam as the summit is blocked by riders trying to get their picture taken under the summit sign. I pass on the picture and make my way around them on foot. It is cool at the top and will be cold on the descent, I buy a t-shirt and put it on under my jacket, buy a coffee and take some pictures. Time now to ride through the old customs post into Switzerland and down the Umbrail Pass, remarkable for its lack of roadside barriers, back to our hotel in Santa Maria. 

Cima Coppi - the summit.

It is Sunday morning after breakfast and as we leave the hotel we hear the singing of the Swiss Alpenhorns in the mountains. We look around but they are not to be seen, only heard. A magical ending to the weekend.

A little history: The Stelvio Pass was already in use in Roman times by merchants trading goods between Switzerland and the Duchy of Milan. In the early 1800s the Italian province of Lombardy which included Milan had become a part of the Austrian Empire and the road over the pass was built by the Austrians to defend Lombardy and increase trade between Milan and Vienna.  Completed in 1825 it took 2,000 workers 5 years and up until the Great War it was kept open in the winter by an army of shovelers so stagecoaches could pass.

A plowed out Stelvio Pass for the 1973 Giro d'Italia

Currently the pass may be closed by snow as early as October until late May which is why it is not always included in the Giro d'Italia as an alternative stage must always be planned. 

For route information click here:

When I'm 80

Never play the age card. Never say "I'm getting too old for this." If you do then I'll guarantee no matter what you had planned that somebody younger than you is going to say they've heard about some 80 year old guy who did it a couple of weeks ago. Of course they've never met this guy, not one of them has, and certainly no one knows his name but they all know about him and they're all more than willing to make sure you know about him too. 

Well, I'm tired of this guy who always seems to know where I'm going and what I'm going to do and goes there and does it two weeks before me. So I have a plan. In 2026 when I'm 80 I'm gonna be that guy. I'm going to go back to France and climb the Tourmalet, Mont Ventoux and Alpe d'Huez again. I might not be quick, each climb might take me all day but I'll get it done. 

And you know those decals that cyclists stick all over the summit signs, well I'm going to have my own sticker that says "Congratulations from the 80 year old guy that did it last week."

Having done that I might buy an electric bike  - but not before. 

Fruitland Park

Monday April 4 and I'm on the Easy B club ride around Spring Lake which takes a break in Fruitland Park. Couldn't be better as I'm writing this article for the club newsletter and need a couple of pictures.

The original railroad depot sign in Fruitland Park Library

We stop at the covered picnic tables at the recreation complex on Gardenia Avenue which is interesting as it is where the railroad passed through. A little further south on Gardenia is the new swimming pool which sits at the end of Railroad Street and is the site of the old depot.

The tracks that became Gardenia Avenue circa 1890

The railroads had a huge influence on the location and development of towns in the area. The gentleman who named the town, Major O.P. Rooks, moved to the area in 1876 and took out Homestead Rights giving him 160 acres of land which would be his after 5 years. To convince the Florida Southern Railroad to run through Fruitland Park, Rooks and others granted the railroad 160 acres to change their planned route which was east of Dead River. Fruitland Park was surveyed and platted out by the railroad surveyor shortly before the first train arrived in 1883.

Confusion reigned for a while. Rooks had named the town Fruitland Park in 1876 but the postal authorities already had a Fruitland so renamed it Gardenia. The railroad in turn already had a town named Gardenia on their tracks. For a while mail was delivered to the Gardenia post office and freight to the Fruitland Park depot which were side by side! Eventually the railroad won out with Fruitland Park - seems they had more clout than the post office.

Dick Stack leads the B group on Gardenia Avenue

Something to consider the next time you're taking a break in Fruitland Park. If Rooks hadn't succeeded in convincing the railroad to move there'd be no Gardenia Avenue and we'd be taking a break in a town somewhere east of Dead River and who knows what it would be called?

For route information click here.

Isabelle

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Isabelle.

Isabelle who?

Isabelle necessary on a bicycle?

An old joke but I think the answer is yes. 

I have a bell on both my bikes. I like having a bell especially when I am riding where I am likely to meet other cyclists, runners or walkers. A bell distinguishes me as a cyclist. I am not aware of any other vehicle that uses a bell to warn others of my presence. Sure you can say "Cyclist passing on your left" or something like that and hope that a couple walking along and chatting understand you but a "ting ting" on your bell says it all and in a universal language. 

Beryl Burton

I started racing in time trials in the UK when I was 15 because I couldn't ride in road races until I was 16. But that's not the point, the point is that the RTTC (Road Time Trials Council) required me to have a bell on my bike. Looking back I'd have to say this was kind of quaint. But it is a "rule no more" as what we used to call "time testers" now wear wind suits and weird helmets and ride carbon bikes with odd looking bars and solid wheels - but no bell. What a shame, a tradition gone, a lost link to the great riders of the past. In 1963, when I was seventeen Beryl Burton, yes a woman, broke the 4 hour barrier for the 100 mile time trial on a 10 speed steel road bike with a bell. And time trials had to start and finish in the same place so this was not a one way wind assisted ride. 

So those are the reasons I like having bells on my bikes. But before you rush out and buy one, let me say there are several kinds you should consider. There's the old fashioned steel domed bell with a trigger and gears inside that makes a real ringing sound and there are the light weight aluminum domed ones with a pinger that go "ting ting". I personally favor the Knog Oi "ting ting" bell because it inconspicuously wraps around my bars near the stem. Fortunately I have yet to see a USB rechargeable electric bicycle bell.

Knog Oi bell

It should be noted I have not received a position on the board of Knog nor any compensation for my mention of their product here.