Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.BigSean
06-04-07, 08:35 AM
Wow what a day. First Id like to say that Western Wheelers did a great job. The route was marked well, they had people out at intersections to point folks in the right direstion, and the rest stops had something for everybody. Thanks to the Western Wheelers I was able to set to personal bests. First this was my longest ride to date at 111 miles. Second was the climbing at over 10,000ft according to my Garmin 305.
So I met up with Alan(SesameCrunch), and his 2 friends Jens and Paul. Jens is a punisher. He likes to go fast, and he was killing me with a brutal pace. Paul is a Death Ride finisher, and is very good at pacing. Alan and I are very equal type riders, just trying to finish. At the start I did my normal fast start to try and warm up, but the route had a big climb at mile 5 so warm or not the punishment was about to begin. The first climb was a tough one, and made me wonder if this was a good ride choice. Anyway, I made it to the top with Alan and Paul where we met up with Jens and decended Alpine Rd. Then another short 3 mile climb and another decent. This is where things starting picking up. It was pretty much a hammer fest the next 20 miles to the rest stop along hwy 1. At this time a 20mph was implemented. Im not sure why, but it seemed like the only time we were doing 20mph was going uphill. Somewhere around mile 55 I realized that there was no way I could keep up this pace so I slowed a bit. My body was already aching at this point, my legs were feeling tired, and I knew I was gonna soon have to go into survival mode.
After the lunch stop this ride turns brutal. Its also the last time Alan and I saw Paul and Jens until the finish as they were long gone. So at 65 miles in we begin our ascent up the mountian. A rather cruel ascent I might add. 3500ft with many short stretches reaching 20%. At this point Alan was begining to struggle with cramps. We climbed slowly, like we could do anything but that. A couple hours later we were at the top. 97 miles now and most of the climbing was over. I think we both realized at this point that we were gonna finish this ride, because we were suddenly back up in the 20+ mph range and cruised to the finish.
What a day. Im not one to toot my own horn, but Im very proud to have completed this ride. Alan, thanks for the company and conversation.
Here is a link to my MB profile.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2920644
So I met up with Alan(SesameCrunch), and his 2 friends Jens and Paul. Jens is a punisher. He likes to go fast, and he was killing me with a brutal pace. Paul is a Death Ride finisher, and is very good at pacing. Alan and I are very equal type riders, just trying to finish. At the start I did my normal fast start to try and warm up, but the route had a big climb at mile 5 so warm or not the punishment was about to begin. The first climb was a tough one, and made me wonder if this was a good ride choice. Anyway, I made it to the top with Alan and Paul where we met up with Jens and decended Alpine Rd. Then another short 3 mile climb and another decent. This is where things starting picking up. It was pretty much a hammer fest the next 20 miles to the rest stop along hwy 1. At this time a 20mph was implemented. Im not sure why, but it seemed like the only time we were doing 20mph was going uphill. Somewhere around mile 55 I realized that there was no way I could keep up this pace so I slowed a bit. My body was already aching at this point, my legs were feeling tired, and I knew I was gonna soon have to go into survival mode.
After the lunch stop this ride turns brutal. Its also the last time Alan and I saw Paul and Jens until the finish as they were long gone. So at 65 miles in we begin our ascent up the mountian. A rather cruel ascent I might add. 3500ft with many short stretches reaching 20%. At this point Alan was begining to struggle with cramps. We climbed slowly, like we could do anything but that. A couple hours later we were at the top. 97 miles now and most of the climbing was over. I think we both realized at this point that we were gonna finish this ride, because we were suddenly back up in the 20+ mph range and cruised to the finish.
What a day. Im not one to toot my own horn, but Im very proud to have completed this ride. Alan, thanks for the company and conversation.
Here is a link to my MB profile.
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2920644