Another wonderful gravel day in my favorite mountains of Tellico and Citico, but this time with a mission.... time to kick it up a notch and string together a bunch of favorite climbs, while practicing short stops, fueling, and metering out the effort...

This ride was not really a race for me but a challenge to see if I could complete it. I have rode this distance several times but on the road and not nearly this much elevation...

My goal was to get started around 10 AM on Sunday morning and ride comfortable hard all day long. So naturally, I got rolling just after 11 AM with a new plan to ride hard enough to finish before dark...

What an amazing journey on the Tellico Highlands ITT course in Tennessee this weekend! Total stats: 93.69 miles and 11,402 feet of climbing. Tellico Plains is really a gravel riders dream with endless remote, backcountry forest roads with a mix of smooth to semi-technical gravel...

The plan: Ride comfortably but focused. Carry two bottles, limit time losses on stops to refill at 3 water points. Finally, have fun and take in the scenery as there is so much of it to enjoy. Living in Florida I don't get the opportunity often to be in the mountains or ride the type of gravel found on these courses...

Started the day under perfect skies and crisp temps for the first day of May! Because I’m between gravel bikes at the moment I rode a MTB hardtail equipped with 700 X 40C tires. This made for a comfortable and confident descending ride, but it was a tad slower on the more sustained climbs...

My Tellico highlands ITT attempt was a last minute replacement for my previously scheduled Rockstar 270. The one day race format is way easier to disguise as a vacation than having to co-ordinate pick-up, drop-offs and meet-ups...