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.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Respect the ride
I spent my spring break cycling. Linda and I visited her folks in Phoenix, and I brought a bike along for company. It was a two day drive to Phoenix. Three days of getting up at the crack of dawn riding hard and getting home in time for a swim before dinner. The weather was cool in the morning, hot in the afternoon and windy all the time. It was my spring training camp, so I rode hard all three days. Sunday 4/5 was a very windy 70 mile loop just north of Phoenix enlivened by a 30 minute impromptu time trial when I saw a cyclist gaining on me in my mirror. Monday was 60 miles of hills in the beautiful Salt River Canyon. Tuesday was a 50 mile hilly training ride from Apache Junction to the end of the pavement beyond Tortilla Flat. I could live the snowbird retiree lifestyle, but I’d need to take some rest days.
We zipped back home quickly then I was up to Forest Grove for the Three Capes 300 km Bevet. I learned a lesson on this ride about recovery time. I hadn’t had enough and it showed up 100 km into the ride. The first third I felt great and was on track for a personal best. The pace was 28.5 kph, which is fast for a rando bike with fenders, generator, lights, food and water for a day, a headwind and a couple of good size hills. Then the miles in Arizona and the lack of quality recovery time caught up to me and I had to slow way down. Caffeinated hammer gel gave a quick burst of energy, but wasn’t adequate; I just needed to keep my heart rate down in the recovery zone. The second 100 km my pace dropped to 19.8 kph, with a little more headwind and the same amount of climbing. Lots of people passed me on the hills. I moderated my pace to stay in my recovery zone, and made up some time by keeping the control stops very short. The active recovery helped a lot, and riding with Susan from Vancouver and RB also helped me pick up the pace in the last third of the ride. It had an average of 24 kph, which is about average for me on a flat 300K. In fact, with the short stops at the controls, this was actually my personal best 300K. It sure didn’t feel like it at the half way point.
The lesson for me is to “respect the ride” and allow adequate recovery time. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a bad day on the bike; this ride made me remember it can happen to me and I need to be adequately prepared. I’ll be back for this 300 K next year, better rested.
We zipped back home quickly then I was up to Forest Grove for the Three Capes 300 km Bevet. I learned a lesson on this ride about recovery time. I hadn’t had enough and it showed up 100 km into the ride. The first third I felt great and was on track for a personal best. The pace was 28.5 kph, which is fast for a rando bike with fenders, generator, lights, food and water for a day, a headwind and a couple of good size hills. Then the miles in Arizona and the lack of quality recovery time caught up to me and I had to slow way down. Caffeinated hammer gel gave a quick burst of energy, but wasn’t adequate; I just needed to keep my heart rate down in the recovery zone. The second 100 km my pace dropped to 19.8 kph, with a little more headwind and the same amount of climbing. Lots of people passed me on the hills. I moderated my pace to stay in my recovery zone, and made up some time by keeping the control stops very short. The active recovery helped a lot, and riding with Susan from Vancouver and RB also helped me pick up the pace in the last third of the ride. It had an average of 24 kph, which is about average for me on a flat 300K. In fact, with the short stops at the controls, this was actually my personal best 300K. It sure didn’t feel like it at the half way point.
The lesson for me is to “respect the ride” and allow adequate recovery time. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a bad day on the bike; this ride made me remember it can happen to me and I need to be adequately prepared. I’ll be back for this 300 K next year, better rested.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Inversion Haiku
We’ve had an inversion this weekend. Cold settles into the valley overnight and then it takes all day to warm up. Sunday morning it was 28 degrees with brilliant sunshine and no wind when I left home on my mountain bike to meet the dirt bags at the Circle Bean. The 8:30 departure time came and went so I finished my coffee and headed out for a solo ride.
Riding alone was OK. I’m working through the sudden death of my friend Rosemarie last Sunday and used the steep climb up Chip Ross Park to compose a letter to her husband in my mind. It was good to be alone on a Sunday morning in the Church of the Spoked Wheel. God’s hand work was all around. At the top of the hill I came out of the trees into the brilliant sunshine with the letter about half done.
The singletrack to the base of Dan’s Trail required my full attention. It’s been dry for more than a week and the trail is all rideable downhill. Climbing up Dan’s toward Dimple Hill, the ground had thawed enough that there were a few muddy spots. A couple required short walks. At one point I came around a corner and was accelerating up a short steep pitch when the rear wheel encountered a root. The wheel spun with a br-a-a-a-p sound as the lugs slipped past the root. Forward motion stopped and the wheel went sideways along the root. I was down in an instant, still clipped into the bike. The trail was soft duff and damp soil, so there was no pain, but it took a while to get unclipped and back up.
Dimple Hill is about 2500’ and just poking into the warm air above the inversion. It was in the 50’s and calm at the peak, but there was a steady wind rustling the tops of the trees. I put all the clothes I’d shed on the way up back on and plunged back down the cold. By the time I got down to Oak Creek there was ice next to the road in the shady spots. Out in the sun on the way home it rapidly warmed up and by the time I got to Bald Hill Park there were plenty of families and dog owners enjoying the sun.
Inversion Haiku
Frozen mud below
Climbing the cold shady trail
Warm spring wind above
Riding alone was OK. I’m working through the sudden death of my friend Rosemarie last Sunday and used the steep climb up Chip Ross Park to compose a letter to her husband in my mind. It was good to be alone on a Sunday morning in the Church of the Spoked Wheel. God’s hand work was all around. At the top of the hill I came out of the trees into the brilliant sunshine with the letter about half done.
The singletrack to the base of Dan’s Trail required my full attention. It’s been dry for more than a week and the trail is all rideable downhill. Climbing up Dan’s toward Dimple Hill, the ground had thawed enough that there were a few muddy spots. A couple required short walks. At one point I came around a corner and was accelerating up a short steep pitch when the rear wheel encountered a root. The wheel spun with a br-a-a-a-p sound as the lugs slipped past the root. Forward motion stopped and the wheel went sideways along the root. I was down in an instant, still clipped into the bike. The trail was soft duff and damp soil, so there was no pain, but it took a while to get unclipped and back up.
Dimple Hill is about 2500’ and just poking into the warm air above the inversion. It was in the 50’s and calm at the peak, but there was a steady wind rustling the tops of the trees. I put all the clothes I’d shed on the way up back on and plunged back down the cold. By the time I got down to Oak Creek there was ice next to the road in the shady spots. Out in the sun on the way home it rapidly warmed up and by the time I got to Bald Hill Park there were plenty of families and dog owners enjoying the sun.
Inversion Haiku
Frozen mud below
Climbing the cold shady trail
Warm spring wind above
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Spring training
I grabbed the opportunity to spend a week cycling in the Arizona sun. A family reunion brought us to Arizona for the New Year’s holiday, and a change in HP’s vacation policy meant I had to use some vacation or lose it. It all came together when my son Danny’s winter break allowed him to hang out down there for an extra week.
Danny and I prepared for the trip by buying a gallon of Slime and filling eight tubes. We were taking our cyclocross bikes since they were capable of both on and off road travel. We brought two sets of wheels per bike: Panaracer Pasela 35Cs for pavement/gravel and 38C cyclocross tires for gravel/dirt/singletrack. It was our first experience with Slime, and it was pretty comical, with fluorescent green slime stains to contrast with the wine stains in the garage. The Slime was apparently effective, we had zero flats despite large numbers of goatheads (vicious thorns) and lots of miles through the land of cactus.
After the family headed home on Friday 1/2/09, Danny and I drove to Tucson and a tour of the Pima Air Museum and Airplane Boneyard. Saturday we headed down to the Chiricahua National Monument. It’s a sky island; a set of mountains with unique environments separated from the other islands by desert. We camped at about 4000’ and rode the paved road up to Masai point at 6870’. Despite brilliant sunshine, there was ice on the road in spots. We picked our way around the ice spots and made it back to the campsite. As we were doing the dishes after dinner it abruptly got very dark and very cold. It was in the low 30s, so we were in the warmth of our sleeping bags by 7:30. The next day we killed time waiting for the sun to warm things up with a long hike to the Heart of the Rocks. The afternoon was warmer so we rode up the Pinery Canyon Road 20 miles until snow stopped us. The Paselas did great on the gravel and hardpacked dirt, but weren’t much use climbing in slushy snow. The park is only about thirty miles form the Mexican border and we literally saw more Border Patrol than local residents. We wanted warm showers and good food but cold rain and our own cooking were threatening so we drove back to find a motel in Tucson.
The next morning we took a fascinating tour of a (retired) Titan ballistic missile site. The 18
month project to design, build and deploy 54 missiles in hardened silos puts our current HP R&D projects in perspective. Of course, we don’t have unlimited money and the threat of nuclear destruction to accelerate us.
In the afternoon we went to the East portion of the Saguaro National Park, just outside Tucson. It was a 10 mile circumference paved loop bisected by a singletrack. The pavement is laid on top of the hardpack desert floor, so there are whoop de doos and dips, curves and great pavement. The singletrack was hardpacked sand and the previos night’s rain made the surface perfect. It was a great ride and we did a lap and a half and finished just before sunset. The cyclocross bikes were ideal for this combination of pavement and smooth singletrack.
We were having fun in Tucson and enjoying not having to eat our own cooking, so we stayed another day for the Chiva Falls trail. Our guidebook rated it as “difficult” and it certainly was. There was quite a bit of ATV trail, but also plenty of loose rocks and steps. It was a beautiful site high in the mountains east of Tucson, and the altitude kept it pretty cool. We navigated around the trail and eventually got to the Chiva Falls, a 50’ waterfall in a pretty little rock canyon.
There was plenty of water to keep the streams going. We met some mountain bikers on the way in and they said we must be pretty strong to do this trail on cross bikes. We didn’t take the hint and ended up riding about 80% of the trail but walking the rest. A full suspension mountain bike would have made the trail 95% rideable. Overall it was a good training ride, 20 miles in 4 hours, and a little bit of an adventure.
The next day we drove to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, right up against the border with Mexico.
It was lower altitude desert and we were finally able to do a ride without knee and arm warmers. It was a beautiful 20 mile gravel road loop into the foothills of the Ajo mountains. It was our last night camping and stayed relatively warm.
The next day was a long driving day up to Sacramento. We decided to stay an extra day in Sacramento and did a long ride on the Sacramento River Trail up to Folsom Dam. It’s a beautiful paved bike path, river grade, and pretty quiet on a Friday. We did a couple of 20 minute intervals at time trial pace, and those plus the 70 mile distance and cumulative riding on the trip was plenty for this time in the season. We were whupped by the end of the ride. We had a great dinner at the Tower Café (recommended by a local as the best place to eat in Sacramento; certainly the best place I’ve eaten in Sacramento). The return to Corvallis the next day was an easy drive up I-5; easy for me because I slept through most of it.
Overall the trip was a blast, and I’m firmly converted to the concept of a winter or early spring training camp in the sunshine. The cross bikes did great in this terrain, the two sets of tires were nice but not really necessary.
Danny and I prepared for the trip by buying a gallon of Slime and filling eight tubes. We were taking our cyclocross bikes since they were capable of both on and off road travel. We brought two sets of wheels per bike: Panaracer Pasela 35Cs for pavement/gravel and 38C cyclocross tires for gravel/dirt/singletrack. It was our first experience with Slime, and it was pretty comical, with fluorescent green slime stains to contrast with the wine stains in the garage. The Slime was apparently effective, we had zero flats despite large numbers of goatheads (vicious thorns) and lots of miles through the land of cactus.
After the family headed home on Friday 1/2/09, Danny and I drove to Tucson and a tour of the Pima Air Museum and Airplane Boneyard. Saturday we headed down to the Chiricahua National Monument. It’s a sky island; a set of mountains with unique environments separated from the other islands by desert. We camped at about 4000’ and rode the paved road up to Masai point at 6870’. Despite brilliant sunshine, there was ice on the road in spots. We picked our way around the ice spots and made it back to the campsite. As we were doing the dishes after dinner it abruptly got very dark and very cold. It was in the low 30s, so we were in the warmth of our sleeping bags by 7:30. The next day we killed time waiting for the sun to warm things up with a long hike to the Heart of the Rocks. The afternoon was warmer so we rode up the Pinery Canyon Road 20 miles until snow stopped us. The Paselas did great on the gravel and hardpacked dirt, but weren’t much use climbing in slushy snow. The park is only about thirty miles form the Mexican border and we literally saw more Border Patrol than local residents. We wanted warm showers and good food but cold rain and our own cooking were threatening so we drove back to find a motel in Tucson.
The next morning we took a fascinating tour of a (retired) Titan ballistic missile site. The 18
month project to design, build and deploy 54 missiles in hardened silos puts our current HP R&D projects in perspective. Of course, we don’t have unlimited money and the threat of nuclear destruction to accelerate us.In the afternoon we went to the East portion of the Saguaro National Park, just outside Tucson. It was a 10 mile circumference paved loop bisected by a singletrack. The pavement is laid on top of the hardpack desert floor, so there are whoop de doos and dips, curves and great pavement. The singletrack was hardpacked sand and the previos night’s rain made the surface perfect. It was a great ride and we did a lap and a half and finished just before sunset. The cyclocross bikes were ideal for this combination of pavement and smooth singletrack.
We were having fun in Tucson and enjoying not having to eat our own cooking, so we stayed another day for the Chiva Falls trail. Our guidebook rated it as “difficult” and it certainly was. There was quite a bit of ATV trail, but also plenty of loose rocks and steps. It was a beautiful site high in the mountains east of Tucson, and the altitude kept it pretty cool. We navigated around the trail and eventually got to the Chiva Falls, a 50’ waterfall in a pretty little rock canyon.
There was plenty of water to keep the streams going. We met some mountain bikers on the way in and they said we must be pretty strong to do this trail on cross bikes. We didn’t take the hint and ended up riding about 80% of the trail but walking the rest. A full suspension mountain bike would have made the trail 95% rideable. Overall it was a good training ride, 20 miles in 4 hours, and a little bit of an adventure.The next day we drove to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, right up against the border with Mexico.
It was lower altitude desert and we were finally able to do a ride without knee and arm warmers. It was a beautiful 20 mile gravel road loop into the foothills of the Ajo mountains. It was our last night camping and stayed relatively warm.The next day was a long driving day up to Sacramento. We decided to stay an extra day in Sacramento and did a long ride on the Sacramento River Trail up to Folsom Dam. It’s a beautiful paved bike path, river grade, and pretty quiet on a Friday. We did a couple of 20 minute intervals at time trial pace, and those plus the 70 mile distance and cumulative riding on the trip was plenty for this time in the season. We were whupped by the end of the ride. We had a great dinner at the Tower Café (recommended by a local as the best place to eat in Sacramento; certainly the best place I’ve eaten in Sacramento). The return to Corvallis the next day was an easy drive up I-5; easy for me because I slept through most of it.
Overall the trip was a blast, and I’m firmly converted to the concept of a winter or early spring training camp in the sunshine. The cross bikes did great in this terrain, the two sets of tires were nice but not really necessary.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Fall mountain biking haiku
Cross season is over for me. It was fun, but I'm tired of racing for a while. Time for a short break then start training for the spring racing season and my goal for the year, Race Across Oregon, solo.
I have been doing most of my rides for the past couple of weeks in the Macdonald forest, solo, with friends and this weekend with my son Danny. It was a glorius fall, warm weather until the end of November. Winter came late, but it looks like it's almost here.
Copper colored leaves
Blanket the muddy trail like
Bran flakes for the earth
I have been doing most of my rides for the past couple of weeks in the Macdonald forest, solo, with friends and this weekend with my son Danny. It was a glorius fall, warm weather until the end of November. Winter came late, but it looks like it's almost here.
Copper colored leaves
Blanket the muddy trail like
Bran flakes for the earth
Monday, August 11, 2008
Rocky Mountain 1200 Ride Report
The Rocky Mountain 1200 (RM 1200) held July 23-27 was my key objective for the ’08 season. It rose to the top of my list after I heard that my Rando riding buddies John “Kramer” Kramer and Dave “Ready to Ride” Rowe had selected it as their biggest ride for the year. It promised to be a tough ride with plenty of distance and climbing. My objective for the ride was to finish within 90 hours, with more sleep than PBP ’07 (>6 hours).
My training for the Rocky included a Super Randonneur series, a few long weekend back to back solo 100mi plus rides, The Mid Valley Bicycle Club’s Loop Tour with my family and the Death Ride. Carpooling north to the start at Kamloops British Columbia with Dave Rowe I felt ready for the ride. We got aligned on expectations and reviewed the ride plan I’d prepared. We ran into several other Randos when we arrived in Kamloops on Tuesday evening and settled down to wait for the start. Kamloops climbs up a hill side from a river junction, and the climate and fauna seemed a lot like the Columbia Plateau (Spokane). We had a whole day and filled the time with eating, sleeping, packing the drop bags and final prep of the bikes. The long day of waiting finally ended and we were ready for our 10pm Wednesday 7/23 start.
About 80 of the 100 riders elected to start at 10pm with a 90 hour limit, while the balance opted for a 4 am start and an 84 hour limit. We rolled out of town with the 90 hour group just at sunset. It was a warm clear night, and there was minimal conversation as the group strung out on the road. The 4 lane highway out of town eventually narrowed to two lanes, with occasional semi and other traffic. BC is big and the part we were in was pretty empty, so the semis flew down the highway. At one point we went through a narrow twisting canyon with poor shoulders. We came upon a rock slide that spilled onto the shoulder and smelled fresh burning rubber from a semi that had locked its’ brakes. We saw a bicyclist at the side of the road, but he looked OK, just regaining his composure, so we pushed hard to get out of the chokepoint before the next semi came along.
We kept a fast pace to the first control, and arrived at Clearwater at 2:43am, along with many other riders. After a quick stop we were on our way again. We were way ahead of my projected pace, partly due to the terrain being a gentle uphill river grade, with not many hills. It was a beautiful clear evening that was quite cold when we saw a shooting star just ahead of us. At dawn we hooked up with a line of riders and kept a very fast pace to the next control, Blue River at 229 km, 7:12 am. Dave, John and I were using Hammer’s Perpetuum liquid food, so we quickly refilled our bottles and left almost all the 90 hour riders behind us while they waited for breakfast service from one waitress and one cook at the truck stop. After that control, we were at the front of the pack. That meant for the rest of the ride the people at the controls were very glad to see us and we got first dibs on food, showers and sleeping spots.
We continued uphill river grade for most of the rest of the day. We were cruising, but not suffering and all three of us set personal best times for 200km, 300km, and 400km. Short stops at the controls was part of the reason for our rapid progress, along with a moderate tailwind and a steady uphill river grade without many hills.
Before Valemount, we saw our first bear of the trip. A large black bear crossed the highway about 75 yards ahead of us. He was sleek and ran with a fluid motion across the road and directly into the woods. From Valemount we started into the Rockies and the incredible views. We rode directly towards Mt Robson (see picture) and then turned right (south). We departed from the river and climbed the Tete Jaune pass. At the top of the pass we crossed the Northern Continental divide into territory where water flows to Hudson Bay and eventually the Arctic Ocean. We caught up with our first drop bags at Jasper and decided to shower, sleep and eat a couple of meals of real food. It was before 5 and we’d covered more than a third of the distance already and were way ahead of our plan. We planned 5 hours total off the bike and I got a solid three hours of sleep. John wasn’t so lucky and wasn’t able to sleep in the stuffy church basement. He rolled out slightly ahead of us in the twilight, and we figured we’d catch him on the climb to Beauty Creek. We rode along and talked to a couple of Canadians, Dan and Mike from Alberta. They’d taken more time at the controls and consequently hadn’t slept yet, while Dave and I were refreshed from our break. We pulled John back into sight and then let him go again when Dave and I stopped to put on all our warm clothes. We pulled in to Beauty Creek at 2:37 am just as Sophie Matter was leaving. We’d ridden with her off and on for the first day, but she had continued to Beauty Creek while we slept at Jasper. Now she was just leaving that control as we arrived. She was traveling lighter and was definitely stronger. She did the Icefields at 3 am (it was 37c) with a windbreaker. Her persistence paid off and she set a new women’s course record of 64:44. We had pancakes with Nutella and a half hour power nap in individual bunks. It was the best sleep of the trip and we were back on the road an hour after we rolled in. We were comfortable with every piece of wool clothing we had plus all our raingear on. The sky was brightening as we climbed away from Beauty Creek, past the Columbia Icefields and up to Sunwapta Pass. It was the perfect time of day for the climb. It was plenty cool for the ascent, but we still had to remove clothes as we overheated. The sky brightened with the mountains gradually being revealed, first as black shapes with the glaciers visible in the starlight, then the size of the mountains became more obvious in the gray light of dawn, and finally the sun gilded the tops of the mountains across the valley. We encountered a mountain goat on the way up the pass, but very little traffic because we crested the pass about 6 am. All our clothes came back on for the long cold descent to the Crossing Restaurant. A quick bite (the first busload of tourists showed up just as we were leaving, so there wasn’t a queue) and we were on our way to the next pass. Bow Pass was a long and not very steep climb, followed by a long gradual descent through Banff Park to Lake Louise. This whole section we had spectacular mountains on both sides of us. By the time we reached the Lake Louise control it was noon and quite warm so we had some watermelon and a break before doing the quick out and back to Castle Rock. Coming back into Lake Louise John was out of sight off the front, and we weren’t sure whether he’d stopped again at the control; after a short wait we decided he was still ahead and Dave and I proceeded west on the TransCanada highway. It's a two to four lane highway with lots of traffic because it’s the main road from BC to the rest of Canada.
Kicking Horse Pass was on the route sheet after Castle Junction with an altitude of 1700m. We expected to climb to the pass, but didn't realize we were already at 1600m. We only climbed a little and came to the top unexpectedly. It was 5 on a Friday afternoon and there was plenty of traffic. Coming over the top the shoulder, which was already narrow got much worse and we were faced with an unexpected 7% 10 km descent with the semis winding up to pass us. The road was carved into the side of the gorge of the Kicking Horse River. On our right was a foot of broken pavement for the shoulder, a guardrail with occasional gaps and a thousand foot drop down the cliff. Basically we had to fight the semis for the lane on the downhill while pushing our speed up. I saw my maximum heart rate for the trip on the descent, and not because of exertion.
At the bottom of the descent we stopped at a rest area to get our nerves back and ran into a guy who said that the descent into Golden was worse. Another big descent, but we'd be on the inside against the cliff wall, the road was two lanes, double yellow most of the way with no shoulder, it was twistier and there was an uphill halfway through the descent. He recommended taking the lane ahead of a semi. It sounded like a good idea so we thought about how to do it and survive on the next 50km of marginal riding along the shoulder. At the truck brake check area before the descent into Golden, we approached a semi driver and Dave talked him into giving us a hand. He came up behind us on the descent and blocked traffic. When it opened up temporarily to two lanes he left us on our own and then blocked again for us on the narrow part of the uphill. Since he was blocking traffic we went all out to minimize the disruption. It was another peak heart rate section, but the semi helped make it a little safer and less terrifying.
At Golden at 19:20 we caught our second drop bags and also caught back up to John. We were way ahead of schedule, and decided to eat (dinner and breakfast), shower and sleep again. Dave’s knee was bothering him, so he needed a rest and we hoped that riding the TransCanada would be more pleasant in the dark. After another three hours of sleep we were back on the road at 12:30 am. The trucks were still on the road but they could see us for a long way with our flashing red lights, and there wasn’t much oncoming traffic so they could use the opposite lane and give us plenty of room. We missed some scenery, but our timing worked out so that it was dawn as we came through Canada’s Glacier National Park. It was another beautiful dawn in the high mountains. We climbed up Roger’s pass in the very early morning, just after dawn. It was the last significant pass of the Rockies so I plugged in my iPod and cranked up the hill. There were 5 tunnels (snow sheds) on the climb, so the challenge was to time my transits through the tunnels so I wasn’t in one at the same time as a semi or an RV. We regrouped at the top and had a power nap in the foyer of the resort.
After the top of Rogers Pass it was a very long gradual descent to Revelstoke. John was sleepy so we stopped at a camping resort and had a nap on some picnic tables until a light rain woke us up. We only had rain gear on for a half hour, just enough to be able to say that we used every piece of gear we brought along on the ride. It was Saturday morning and the traffic on the TransCanada kept building. With lots of RVs, trucks with boats and plenty of semis on a (mostly) two lane highway it wasn’t very pleasant. We were coming out of the mountains, and the spectacular scenery was behind us. This was the least fun part of the ride, and we just needed to keep pedaling through it. After a long day in the saddle, we finally arrived at Enderby at 14:35. The temperature was quite high (my bike computer said 103 in the sun). Dave needed to ice his knees, so John and I had power naps. When Dave was ready to go, we had a discussion about slowing down the pace to finish together, or just leaving Dave to finish on his own. We were well ahead of our original plan, and even at a slower pace we’d have still have personal best times, so we decided to slow down and drag Dave in. The whole rando dichotomy of race vs ride was really clear. Kramer has a foot in the "race" camp, is focused on getting medals and hardware and is really more comfortable riding solo. Dave has a triathlete's vision of competing with himself, which is a modified "race" focus. For me, it's a break from racing, but I'm willing work hard as a domestique to support the other guy's objectives and to ride with them. I probably could've gone faster solo than riding with my buddies, but why? I did the SIR 400K about half solo, and it wasn't as much fun.
It was a pretty short leg to the Salmon Arm control, which we arrived at just before 5 pm. We could smell the barn after 1100 out of 1200 km and the people at the control said we only had 5 hills left to the finish. We’d slowed down, but were still way ahead of my original plan. It looked like we’d be into Kamloops a day early, so John called the hotel to advance our hotel reservation and found that we needed to pick up the key before 11 pm when the front desk closed. We had a meal and than rolled out, a screaming downhill through Salmon Arm to the river that lead to Kamloops. The highway improved, with wider shoulders. Traffic also decreased as the evening wore on. We rolled through the evening with occasional stops for Dave’s knee to recover. I did math in my head to stay awake and revised our ETA as we rolled along. First I was shooting for a 70 hour total (a RAAM qualifying time), then 72 hours (a nice round number). Eventually it became clear that at our current pace we’d miss the 11pm target at the hotel, so John volunteered to push in and get the room key and I volunteered to stay with Dave. John disappeared into the dusk with 70km to go. My new tentative target was to get in before midnight (74 hours). The highway was rolling along next to a set of busy railroad tracks and Dave and I rolled through the dusk and into darkness. I kept Dave in sight in my mirror, and he had my tail light to focus on. It was a surreal segment of the ride, with noise from the freight trains roaring by on one side and the semis passing us on the other. I cranked up the iPod and just enjoyed the ride. We could see the glow in the sky from Kamloops for the final 40km, and rolled through an industrial landscape as we came into town. Eventually, it became clear that we were actually in town and then the control came into sight. We rolled in at 11:52, with a total time of 73:52. It was the fastest 1200k we’d ever done and we celebrated with a beer before heading to the hotel.
We slept in the next morning, then had a large breakfast, a big lunch, spent the afternoon at the Kamloops aquatic center and went to the banquet. After another night of sleep we headed back to the states.
On the way back, Dave and I talked about goals for ’09. There are lots of possibilities but I haven't settled on any. I'm leaning toward doing Race Across Oregon solo (it really is a race) plus a Super Randonneur series and a 1200K. Possibilities are London-Edinburgh-London (1500K, but might be very expensive); the Gold Rush 1200K (near Susanville, cheapest and least vacation time, the downside is that it'll probably be very hot) or the new Granite Anvil 1200K in Ontario, Canada (new route, good roads).
My training for the Rocky included a Super Randonneur series, a few long weekend back to back solo 100mi plus rides, The Mid Valley Bicycle Club’s Loop Tour with my family and the Death Ride. Carpooling north to the start at Kamloops British Columbia with Dave Rowe I felt ready for the ride. We got aligned on expectations and reviewed the ride plan I’d prepared. We ran into several other Randos when we arrived in Kamloops on Tuesday evening and settled down to wait for the start. Kamloops climbs up a hill side from a river junction, and the climate and fauna seemed a lot like the Columbia Plateau (Spokane). We had a whole day and filled the time with eating, sleeping, packing the drop bags and final prep of the bikes. The long day of waiting finally ended and we were ready for our 10pm Wednesday 7/23 start.
About 80 of the 100 riders elected to start at 10pm with a 90 hour limit, while the balance opted for a 4 am start and an 84 hour limit. We rolled out of town with the 90 hour group just at sunset. It was a warm clear night, and there was minimal conversation as the group strung out on the road. The 4 lane highway out of town eventually narrowed to two lanes, with occasional semi and other traffic. BC is big and the part we were in was pretty empty, so the semis flew down the highway. At one point we went through a narrow twisting canyon with poor shoulders. We came upon a rock slide that spilled onto the shoulder and smelled fresh burning rubber from a semi that had locked its’ brakes. We saw a bicyclist at the side of the road, but he looked OK, just regaining his composure, so we pushed hard to get out of the chokepoint before the next semi came along.
We kept a fast pace to the first control, and arrived at Clearwater at 2:43am, along with many other riders. After a quick stop we were on our way again. We were way ahead of my projected pace, partly due to the terrain being a gentle uphill river grade, with not many hills. It was a beautiful clear evening that was quite cold when we saw a shooting star just ahead of us. At dawn we hooked up with a line of riders and kept a very fast pace to the next control, Blue River at 229 km, 7:12 am. Dave, John and I were using Hammer’s Perpetuum liquid food, so we quickly refilled our bottles and left almost all the 90 hour riders behind us while they waited for breakfast service from one waitress and one cook at the truck stop. After that control, we were at the front of the pack. That meant for the rest of the ride the people at the controls were very glad to see us and we got first dibs on food, showers and sleeping spots.
We continued uphill river grade for most of the rest of the day. We were cruising, but not suffering and all three of us set personal best times for 200km, 300km, and 400km. Short stops at the controls was part of the reason for our rapid progress, along with a moderate tailwind and a steady uphill river grade without many hills.
Before Valemount, we saw our first bear of the trip. A large black bear crossed the highway about 75 yards ahead of us. He was sleek and ran with a fluid motion across the road and directly into the woods. From Valemount we started into the Rockies and the incredible views. We rode directly towards Mt Robson (see picture) and then turned right (south). We departed from the river and climbed the Tete Jaune pass. At the top of the pass we crossed the Northern Continental divide into territory where water flows to Hudson Bay and eventually the Arctic Ocean. We caught up with our first drop bags at Jasper and decided to shower, sleep and eat a couple of meals of real food. It was before 5 and we’d covered more than a third of the distance already and were way ahead of our plan. We planned 5 hours total off the bike and I got a solid three hours of sleep. John wasn’t so lucky and wasn’t able to sleep in the stuffy church basement. He rolled out slightly ahead of us in the twilight, and we figured we’d catch him on the climb to Beauty Creek. We rode along and talked to a couple of Canadians, Dan and Mike from Alberta. They’d taken more time at the controls and consequently hadn’t slept yet, while Dave and I were refreshed from our break. We pulled John back into sight and then let him go again when Dave and I stopped to put on all our warm clothes. We pulled in to Beauty Creek at 2:37 am just as Sophie Matter was leaving. We’d ridden with her off and on for the first day, but she had continued to Beauty Creek while we slept at Jasper. Now she was just leaving that control as we arrived. She was traveling lighter and was definitely stronger. She did the Icefields at 3 am (it was 37c) with a windbreaker. Her persistence paid off and she set a new women’s course record of 64:44. We had pancakes with Nutella and a half hour power nap in individual bunks. It was the best sleep of the trip and we were back on the road an hour after we rolled in. We were comfortable with every piece of wool clothing we had plus all our raingear on. The sky was brightening as we climbed away from Beauty Creek, past the Columbia Icefields and up to Sunwapta Pass. It was the perfect time of day for the climb. It was plenty cool for the ascent, but we still had to remove clothes as we overheated. The sky brightened with the mountains gradually being revealed, first as black shapes with the glaciers visible in the starlight, then the size of the mountains became more obvious in the gray light of dawn, and finally the sun gilded the tops of the mountains across the valley. We encountered a mountain goat on the way up the pass, but very little traffic because we crested the pass about 6 am. All our clothes came back on for the long cold descent to the Crossing Restaurant. A quick bite (the first busload of tourists showed up just as we were leaving, so there wasn’t a queue) and we were on our way to the next pass. Bow Pass was a long and not very steep climb, followed by a long gradual descent through Banff Park to Lake Louise. This whole section we had spectacular mountains on both sides of us. By the time we reached the Lake Louise control it was noon and quite warm so we had some watermelon and a break before doing the quick out and back to Castle Rock. Coming back into Lake Louise John was out of sight off the front, and we weren’t sure whether he’d stopped again at the control; after a short wait we decided he was still ahead and Dave and I proceeded west on the TransCanada highway. It's a two to four lane highway with lots of traffic because it’s the main road from BC to the rest of Canada.
Kicking Horse Pass was on the route sheet after Castle Junction with an altitude of 1700m. We expected to climb to the pass, but didn't realize we were already at 1600m. We only climbed a little and came to the top unexpectedly. It was 5 on a Friday afternoon and there was plenty of traffic. Coming over the top the shoulder, which was already narrow got much worse and we were faced with an unexpected 7% 10 km descent with the semis winding up to pass us. The road was carved into the side of the gorge of the Kicking Horse River. On our right was a foot of broken pavement for the shoulder, a guardrail with occasional gaps and a thousand foot drop down the cliff. Basically we had to fight the semis for the lane on the downhill while pushing our speed up. I saw my maximum heart rate for the trip on the descent, and not because of exertion.
At the bottom of the descent we stopped at a rest area to get our nerves back and ran into a guy who said that the descent into Golden was worse. Another big descent, but we'd be on the inside against the cliff wall, the road was two lanes, double yellow most of the way with no shoulder, it was twistier and there was an uphill halfway through the descent. He recommended taking the lane ahead of a semi. It sounded like a good idea so we thought about how to do it and survive on the next 50km of marginal riding along the shoulder. At the truck brake check area before the descent into Golden, we approached a semi driver and Dave talked him into giving us a hand. He came up behind us on the descent and blocked traffic. When it opened up temporarily to two lanes he left us on our own and then blocked again for us on the narrow part of the uphill. Since he was blocking traffic we went all out to minimize the disruption. It was another peak heart rate section, but the semi helped make it a little safer and less terrifying.
At Golden at 19:20 we caught our second drop bags and also caught back up to John. We were way ahead of schedule, and decided to eat (dinner and breakfast), shower and sleep again. Dave’s knee was bothering him, so he needed a rest and we hoped that riding the TransCanada would be more pleasant in the dark. After another three hours of sleep we were back on the road at 12:30 am. The trucks were still on the road but they could see us for a long way with our flashing red lights, and there wasn’t much oncoming traffic so they could use the opposite lane and give us plenty of room. We missed some scenery, but our timing worked out so that it was dawn as we came through Canada’s Glacier National Park. It was another beautiful dawn in the high mountains. We climbed up Roger’s pass in the very early morning, just after dawn. It was the last significant pass of the Rockies so I plugged in my iPod and cranked up the hill. There were 5 tunnels (snow sheds) on the climb, so the challenge was to time my transits through the tunnels so I wasn’t in one at the same time as a semi or an RV. We regrouped at the top and had a power nap in the foyer of the resort.
After the top of Rogers Pass it was a very long gradual descent to Revelstoke. John was sleepy so we stopped at a camping resort and had a nap on some picnic tables until a light rain woke us up. We only had rain gear on for a half hour, just enough to be able to say that we used every piece of gear we brought along on the ride. It was Saturday morning and the traffic on the TransCanada kept building. With lots of RVs, trucks with boats and plenty of semis on a (mostly) two lane highway it wasn’t very pleasant. We were coming out of the mountains, and the spectacular scenery was behind us. This was the least fun part of the ride, and we just needed to keep pedaling through it. After a long day in the saddle, we finally arrived at Enderby at 14:35. The temperature was quite high (my bike computer said 103 in the sun). Dave needed to ice his knees, so John and I had power naps. When Dave was ready to go, we had a discussion about slowing down the pace to finish together, or just leaving Dave to finish on his own. We were well ahead of our original plan, and even at a slower pace we’d have still have personal best times, so we decided to slow down and drag Dave in. The whole rando dichotomy of race vs ride was really clear. Kramer has a foot in the "race" camp, is focused on getting medals and hardware and is really more comfortable riding solo. Dave has a triathlete's vision of competing with himself, which is a modified "race" focus. For me, it's a break from racing, but I'm willing work hard as a domestique to support the other guy's objectives and to ride with them. I probably could've gone faster solo than riding with my buddies, but why? I did the SIR 400K about half solo, and it wasn't as much fun.
It was a pretty short leg to the Salmon Arm control, which we arrived at just before 5 pm. We could smell the barn after 1100 out of 1200 km and the people at the control said we only had 5 hills left to the finish. We’d slowed down, but were still way ahead of my original plan. It looked like we’d be into Kamloops a day early, so John called the hotel to advance our hotel reservation and found that we needed to pick up the key before 11 pm when the front desk closed. We had a meal and than rolled out, a screaming downhill through Salmon Arm to the river that lead to Kamloops. The highway improved, with wider shoulders. Traffic also decreased as the evening wore on. We rolled through the evening with occasional stops for Dave’s knee to recover. I did math in my head to stay awake and revised our ETA as we rolled along. First I was shooting for a 70 hour total (a RAAM qualifying time), then 72 hours (a nice round number). Eventually it became clear that at our current pace we’d miss the 11pm target at the hotel, so John volunteered to push in and get the room key and I volunteered to stay with Dave. John disappeared into the dusk with 70km to go. My new tentative target was to get in before midnight (74 hours). The highway was rolling along next to a set of busy railroad tracks and Dave and I rolled through the dusk and into darkness. I kept Dave in sight in my mirror, and he had my tail light to focus on. It was a surreal segment of the ride, with noise from the freight trains roaring by on one side and the semis passing us on the other. I cranked up the iPod and just enjoyed the ride. We could see the glow in the sky from Kamloops for the final 40km, and rolled through an industrial landscape as we came into town. Eventually, it became clear that we were actually in town and then the control came into sight. We rolled in at 11:52, with a total time of 73:52. It was the fastest 1200k we’d ever done and we celebrated with a beer before heading to the hotel.
We slept in the next morning, then had a large breakfast, a big lunch, spent the afternoon at the Kamloops aquatic center and went to the banquet. After another night of sleep we headed back to the states.
On the way back, Dave and I talked about goals for ’09. There are lots of possibilities but I haven't settled on any. I'm leaning toward doing Race Across Oregon solo (it really is a race) plus a Super Randonneur series and a 1200K. Possibilities are London-Edinburgh-London (1500K, but might be very expensive); the Gold Rush 1200K (near Susanville, cheapest and least vacation time, the downside is that it'll probably be very hot) or the new Granite Anvil 1200K in Ontario, Canada (new route, good roads).
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