Road Cycling - Encouragement? (or dissuasion)

The story goes like this:

I've been mountain biking for a long time. Every year for the past decade or so, a best buddy and I take a weeklong trip to go ride trails somewhere interesting together. Often we end up somewhere in Utah. It's a rare chance to get together as we live far apart.

This year, we decided to try a different venue. He convinced me that a difficult benefit race called 'Cycle to the Sun' in Maui would be just the thing. (http://www.cycletothesun.net/) We could follow the race with a few days of road riding around Maui. Having never ridden a race, or really much road riding at all, it took some convincing. But I bought in to the idea as an interesting challenge, and as a good chapter in our yearly riding experiences. Not to try to win, no - Just to try to finish. And no matter how fast the more experienced riders were going, we’d both have company up the hill.

I started working out, and got a physical trainer to help. Lost some weight and built up my strength. I wasn’t really starting from scratch – I ride 4 to 6 hours of trails a week. But the race is 10000 feet of climbing, with much of it at relatively high altitudes. My friend is one of those little wiry energetic guys, and he rarely seems to ever tire out. Once I signed up to ride with him, I wanted to be able to keep with him to the summit.

I decided not to equip my light XC mountain bike with road wheels, and bought my first road bike. I started to arrange travel, and set up plans for myself, and my wife this time (seemed appropriate, since it is Hawaii and all). I even got some relatives to take care of the kids.

Yesterday my friend suffered an injury that will keep him from riding in the race. He lives in Hawaii, so if I travel out there we can still meet.

The quandary is: Follow through and attempt the ride solo (encouragement), or not (dissuasion)?

I don’t know the race etiquette, or even have any practice riding in a pack. I understand that it’s not a formal race, but will a strong but inexperienced newbie irritate the other riders, or is it all good fun?

This is my THIRD try at responding, having lost the two earlier attempts. Here are my thoughts.

Looking at the website and FAQs this is more a charity ride than a race. Some racers will go off the front and race to the summit, but most people will be just trying to complete the ride. On that basis I would say go for it.

HOWEVER

1. Do NOT underestimate the effect of altitude on the non-acclimatized. At 7000-8000 feet even fit athletes from lower elevations can get winded going up a few steps. It takes a few days for your body to adjust.

2. 36 miles is not that far, but when it is all uphill AND at elevation it becomes a marathon. This ride could well take you as much as 5 hours in the saddle. Are you prepared for that? A recent ride of 19 miles (normally about a one hour ride) from Aspen, 7902 feet, to Independence Pass, 12,095 feet, took me 3 hours of relentless climbing with only two very brief stops.

3. Be realistic about gearing. I would not even attempt this ride without a triple and at least at 25 or even 28 in back. I'm just an old fat sea-level flatland commuter, but I ride 100-150 miles per week.

4. I had personal experience with all of this just a couple of weeks ago. See my report at

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?threadid=31370

I am not trying to dissuade you, just offering a reality check. Even if you choose one of the lower altitude alternatives it will still be a great ride.

Go;

1. You get to visit your friend.
2. You have the plan.
3. You have the practice.
4. You will have the experience.

36 miles in the granny gear? I would try it. If you fail the worse that can happen is you coast back to the start. I would even try it on a MB too. Make your friend come with you, or perhaps he could volunteer for the event so you can at least have him around to motivate you.

Thanks for the encouragement, and the very good observations.

You’ve helped push me over my hesitancy: I’m going.

And I enjoyed your high altitude ride report, RainmanP. Congratulations on making it!

I was concerned as well with the altitude of the race – the steepest part is near the top. So I did a little research on high altitude exertion, to see if there was anything simple to do to prepare. It didn’t seem like there were any realistic ways to prepare for the ride, although I did get several suggestions for various supplements and ‘herbs’ that were touted so highly as to be unbelievable. I stopped believing, and promptly forgot the details.

What I read didn't seem to quite match what I've experienced. It seems to take me 4 or 5 days to acclimatize to around 5000ft when I normally reside at just about sea level. From my random sampling of research and articles on the web it looks like the researchers feel it takes more like a couple of weeks to build up a higher red blood count.
What seems to be pretty clear is that the better you perform at sea level, the better you perform at altitude.

I guess some athletes have had good results with daily exercise at low altitude, but with living (rest, sleep, etc) at high altitude. There aren't too many places where that sort of a regimen is convenient. I suppose the idea is that there's more oxygen at lower altitude so your body doesn't have additional stress beyond the exercise just to get enough oxygen. Then the rest at high altitude builds an additional ability to take in the oxygen - so you get the best of both conditions.