4 Cubed

While Mike "The Calf" Montalbano was out in the land of corn and apple pie kicking every one's ass in the Mohican 100 the lower ranking members of the NECS (the party crew) were making their own preparations for the coming ultra endurance races.
Fat Chick w/ Hot Girlfriends was putting in the final torture sessions for the Stoopid 50 and C-Dubs was just starting his prep for an 8th assault on the Wilderness 101. There was also a handful of riders getting their Dark Horse 40 training kicked off with a race distance training ride.
On the menu for the day was another pain session on the Alp d' Minnewaska with an extra helping - the ascent from Duck Pond to Mohonk Mountain House - resulting in 3 extended climbs and a total of almost 4200' of climbing in 40.2 miles and 4 hours of riding. This ride offers no opportunity to warm up starting with a 2 mile/1400' death march that features 2 short pitches that exceed 20 degrees.
Right out of the shoots it was Aaron (Contador)Anaya leading the charge up the Alp doing out a lot of hurt to those in his wake. Top Chef was brave enough to come with the 1x9 and paid the price only on the two steep pitches where cries of "give me a granny gear" were heard echoing through the woods. Summiting a Castle Rock there was a brief pause (this was a training ride after all) before the pack headed down the backside of the mountain to the waterfall with C-Dubs managing to run over a rattler sunbathing on the trail (moar snakes!!!). There we ran into Mrs C-Dubs and Mrs. Top Chef on their ascent of the waterfall climb. Despite groans of "this isn't a race" it was back to hammering a few miles on a sweet sub 4% grade before the plunge down to the duck pond.
A quick round of gels and water and the next climb to Mohonk Mountain house was underway. With no pitches exceeding 10% this one was a breeze and over before anyone had time to suffer. This followed with another high speed descent that had some kick ass esses turns that you could take at speed but miss an apex and it was off the 60' drop into the woods. On the grind back to the waterfall Top Chef found that his front rotor was rubbing so bad the wheel barely made a couple of turns before stopping - bonus training!
With some half assed adjustments made the final climb up past the waterfall held a reward for those that wanted it - ice cream and iced coffee (you could see the fire in the eyes of Top Chef, having missed the morning round of java) - before the final screaming descent off the Alp. Near the bottom the carriage road is like an expressway and speeds exceeded 42 mph. Having good brakes was a must since the downhill ends abruptly at a metal gate.