Lisa Houser

I was looking for some sort of challenge on my fairly new Crux to bring in my 40th birthday. I stumbled upon this ITT series last weekend online and decided to give it a go. I felt pretty confident about the distance, amount of climbing, and planning out nutrition and hydration, but some of the rutty descents were terrifying! Then again, I am a flatlander. There were about 20 miles of the rocky Farr Gap climb, descent, and beyond that I felt pretty insane on my 38mm Pathfinder tires. Thankfully I was able to make it through without breaking my bike or myself. Aside from that stretch, it was a beautiful day on a beautiful route. The foliage was vivid and views pleasing. But I would definitely recommend wider tires or a mountain bike based on the Farr Gap section alone!