Mont Du Lac
so what happened? well first of all Afton doesn't start climbing right away... Mont Du Lac does. that was the first thing i learned when i got there. the start line was ON the hill. you look up the ski hill and are forced to imagine yourself biking up that. it hurts a little just to look at it. at the start line i asked around to get an idea of how long that climb goes. You could only see a portion of it from the bottom. it turned to the right and went behind some trees. one guy gave me a little idea of how long it went. i wouldn't fully appreciate it for about 5 more minutes. from about 1 minute after go i could feel the 1 week away from the bike and the cold i had just gotten over. walking was already tempting in the first 300 yards. i did not want to walk basically off the starting line and did manage to avoid that. i got around that turn to the right and saw that this hill meant business. i had been in a local bike shop the day before and saw the evil grins when i told them...