The Nightmare Tour 2009

The newest member of the AFC Junior's Team is Maria Denunzio. She is a 14yr old Ultra Distance Cyclist... I didn't know that existed!! Check out her ride report from her recent 170mi bike ride!!

The Nightmare Tour is a one-day 175 mile bike ride around the perimeter of Lancaster County, PA. It takes place in the heat of August, and encompasses 13,281 feet of climbing. That is approxmently climbing Pikes Peak 1.8 times. This ride has been called by many the "toughest bike ride in the state of Pennsylvania." Each year, only about 100 riders attempt to take on the challenge of the Nightmare.

Watching the 2008 Olympics in August really inspired me. I had more or less been away from the sport for four years, after "burning out" from my first century ride. I started thinking about seriously riding again, but that kind of fizzeled out when the Olympics ended. Then in September, when Lance Armstrong announced his return, that pushed me over the edge. I got into my head that I was going to ride the Nightmare. I wasn't going to try to finish it, I WAS going to finish it.

In February, I told my grandmother "Nanny" that I was going to do this. And now, I really knew that I had too. Once I told Nan, I was locked in for good. "Ok, I told myself, lets do this." In March, I joined the track team, figuring it would give me a head start on my bike training. I ran distance with track, which was about 30 miles a week, and even though I was far from a star at meets, I kept running. Finally, (FINALLY!) school ended in June. Now it was really time to start training. I participated in Bike Virginia at the end of June, and ended up with 582 miles going into July.

In July, I really stepped up my training. Almost every single day, I went over to a ridge by our house and rode up and down it, over and over and over again. I don't even want to think how many times I rode "my hills," all six of them. After every ride, I told myself "I am never going on those boring hills again." Somehow, though, I always found myself on them the next day. I finished July with 814 miles, almost all of them on my hills. The ones that weren't on my hills were on the course during the weekends with my parents. The hard part was over! Now I had a week of rest and then the Nightmare on August 8th. This was going to be cake. :)

The morning of the Nightmare I got up at 4:00 AM. By this point, I was very excited. My dad and me left the house at 4:30 and got to the start point in Marietta around 5. Everyone else was starting at 6:00, but since I ride a lot slower than them, I was going to start an hour early. The first 45 miles of the ride are hill after hill after hill. I knew that once I got across 222, I was (basically) home free. For the first 60 miles, I rode by myself. By mile 40, though, guys (I was the only woman riding this year) were starting to pass me, so I had brief company. Lunch was at mile 108, and I was 45th coming in, out of 62. I was shocked. I thought everyone would have passed me by now. Seven miles out of lunch, the hardest hill on the entire ride presents itself. It looks like a wall. I knew that if I could get myself over Swamp Church, I had this in the bag. I started going up. There was a party going on in one of the houses, and my mom went over to ask them to cheer for me. They did, it was really cool. My sisters were walking beside me for the first 200 yards, egging me on. Then, the hill kicked up and they got tired and I was on my own.

One of the support cars for a rider ahead of me had written on the road messages of encouragement. Near the end, when you can't see the top because of a right hand bend, and it is incredibly steep, were the words LIVESTRONG. A picture flashed through my head of Lance on Alpe d'Huez and then I was over the hill.

At 9:20 that night I pulled into the finish of the Nightmare after riding in the rain and dark for an hour. I had done it. I was so happy and very tired. It took me 14 hours of ride time, but I had 175 miles in my legs that day. What I had been thinking about for a year had finally happened. As an added bonus, I was the youngest female to ever finish and the second youngest person. (The youngest was a guy named Matt who rode it the day after his 14th birthday two years ago, and also ended up riding the double century this year. My fourteenth birthday was in January.) The question now is where do I go from here?

And a BIG BIG thank you to my parents who rode with me on the weekends and all during Bike Virginia and even part of the Nightmare :)

-Maria Denunzio