Wired editorial fellow Nathan Hurst shares a bonding moment with the team mascot, Riley, at base camp before the start of the last big ride of the week. There's no better way to start a big ride than with some chicken and waffles. Wired software engineer Adam Hemphill (right) adjusts the derailleurs on the Cervelo R5. Senior editor Peter Rubin applies Rapha Chamois Cream to his bib before the start of the ride. The team rolls down River Road out of Guerneville. Wired software engineer Adam Hemphill (left) and photo editor Jon Snyder descend a scenic section of Green Valley Road. The team takes advantage of a wooded descent. Photo director Jim Merithew sports a little souvenir to remember the trip by. Left to right, Art Director Bradley Hughes and Senior Editors John Bradley and Peter Rubin hustle uphill during the last ride of the week. Wired videographer Mike Ruocco dozes off on the deck at base camp with his dog (and official Wired Bike Team mascot) Riley.

GUERNEVILLE, California — As in all acts of extreme physical endurance, you learn more about yourself when things are going wrong rather than when it’s easy. It’s when that moment of self-doubt starts poking at your brain, promising that it’ll all be OK if you just let it go. No one will get on your back for taking the easy way out, you tell yourself. And then you have a decision to make: Do you submit to temptation, or do you keep on moving, one leg rotation after another, left, right, left, right, until you’re finally over the mountain? Anyone who claims to know for sure which way they’d go in a given situation is a certain liar, because until you find yourself in that lonely place, you simply don’t know.

Jon Snyder and Adam Hemphill found themselves in that realm on Day 3 of the Wired Bike Test, a day in which team members had planned to ride into the Healdsburg area but instead ventured east into the heart of central Sonoma County. After going west and taking a brief stop along Route 116 to flip a bike stem that wasn’t handling well, the team headed out east, away from the routes of the previous two days, to take their chances with the area south of 116, taking Pocket Canyon Highway to Green Valley Road, a demanding five-mile stretch through bumpy forest roads that reached a 12 percent grade at some points.

After heading back toward River Road, the team passed the Sporthorse America and Pellegrini Family Vineyards, an area of rolling farmland just south of the Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport. The synchronous pace line that had been huffing along before at a good 24-mph clip had effectively split into three groups by that point. The first two groups headed south along the predetermined route on Willowside and eventually merged, while the disconnected Snyder and Hemphill continued straight a few miles more, ending up just northwest of greater Santa Rosa. After a quick rendezvous with the follow car and a much-needed water refill, the duo gamely headed back toward Willowside to meet up with the rest of the crew, which was encountering its own precarious climb.

A couple of short turns off Willowside morphed into a wicked ascent up Occidental Road, that lasted for some 4 miles but felt like more, due to the false flats — so named for their deceptively easy-looking yet grueling inclines — and average 7 percent grade throughout. Like a blockbuster movie with multiple tease endings, the road seemed both unyielding and neverending, until they finally crested the upper ridge and mercifully descended into downtown Occidental, providing a similar scene from Wednesday’s late-afternoon pit stop.

Snyder and Hemphill made their own descent into Occidental perhaps 30 minutes later, but the other members had since headed down sloping Bohemian Highway, skirting the edge of Monte Rio, and heading up River Road back toward home base. The final clip still proved no easy task for the remaining two, as Hemphill’s back tire went flat while passing by the vineyards that make up the last couple of miles. While some members of the team endured more challenges than others, all riders had pedaled home by 5:45 p.m., a deceivingly arduous 55 miles finally completed.

In all, the Wired Bike Team has now covered some 130 miles over three days, and team members are vacillating between personal states of exhaustion and bliss. The hard work is now done, and $100,000 worth of bikes have graced some of the most laborious terrain in the Western United States. Cleats have been snapped into pedals a collective hundreds of times, and while legs are weary, muscles ache, and brains struggle to comprehend what life was like before they entered into this trial, spirits are strong as the final day beckons.

Many here have pushed through physical and mental limits they only assumed existed deep in their psyches. This is the week those barriers have been exposed and pushed to the fore. Upon returning to the house, one team member emerged and offered, unsolicited, his thoughts on the day. “I don’t know about y’all,” he said, “but I feel like a f—— champion.”

All photos: Ariel Zambelich/Wired

With cycling season in full swing and the Tour de France approaching, Wired is hitting the roads of Northern California for a comprehensive look at the bikes, gear, and apparel the pros use. In the lead up to the Tour start on June 30, we’ll bring you ride reports, gear reviews and other insights from the world of cycling. Follow us on Twitter @WiredBike #wiredbiketest.