Day 48. Latham to Brattleboro

There was a great deal of concern about today's ride as we were back to some serious climbing after many weeks of flattish rides, (if 3000 feet on 14th July can be called flattish). I managed to arrange an early load and set off on a beautiful morning.  I had been informed by Jersey mark that the short (1 mile) climb out of Troy was the hardest/steepest and that proved to be pretty accurate.  I got to the SAG at 28 miles to discover that Rod's family were in attendance and had supplied cookies, muffins etc.  Excellent SAG stop and it was a wrench to leave but I thought I had better leave some goodies for the others.  We hit our umpteenth State at 33 miles

We cycled through the very interesting town of Bennington.  

I found an interesting furniture maker who obviously caters for the larger US citizens and makes McFurniture!!!

For some reason,Bennington celebrates the Moose???

And then the 9 mile ascent began with gradients from 4-8%.  I definitely did not find it as hard as several weeks ago.  At one point, I got off the road as an armada of motorbikes went past.  Dan reckons he counted 196 and I think that sounds about right.  Here is what the second half looked like.

 

I had hoped for a big downhill run but the summit undulated a bit before I got that.  There was then another climb to the top of Hogback Mountain and at some point during all of that, I managed 44 mph, a new personal best. 

There was then some lovely scenery.

A nice old truck for sale.

Some wooden ducks on a roof.

And a painted bear????

Now I know two people here are under age but the word the rest of you are searching for is BEER!!

Today was an interesting reintroduction to climbing hills but we again ahd perfect weather conditions and nice scenery to help us.  The roads in Vermont are as bad as anything I have experienced however and hopefully will be better tomorrow.

Today's Stats.

Mileage - 79

Climbing - 5000 feet

Time in saddle - 7 Hrs 37mins

Average Speed - 10.4 mph