Day 2 is listed as the fun day of the race. It’s a short, 50 mile hop from the campsite in Tellico Plains to Deals Gap, North Carolina where the teams can relax and enjoy the local sights. It is not an easy ride though. That fifty mile stretch contains 4,500ft of elevation to climb before the riders see the end. Even the fun day offers little rest on such small bikes.
I will admit this path is not the fabled Tail of the Dragon that I mentioned yesterday the riders would be on. My mapping was wrong, but the road is not far from it in terms of corners and difficulty. Deals gap is at the southern end of the Dragon but I don’t know if anyone rode it. Not even sure if it will be part of the routing for tomorrow either, so might have just been wrong on that whole front.
One of the other major issues with being in the Appalachia’s, other than the altitude and corners, is simply cell service. Reception is sparse in the mountains and today was no exception. Glympse would barely register the riders today until they rolled into Deal’s Gap, where they finally popped up for the first time since yesterday. The first rider to appear from the fog of no cell reception was Jose Castanon posting an amazing arrival time of just 11:15am, 75 minutes from the start. That’s an average of 41mph through those hills. But today was an actual race with the first five bikes arriving within fifteen minutes of each other. Team Clark landed in second for the day, followed by T3: The Resurrection, Chad Burke, and the QCBs Bye Bike the last of the first pack at 11:30 in that order.
Maitland, fully rested from the drive to the start line, finally got a day of riding in. Jordan Melville road along with him as Maity’s gila v1 struggled over the mountain pass. Head temps rose far into the disaster zone but held strong, with the two eventually rolled up to the Deal’s Gap sign at 1:45.
Team Cold Muff, coming off that first day save with the backup bike swap, did not fair as well today. The E50 clutch struggled to keep up with the climb, eventually requiring a swap. But without proper tools packed for the backup bike, and poor cell reception, the task took longer than usual. A clutch swap was not enough to save the bike as later the ignition also failed, and with it the flywheel key. The key smeared in place and would not allow the new cdi flywheel to fit correctly. At 5 o’clock, the team called it and loaded it up to try and fix it at Deal’s Gap, hoping to get it running for Tuesday. DNF-ing for the day.
With some cell service from the front lines today I was able to get times from yesterday and today. At the end of day 2 solo rider Jose Castanon for Team Asian Amigo is sitting at a total time of 7hr5m for a solid early lead. Team Clark is sitting in second with 7:52, T3 in third with 8:02, Chad Burke with 9:10, solo rider Jordan Melville with 11:43, and the QCB Bye bike with 13:45. The other 3 bikes have DNF-ed already in the race, but not in our hearts. Let’s hope everyone rests up well today because tomorrow will be another 200 mile plus day through some devastating mountains. Good Luck!
Go Jose goooo