Race Across Oregon

Preparation
“Fortune favors the prepared mind” Louis Pasteur

My preparation for RAO included my body, the stuff and the crew. Plenty of endurance and intensity training had prepared my body for RAO. Preparation of my bicycle included fitting my Serotta Legend Ti with a compact crank and long cage derailleur to enable a low gear of 34 x 34. I installed aerobars and swapped in my Rolf Elan race wheels (light and semi aero). I installed the Brooks Pro with Ti rails, for relative comfort and lightness (for a Brooks). My spare bicycle was my Co-motion Ristretto. Besides the spare bicycle I had three levels of backup lights, spare wheels, tires and tubes. I had plenty of clothes for any eventuality, including a loose seersucker jersey Linda made for very hot weather (soak in a cooler before wearing, douse continuously with ice water). I had plenty of food, but was planning to use Perpetuum and had pre-mixed enough for the ride. The crew was selected based first on their willingness to do it, and second on their compatibility. Dan Youngberg, the crew chief, had ridden one team RAO and been crew chief on four team RAOs. Dave Kamp was a two time Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP) Ancienne and a veteran of multiple 100 mile footraces, so he knew very well how a body would perform under duress. My son Danny had ridden multiple long tours with me and raced as a junior on teams I’d coached so he knew me and my approach to racing and riding. A couple of days before the race we converged at Dan’s for a practice ride and worked out signals, hand-ups and close following. When we finally left for Hood River I felt well prepared.

Objectives

My first objective for RAO was safety for myself and the crew. My second objective for RAO was to finish within the time limit of 48 hours. My projection based on various Rando events (PBP, RM 1200) was for 44 hours. After riding large sections of the course and sweeping the XTR I knew that heat and wind could slow me down to the point where the 48 hour limit could be in doubt.

My strategy was the “Tortoise strategy”. I planned to strictly limit my efforts during the first day so I wouldn’t “hit a wall”. In the first day riders and follow vehicles are in sight so it’s easy to go too hard giving chase. I planned on riding with a heart rate monitor and setting a target for each phase. I also planned minimal time off the bike except for one hour sleep break before dawn of the second day. It would give me an intermediate goal and also focus my rest in the time of the day when I would have been at a low point anyway. The second day would be the time to use up the energy conserved in the first day and recovered during the sleep break.

The race

Friday before the Race we finished loading the van, had lunch and then headed for Hood River exactly on schedule. We checked in, had the bike and vehicle inspection and then headed to the racer, rookie and crew meetings. At the rookie meeting I met the other racers and found out there were 3 50+ upright racers. I also found out that to qualify for Race Across America (RAAM) I only needed to be less than 25% slower than the fastest 50+. Qualifying for RAAM seemed doable and become my third objective. I went to bed early and slept well, well enough prepared there was nothing left to worry about.

In the morning I rolled out of bed, had a light breakfast and quickly got my bike to the start line. Race Director George Thomas briefed us and we left at 5 am for the parade start out of town. We rolled out without much drama and spun up through the lovely Hood River valley towards Highway 35. The racing started with the turn onto Highway 35. I paid attention to my heart rate and let several riders pass me on the climb, without raising my pace. It was a beautiful cool morning and a nice ride toward Bennett Pass. Everything was working great. Eventually we got to the point where the support vans could leapfrog and the crews cheered on all the racers. I rode near Sandy Earl for a while and then left her as the hill got steeper. I was sure she’d finish, so I felt that if I was slightly ahead of her I’d be on target. Eventually I crested the pass and began the long rolling descent to Tygh Valley.

After the race I’ve been able to reconstruct the order of racers at the time stations. During the race it was much more confused, with a glimpse of a racer ahead or behind, and an occasional crew van by the side of the road.

At Tygh Valley Time Station (73 miles) I was 15th and there were all 22 solo racers were in the race. I was executing the “Tortoise” strategy.

From Tygh Valley we were on the dry side of the Cascades and the day got hot. It was quite hot on the exposed climb out of the Deschutes Canyon and stayed hot on the rollers into Moro. We also started to fight a cross/headwind.

At Moro Time Station (121 miles) I was still 15th out of 22 solo racers. I passed David Rowe while he was in the time station, but he caught me on the climb out of the John Day Canyon when I took the time to put on the seersucker shirt and get multiple handups of ice water for dousing on the climb. It was the hottest part of the day and the ice water made a big difference. After the climb the road is on a high plateau with various valleys, and the weather started getting cooler. We were about 180 miles into the ride when I caught David again. Riders are allowed to ride side by side for 15 minutes during the race, so we took this opportunity to ride together for a while. He was suffering from the effects of heat on his digestion and had slowed down to the pace of the tortoise (me). I was also feeling a little queasy and commiserated with him. It was a beautiful time of the evening as we rode along. Eventually he went ahead to the next time station when I stopped to install lights for night riding.

At Heppner Time Station (207 miles) I was 11th out of the 21 solo racers remaining. David came in 2 minutes ahead of me and we left the time station ahead of him.

It was still light as we climbed out of Heppner, but the evening was nice and fresh. The road to Ukiah has a big steep climb and I was suffering somewhat from lack of calories. I’d finally given up on warm Perpetuum and did this portion of the ride on Mountain Dew and Triscuits. They settled my stomach and provided caffeine, salt, fluid and carbs. After a long descent to Vinson the road to Battle Mountain was a long steady uphill. The teams had started 4 hours after the solos and had been passing me since Hepner. I could see their flashing lights for miles, so there was something interesting to watch. It was cool and I was at about the halfway point of the race, still keeping a reasonable pace. I was stopped by the side of the road refilling my pockets with Triscuits when David Rowe came by. He looked much improved. As we approached Battle Mountain the road steepened for a while and it seemed like the summit was right around the corner. After the summit I was rewarded with a long pedaling downhill to the manned time station at Dale.

At Dale (285 miles) I was 9th out of 18 solo racers remaining. Dave massaged my legs and I got completely out of my bike clothes and set a goal of 45 minutes of sleep while the crew brewed up some soup. I woke on my own after 40 minutes, disoriented and with no door handle on the inside back door of the van. Thankfully, the crew heard me and let me out. I got dressed, had some soup and got ready to face the rest of the race. The complete sleep and soup stop was 1:06.

My objective was to depart the sleep stop about dawn, and sure enough the sun came up during the next 6 mile climb. It’s a great psychological lift to see the sunrise on the second day and I felt good. Unfortunately, the sunrise revealed lots of clouds and as I climbed to the top of Meadowbrook pass I was exposed to a very strong and gusty head/crosswind. It was so strong on the exposed portion I thought I might be blown over the guardrail. I got off my bike and walked a hundred yards past the most exposed portion and then got back on for a windy and hairy descent. There was another short climb but by the time I reached the top of Ritter Butte the sun was shining brightly, the wind was calm and the roads were just damp. I’d hit the tail end of a dissipating thunderstorm just at the top of the previous mountain, and now the world was all shiny and bright. My digestion had settled down and it was a glorious morning. I passed several RAO support vans with riders near them but couldn’t tell if they were solos or portions of teams. In any case I cruised through Long Creek and then down a great descent into Monument. From Monument I was in the John Day River Canyon and the headwind picked up and the temperature quickly rose. At the time station in Spray I left the bike in the sun in the parking lot for less than 5 minutes and my computer recorded 112 degrees F. At this point I was doing math in my head and the headwind and remaining climbs were starting to put a finish within the time limit in doubt. The great feeling of the cool downhill had vanished with my time margin in the heat and headwind. I told the crew we needed to be more expeditious during our stops and rolled out of town. The crew replenished ice and gas while I pushed hard towards Fossil.

I didn’t know it at the time, but at Spray (358 miles) I was 7th out of 14 solo racers remaining. I’d passed two solo racers at Long Creek that had been ahead of me the whole race. They abandoned before Spray. I suspect the heat and headwind were demoralizing.

The next stage had a couple of the hardest climbs of the ride. The heat and headwind continued to Service Creek, and then the road turned the wind to a crosswind and tilted upwards. It was a long hot climb to Butte Creek Pass, followed by a downhill, another kicker and a long downhill to Clarno. The heat continued to be intense and the headwind was strong and so gusty that I had to stay out of the aerobars and pedal on the descent. At the base of the Clarno grade my thermometer read 99 degrees. I changed into the seersucker jersey and doused myself with ice water. The climb was almost completely exposed to the sun and a merciless cross-headwind. I climbed steadily and it took an hour and a half to grind up the 2300’ climb. As I neared the top I could see a thunderstorm sitting just to the left of the pass. The gust front hit in the final portion of the climb and at the top the temperature had dropped to 69 degrees. I changed into warmer clothes and started the descent to Antelope. After a short while the rain from the thundershower arrived so I stopped for rain gear and to allow the crew to install fenders. By the time I was ready to go, the rain was done. When we reached the base of the next climb I removed rain gear and fenders. Some time was lost in the rain exercise, but I was just glad it was only an exercise and not actual rain.

At this point I’d gone 425 miles in 36 hours and I had a hundred miles to go and 12 hours to do it. My computer said I’d climbed 31000 feet, so I expected another 10000 feet to climb. I figured another 50 miles of headwind. The good news was that it was much cooler on this side of the thunderstorm, so I could digest food. Also, it was the last 100 miles, so I could ramp up the effort. I settled down into the aero bars to time trial the gradual descent on Bakeoven road. Eventually I saw flashing yellow lights, and pulled David Rowe into sight. I was pushing against the clock so I made a clean pass with just a quick word in passing and gapped him out of sight off the back.

The descent into Maupin is twisty but it was made even more difficult by the strong gusty wind. It was the only descent I had to ride the brakes, because of the squirrelly winds. We made a fairly quick stop at the time station and got back on the road. My digestion was completely recovered so I wolfed down some potato chips, a latte and a quarter turkey sandwich. At Maupin (458 miles) I was 6th out of 13 remaining solo riders. One of the other riders had passed me while I was in the control, so on the climb out of the Deschutes Canyon I passed him back. This was the stage of the race where I needed to see and chase other riders to keep my pace high and to get the psychological boost of passing. At the top of the plateau I could see flashing lights in the distance so I settled into the aero bars and time trialed after them. I closed the distance and did a clean pass of Karen Armstrong. The false flat was long enough I could gap her out of sight behind me. At this point it was about sunset and we were turning across the wind and getting into the shelter of some trees, so the wind was less of a factor. The flat sections and chases after rabbits had let me put some time in the bank so I only needed to ride 60 miles and climb Mount Hood, but I had 9 hours left to do it. I was also the leading 50+ rider, so barring disasters it looked like I’d finish and qualify for RAAM. Pretty much every part of my body hurt, so I focused on just getting finished and not getting passed.

The long climb up Tygh Ridge was one that was familiar from the XTR 600. I could see flashing yellow lights in the distance and settled down into a long chase up the hill. It seemed like I was slowly closing the gap when the lights went around a corner up the hill. My motivation level and speed dropped and I never saw the rider ahead. Over the top of Tygh Ridge we could see the wind farm across the Columbia River, the red lights on the windmills flashing in unison. We could also see lightning from a storm to our east. No problem, we were going west. We bombed down the hill and took the left turn toward Dufur and Forest Road 44. It was a two hour grind up the 4% grade on FR44. The only excitement was when the crew saw some headlights behind us. I figured it was Karen, gaining on the climb, so I picked up the pace and eventually gapped the headlights out of sight off the back. The descent to Hwy 35 was twisty and my headlight was marginal. The van couldn’t quite keep up on the tight turns I’d be headed into the darkness hoping the van would come around the corner behind me before I’d run out of light. Eventually we safely arrived at Hwy 35 for the descent to the turn off to Cooper spur. I was ready for the ride to just be over. Every time I coasted my legs would turn to concrete and it took real effort to get them turning again. From the turn off it was another 4 miles up a 5 % grade. Dan had forgotten the PA was on and mentioned to the crew that the headlights were back. I heard him and didn’t want to get pipped at the line so I sprinted the last couple of uphill miles to the finish. At the finish I got my finisher’s medal and we’d just taken a couple of photos when Karen Armstrong rolled in, 2 minutes back.

At the finish I was the fifth solo finisher, the fourth upright (not recumbent) solo finisher and the first master over 50 years old (my division). Of the 22 solo racers that started, only 10 (45%) finished within the time limit. 2 more finished late and 10 did not finish.

My finishing time was 45:16 after 517 miles. I spent a total of 2:20 off the bike, including 1:06 for the sleep break, of which 40 minutes were actual sleep. My altimeter measured 40045’ of climbing. Maximum temperature was 114 and minimum was 45. Maximum speed was 45.4 mph and overall average was 12.6 mph. My computer estimates that 21000 calories were burned.
The preparation and strategy paid off in successfully achieving my objectives for the race. It was the hardest ride I’ve done. There were many beautiful and fun portions of the race, and the difficulty only served to increase the sense of accomplishment.

RAO training

This spring has been a series of long rides, building the endurance base for RAO. After a humbling 300K, I did a hard ride around Alsea falls and then a confidence building 200 mile weekend to the coast. I followed the route Corvallis, Blodgett, Nashville, Siletz, Lincoln City to Pacific city and met Linda at a B&B. Coincidentally, there were some bicycle racers that I knew at the B&B and our breakfast conversation comparing Randonneuring to road racing was like describing a strange planet. The route back was via the Little Nestucca, Grande Ronde, Wilamina, Dallas and Monmouth. I rode my own pace and felt strong rolling back to Corvallis. The ride confirmed that the difficulties on the 300K could be avoided with rest, adequate food and reasonable pacing.

I took another rest week then three progressively harder weekend rides. The Covered Bridges 400K was flat and fairly fast. I rode with Kramer and Dave “Ready to Ride” Rowe. We rode with Dick Weber for a while around the halfway point, but he was riding at a pace slightly above what I could sustain. We let him go, and then caught sight of him again with 50k to go. He saw us and picked up the pace until he was out of sight. He came in coincident with us and confessed to a minor wrong turn. The lesson learned was to ride at my own pace and watch the route.

The next week was SIR’s Ephrata 400K. It was a hilly 400K with plenty of wind and heat. I rode much of it alone, good practice for RAO. I had a tough patch on Loup Loup Pass during the heat of the day, when I couldn’t eat for a while, but was feeling good by the end of the ride and pounded in the finish.

The following week was the XTR 600K pre-ride. It was a hot and hilly 600K. The write up’s on Kramer’s Blog; the short version was beautiful scenery, pretty hot, plenty of climbing and a good time. It was 3/4 of an RAO in the same area, Rando style. It was excellent endurance training.

I took a week off the bike and helped Kramer with the actual XTR 600K. My job was to man a secret control and then sweep (not sag) the course to deal with any heat related problems. I brushed up on first aid for heat stroke and heat exhaustion and stocked the cooler with ice and water. I essentially moved through the controls very near the closing times and got to see another side of the Brevet than I usually do. The temperature was about 5 degrees hotter than the pre-ride and for several people that meant they couldn’t really eat and digest food. That slowed them way down and they were up against time pressure, which meant they didn’t get much sleep or recovery time. They certainly showed a lot of persistence in the face of adversity.

After my rest week, it was time to head east again for a Credit Card Tour. My friend Brian has organized these tours for the past 11 years and this is only the second one I’ve been able to attend. Luckily it was on some of the same roads that the XTR and RAO use. The plan was four days on fast bikes with minimal stuff (carry one set of off bike clothes, wear one set of bike clothes, wash them every night). I rode the Serotta I plan to use on RAO with a large Vaude seat pack. Brian, John Wilson, Harry Phinney and I carpooled from Corvallis to the start at Prineville where we met our friend Dave Gast. Harry had fallen at home before the ride, and showed up with a sore wrist. We advised him to suck it up, probably just a sprain. The ride from Prineville along the top of Lake Billy Chinook was nice. By the time we got to the descent to Lake Simtustus, there were black storm clouds behind us and we could hear thunder. Even with a fast descent we couldn’t beat the storm and we took shelter in a Café in Warm Springs just as the gust front arrived. We ate sandwiches as the water poured down and heard reports of 60 mph winds and golf ball size hail just down the road, in Bend. We rode up toward Simnasho and got detoured to Kahneeta (incorrectly) by a downed power line. The director of security drove us back up around the power line and to the top of the hill. We missed a great climb, but with the detour our total distance to Maupin was still 104 miles.

We overnighted at the Imperial Lodge on the Deschutes in Maupin. The next morning we said good bye to Harry as he headed home to get his wrist checked (turned out it was broken). We continued north on River Road then climbed out of the canyon to lunch at Moro. A tailwind blew us through the wind farms to the John Day river crossing and then into Condon. At Condon we had great milkshakes at the soda fountain and an excellent steak dinner at the Elks Lodge.

The next day we raced the rain toward Heppner and took a right at Hardman ridge. We were in a short cold rain and then rolled south through high forests toward Kahler Basin. The road through the basin was new to all of us and was one of the highlights of the trip. It emptied into the John Day canyon at Spray, a short down river grade to our overnight at the Service Creek Lodge. That was an excellent stop with friendly people and outstanding food.

The last day we had to push the pace to get Brian home for a graduation party. We rode Oregon 207 to Mitchell then Highway 26 over Ochoco for the long pedaling downhill into Prineville. Overall it was a great trip and a good reminder why credit card tours are my favorite type of riding.

The credit card tour was the transition between endurance training and intensity training for RAO. It was essentially a 600K spread over 4 days and the recovery every night let me push harder than Rando pace on the climbs. After that I did a three week block of increasing intensity, hill repeats and multiple trips up Mary’s peak and Alsea falls. My last training ride on 6/28 was a race pace century with a climb up Mary’s Peak, Alsea Falls, over to Harrisburg and back up the valley into a strong headwind.

The last couple of weeks were just easy daily commutes and plenty of work on the logistics of bike, wheel and spare bike prep. I felt ready and rested by the time of RAO.