I hope the surgery goes well and you recover quickly.

I just might make the Cookie afterall...I'm feeling much better today, and after Tuesday I'll have the bone pinned with Ti, so who knows. I'll give it the college try... ;)

Hump Day Report From Salem

The Bad News: Thunder storms, and Monster wind in Salem. Woke up to branches down in the backyard this morning, and my trees all dancing.

The Good News: The 5 day forecast shows Sunday as the only day with out rain, and a little happy sunny face peeking through.

After doing the Livestrong last year in that 5 hour monsoon, I'm going to be a last minute registration for this first real ride of the season for me. :)

Paul

Hump Day Report From Salem

The Bad News: Thunder storms, and Monster wind in Salem. Woke up to branches down in the backyard this morning, and my trees all dancing.

The Good News: The 5 day forecast shows Sunday as the only day with out rain, and a little happy sunny face peeking through.

After doing the Livestrong last year in that 5 hour monsoon, I'm going to be a last minute registration for this first real ride of the season for me. :)

Paul


But, but , but...wasn't tonight gorgeous finally:D

We had the same kind of weather up here in NE Vancouver Paul and my hopes are that tonight was a good fortelling of the weekend (mainly dry :o).

Thanks for the local weather report:)

But, but , but...wasn't tonight gorgeous finally:D

We had the same kind of weather up here in NE Vancouver Paul and my hopes are that tonight was a good fortelling of the weekend (mainly dry :o).

Thanks for the local weather report:)

Well, it wasn't quite gorgeous, BUT it didn't rain. Still fairly windy, and chilly, but I cranked out a quick 24 miles in it to try to prepare at least a little. I do however think that Sunday IS going to be the nicest day of the next few coming forward!

Paul

Ok, NOW it's finally beautiful. Still a bit chilly, I don't think we'll get much higher than about 60 tomorrow at the warmest, but here's a shot from last night's little 10 mile loop with the Mrs.

http://homepage.mac.com/pez72/friday.jpg

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Paul

Well, I'm out for the cookie. I had a great ride up here today, 57 miles around Battleground, Yacolt, Amboy, along the Lewis river and back down through Ridgefield. I think there was around 3,000' of climbing and it was GREAT! I had a great time and GREAT company. This was my practice ride to see if I could hang with the RACC 65er and I 'think' I can:o. We even got cookies to make up for my loss tomorrow:p.

Have fun everyone riding tomorrow:D

Bah, you can't back out......what's another 62 miles? It's going to be a great ride !

Bah, you can't back out......what's another 62 miles? It's going to be a great ride !

:p My kneesare telling me otherwise!! It looks like the rain held off huh?

Yep, it was a wonderful day for riding. Lots of great folk, tasty food, and NO RAIN !!!

It looks like the rain held off huh?

Well, since you asked..... :)

Yes, it was a perfect day for a ride. Got there at just a little before 8 for Day Of Ride registration, and the line was already pretty long. But it was beautiful out and no one seemed to mind waiting just a bit. I heard they had received nearly 1000 pre-ride registrations, and I'm sure there were a few hundred more waiting in line before and after us since it was the first nice day in forever.

http://homepage.mac.com/pez72/mc1.jpg

Early on, we saw a gentleman down, and wondered if it might have been from the clogged traffic as the cones forced the group into a path over the train tracks. He had several people helping him, and was talking to someone on a cell phone, so we assumed he was doing ok. A couple of times it bunched up like that, but didn't seem too bad overall. The rest stops were all great, plenty of cookies, fruit, drinks, coffee, bagels, and other assorted snacks. Here's a view of the lunch stop.

http://homepage.mac.com/pez72/mc2.jpg

The most impressive thing for me was that my buddy decided to go last minute with me. He doesn't own a road bike and has never even been on one before. He rides some mountain bike, and used to do some adventure racing, but said "I'd go if you had a bike for me." The only other bike I had that would fit him, was my Redline 925 -- a single speed. He hopped on it last night around 11 pm, took it up the street and back, and said, "Ok, I'm in." Ha! And so he rode today, with ONE gear, 62 miles, never having been on a road bike before. Here's a shot of him rolling along with one gear.

http://homepage.mac.com/pez72/mc4.jpg

I'm sure they were out there, but we kept looking and didn't see any other single speeds, or fixies, until we bumped into Michael Wolfe from South Salem Cycleworks on his fixie. He had threatened earlier in the week to do it, and turns out he did. Here's him and my buddy Nate cruising at the same stretch, just one gear each - Michael in black, Nate in blue.

http://homepage.mac.com/pez72/mc3.jpg

I felt bad on hills -- Nate had no option but to crank hard to get up the hill. I tried to shift as quietly as I could...with a tinge of guilt for having the ability to just spin it up. Fortunately there weren't too many on this ride, but even just the few smaller ones are plenty tricky on the single speed. (Especially for a guy on his first road ride.)

http://homepage.mac.com/pez72/mc5.jpg

We made it back to the capitol 5 hrs and 22 minutes after taking off - 4 hours and 1 minute of rolling time, and the rest was rest stops, and a stop when we saw my family on the roadside cheering us on near the end. A few folks catching some much needed rest at the end.

http://homepage.mac.com/pez72/mc6.jpg

We bumped into Michael again at the end, so we all put on some cheese for the camera before heading home.

http://homepage.mac.com/pez72/mc7.jpg

And of course, the reason for the name of the event:

http://homepage.mac.com/pez72/mc8.jpg

All in all a good day, and a great ride!

Paul

Great pictures and report Paul. It looks like a fun day. One of these days I'll finally make it down to Salem for that ride it looks like fun.

Great pictures and report Paul. It looks like a fun day. One of these days I'll finally make it down to Salem for that ride it looks like fun.
Did I say fun to much;)I was focused on the big cookie in the picture and lost my ability to articulate:p

It was a friend of mine that went down at the railroad tracks. I was probely 10 minutes behind as I started with another group of friends slightly later that morning. Apparently he was following the wheel of someone who completely who balked at the railroad crossing, slamming on his brakes without warning causing the guy right behind him to come crashing down.

It was a friend of mine that went down at the railroad tracks. I was probely 10 minutes behind as I started with another group of friends slightly later that morning. Apparently he was following the wheel of someone who completely who balked at the railroad crossing, slamming on his brakes without warning causing the guy right behind him to come crashing down.

Man, did he end up ok? We were wondering about him last night. I thought we also heard about another accident, maybe with a car or something involved later in the ride.

Paul

Well, I'm out for the cookie. I had a great ride up here today, 57 miles around Battleground, Yacolt, Amboy, along the Lewis river and back down through Ridgefield. I think there was around 3,000' of climbing and it was GREAT! I had a great time and GREAT company. This was my practice ride to see if I could hang with the RACC 65er and I 'think' I can:o. We even got cookies to make up for my loss tomorrow:p.

Have fun everyone riding tomorrow:D

Not trying to hijack the thread or anything, but I was on that VBC ride too.... When I heard you say your name, I thought about coming over and saying 'Hi', but I figured that might be kinda creepy...... It was a beautiful ride and I even ended up with a sunburn... ("tiger stripes" across my bald head from the vents...) You'll be able to do the 65 miler no problem. I was one of the two guys from North River.

Dean

Monster Cookie was a great ride. First metric century for my wife and I, and we loved it. If any of the event organizers are reading this, Great Job!

Hey Dean!
You should have said Hi, I wouldn't have thought that creepy at all. I had a funny connection when I heard someone say Deanaldo or something to you and in my head I wondered if you were the Deanaldo who posts all the routes on routeslip.com :D I was going to ask you that when we were signing in I think, but I was too nervous about the ride at that point to formulate a concise sentence like that.

You guys are FAST!!!

Sorry I missed the ride. Next year for sure...anyone else have plans for the Reach the Beach? Hopefully I'll be good to go by then. Still sore but at least I'm back to work. :(

Hey Dean!
You should have said Hi, I wouldn't have thought that creepy at all. I had a funny connection when I heard someone say Deanaldo or something to you and in my head I wondered if you were the Deanaldo who posts all the routes on routeslip.com :D I was going to ask you that when we were signing in I think, but I was too nervous about the ride at that point to formulate a concise sentence like that.

You guys are FAST!!!

I'll definely say "Hi" next time. I had originally planned on taking it easy and riding with Charlotte, but then Jon took off, and well, I couldn't just let him go...... ;) The route we did is more difficult than the RACC 65 miler, so you'll have no problems with that at all. Those are my route slip routes as well although I haven't put any new ones out there in a while. I put a lot of those out there last year when I was training my wife for the one day STP.

Dean

Dean,
Are you also Charlotte's "co-worker"? How funny if this is the case. C is the best motivator. I hear her voice (and my friend Brandy's) in my head every time I start a climb. I'm still so new, but I enjoy all the fun and often silly company. Thanks for the encouraging words, I may have to go after the century option. I felt strong (for me) on the ride on Saturday.

Are you, your wife and your co-workers doing STP again this year? I enjoyed riding with Kim and Charlotte. They keep a good pace :). If only I could get some child care I could get my dh out there with us :)...someday.

Alright we've derailed this thread enough huh? HIJACK was in full force today...oops.

Sorry I missed the ride. Next year for sure...anyone else have plans for the Reach the Beach? Hopefully I'll be good to go by then. Still sore but at least I'm back to work. :(

Reach the Beach is not going to be on my list this year. I look forward to hearing the reports and pictorials though:D You are so ambitious! I'm glad to hear you are back on the mend.

Having the ride end at the Pelican pub helps...:D

Dean,
Are you also Charlotte's "co-worker"? How funny if this is the case. C is the best motivator. I hear her voice (and my friend Brandy's) in my head every time I start a climb. I'm still so new, but I enjoy all the fun and often silly company. Thanks for the encouraging words, I may have to go after the century option. I felt strong (for me) on the ride on Saturday.

Are you, your wife and your co-workers doing STP again this year? I enjoyed riding with Kim and Charlotte. They keep a good pace :). If only I could get some child care I could get my dh out there with us :)...someday.

Alright we've derailed this thread enough huh? HIJACK was in full force today...oops.


Yep, I sit right across the aisle from her and we waste untold amounts of time talking about biking..... My wife and I aren't doing STP this year. I've done it the last 3 years and I'm kind of tired of it. I told my wife if she wants to do it again, I'd come out of retirement, so who knows...... :) Although, if I were to do it again, I'd probably opt for the 2 day and party with everyone at one of the big camping areas....

As for RACC, now they're starting to say the weather might be good, if that's the case, go for the full century. Just take your time and spin up the hills. You rode quite a bit of the elevation already, we just swapped out a few of the harder hills with different hills on Saturday. Just make sure to save some energy for Felida and Bernie. Neither one of those are particularly long, they just come when most everyone is shot.... ;)

It's great having an SO that's able to ride with you. My wife is primarily a runner, so now that she's done STP, she's gone back to mostly running and I miss doing the VBC rides with her. I'll have to start running with her pretty soon though as we're on a Hood to Coast team again this year. Nothing like 30 hours in a van with 5 other people.... :D

Dean

As far as I know, he's pretty good. Just a couple scrapes I believe.

Having the ride end at the Pelican pub helps...:D

The Pelican Pub rocks ;). Maybe the ride should be called "Reach the Beer"...

Speaking of beer, Kasia & I attended a "brewer's dinner" at the Pelican this past Saturday. On our way to Pacific City, we drove the 2008 Reach the Beach century route starting in Beaverton. According to our GPS, it's about 96 miles, with about 3200 feet elevation gain. About 2000 feet of that gain is in the first 20 miles. It's a beautiful route! Farms, orchards, rolling hills, forests, etc.

I can't wait! :D

Yup, a great ride and not all that bad in regards to elevation considering you go over the coastal mountain range. You just cannot beat the ending if the weather is good. Hopefully I'll get the go-ahead from the Doc to do it...I'm going nuts not being able to do much of anything.

Check out the titanium Dura Ace upgrade:

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/1210/tmpfbe1webgs4.jpg

Ouch! This reminds me of something I read in a cycling magazine a year or two ago (from memory):

The good news: I have new titanium cycling gadgets.
The bad news: they're bolted to my collar bone.

Take care, and recover quickly!

I was wrong on my assessment of my friend who went down. More than just scrapes and bruises....add a broken collar bone to the mix. He's good I hear though and back to work.

Well, since you asked..... :)

Yes, it was a perfect day for a ride. Got there at just a little before 8 for Day Of Ride registration, and the line was already pretty long. But it was beautiful out and no one seemed to mind waiting just a bit. I heard they had received nearly 1000 pre-ride registrations, and I'm sure there were a few hundred more waiting in line before and after us since it was the first nice day in forever.


Paul

The weather was perfect, IMO. You did a great job of documenting the fun, effort, and excitement of the day. My favorite is the last one :)

I had my camera with me, but I was so tired (this is the longest ride I've ever done) that I only managed a couple of shots at the rest stops.

Great job, Paul.

adrienne

Yup, a great ride and not all that bad in regards to elevation considering you go over the coastal mountain range. You just cannot beat the ending if the weather is good. Hopefully I'll get the go-ahead from the Doc to do it...I'm going nuts not being able to do much of anything.

Check out the titanium Dura Ace upgrade:



Congrats on the "upgrade," Ben -- but OUCH! I hope you're back on your wheels soon.

adrienne

I was wrong on my assessment of my friend who went down. More than just scrapes and bruises....add a broken collar bone to the mix. He's good I hear though and back to work.

So sorry to hear about your friend, but glad that he's doing well.

adrienne