True epic day of suffering.. Our day started out great, after camping out at the MPEC in our trailer. Since we ride tandem, we are the lucky ones who start at the front !! The start was great with a BEAUTIFUL quad tandem leading out. We were flying at 19+ for some time when we developed our first problem of dropping our chain in High gear !! We had to slow down and "limp" into the 2nd rest stop for some mechanical assistance. Come to find out it was a bent chain !! that was throwing it off.
after that we were flying again !! Everything was going great and we were making up time. I think the "enorphan thing" kicked in between the 40 and 50 mile stops.. We had the stereo going,, and We were killing it !!!! I was pulling 4 other guys,, that at one point had to sprint up along us to take the lead saying,, "I feel Bad we keep sucking your wheel " I LOVE those moments !!!
Our moving average was good but the total time it took at the rest stops really was adding up !! Every rest stop was MOBBED on the 100 mile route. It took more than twice the time to just get food and drink !! but hey thats ok,,, we were still enjoying ourselves and made it to hells gate at 11:15 am.. We stopped to take a picture of the pyro pete guy really cool... and slipped thru hells gate.. into the depths of hell itself !!!!@ It was later in the day that we learned we were one of the last to make it thru hells gate before they closed it at 11:30 YIKES,,
This is where the riding started to get really dangerous.. The THREE rest stops after hells gate did not have ANY ICE,,, Not usually a big deal but today it was horrible,, when they store the water in those portable trailers, it had to be at least 100 degrees !!!! We ( and alot of other riders) were having serious problems bringing our tempurature down..
it did not work to pour the water over your head,, or drink it because it was soo hot like bath water!!! At about the 83 mile mark we were starting to stop every 3 miles or so to TRY to cool off under any kind of shade that we could find. We were just about to succomb to the heat and sag,, ( OUR MOTO IS DEATH BEFORE SAG !!) when a local " Bubba" guy and his wife stopped to see if we were ok.. we asked if he had any ice ,, AND HE DID !!!! after filling our packs and all of our bottles we were finally able to cool down some and continue.. The ice truck finally made it to the unofficial rest stop put on by the Jolly fire department at the top of that nasty little climb outside of Dean,, At that point we knew we would be able to make it in... Oh yea ,,, we had 2 flats also !!! I know that they had almost a record number of people,, but little was done to expand the service for the riders in relation to how many were participating..... We read the local paper on Sunday and were really amazed ( and thankfull) that no one died on the route... I know that they closed hells gate because of the heat index.. In my opinion they should also have red flagged the entire ride at the point when they were serving HOT water to the riders...
Thank god we did not get caught up in the "diverted" riders !!!!
our start time was 7:04am
finish time 3:30 pm
OUCH!!
riding time of: 6 hours and 7 min.
finally reaching the beer in my cooler at the trailer,,,,,,,,,,,,,,PRICELESS
((I copied this from the "surviving hhh thread"))
ps... I did not see but only ONE other tandem on the hundred mile route,, We were were running a little behind,, but did not see but only one, !!
Greg,,,