Finally More Le Tour Stage Points

Ringwood climb, 2 X

While the Tour de France cylists endured their last day in the Pyrenées, ending their final mountain stage by climbing up the brutal Col du Tourmalet, I sought out my own toughest stage, desperately seeking more stage points in an all-out effort to solidify my 17th position in the Le Tour Challenge. After a rest day, I was feeling strong, and the conditions were ideal, with low humidity, temps in the upper 70s and a nice breeze. In fact, I hadn't felt so strong in weeks—the cumulative effects of weeks of hard riding in high heat and humidity has started to pay dividends.

Yesterday I started with the familiar quick exit out of Ithaca, heading up Remington to Triphammer, then Triphammer Extension, Asbury and Benson to Lansing. I was looking for extra miles as well as extra climbing, so I decided to do the Ringwood climb twice, once from each direction. After climbing Ringwood from Rt. 13, I headed down Midline to Rt. 79, then back up Ellis Hollow to attack Ringwood from the south. After the second Ringwood climb I was still feeling good, and I was joined by a friendly competitive cyclist who joined me for most of the return trip up Snyder Hill Rd.

Without a doubt, this was my favorite ride in a long while, and I came home feeling very hopeful about gaining Le Tour stage points and solidifying my position. Sure enough, when I refreshed the leader board this morning, I was thrilled to learn that my ride earned me 14 place and 12 stage points. While I may end up dropping a few overall positions in the next few days, it looks like I'm safely going to remain in 2nd place overall in my age category. While my hopes of winning merchandise are fading, this has been a great experience. The Le Tour Challenge is a terrific motivational game, at least for me.

Stats:

Distance: 49.45 miles

Avg. speed: 19.1 mph

Vertical ascent: 3391 ft.

Calories burned: 3499 kcal

Max. speed: 39.5 mph

Time: 2 hours, 35 minutes