# Toue de Nantahala



## clgtide1 (Jul 24, 2002)

*Tour de Nantahala*

I wondered if any of you were planning to do this ride ? Sounds fun. November in the North Carolina mountains could make for an Epic Ride. The fact that Highland Brewing Company is providing the post ride refreshment is another Huge perk.....

http://www.noc.com/events_tournany.html


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## chuckice (Aug 25, 2004)

Wow...I'd like to do that one...really pretty area. Holy crap that's going to be a tough 100 tho...


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## tarwheel2 (Jul 7, 2005)

*weather?*

Might be getting pretty chilly in Nantahala area by early November. Weather pretty iffy that time of year. It might be very mild Indian summer, or it might call for warm clothes. Beautiful area around NOC, but roads are narrow and windy. Strange time to be scheduling a road ride, but I guess the rafting business is slow in Nov.


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## BikeWNC (Sep 9, 2004)

You just never know about the weather in Nov. Last year, it was 28 degrees for the start of the ride but warmed up to the low 60s by afternoon. We've had snow for halloween some years and others are nice and warm. Typically the temps would be about 40 in the morning and low 60s or more in the afternoon. This fall has been quite warm so far.

The ride profile on the website really doesn't do the route justice. There are many more ups and downs than are indicated. Rt 28 south of Hwy 19/74 is a rollercoaster. The climb up to Wayah Gap is a good one and once there it is not all down to the finish. 

It should be near peak fall color by then. Have fun! If the weather is good perhaps I'll see you out there.


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## John844 (Oct 10, 2005)

*Signed up today*

I hope it was not a mistake, but I signed up today. I've been looking everywhere for more detailed information on this ride. I could not find any ride reports. It seems that almost everyone finishing the previous rides are keeping the information to themselves. Maybe when you sign up, they make you sign something stating you will not tell others how hard it really was.

The web site and the staff have differing opinions of the difficulty of the ride. According to the web site topo, you only climb about a third of what the lady on the phone said. I knew there had to be some discrepency when the staff emphasized that this was a VERY difficult ride.

First, I hope I can finish it... Second, I hope I can finish it with a little dignity left.


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## John844 (Oct 10, 2005)

*Ride Report*

Well, the ride was wonderful. It was buautiful with all of the leaves in full color. The weather was nice and almost warm. The ride started out in the 50's and warmed up throughout the day. By the end of the ride shorts and jersey were comfortable most of the time.

There was a ton of climbing on this ride. The websites topo (with 3 climbs) is way off. Roller coaster was an accurate description of most of the ride. The climbs were tough, but managable. The support was great and even had support vehicles all over the course. One of our group had a blowout and needed a new tire. The support vehicle was there before we had the old tire and tube off the rim.

Wayah was a tough climb and you better be conditioned for climbing. In my training I am comfortable climbing most local routes, but they are much shorter than this climb. My longest climb up to this point was just over 3 miles. Three miles into Wayah you are only getting warmed up. The road then steepens and starts really climbing. If it wasn't for the encouragement of my group, I would have stopped to recover at least once during this climb. I rarely have to stop any more, but this mountain got my attention and full respect.

The downhill on the other side was great, but there was gravel in many of the sharp turns. Recently, there had been dump trucks moving gravel from one side of the mountain to the other and a little spilled out at each corner. Great care had to be used, but we knew it was going to be in the road. The support crew was very informative and made sure everyone knew to take it easy on the descent.

The previous poster was correct about there being more climbs after the hard climb. There are many short climbs and one decent length climb on the way back.

If I had to guess, I would say there was only about 10 percent of this ride on flat or gently sliping roads. It is a challenging ride, but I would do it again as long as I was in shape.

John


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