I originally setup this blog to be able to chronicle my rides during the elite tour in May and June, but I was unable to do the elite tour and turned the blog into my race reports. Well, after the Saratoga 12 hour race I did a tour of sorts and found that it wouldn't have been practical to try to keep up the blog while doing the elite anyway. It takes more time and energy to write about what you did than to do what you did.
My plan was to try to integrate a family vacation and bike riding tour into one event. This plan had some epic fails and epic successes along the way, but mostly was a success and mostly due to Trisha keeping everything going.
To begin the epic journey to the northeast, we needed transportation and accommodations. Here is where all of my planning and energy were devoted for the week leading up to trip. I purchased a RoadTrek 210 which could carry up to 5 people and sleep Trish and I and Allen. I also recently purchased an Ultra Light Toy Hauler Trailer that would act as a bike hauler and could be transformed to sleep Katelyn and Rachel at night.
Day 1 of the Trip, (Wednesday), was traveling from Sheridan To Louisville with a stay at the KOA Campground. Here is where my daughters say my first Epic Fail of the trip occured. Basically I had two campers requiring 2 power plugs, but most campsites only have one place to plug in a 30 amp connection. We arrived at the campground around 9 at night just as it was getting dark. The temps were in the 90s so we decided to run the A/C in the Ultralite first and get it cold then switch it over to the RoadTrek for the night. My daughters were not happy by the time the morning rolled around.
Day 2 was a pretty uneventful travel day - during which time we stayed at a hotel for the night.
On Day 3 we arrived at the Schuyler Yacht Basin at noon on Friday. The husband and wife that owned the yatch basin were able to help me with my dilema regarding the power. They had a 50 amp to two 30 amp conversion cable so we had A/C in both units. The Yatch basin was a really cool place to camp.
Day 4 is covered in the race report is in a seperate blog post.
Day 5 was a travel day up to Ticonderoga to start section 11 of the Adventure Cycling's Northern Tier which runs from Ticonderoga, NY to Bar Habor, ME. After catching breakfast with the race director, we headed north for the 2 hour drive to Ticonderoga. Upon arriving in Ticonderoga we found that you had to cross to VT by Ferry and that the Ferry only operated from 8-5. Since I wanted to start riding by 6 in morning I decided that I needed to start on VT side of the water, so we drove to Middlebury and checked into a hotel around 3pm. I got my touring bike out and decided to go for a little ride around Middlebury and back to the State line.
The warmup ride from hell. I headed out of the hotel parking lot with the intention of riding the alternate route around Middlebury. I started out by missing the first turn on the map and got in about 5 bonus miles before getting back to my turn. Using the Adventure Cycle maps was going to prove to be a challenge, because the print is far too small to read without stopping. I'm used to using route sheets that are readable as you ride. After getting back on course for about 6 miles I missed another turn and hit a gravel road. I knew I was off course again so I turned around, but too late. I had flatted. This was not going to prove to be any ordinary flat changing experince. This was special. Tube 1 - I pumped up the tube with my frame pump and had it just about hard enought when, SNAP. I broke off the stem. Tube 2 - Ok, I'm going to use the inflator. Tube is changed, tire is pumped up and back on bike and I'm loading up the detritus. POP....the tube blows. TUBE 3- my last tube. I didn't know if there was a problem with the tire so I put on a new tire, put in the new tube and hand pump it up gently, because I'm out of inflators and tubes. It holds and I start riding back to the hotel. But the tire feels flat so I stop and pump in more air. Finally I make it back to the hotel. 17.2 miles.
Day 6 was the first long ride of the vacation. Trish and the kids were headed back to the Fort at Ticonderoga and I was up before 6 and headed to NH. Right out of the box I started with a 1600' climb upto Breadloaf and the SnowBowl which are at 2000'. This was a long steady steep climb topping out at 15% some places but usually 6 to 8% for about 10 miles. BreadLoaf is a really cool kind of resort with all of the buildings painted the same color. It was cool enough that I stopped and took pictures. After the SnowBowl was a 5 mile super fast down hill where I was topping 40 a couple of times but staying about 30 for the complete descent. The rest of the morning was a great ride into New Hamshire. A point of note would be Royalton which was neat and had the VT Law School. I had one other long climb in the morning at mile 55 to 60. Once I crossed the Connecticut River into New Hamshire I got the pleasure of riding some dirt back roads with covered bridges. The plan was that I would call Trisha when I got to North Haverhill, NH to see about stopping for the day. The only problem was that my phone was dead so my daughter gave me her phone to use. She neglected to give me the unlock code. Around 11:00 I stopped at an ice cream stand to get some ice cream. They were also kind enough to let me use their phone to call Trish. Problem - Trish didn't answer so I had to leave a message that I was continuing on and that I didn't have the unlock code for the phone. So I'm headed out of North Haverhill climbing away from the Connecticut river valley into white mtns. About 30 minutes outside of town my phone beeps at me telling me I have a message. I can't read the message, but since I got the message I know that my family is trying to contact me. I stopped at a greenhouse alongside the rode and they let me use the phone to call and get the unlock code. Back onto the bike and back to climbing. I climb past the appalachian trail and back up 2000'. Then I get a nice 5 mile descent into Lincoln. Its 2:30 in the afternoon and I have 118.6 miles and 10,000 climb done. With Kancamangus Pass in front of me I decide Lincoln is great place to stop for the night. I grab two rooms at the Comfort Inn and wait for Trish and the kids to show. They had some GPS difficulties which led to some gravel roads driving thru the mountains with the RV. Not Fun.
Day 7's plan was for Trish and Kids to play some adventure golf then catch up with me some where in Maine. My day started off pretty much like the day before with a long extended climb over Kancamangus Pass. It was a 2000' climb over 15 miles. It was steady and not as steep as yesterdays climb and peaked out at 2800'. After reaching the summit I had a nice screaming down hill for 5 miles then a 20 mile long downhill ride into Conway. This section of the road was really great. The rest of the day was spent doing hill repeats to Brunswick, ME. Never anything over 200' at a time and usually only 50' but over 40 10% climbs and 5 15% climbs. Once I got to Brunswick I dropped onto a bike path along the river for awhile and continued on to Bath. 134.3 miles and 10800 climbing. We stayed at a Holiday Inn at Bath that had a resturaunt (The Bounty I think) attached. The resturaunt had a menu item called the Maine Shore Dinner - Clam Chowder, Salad, Lobster, Corn, Bread, and Pie which I enjoyed immensely with 4 of the local brews.
Day 8 started out in the rain. I left the hotel headed north to Bar Harbor. This was another death by a 1000 paper cuts day. Lots of up and down. Most of this ride was done on US1 and for the most part sucked. Too much Traffic and not very good road. The only parts of it that were nice were when you got off 1. For the most part it was a good ride, but I was glad when I arrived at the Bar Harbor Campground and Trish and the kids had camp setup. I finished the day with 127.2 miles and 9800' of climb. It was cool enought to camp without A/C. Campgrounds are always better than hotels. You get to meet cool peeps. We were parked next to a group of girls that were part of a bike tour/camp. One of the people working for the group was a MTB'er riding for NC - Jeremy. Jeremy saw my bike setup and came over and we spent a bunch of time talking.
Day 9 was hiking/site seeing/travel/recovery ride day. At 5 in the morning we were up with the sun to start our climb up Cadillac Mountain - the highest point on the eastern seaboard. The early start was Rachel's idea because she wanted to do the climb before it got hot. Trish jumped out of the RV and back into the trailer for some more sleep while the rest of us took off for the base of the mountain. We started our climb up the mountain about 6am. The climb was great. It felt good to be doing something not on a bike and the views from the trail looking out over the bay to the north were fantastic. The climb was very decieving, with alot of false tops as you are looking up. That was probably a good thing. The higher you climbed the better the views got. It took us over an hour to make the 2.2 mile 1500' climb up the mountain. Allen, Rachel and I left Katelyn at the top and hiked back down to the RV. Then we had to drive around the whole island (1 way road) to get back to where you can drive to the top of the mountain and pick up Katelyn. The views were great so we decided we needed to go back to camp and take Trish on the quickee island tour and up to the top of mountain in the afternoon. After being tourist for the afternoon we started the drive back to Brunswick. I wasn't a fan of riding hwy 1 back to there so they dropped me at Wiscasset on the way back and I did an early evening 23 mile recovery ride back to the hotel.
The plan for day 10 was that Trisha and the kids would go rope climbing and zip lining while I rode down to Derry NH. This was a much better ride than the ride up to Bar Harbor and got to do a little Seaside riding on the way. It was a long day with 150 miles and 11,500 of climbing.
Day 11 was my day to attempt a Boston Excursion. I did about 30 miles before I got to the Boston Extension, so I turned east and headed toward the city. It was Saturday and there were alot of riders out riding so I thought that I must be in a really good area to ride. It turned out that I was riding against the flow of the Mass MS100 ride. I continued east riding toward town. At about 11:00 I talked with Trish and decided there was too much traffic so I'd head back out to Concord to meet her and the kids for lunch. Epic Success. We ate at the Concord Grill and the food was awesome. After lunch I had to finish my ride down to Marlborough Mass. It was hot and took way too long, but I finished the day with 105.3 and 7800 climb.
Day 12 was the day I tried to do too much. I started out early - I had made a detour in the route so I could ride in Rhode Island and then get to Connecticut. The ride thru Massachusets and Rhode Island was pleasant with gentler sloping hills. More like my type of riding. Then I hit Connecticut and had 25 miles of serious climbing and descending. The ride ended with about 15 miles of gently sloping downhill to the Connecticut river and a finish around noon with 100.7 miles and 8600 climb. Then we loaded up in the RV and headed for Philly. I wanted to get a ride in NJ in the early evening and then hit 3 states (PA, DE, MD) the next day. On the trip to Philly we drove thru NYC. Not a place I'd ever want to stop. Timing for getting a ride didn't happen and by the time I got to my room I was exhausted.
Day 13 turned into a travel day. We had thought about riding and site seeing, but decided against it when it started to rain in the morning. So we drove 800 miles from Philly to Nashville.
Day 14 the last day. We had picked the hotel in Brentwood so that I could ride over to the Natchez Trace and then ride down to Alabama. I started out about 5:30 and rode to the trace. The Natchez Trace is probably one of the nicest places to ride you can find, but bring support. There is limited water supplies and no food on the trace. I rode down to HWY 72 in AL. 150.9 miles and 8800' climb. Then we drove home.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saratoga 12 Hour.
Well, I'm sitting here at a picnic table the Schuyler Yacht Basin trying to recall exactly how the race went yesterday.
I prerode the Saratoga 12 or Hudson River Ramble course on Friday and knew that it was a fast 32.5 mile loop with 4 good hill climbs. Two of the climbs required dropping to the little chain ring after lap 4 and two rollers that you could get half way up with momentum. I also knew that the weather was supposed to be overcast with a high near 80 and light winds. The final piece of knowledge I had was that the record to beat was 251.1 miles. So, if I was going to set a course record, Saratoga was my best bet.
The morning started out rainy, but the rain stopped by 7:00 so we were just dealing with overcast skies for the start of the race at 8:00. Since this was a non-drafting event, I wanted to start off in the front so I wouldn't have to worry about getting caught behind other riders. John Schlitter, who has been resting his postierior, decided that he would come along for the ride. We rode to the base of the first hill climb at mile 2. Since John was on his recumbent, I was able to out climb him to the top of the hill. John, however, was feeling his wheaties and came around me at mile five and I used him to pace me around the course. He got caught by the light at mile 13 and I was able to get around him, but he sprinted to the 1st checkpoint to clock in first.
The next section was very bent friendly and John left me behind until mile 23 when he came riding backwards thinking he missed a turn. He got turned back around and led me back in to finish the first lap. Lap Time 1:28
My crew of Trisha, Rachel and Allen was setup right before the lap counter. I pulled in and was gone again in less than 10 seconds. The crew did an excellent job. I was off the bike for less than 6 minutes for the entire race. 2 of those minutes were at stop 6 when I had to pee and 2 at stop 7 when I got in before they were ready for me.
Lap 2 was alot like lap 3, but I was pretty much pushing John a little hard and passing him more often. I did get the aid of the stop light again to catch him. Lap Time was 1:28.
Lap 3 was another strong lap I caught John by the top of the big climb again and we traded places until mile 8 when John said it was time for me to ride on my own. He was idling it back a little. So I took off and finished the lap on my own. Lap Time was 1:28.
Lap 4 was ridden all by my lonesone and it was starting to get warm so my lap time dropped to 1:35 which was still better than 20 but not the 22 that I was turning on the the first 3 laps.
On Lap 5 was caught by Oyler at mile 12. He told me to shift up and spin more. With the heat and exertion, I had sort of fallen into a funk and was pedalling the sames gears I was using when I was hammering the first 3 laps. It seemed to help for awhile. I finished that lap with a 1:36.
Lap six is when my shot at the record went to hell. The sun came out and the temp got into the upper 80's so it was getting warm. I did a 1:47, which was down in the 18's. I came in and decided I needed to actually get off the bike for a minute. I got off the bike and went into the RV to take a leak, then came back out and got a starbucks coffee instead of a boost. Then I got back on the bike. Total time off the bike: 2 minutes.
Lap seven was much better. I turned another 1:36. The problem with that was that I had told my crew to expect another 1:45 so they weren't ready with everything like they had been all day. So I had another 2 minute break.
I was down to less than an hour to ride and wanted another 20 miles, so I took off pushing as hard as I could go. I caught up with a 12 hour night racer. We passed each other back and forth and chatted a little as we did. I was able to cross checkpoint 19 just before 8:00 so they give you credit to the next point. So I ended up with 7 laps plus 20 miles or 247.5 miles.
After putting myself over 4 miles down at lap 6 I worked my way back, but fell 3 miles short of both the win and the new couse record. It was a great ride with great support.
Now I'm on to my next adventure. Going to ride the Northern Tier Route section from Ticonderoga to Bar Harbor and the Eastern Route from Bar Harbour down to Connecticutt. Should be about 800 miles in 6 riding days with possibly a rest day in Bar Harbor .
I prerode the Saratoga 12 or Hudson River Ramble course on Friday and knew that it was a fast 32.5 mile loop with 4 good hill climbs. Two of the climbs required dropping to the little chain ring after lap 4 and two rollers that you could get half way up with momentum. I also knew that the weather was supposed to be overcast with a high near 80 and light winds. The final piece of knowledge I had was that the record to beat was 251.1 miles. So, if I was going to set a course record, Saratoga was my best bet.
The morning started out rainy, but the rain stopped by 7:00 so we were just dealing with overcast skies for the start of the race at 8:00. Since this was a non-drafting event, I wanted to start off in the front so I wouldn't have to worry about getting caught behind other riders. John Schlitter, who has been resting his postierior, decided that he would come along for the ride. We rode to the base of the first hill climb at mile 2. Since John was on his recumbent, I was able to out climb him to the top of the hill. John, however, was feeling his wheaties and came around me at mile five and I used him to pace me around the course. He got caught by the light at mile 13 and I was able to get around him, but he sprinted to the 1st checkpoint to clock in first.
The next section was very bent friendly and John left me behind until mile 23 when he came riding backwards thinking he missed a turn. He got turned back around and led me back in to finish the first lap. Lap Time 1:28
My crew of Trisha, Rachel and Allen was setup right before the lap counter. I pulled in and was gone again in less than 10 seconds. The crew did an excellent job. I was off the bike for less than 6 minutes for the entire race. 2 of those minutes were at stop 6 when I had to pee and 2 at stop 7 when I got in before they were ready for me.
Lap 2 was alot like lap 3, but I was pretty much pushing John a little hard and passing him more often. I did get the aid of the stop light again to catch him. Lap Time was 1:28.
Lap 3 was another strong lap I caught John by the top of the big climb again and we traded places until mile 8 when John said it was time for me to ride on my own. He was idling it back a little. So I took off and finished the lap on my own. Lap Time was 1:28.
Lap 4 was ridden all by my lonesone and it was starting to get warm so my lap time dropped to 1:35 which was still better than 20 but not the 22 that I was turning on the the first 3 laps.
On Lap 5 was caught by Oyler at mile 12. He told me to shift up and spin more. With the heat and exertion, I had sort of fallen into a funk and was pedalling the sames gears I was using when I was hammering the first 3 laps. It seemed to help for awhile. I finished that lap with a 1:36.
Lap six is when my shot at the record went to hell. The sun came out and the temp got into the upper 80's so it was getting warm. I did a 1:47, which was down in the 18's. I came in and decided I needed to actually get off the bike for a minute. I got off the bike and went into the RV to take a leak, then came back out and got a starbucks coffee instead of a boost. Then I got back on the bike. Total time off the bike: 2 minutes.
Lap seven was much better. I turned another 1:36. The problem with that was that I had told my crew to expect another 1:45 so they weren't ready with everything like they had been all day. So I had another 2 minute break.
I was down to less than an hour to ride and wanted another 20 miles, so I took off pushing as hard as I could go. I caught up with a 12 hour night racer. We passed each other back and forth and chatted a little as we did. I was able to cross checkpoint 19 just before 8:00 so they give you credit to the next point. So I ended up with 7 laps plus 20 miles or 247.5 miles.
After putting myself over 4 miles down at lap 6 I worked my way back, but fell 3 miles short of both the win and the new couse record. It was a great ride with great support.
Now I'm on to my next adventure. Going to ride the Northern Tier Route section from Ticonderoga to Bar Harbor and the Eastern Route from Bar Harbour down to Connecticutt. Should be about 800 miles in 6 riding days with possibly a rest day in Bar Harbor .
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Comparison ride Titus VS Giant.
Yesterday I did a fast 100 mile loop on my Titus Vuelo averaging just over 19. So today since the weather was suppose to be close to yesterday I went out I my Giant TCR Advanced and did the exact same 100 mile course to see how much faster my race bike is than my touring bike.
The combatants:
My Titus Vuelo is my touring bike. It weighs in at 26.2 lbs, which includes everything but the water bottles. Its a titanium bike with carbon fork and krysium elite wheelset. What makes this my touring bike is the fact that it has a circlular seat post that can accept the rack and bag that I carry off the back. This bag carries 3 space tubes, 1 spare tire, 90% of the tools you need to run a bike shop, 12 hours of food, enough free storage to carry shed clothes and TP. This is the bike I take when I go off I my own for a 12 hour ride.
My Giant TCR Advanced is my race bike. It weighs in at 22 lbs, with lights, food bag, and seat post bag. Its a full carbon bike with Rolf Vigor Wheelset with carbon bearings. I think that Rolf's are the best wheelset you can race regardless of the $ you want to spend. The Giant is also much stiffer that Titus. This is the bike I race when I have support.
The results.
Titus 5:14 - or 19.1 MPH
Giant 4:55 - or 20.3 MPH
I also have two different Garmin 705's that I was testing out. The difference between the two was .2 miles over the 100 mile difference. I think one is set to record data every second and the other is when ever the device feels like it. The big difference though was in the amount of climb that the two devices recorded. Yesterday I did 5800 feet of climbing today I did 2500 feet of climbing. Maybe if climb over them faster it doesn't record as much. Don't trust your garmin for climb data.
The combatants:
My Titus Vuelo is my touring bike. It weighs in at 26.2 lbs, which includes everything but the water bottles. Its a titanium bike with carbon fork and krysium elite wheelset. What makes this my touring bike is the fact that it has a circlular seat post that can accept the rack and bag that I carry off the back. This bag carries 3 space tubes, 1 spare tire, 90% of the tools you need to run a bike shop, 12 hours of food, enough free storage to carry shed clothes and TP. This is the bike I take when I go off I my own for a 12 hour ride.
My Giant TCR Advanced is my race bike. It weighs in at 22 lbs, with lights, food bag, and seat post bag. Its a full carbon bike with Rolf Vigor Wheelset with carbon bearings. I think that Rolf's are the best wheelset you can race regardless of the $ you want to spend. The Giant is also much stiffer that Titus. This is the bike I race when I have support.
The results.
Titus 5:14 - or 19.1 MPH
Giant 4:55 - or 20.3 MPH
I also have two different Garmin 705's that I was testing out. The difference between the two was .2 miles over the 100 mile difference. I think one is set to record data every second and the other is when ever the device feels like it. The big difference though was in the amount of climb that the two devices recorded. Yesterday I did 5800 feet of climbing today I did 2500 feet of climbing. Maybe if climb over them faster it doesn't record as much. Don't trust your garmin for climb data.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Arkansas State Time Trials.
I am both happy with the result and a little disappointed with my time at the Arkansas State Time Trials. I finally won my age group after finishing 2nd the last two times I did this race. This was kind of bittersweet since the time I posted was the slowest of my 3 attempts.
The first year I did the TT I posted a 58:58, then last year I was 1:00:10. This year I posted a 1:01:40. I was hoping that my long distance training would just carry me throught the time trial and it pretty much did. I rode nice and easy at 24+ MPH. I wasn't tired and I didn't hurt, in fact I rode another 70+ miles after the race. The problem was that I could not longer push myself to get almost aerobic and ride at 26+.
I rode just like I have been training to ride for the last 8 months: Strong and consistant. So I guess I just shut up and be happy with my win and maybe throw some more TT training days into my ride schedule to work on speed.
The first year I did the TT I posted a 58:58, then last year I was 1:00:10. This year I posted a 1:01:40. I was hoping that my long distance training would just carry me throught the time trial and it pretty much did. I rode nice and easy at 24+ MPH. I wasn't tired and I didn't hurt, in fact I rode another 70+ miles after the race. The problem was that I could not longer push myself to get almost aerobic and ride at 26+.
I rode just like I have been training to ride for the last 8 months: Strong and consistant. So I guess I just shut up and be happy with my win and maybe throw some more TT training days into my ride schedule to work on speed.
Friday, June 25, 2010
My first 24 hour Race.
Well, it was time to tackle my first 24 hour race. On Thursday morning, my family and I packed up the van and the trailer and headed off to Middleville, MI. My first 24 hour would be the National 24 Hour Challenge, which is one of the largest 24 hour events in the US. This meant I knew that there would be some pretty stiff competition. But, I was headed there to win. That was what I put on the entry form when answering, "Why are you doing this race?".
The trip up to MI was a chore in itself. I had planned on taking an easy day and a half to get there. The road construction and stopping every 2 hours to gas up (the van only got 10 MPG while towing), turned into a long day and half. We made Champaign IL about 8 pm on Thursday and were ready to get started again at 7 on Friday, but we had to wait out the tornado warnings.
We finally made it up to Middleville about 1:00pm and began the setup process. N24HC has a special place for people with trailers - about 1/2 mile away from where everyone else gets to setup. So we dropped the trailer in the parking lot and started mixing the bottles, assembling the bikes, and all the other little prep stuff necessary to the race. Number pickup wasn't until 5:30 so we took off to pre-drive the course. I had heard that the road conditions weren't the greatest and wanted to visually verify the status of the course. We found some fresh chipseal near mile 15 and one section just after the 2nd checkpoint that weren't great but other than that the course was pretty nice.
We got back to Middleville at around 5:45 - timed perfectly so that the line was nice and small - and went thru packet pickup. Then we loaded up and headed to Grand Rapids and my favorite prerace meal at Outback: Rack of lamb with mashed potatos and 2 loaves of their great bread and two big blokes of Fosters to complete my carb loading.
Saturday started out too early with a wake up call at 4:30 - Me and the first shift of the support crew, Trisha and Allen, were up and headed out to the race site by 5:30 and at the trailer way before 6:00. I had the bike loaded with food/drink and the van loaded up with everything Trish would need by 6:30. Oops, race doesn't start until 8:00. This is a bad habit that I picked up from racing tri's - always get there early to get the prime TA.
Since I was ready to race with more than an hour to spare, it became social hour. I talked with Jim Hlvaka (from PAC Tours), Paul Danhaus (Big Dogs), and Bryan Kortness (Facebook) and just did a little riding around to loosen up. Trish and Allen hit the Crew prerace meeting at 7:30 and were on the frontline to start the race at 8:00.
We started at 8:00 straight up with no delays and I was off the front to lead the pack out. I know that Larry told me to draft, draft, draft and when you get tired of drafting to suck wheel, but I still like to lead the race out :-). The first section of the race was rather uneventful with a group of about 35 or 40 riders in the pack and about 8 -10 of us doing all of the pulls. At about mile 10 we hit a couple of hills and 2 riders went off the front, but the group, at the urging of Chris Ragsdale, (last year's winner), sort of let them stay about 1/8 mile ahead of the group. They rode out there for about 10 miles when I decided that it would be fun to break away from the group and ride them down. You got to play games or it gets boring. So I rode them down and the group caught up and we rode off toward checkpoint 1 were they had 4 lanes for you to get punched.
Once we hit checkpoint 1 the fun ended. We turned south into a 15+ mph wind from the southwest which would be with us all day. The group rode together down to checkpoint 2 with the same 8-10 people doing most of the work. As we were pulling into checkpoint 2, the group started attacking hard. This checkpoint only had 2 lanes to get punched, so it was a big cluster and I was the last person thru the station, but Trish and Allen were there with everything I needed so as soon as I got punched I was ready to head down the road. I was afraid this cluster in the checkpoint had cost me the main group, but I was wrong. Just after stop 2 is the unofficial Pee break. So the only thing that I lost was a chance to take a leak.
We cruised on toward checkpoint 3, riding the the roughest section of the road and dodging a lot of tree debris that had been blow down from the storm the previous night. At mile 80 the debris caught me, or I caught it, and the front tire made the s's's's's sound as air was escaping. I knew it was my wheel, but it was funny to watch all the other rider's start looking a their bikes to see if they had a problem.
Time for a quick tire change. The race had just been lost. There was no way I could win without riding with the lead group into the wind. Oh well, I had a new goal. How many of the 30+ rides could I catch and pass riding on my own? Someone had said that there was often a 2nd group that forms and works together, but I never saw them. I just rode my own pace, pushing as hard as felt good, and made it back to the finish of the big loop in just over 5:30 for 121.6 miles.
I had talked with Larry Graham before the race and he said that you wanted to do as many middle loops as you could before getting put on the short course at 7:15. I started pushing hard because I wanted to make sure I completed at least 5 middle (23.7) loops. This part of the ride was rather uneventful until the 5th lap. During the laps 1 thru 4, I would ride by people but never was passed. My support crew kept me flying around the track giving me bottles and food every lap, but I was waiting for the fast group to catch me and put me 23.7 miles down. About 1/2 way around lap 5 I was flying down a downhill section at about 25 when a car passed me and started to make a right turn in front me. I screamed F!!!!!! Thankfully, they stopped and I didn't become imbedded in the side door of their car.
About 5 minutes later, a group of 5 riders including Charles Knott came by me. So, I jumped on with them and started chatting with them. They said they were the second part of the fast group with the fastest 6 riders riding in a group ahead of them. This sort of confused me because nobody had passed me. Then I found out that I had passed these guys in transition. I had worked my way up to a top ten spot by mile 240. They were also impressed that I had ridden alone and was in front of them.
Charles, one other rider and I rode away from the rest of the group to finish up our last middle loop with 240.1 miles and start riding the 5.5 loop. As I transitioned to the short loop, my night crew showed up for work. Trish had taken Allen back to the hotel and picked up Rachel and Katelyn to work the night shift. Support on the night section of the race wasn't nearly as set as the day section. When I wanted something, I would tell my crew the lap before that I would stop and what I needed.
Night riding was mostly a mind game of setting a goal of the number of laps to do and counting down while continuously riding hard. My goal when I started was to get 40 laps. So I just kept counting down and riding. I switched from Boost at the stops to Starbucks coffee and my food went from sausage to a slice of pizza, but only one - it didn't settle all that well. I also downed a bag a frito's.
I was passed once during the night by Chris Ragsdale (494.8) and Chris Gottwald (483.8) and jumped on and rode with them for 3 laps before they stop to refuel. I hadn't told my crew I was stopping so I kept riding, then on the next lap I told them I was stopping. Just as I was pulling in to stop, the Chrises caught me so I lost the fast group again.
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Just riding and getting a little slower. Once the sun came out a lot of the riders that had stopped to sleep came back on the course, so there were more people again. I got together with Charles Knott a little after 6:15. He was on mile 399.6, about 16.5 miles behind me. He said his goal was to set the new 55-59 record and he needed to do 5 more laps, so he and I started working hard and pushed. Charles had the record with 20 minutes to spare. We took the last lap pretty easy, (20 minutes), and we came in with 20 minutes left. I decided to go out for one more lap. I time trialed the last lap in under 16 minutes, which was probably my fastest of the day, to end up with 449.1 - 38 short laps - 2 short of what I had set for my goal about 12 hours before.
I had come to win or at least challenge for the win. A pretty lofty goal for a first time 24 hour race. That went out the door with the flat. I set my new goal and passed all but 4 of the racers
ending up as 5th overall finisher and 1st in 45-49.
The Competition was pretty good.
1st - Chris Ragsdale, (494.8), Furnace Creek 508 Winner
2nd - Chris Gottwald, (483.8), Solo RAAM Finisher 2009
3rd - Bryce Walsh (460.1) Solo RAAM 2006
4th - Dennis Delong (454.6) RAAM Qualified
After the race is pretty hazy. We waited around for awards until 9:00 - then went to pack up the trailer to head back to the hotel, but we couldn't find a key for the trailer hitch. After searching high and low, Trisha found it in her shirt pocket. We were all really tired. We finished hooking up everything and drove back to the hotel at about 11:00. I went to the front desk and said I needed a wake up call for 1:30 and she looked at me like I was crazy. I explained the reason for late check out, (it's good to be a member of their club), and crashed for a couple of hours.
At 2 o'clock we were on the road heading for Ludington and the Ferry to WI. We had a 3 hour drive up to Ludington during which I slept again. We had enough time to have a picnic with KFC at the park then drove up to the dunes north of town and walked on the beach. We got on the ferry at 8:00pm and I walked back to the state room and slept until we reached Manitowoc around 11:00pm . I then drove 1 mile to the nearest hotel and fell back asleep again :-)
The trip up to MI was a chore in itself. I had planned on taking an easy day and a half to get there. The road construction and stopping every 2 hours to gas up (the van only got 10 MPG while towing), turned into a long day and half. We made Champaign IL about 8 pm on Thursday and were ready to get started again at 7 on Friday, but we had to wait out the tornado warnings.
We finally made it up to Middleville about 1:00pm and began the setup process. N24HC has a special place for people with trailers - about 1/2 mile away from where everyone else gets to setup. So we dropped the trailer in the parking lot and started mixing the bottles, assembling the bikes, and all the other little prep stuff necessary to the race. Number pickup wasn't until 5:30 so we took off to pre-drive the course. I had heard that the road conditions weren't the greatest and wanted to visually verify the status of the course. We found some fresh chipseal near mile 15 and one section just after the 2nd checkpoint that weren't great but other than that the course was pretty nice.
We got back to Middleville at around 5:45 - timed perfectly so that the line was nice and small - and went thru packet pickup. Then we loaded up and headed to Grand Rapids and my favorite prerace meal at Outback: Rack of lamb with mashed potatos and 2 loaves of their great bread and two big blokes of Fosters to complete my carb loading.
Saturday started out too early with a wake up call at 4:30 - Me and the first shift of the support crew, Trisha and Allen, were up and headed out to the race site by 5:30 and at the trailer way before 6:00. I had the bike loaded with food/drink and the van loaded up with everything Trish would need by 6:30. Oops, race doesn't start until 8:00. This is a bad habit that I picked up from racing tri's - always get there early to get the prime TA.
Since I was ready to race with more than an hour to spare, it became social hour. I talked with Jim Hlvaka (from PAC Tours), Paul Danhaus (Big Dogs), and Bryan Kortness (Facebook) and just did a little riding around to loosen up. Trish and Allen hit the Crew prerace meeting at 7:30 and were on the frontline to start the race at 8:00.
We started at 8:00 straight up with no delays and I was off the front to lead the pack out. I know that Larry told me to draft, draft, draft and when you get tired of drafting to suck wheel, but I still like to lead the race out :-). The first section of the race was rather uneventful with a group of about 35 or 40 riders in the pack and about 8 -10 of us doing all of the pulls. At about mile 10 we hit a couple of hills and 2 riders went off the front, but the group, at the urging of Chris Ragsdale, (last year's winner), sort of let them stay about 1/8 mile ahead of the group. They rode out there for about 10 miles when I decided that it would be fun to break away from the group and ride them down. You got to play games or it gets boring. So I rode them down and the group caught up and we rode off toward checkpoint 1 were they had 4 lanes for you to get punched.
Once we hit checkpoint 1 the fun ended. We turned south into a 15+ mph wind from the southwest which would be with us all day. The group rode together down to checkpoint 2 with the same 8-10 people doing most of the work. As we were pulling into checkpoint 2, the group started attacking hard. This checkpoint only had 2 lanes to get punched, so it was a big cluster and I was the last person thru the station, but Trish and Allen were there with everything I needed so as soon as I got punched I was ready to head down the road. I was afraid this cluster in the checkpoint had cost me the main group, but I was wrong. Just after stop 2 is the unofficial Pee break. So the only thing that I lost was a chance to take a leak.
We cruised on toward checkpoint 3, riding the the roughest section of the road and dodging a lot of tree debris that had been blow down from the storm the previous night. At mile 80 the debris caught me, or I caught it, and the front tire made the s's's's's sound as air was escaping. I knew it was my wheel, but it was funny to watch all the other rider's start looking a their bikes to see if they had a problem.
Time for a quick tire change. The race had just been lost. There was no way I could win without riding with the lead group into the wind. Oh well, I had a new goal. How many of the 30+ rides could I catch and pass riding on my own? Someone had said that there was often a 2nd group that forms and works together, but I never saw them. I just rode my own pace, pushing as hard as felt good, and made it back to the finish of the big loop in just over 5:30 for 121.6 miles.
I had talked with Larry Graham before the race and he said that you wanted to do as many middle loops as you could before getting put on the short course at 7:15. I started pushing hard because I wanted to make sure I completed at least 5 middle (23.7) loops. This part of the ride was rather uneventful until the 5th lap. During the laps 1 thru 4, I would ride by people but never was passed. My support crew kept me flying around the track giving me bottles and food every lap, but I was waiting for the fast group to catch me and put me 23.7 miles down. About 1/2 way around lap 5 I was flying down a downhill section at about 25 when a car passed me and started to make a right turn in front me. I screamed F!!!!!! Thankfully, they stopped and I didn't become imbedded in the side door of their car.
About 5 minutes later, a group of 5 riders including Charles Knott came by me. So, I jumped on with them and started chatting with them. They said they were the second part of the fast group with the fastest 6 riders riding in a group ahead of them. This sort of confused me because nobody had passed me. Then I found out that I had passed these guys in transition. I had worked my way up to a top ten spot by mile 240. They were also impressed that I had ridden alone and was in front of them.
Charles, one other rider and I rode away from the rest of the group to finish up our last middle loop with 240.1 miles and start riding the 5.5 loop. As I transitioned to the short loop, my night crew showed up for work. Trish had taken Allen back to the hotel and picked up Rachel and Katelyn to work the night shift. Support on the night section of the race wasn't nearly as set as the day section. When I wanted something, I would tell my crew the lap before that I would stop and what I needed.
Night riding was mostly a mind game of setting a goal of the number of laps to do and counting down while continuously riding hard. My goal when I started was to get 40 laps. So I just kept counting down and riding. I switched from Boost at the stops to Starbucks coffee and my food went from sausage to a slice of pizza, but only one - it didn't settle all that well. I also downed a bag a frito's.
I was passed once during the night by Chris Ragsdale (494.8) and Chris Gottwald (483.8) and jumped on and rode with them for 3 laps before they stop to refuel. I hadn't told my crew I was stopping so I kept riding, then on the next lap I told them I was stopping. Just as I was pulling in to stop, the Chrises caught me so I lost the fast group again.
The rest of the night was pretty uneventful. Just riding and getting a little slower. Once the sun came out a lot of the riders that had stopped to sleep came back on the course, so there were more people again. I got together with Charles Knott a little after 6:15. He was on mile 399.6, about 16.5 miles behind me. He said his goal was to set the new 55-59 record and he needed to do 5 more laps, so he and I started working hard and pushed. Charles had the record with 20 minutes to spare. We took the last lap pretty easy, (20 minutes), and we came in with 20 minutes left. I decided to go out for one more lap. I time trialed the last lap in under 16 minutes, which was probably my fastest of the day, to end up with 449.1 - 38 short laps - 2 short of what I had set for my goal about 12 hours before.
I had come to win or at least challenge for the win. A pretty lofty goal for a first time 24 hour race. That went out the door with the flat. I set my new goal and passed all but 4 of the racers
ending up as 5th overall finisher and 1st in 45-49.
The Competition was pretty good.
1st - Chris Ragsdale, (494.8), Furnace Creek 508 Winner
2nd - Chris Gottwald, (483.8), Solo RAAM Finisher 2009
3rd - Bryce Walsh (460.1) Solo RAAM 2006
4th - Dennis Delong (454.6) RAAM Qualified
After the race is pretty hazy. We waited around for awards until 9:00 - then went to pack up the trailer to head back to the hotel, but we couldn't find a key for the trailer hitch. After searching high and low, Trisha found it in her shirt pocket. We were all really tired. We finished hooking up everything and drove back to the hotel at about 11:00. I went to the front desk and said I needed a wake up call for 1:30 and she looked at me like I was crazy. I explained the reason for late check out, (it's good to be a member of their club), and crashed for a couple of hours.
At 2 o'clock we were on the road heading for Ludington and the Ferry to WI. We had a 3 hour drive up to Ludington during which I slept again. We had enough time to have a picnic with KFC at the park then drove up to the dunes north of town and walked on the beach. We got on the ferry at 8:00pm and I walked back to the state room and slept until we reached Manitowoc around 11:00pm . I then drove 1 mile to the nearest hotel and fell back asleep again :-)
Monday, June 14, 2010
Hobbs Mountain Bike Race.
I needed a change of pace from my ultra distance riding and the Hobbs MTB Race just happened to be the right thing to do at the right time for a number of reasons. It fell the weekend before National 24 Hour Challenge so I'm tapering and I won't feel guilty about only getting in 4 hours of riding this weekend instead of 16. I hadn't seen all my MTB Racing friends since last November and need the comraderie and it was also a great race for my son, Allen, to ride in because the course is sweeeet.
Since I hadn't been on my MTB since the fall, I added a couple of MTB sessions to my training schedule so I could try to get back some of the handing skills that you lose if you don't use. Allen and I put on about 40 miles of short track laps in the week leading up to the race and I was able to hit Burns Park for one lap. This would prove to be enough training for a Junior 12 and under racer, but not enough for Cat 1 40-49.
Trish, Allen and I loaded up Saturday morning and headed north to race. I just got a new Van with a built in GPS so I let it guide me up to Hobbs. This proved both to be good and bad at the same time. The route it took us on brought us up from the south through War Eagle so we got to see the old mill and bridge. Pretty cool. The problem was that when we got to Hwy 12 it had me turn east instead of west. So we added a few extra miles to the route.
Once we were up at Hobbs, I took Allen for a preride of the Junior course and we worked on some of his biking skills. Then I took off and did a warmup lap around my course. The people putting on the race had done an excellent job of trail maintenance - the course was fast. Maybe even a little too fast. After the preride we drove back into Bentonville to the hotel for a shower and then on to Phat tire to register. Phat tire is a cool little bike shop in downtown Bentonville and you should stop by if you get the chance.
Once we left the bike shop we used the GPS to take us to the Outback for my standard pre race meal. The only problem is the GPS couldn't find the Outback. The Outback in Rogers is hidden behind some hotels with an address that the GPS wouldn't even let you enter. So we went to O'Charleys instead. Good dinner, but not my normal meal. We saw the Outback sign as we were headed back to the hotel.
Race morning started out well with us back out to Hobbs at about 7:45. This gave us a decent parking spot and plenty of time to get setup for Allen's race which started out at 8:30. During the preride we had determined that Allen's brake levers were tipped too far down for him to reach them easily, so we adjusted them and we bled a little air of his tires to give him a little better traction.
Allen took off on his 2 lap race at about 8:40 and did a kick butt job finishing up about an hour later with his first MTB win. He has been doing races on and off for about 3 years and this was his first win so he was happy. The race timing worked out well because it gave me time to watch him start and finish and still get to my race on time.
Cat 1 - 40-49 went off at about 10:05 in the moring with the temp already up to 90. It was going to be a hot one. The race started out with a 500 yard sprint to the trail entrace on a gravel road. I took off down the road and led the sprint to the trail head, but Richard decided that he was in such a hurry that he cut me off going into the trail head. Good move on his part because he is so much faster on the trail. I was on the trail 2nd and being pushed really hard by the group. The trail starts out pretty twisty and windy and I was riding faster than I could corner so less than 1 minute into the trail I had my first crash as my front tire slid out from in front of me. The bike slid left and I jumped right and everyone sort of rode between me and the bike.
I get back to the bike and have to get the chain back on and get back on the trail. I've gone from 2nd back to 9th and a minute behind the lead group with my confidence already shaken. Back on the bike I go. Next we hit the quick downhill and across the bridge to the 1st climb. I can see 3 riders - Scott Dollar, Bob Ocken, and Scott Shoals, ahead me on the climb so I keep working to catch them. After making the climb, you get into a set of rollers along the west side of the course that is very fun and very fast and I rip through this section working my way back up to 6th place. I can see Eli just ahead of me so I try to catch him and get very close while we are on the top, but then we hit the downhill on the back side of the course and he disappeared again.
The downhills on the course are very sketchy in the turns. I love this course and if I lived near Rogers I'm pretty sure that I would have the lines thru them to make the downhill as fast as the rest of the course, but it was my weakest point of the race. After the downhill you cross a bridge and hit the hard climb of the race. Eli was on a single speed so I was able to catch him at the top of climb and he followed me into the fast and flowing last section of the trail and passed me back just at I was getting my hand off from Trish at the feed zone.
The 2nd lap wasn't a great lap either. I caught Eli again on the 1st climb this time, but he caught me back on the downhills on the back side. Then I crashed again on the downhills. This crash was alot harder that my first crash so I resolved that I was now riding to not crash with my 24 hour race coming up next week. The 2nd time up the big climb I got off and pushed the hard section and was working on keeping my head up and looking ahead and was getting faster on the sweeping parts of the course. I was creeping on the downhills though and the climbs were eating me alive. To give you an idea, my garmin was turning off and back on. (3mph threshold).
I worked my way around the 3rd lap with no incidents and feeling pretty good. I finished the race in 6th place and had a great workout - probably much more effort than I would have put into a century ride.
After the race we hung with the ACF crew - (Dan is actually building a good race team) and the Bell and Company Crew, (thanks for the food!), for about an hour then head back south to recover. I will probably do an easy century ride on Tuesday, then start driving up to MI for an 8:00am Saturday morning start for a little 24 hour ride.
Congrats to Allen on his first win and to the whole ACF team - I'm pretty sure we scored the team win yesterday.
What I've learned from the race. 1 - Follow your prerace feed schedule do not vary it - ask Scott Penrod about bad food choices. 2 - If you're going to do a MTB Race you need to train on a mountain bike.
Since I hadn't been on my MTB since the fall, I added a couple of MTB sessions to my training schedule so I could try to get back some of the handing skills that you lose if you don't use. Allen and I put on about 40 miles of short track laps in the week leading up to the race and I was able to hit Burns Park for one lap. This would prove to be enough training for a Junior 12 and under racer, but not enough for Cat 1 40-49.
Trish, Allen and I loaded up Saturday morning and headed north to race. I just got a new Van with a built in GPS so I let it guide me up to Hobbs. This proved both to be good and bad at the same time. The route it took us on brought us up from the south through War Eagle so we got to see the old mill and bridge. Pretty cool. The problem was that when we got to Hwy 12 it had me turn east instead of west. So we added a few extra miles to the route.
Once we were up at Hobbs, I took Allen for a preride of the Junior course and we worked on some of his biking skills. Then I took off and did a warmup lap around my course. The people putting on the race had done an excellent job of trail maintenance - the course was fast. Maybe even a little too fast. After the preride we drove back into Bentonville to the hotel for a shower and then on to Phat tire to register. Phat tire is a cool little bike shop in downtown Bentonville and you should stop by if you get the chance.
Once we left the bike shop we used the GPS to take us to the Outback for my standard pre race meal. The only problem is the GPS couldn't find the Outback. The Outback in Rogers is hidden behind some hotels with an address that the GPS wouldn't even let you enter. So we went to O'Charleys instead. Good dinner, but not my normal meal. We saw the Outback sign as we were headed back to the hotel.
Race morning started out well with us back out to Hobbs at about 7:45. This gave us a decent parking spot and plenty of time to get setup for Allen's race which started out at 8:30. During the preride we had determined that Allen's brake levers were tipped too far down for him to reach them easily, so we adjusted them and we bled a little air of his tires to give him a little better traction.
Allen took off on his 2 lap race at about 8:40 and did a kick butt job finishing up about an hour later with his first MTB win. He has been doing races on and off for about 3 years and this was his first win so he was happy. The race timing worked out well because it gave me time to watch him start and finish and still get to my race on time.
Cat 1 - 40-49 went off at about 10:05 in the moring with the temp already up to 90. It was going to be a hot one. The race started out with a 500 yard sprint to the trail entrace on a gravel road. I took off down the road and led the sprint to the trail head, but Richard decided that he was in such a hurry that he cut me off going into the trail head. Good move on his part because he is so much faster on the trail. I was on the trail 2nd and being pushed really hard by the group. The trail starts out pretty twisty and windy and I was riding faster than I could corner so less than 1 minute into the trail I had my first crash as my front tire slid out from in front of me. The bike slid left and I jumped right and everyone sort of rode between me and the bike.
I get back to the bike and have to get the chain back on and get back on the trail. I've gone from 2nd back to 9th and a minute behind the lead group with my confidence already shaken. Back on the bike I go. Next we hit the quick downhill and across the bridge to the 1st climb. I can see 3 riders - Scott Dollar, Bob Ocken, and Scott Shoals, ahead me on the climb so I keep working to catch them. After making the climb, you get into a set of rollers along the west side of the course that is very fun and very fast and I rip through this section working my way back up to 6th place. I can see Eli just ahead of me so I try to catch him and get very close while we are on the top, but then we hit the downhill on the back side of the course and he disappeared again.
The downhills on the course are very sketchy in the turns. I love this course and if I lived near Rogers I'm pretty sure that I would have the lines thru them to make the downhill as fast as the rest of the course, but it was my weakest point of the race. After the downhill you cross a bridge and hit the hard climb of the race. Eli was on a single speed so I was able to catch him at the top of climb and he followed me into the fast and flowing last section of the trail and passed me back just at I was getting my hand off from Trish at the feed zone.
The 2nd lap wasn't a great lap either. I caught Eli again on the 1st climb this time, but he caught me back on the downhills on the back side. Then I crashed again on the downhills. This crash was alot harder that my first crash so I resolved that I was now riding to not crash with my 24 hour race coming up next week. The 2nd time up the big climb I got off and pushed the hard section and was working on keeping my head up and looking ahead and was getting faster on the sweeping parts of the course. I was creeping on the downhills though and the climbs were eating me alive. To give you an idea, my garmin was turning off and back on. (3mph threshold).
I worked my way around the 3rd lap with no incidents and feeling pretty good. I finished the race in 6th place and had a great workout - probably much more effort than I would have put into a century ride.
After the race we hung with the ACF crew - (Dan is actually building a good race team) and the Bell and Company Crew, (thanks for the food!), for about an hour then head back south to recover. I will probably do an easy century ride on Tuesday, then start driving up to MI for an 8:00am Saturday morning start for a little 24 hour ride.
Congrats to Allen on his first win and to the whole ACF team - I'm pretty sure we scored the team win yesterday.
What I've learned from the race. 1 - Follow your prerace feed schedule do not vary it - ask Scott Penrod about bad food choices. 2 - If you're going to do a MTB Race you need to train on a mountain bike.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
Tour De Hoot.
I caught a blurb about the Tour De Hoot on facebook yesterday, so I decided that instead of a long day of riding by myselft I would opt for a more high-intensity workout with a group. So this morning I jumped in the van and headed for McGehee.
The drive down was rather uneventful and arrived at the start at about 7:30. I had plenty of time go get registered and get everything ready for the start. Especially since the race director was giving out road ID packages and the ride started 10 minutes late.
We left out of McGehee headed east with me pulling the group for the first 4 miles. We countinued on toward the first rest station at between 22 and 24 miles per hour and the group quickly broke down to 5 people in the lead group. We pulled into Arkansas City and the first stop at mile 12. This is where the road markings were very iffy.
Note to promoter - Don't mark the stops with arrows leaving the route - just put up signs. We weren't stopping but couldn't figure out where to go. I was entering the rest area to turn around, but the rest of the group continued down the road. So, against my better judgement, I followed them for 3 block to where we had to turn. I turned, went a block and turned back toward where I knew hwy 4 was located and took off.
I got out ahead of the group and decided that I wanted to be the rabbit so I put myself in TT mode and started to hammer north toward Dumas. After about 5 miles, I couldn't see the group of 4 anymore, so I kept pushing. I hit Dumas at mile 50 with a 22.5 MPH average. This is where things got a little more interesting.
I tried to shift and to my dismay - nothing happened. I had broken the head off the shifter cable so I was down to 2 gears (53x11 or 39x11). This was ok since on the way out I had a tail wind and rode 53x11 to the turn around at Arkansas Post at mile 65. Then I switched to 39x11 for the return trip. If I had to break a shifter cable, I was lucky it was on this ride because there was only 997 feet of climb.
The turn around for the ride was at Arkansas Post at mile 65. Up to this point I was still over 22.5 miles per hour, but it was about to start dropping on the return. The return trip was from Arkansas Post to Dumas then down to McGehee. This section was extremely tiring since it was into a 10mph head wind and could only use 1 gear so I couldn't change up the resistance while standing, sitting or aero. So I stayed areo and pushed back.
I ended the ride with 101.2 miles in 4:40:51 for a 21.6 mile average. Pretty fast day, fast enough to be able to catch a shower and drink my recovery mix and jump in the car without seeing the next finisher. The Rabbit Won :-).
On the way home I continued to push the speed and had to take a time out in Gould for doing 78 in 65. OOPS.
Kurt
The drive down was rather uneventful and arrived at the start at about 7:30. I had plenty of time go get registered and get everything ready for the start. Especially since the race director was giving out road ID packages and the ride started 10 minutes late.
We left out of McGehee headed east with me pulling the group for the first 4 miles. We countinued on toward the first rest station at between 22 and 24 miles per hour and the group quickly broke down to 5 people in the lead group. We pulled into Arkansas City and the first stop at mile 12. This is where the road markings were very iffy.
Note to promoter - Don't mark the stops with arrows leaving the route - just put up signs. We weren't stopping but couldn't figure out where to go. I was entering the rest area to turn around, but the rest of the group continued down the road. So, against my better judgement, I followed them for 3 block to where we had to turn. I turned, went a block and turned back toward where I knew hwy 4 was located and took off.
I got out ahead of the group and decided that I wanted to be the rabbit so I put myself in TT mode and started to hammer north toward Dumas. After about 5 miles, I couldn't see the group of 4 anymore, so I kept pushing. I hit Dumas at mile 50 with a 22.5 MPH average. This is where things got a little more interesting.
I tried to shift and to my dismay - nothing happened. I had broken the head off the shifter cable so I was down to 2 gears (53x11 or 39x11). This was ok since on the way out I had a tail wind and rode 53x11 to the turn around at Arkansas Post at mile 65. Then I switched to 39x11 for the return trip. If I had to break a shifter cable, I was lucky it was on this ride because there was only 997 feet of climb.
The turn around for the ride was at Arkansas Post at mile 65. Up to this point I was still over 22.5 miles per hour, but it was about to start dropping on the return. The return trip was from Arkansas Post to Dumas then down to McGehee. This section was extremely tiring since it was into a 10mph head wind and could only use 1 gear so I couldn't change up the resistance while standing, sitting or aero. So I stayed areo and pushed back.
I ended the ride with 101.2 miles in 4:40:51 for a 21.6 mile average. Pretty fast day, fast enough to be able to catch a shower and drink my recovery mix and jump in the car without seeing the next finisher. The Rabbit Won :-).
On the way home I continued to push the speed and had to take a time out in Gould for doing 78 in 65. OOPS.
Kurt
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)