Buckshot77
10-16-07, 07:42 AM
Saturday marked the last distance ride for me this year (at least that I have planned on doing). It was a memorial ride for a well known local orthopedic surgeon and bike enthusiast who was killed in Colorado during RAAM in 2005. Here (http://www.woi-tv.com/Global/category.asp?C=7587&nav=menu115_2) is a link to the video shot by a local TV station. Click on the Breedlove ride. My backside makes a brief appearance about 46 seconds in in the black and yellow jersey. In any case, on to the ride story.
The ride had multiple routes of 10, 25, 60, and 120 miles. I was planning on doing the 120 with some friends on their tandem. I was a bit worried about the cold as we were supposed to start at 7 AM with temps forecast in the mid 40's and a light breeze from the ESE. I woke up early to finish getting ready and eat my usual biking breakfast of an english muffin with peanut butter. I jumped on the computer to check out the current weather conditions and was not impressed. The temperature was better than forecast at 54 degrees, however a nice band of showers covered almost half the state and was moving right over the bike route. Heh, no backing out now considering I was picking up my friends so we could just take one vehicle to the start. I pulled on my arm and leg warmers, bibs, sleeveless base layer, and a short sleeve jersey. I also grabbed a light windbreaker figuring I'd need something else up top.
I loaded the bike and went to pick up my friends with their tandem. Just a brief note about this bike. It's a full on carbon custom frame with S&S couplers custom painted like a Holstein cow! I know they spent well in excess of $10K for this bike and it's a sweet ride. In any case, we were on he road and at the shop by 6:30 to unload and get ready for the start. By this time the light rain had moved in and I was a bit nervous about getting completely soaked. I rode a few times in the rain this summer, but it was always 70 or warmer and I didn't mind it so much. I wasn't looking forward to this in the least. I made a strategic decision to buy a new piece of gear for the ride. With the credit card smoking and screaming in protest I emerged from the bike shop a few minutes later sporting PI's top of the line wind and waterproof jacket with built in rear pocket, etc, etc. For $130 I was hoping it at least came with some lube, but ahh well, such is life. As it turns out, it was probably made the difference between making the ride and sagging back in.
Fast forward to the start. We finally start riding around 7:30 and it's at least getting a bit light out now. I'm a bit relieved as I've only mounted a very small headlight that mostly serves as a beacon and not really to light the road. We roll off with a nice police escort blocking the first two major intersections. I keep pace with the front group running a steady 18-20 mph pace. The rain is coming down pretty well now and spitting in my face until I split between two riders rather than straight on drafting them. My legs pretty much get soaked right away, but thanks to my shoe covers my feet are dry and warm to start with. The rain jacket is working perfectly so far!
We move on out of town and start the rolling hills section that I'm pretty familiar with. I rode this route 10+ times on weekend rides this summer. Have I mentioned that I HATE descending in the rain? I ease along with the pack dropping to the back on the downhills until the very bottom where I let myself gain a little speed to catch back up. My ass was so puckered I swear I was tearing chunks out of the seat! I don't think I cleared 30 on any of the downhills. The first 20-30 miles consists mostly of big rollers with a few nice flats in between so we rip through them with a light tailwind. I have rolled back to the second group and am pacing along with them as the front group was off like a shot including the downhills. As we get to the first rest stop only 20 or so miles into the route, this group decides to pull off for a breather and rain relief. My tandem friends are riding with the first group so no rest for me as I need to make up some time.
I kick up the pace a bit out towards the main rest stop at the 35 mile mark. This is where the diehards are going to separate from the rest as you can continue on the 120 route or bail to do the 60 route. At this point I had mentally comitted to the 120 so I was working to catch my friends so we can stop and take off together. I finally saw another rider up ahead after about a half hour on my own and worked on slowly reeling them in. As it turned out, it was my friends having dropped from the front pack to conserve some energy for the long route. We rolled into the 35 mile stop with a nice average of 18.5 even after we had those big ass rollers that usually kick my butt. Thank you tailwind!
From there we headed on to the lunch stop at the halfway(ish) point. The course flattened out and I was feeling really good. Both my friends and I were surprised at how strong I was riding considering we had 80 miles left to go. I was just doing what felt good and was slowly putting them behind me on a regular basis. Luckily the turns were just enough that we could regroup on a regular basis without me having to stop and wait for them. We rolled into a small town about 10 miles before the lunch stop and decided it was time for a potty break. The little country store was nice and warm and definitely a treat in comparison to what we'd been riding in all morning. The rain had let up around mile 20 and had mostly became a heavy dew with overcast skies. As we prepared to depart the country store, the clerk warned us of several "big" hills between us and the lunch stop.
We rode on to the lunch stop, but never managed to find any big hills! Apparently small rollers are pretty big to them. We hit the lunch stop as 4 riders were on their way out the door. As we'd later figure out, only 9 of us were crazy enough to do the big loop. We sat in the gym where lunch was being served up and rested for about 20 minutes. We soon figured out though it was colder in the gym than outside! With 65 miles all ready in, we decided it was time to get back on the bikes and suffer back to the start. At least now the route back was all bike trail. This was a good thing as we had been using the tailwind most of the way up, but now were heading straight back into it. The bike trail gave us some good cover from most of the wind.
The trail started out pretty rough and soon I was off the front again. I finally stopped to wait for my friends and though we'd started out with 2 other people after lunch, it was now just them. We road on through some damn rough sections of trail and through several small towns. We finally came to a detour where we had to get off the bikes and portage around through a soupy gravel mess! There was so much gravel accumulated in our cleats, it plagued us with problems the rest of the ride. The next section of the trail was freshly paved and absolutely smooth. We picked up the pace again and even after it switched back to blacktop, we cruised some sections at 25+.
We made one more quick stop around mile 90 for a water refill and hit the trail again. From there on we hit some long slow grades (2-3%) and came out of the trail covering into the headwinds. I had drafted a good amount of time on the way back and even though I'd offered up leading the line several times, they hadn't taken advantage of it. Now I offered again and they fell back into my draft while we cranked it out averaging only about 16-17. Finally we hit civilation again and made another breif stop around mile 110 even though I was starting to hit a second wind.
As luck would have it, the ride distance was advertised a little long and we actually came in with about 113 miles showing on the computer. Surprisingly, we were only 15 or so minutes behind the first group of 4 riders that we'd seen leaving at lunch time. Overall it was a great ride and other than some slight knee pain, I felt really strong even at the end of the ride. The temps never made it above 59 and we had pretty damp air and overcast skies when it wasn't raining. Luckily we only had about an hour of actual rain even though I spent the rest of the day wet from the waist down. My new jacket kicked all kinds off ass and I never got wet or exceedingly cold up top though you could have probably filled a quart bottle by wrining the sweat from my jersey and base layer even though I had two of the wind vents open in the jacket.
Overall ride stats were 113.3 miles, 17.7 MPH average (on the bike), 7.5 hours total ride time, and roughly 3000' of climbing with most of it in the first 40 miles. For the year (I only started riding in May), I cleared 3000 miles with this ride which more than doubled my original goal.
Sorry for the long ass ride report, hope you enjoyed it,
Rick
The ride had multiple routes of 10, 25, 60, and 120 miles. I was planning on doing the 120 with some friends on their tandem. I was a bit worried about the cold as we were supposed to start at 7 AM with temps forecast in the mid 40's and a light breeze from the ESE. I woke up early to finish getting ready and eat my usual biking breakfast of an english muffin with peanut butter. I jumped on the computer to check out the current weather conditions and was not impressed. The temperature was better than forecast at 54 degrees, however a nice band of showers covered almost half the state and was moving right over the bike route. Heh, no backing out now considering I was picking up my friends so we could just take one vehicle to the start. I pulled on my arm and leg warmers, bibs, sleeveless base layer, and a short sleeve jersey. I also grabbed a light windbreaker figuring I'd need something else up top.
I loaded the bike and went to pick up my friends with their tandem. Just a brief note about this bike. It's a full on carbon custom frame with S&S couplers custom painted like a Holstein cow! I know they spent well in excess of $10K for this bike and it's a sweet ride. In any case, we were on he road and at the shop by 6:30 to unload and get ready for the start. By this time the light rain had moved in and I was a bit nervous about getting completely soaked. I rode a few times in the rain this summer, but it was always 70 or warmer and I didn't mind it so much. I wasn't looking forward to this in the least. I made a strategic decision to buy a new piece of gear for the ride. With the credit card smoking and screaming in protest I emerged from the bike shop a few minutes later sporting PI's top of the line wind and waterproof jacket with built in rear pocket, etc, etc. For $130 I was hoping it at least came with some lube, but ahh well, such is life. As it turns out, it was probably made the difference between making the ride and sagging back in.
Fast forward to the start. We finally start riding around 7:30 and it's at least getting a bit light out now. I'm a bit relieved as I've only mounted a very small headlight that mostly serves as a beacon and not really to light the road. We roll off with a nice police escort blocking the first two major intersections. I keep pace with the front group running a steady 18-20 mph pace. The rain is coming down pretty well now and spitting in my face until I split between two riders rather than straight on drafting them. My legs pretty much get soaked right away, but thanks to my shoe covers my feet are dry and warm to start with. The rain jacket is working perfectly so far!
We move on out of town and start the rolling hills section that I'm pretty familiar with. I rode this route 10+ times on weekend rides this summer. Have I mentioned that I HATE descending in the rain? I ease along with the pack dropping to the back on the downhills until the very bottom where I let myself gain a little speed to catch back up. My ass was so puckered I swear I was tearing chunks out of the seat! I don't think I cleared 30 on any of the downhills. The first 20-30 miles consists mostly of big rollers with a few nice flats in between so we rip through them with a light tailwind. I have rolled back to the second group and am pacing along with them as the front group was off like a shot including the downhills. As we get to the first rest stop only 20 or so miles into the route, this group decides to pull off for a breather and rain relief. My tandem friends are riding with the first group so no rest for me as I need to make up some time.
I kick up the pace a bit out towards the main rest stop at the 35 mile mark. This is where the diehards are going to separate from the rest as you can continue on the 120 route or bail to do the 60 route. At this point I had mentally comitted to the 120 so I was working to catch my friends so we can stop and take off together. I finally saw another rider up ahead after about a half hour on my own and worked on slowly reeling them in. As it turned out, it was my friends having dropped from the front pack to conserve some energy for the long route. We rolled into the 35 mile stop with a nice average of 18.5 even after we had those big ass rollers that usually kick my butt. Thank you tailwind!
From there we headed on to the lunch stop at the halfway(ish) point. The course flattened out and I was feeling really good. Both my friends and I were surprised at how strong I was riding considering we had 80 miles left to go. I was just doing what felt good and was slowly putting them behind me on a regular basis. Luckily the turns were just enough that we could regroup on a regular basis without me having to stop and wait for them. We rolled into a small town about 10 miles before the lunch stop and decided it was time for a potty break. The little country store was nice and warm and definitely a treat in comparison to what we'd been riding in all morning. The rain had let up around mile 20 and had mostly became a heavy dew with overcast skies. As we prepared to depart the country store, the clerk warned us of several "big" hills between us and the lunch stop.
We rode on to the lunch stop, but never managed to find any big hills! Apparently small rollers are pretty big to them. We hit the lunch stop as 4 riders were on their way out the door. As we'd later figure out, only 9 of us were crazy enough to do the big loop. We sat in the gym where lunch was being served up and rested for about 20 minutes. We soon figured out though it was colder in the gym than outside! With 65 miles all ready in, we decided it was time to get back on the bikes and suffer back to the start. At least now the route back was all bike trail. This was a good thing as we had been using the tailwind most of the way up, but now were heading straight back into it. The bike trail gave us some good cover from most of the wind.
The trail started out pretty rough and soon I was off the front again. I finally stopped to wait for my friends and though we'd started out with 2 other people after lunch, it was now just them. We road on through some damn rough sections of trail and through several small towns. We finally came to a detour where we had to get off the bikes and portage around through a soupy gravel mess! There was so much gravel accumulated in our cleats, it plagued us with problems the rest of the ride. The next section of the trail was freshly paved and absolutely smooth. We picked up the pace again and even after it switched back to blacktop, we cruised some sections at 25+.
We made one more quick stop around mile 90 for a water refill and hit the trail again. From there on we hit some long slow grades (2-3%) and came out of the trail covering into the headwinds. I had drafted a good amount of time on the way back and even though I'd offered up leading the line several times, they hadn't taken advantage of it. Now I offered again and they fell back into my draft while we cranked it out averaging only about 16-17. Finally we hit civilation again and made another breif stop around mile 110 even though I was starting to hit a second wind.
As luck would have it, the ride distance was advertised a little long and we actually came in with about 113 miles showing on the computer. Surprisingly, we were only 15 or so minutes behind the first group of 4 riders that we'd seen leaving at lunch time. Overall it was a great ride and other than some slight knee pain, I felt really strong even at the end of the ride. The temps never made it above 59 and we had pretty damp air and overcast skies when it wasn't raining. Luckily we only had about an hour of actual rain even though I spent the rest of the day wet from the waist down. My new jacket kicked all kinds off ass and I never got wet or exceedingly cold up top though you could have probably filled a quart bottle by wrining the sweat from my jersey and base layer even though I had two of the wind vents open in the jacket.
Overall ride stats were 113.3 miles, 17.7 MPH average (on the bike), 7.5 hours total ride time, and roughly 3000' of climbing with most of it in the first 40 miles. For the year (I only started riding in May), I cleared 3000 miles with this ride which more than doubled my original goal.
Sorry for the long ass ride report, hope you enjoyed it,
Rick