by John Pugliese

The greatest aspect of joining a cycling club such as Almaden Cycle Touring Club (ACTC) is the diversity and ranges of bicycle riders, routes and activities. ACTC offers several rides every day that cater to a range of cyclists from those going to a coffee shop to those scaling a local mountain such as Hamilton. We have riders on touring bikes, race bikes, fixed gears, recumbents, tandems and more. ACTC also encourages cycling in general through education, tour reviews, volunteering and highlighting of possibilities. One local event is the Bike To Work Day (BTWD), which many members do anyway, but ACTC members help at stations and encourage the idea. I’ve been collecting some photos of my bicycle commuting journeys and wanted to present some ideas or options.

In an article about my trip to the Auburn Century , I mentioned taking the train to the event instead of driving. I departed from the San Jose Diridon Station to catch Caltrain, which is a bike friendly commuter that goes to the Peninsula, San Francisco, Sacramento and more.

Awaiting CalTrain in San Jose

Of course, one can also catch Bart to get to San Francisco, Oakland or the East Bay. But, my interest is to show how bicycles can handle bigger tasks or utility duties. Below is one of the best gifts that I have received, a Burley d’Lite tot trailer given to me by my sister because her kids outgrew it – if you have such a trailer, use it for utility rides, if you don’t have one you can purchase one online. The picture dates are incorrect.

The Burley d’Lite trailer, an excellent utility rig.

One activity performed by ACTC is the workday ride, where volunteers will ride in San Jose to clean up bicycle trails and paint over graffiti. I enjoyed taking my d’Lite trailer and carrying the paint and brooms as shown below.

Taking my ‘utility vehicle’ along San Jose bike trail on a cleanup ride

But my favorite rides are to carry things by bike when someone says, ‘but you’ll need to take a car for that.’ My d’Lite trailer had no issue with the transportation of a water cooler and filled 5 gallon water jug to the downtown office, simultaneously. The delivery of a fan is showed next.

Trailering a water cooler and filled 5 gallon water jug.

Trailering a fan to the office

“It’s one thing to cycle to the start of an ACTC ride in San Jose, Cupertino or Los Altos, but you’ll need to drive to take your mountain bike.” Oh? Wheels can be removed easily, and the whole mountain bike fits well into my utility cruiser. And I prevent street wear on my off road tires.

TraileTrailering my Kona mountain bike in my d’Lite trailer to ACTC Whine and Dine MTB

Whine and Dine MTB start destination

Some members ride to the monthly meetings, but there can be excuses such as a need to carry items for the Swap Meet. My trailer carried a trainer, a set of wheels, a helmet, and various items, most which needed to be brought back home.

Riding off to the ACTC Swap Mee

I look forward to carrying my sister’s children in a trail-a-bike like the one shown below.

Trail-a-bike transportation for children

There are serious utility cyclists out there, like this impressive home made bike in front of Orchard Supply Hardware. I figured that I could at least carry a hand truck.

Utility riding gets serious at Orchard Supply Hardware

Trailering a hand truck

The utility of the d’Lite trailer comes to light when thesides are folded down to use the trailer as a flat bed to carry items.

Burley d’Lite with sides folded down

A friend had asked to borrow a wheelbarrow and I said that I would drop it off on the way to my office. Since I ride to the office, I loaded up the Burley, strapped down the wheelbarrow by bungee cords and took a slight detour to the site.

Dropping off a wheelbarrow by bike

In conclusion, there really are no excuses. Yay bikes.

Categories: Bicycling General
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by John Pugliese February 17, 2010.

“The Wildest ride in the West”

“Someone said it was tougher than the Death Ride”, said the SAG driver who stopped to give me some water – I agreed.  Although the Death Ride has similar elevation gain, it’s split up into fifths and only averages about 7.2% grade.  Mainly, though, most cyclists who attempt the Death Ride go extremely focused and properly trained.  I did Auburn as an opportunity to view some nice country, but completely had the wrong mindset.

The week before, I had gone down Highway 1 along the coast from Los Gatos to San Luis Obispo.  That trip had become an adventure after I broke a chain in the dark and we ended up sleeping in a field near the coast by Lucia, south of Big Sur.  After that escapade, the idea of needing to drive and get a hotel wasn’t appealing.  Instead, for Auburn, I took the Amtrak Capital Corridor to Sacramento and transferred to an Amtrak bus to go to Auburn.

I arrived early enough to go to Auburn’s Old Town area and get a good meal, then I went to set up my tent.  I then went to registration early to hang out with the promoters and was told of the ‘Iowa Hill Time Trial’.

Again, my mind wasn’t set right.  I was set to do the 140-mile ‘Lone Ranger’ course, with 17,000 ft of climbing at the official start of 6:30, ignoring the mention that many people would start earlier.  I also disregarded ‘Iowa Hill’ as just another climb like ‘The Wall’ or all the other noted climbs in events that often don’t compare to our noteworthy local climbs like Bohlman, Welch Creek or Ramona.  I figured I’d blow out the paltry 1.7 miles Time Trial as if it was Redwood Gulch.

The following profile is for the 110-mile “Outlaw” route with 11466 ft. of climbing and 13.5% average grade plus the 1.75 mile timed climb up Iowa Hill.  There was nothing ‘just another’ or ‘paltry’ about the day.  The following profile shows the deep V prior to Iowa Hill:

The time trial occurred during the second hour of the ride in the location shown at this ‘V’ in the chart.  The average grade of Iowa Hill is 13.5% and many short pitches in the 20%+ range.  I stopped on the bridge just before to snap a photo:

I got back on my bike and picked up the pace as if attacking a local hill and upon crossing the chalked start line, I monitored my odometer and applied power.  At 25% of the distance, I realized I needed throttle back, at 50% I realized that the distance was more important and I slowed into survival mode.  Bummed, I looked up to see riders, walking or stopped.  I stopped at the top and another cyclist pulled up in disbelief and said he practiced the hill and still couldn’t believe it.  Having blown out the cyclists on this hill, the promoters set us up early for a long subsequent climb.  Here I saw more stalled cyclists and one awaiting a SAG.

Upon getting refueled by a SAG myself, I continued on and eventually pulled into one of the rest stops:

I wasn’t able to take pictures for a while as it started raining between my last two rest stops.  As such, the last rest stop turned me around, preventing me from doing the entire 140-mile course.

A bunch of us hung out under the rest area and headed back into town along a fast, wet downhill.  Of course, the rain had stopped after a bit:

The Auburn Century (Wildest Ride in the West) was a challenging and beautiful ride that went through Auburn, Colfax, Meadow Vista, Foresthill and Bowman, past a reservoir and through the Sierras.  Although many rides have their favorite hill challenges, or noteworthy names, The Auburn Century was a nicer surprise and worthy of repeating.

Here’s another nice review, with stats:

http://www.mtbguru.com/trip/show_static/92-auburn-century

This year’s event will be on June 12, 2010, sign up now at http://www.wildestride.com/

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by Alison Chaiken

In The Complete Guide to Climbing (By Bike), author John Summerson wrote about Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb: The most difficult road bike hill climb in the U.S. and perhaps the world, this road is only open to bikes during the annual hill climb race usually held in August and at times for several hours for a practice ride shortly before the race. No concession to gradient was made as it starts out steep and never lets up all the way to the top.

Woot! I had to try it. That meant getting up at 4:45 AM on February 1st, 2009, as the registration opened at 8 AM Eastern Time. In 2008, the 600-person field filled in 7 minutes. The fact that my family lives near Mt. Washington in northern New Hampshire meant that the race could be part of a longer vacation. A friend of my father’s told him that the gradient was so steep that cyclists had to stand the entire way. As a Low-Key Hillclimber and veteran of many Almaden Cycle Touring Club “billygoat” hills of gradient greater than 20%, I knew that I would not have to stand for much of an average-12% climb. Nonetheless, the 4725′ elevation gain over 7.4 miles was a bit scary, especially when paired with the 22% finish, reminiscent of our local Mt. Diablo’s 16% finish. You do have to wonder about an event where the winningest riders in both the men’s and women’s categories are under long-term ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

According to Summerson, Mt. Washington has the toughest 5-mile climb in the U.S., with an average 12.1% slope over that distance. The Angliru featured in the Vuelta a Espana goes up at an average gradient of 10.1% over 7.8 miles, while the infamous L’Alpe d’Huez of the Tour de France rises up 8.4% over 8.1 miles. By comparison, local lung-buster Alba climbs 2050′ over 3.9 miles for an average 10% grade, with the fearsome Bohlmann-On Orbit rising 2337′ over 4.7 miles for a similar 10%. Mt. Washington thus has about twice the elevation gain of Bohlmann-On Orbit over significantly less than twice the distance. As a frequent climber of these Bay Area hills, I normally ride a 52-39-30 in the front and an 11-27 in the back and definitely had occasion to use my lowest gear at Mt. Washington.

The race was on August 15th, 2009. I flew out to New England on the 13th and stayed with my brother. Jim Chaskin of The Bicycle Outfitter packed my bike up and shipped it, and thanks to help from friend Michele Rae, UPS figured out where it was and delivered it on the 14th. The night before the race, my father, brother and their wives and I stayed over at the Mt. Madison Motel in Gorham, NH.

The morning of the event, I drove out to the Glen View Cafe at the base of the Mountain and had breakfast with a few other participants. Mt. Washington is famous for its bad weather, but August 15th dawned clear and warm. The summit was clearly visible from the base, and riders could see how nearby and high it was!

The race start was amusing because I showed up in my Alto Velo kit, and the P.A. announcer clearly thought I was one of the Webcor women pros. A Colavita rider I spoke to was very friendly as she clearly was wondering why she didn’t recognize me. We 500+ riders went off in five flights all initiated by a loud gun. I was in the 4th of 5th flights, presumably based on the estimated time (90 minutes) I submitted.

At the bottom - Credit: Philbrick Photo

As noted in the press coverage, the day was beautiful, and riders were actually hot at the bottom. The road surface was mostly smooth and wide in the first five miles. While I could tell that we were definitely going uphill, the variable 10-15% grade didn’t seem any worse than going up Hicks or Montebello, because it wasn’t. There were two kilometer-long stretches averaging > 14%, on one of which I did stand a bit, but for the most part I was taking it easy and conserving my energy. I was pretty nervous when we hit the dirt/gravel section at about mile 5, but since there had been just a bit of recent rain, the roadbed was packed and traction was good. I rode on the embedded-gravel section in the center of the road since
I was worried about slipping my traction wheel when the dirt turned up, but then I was nervous about flatting on some of the sharper-looking rocks. Everyone definitely breathed a sigh of relief when they got back on pavement at about mile 6.5.

About Halfway - Credit: Philbrick Photo

By this point, the road was a bit narrow and twisty. The views were spectacular since the day was so clear: 360-degree panoramas of all of the craggy and green Presidential Range. By this point, I was having a fabulous time and knew I was going to make it all the way to the top, so I picked up the pace a wee bit. The whole way I was passing riders who were resting or walking, and now I started passing folks who were still riding. As we approached the summit, we entered some mist.

Final Climb - Credit: Philbrick Photo

In the last mile, I started to go past a lot of spectators. There had been scattered fans all the way up, but as we got into the last half-mile, real crowds were lining the road. At about a
quarter-mile out, I saw that my brother had chalked my name on the roadbed! That really surprised me, and I clicked up a couple of a gears and accelerated, which caused a couple of spectators to hoot encouragement at me.

View of the last wall before the road narrows and the pavement deteriortaes

I came around the final big turn and saw the last wall, which is as steep as Cat’s Hill, but 50 yards long, with two hairpin turns and several big potholes. If those challenges weren’t enough, I saw that the road was only 12-15′ wide, and at the edge were not barriers or course marshals, but spectators with flailing arms and baby strollers. Yikes! I was reminded of
photos of Liege-Bastogne-Liege or the Tour of Flanders:

The Muur van Geraardsbergen in Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) for women. At least there's a rope between the riders and the crowd. Photo taken by Lander Vandergucht.

I had plenty of energy to put on a sprint to the finish, but I was scared. I stay seated, and moving my eyes rapidly between the spectators and the potholes, ground up the final climb. I bobbled in a giant pothole but did not go over. As I hit the first hairpin, I heard my family screaming, “GO ALISON! GO!” They must have been inches away from me although I hadn’t seen them.

Okay, it was hard.

Later on my family told me that: a) the woman’s overall winner Sue Schlatter had fallen on the same pothole while standing and pumping; and b) spectators had knocked over a unicyclist who was insane enough to ride up Mt. Washington. I’m glad I was conservative on the final bit as, hey, I already had road rash at the start! I rolled around the final bend and over the finish to have attendants grab me, put a blanket over me, and hand me water. Awesome.

I was 12/17 in my W45-50 category, which includes the top two women’s finishers. In retrospect, I could have gone about 10 or 15 minutes faster than my 108-minute finish, but I was nervous about the gravel section and the 22-24% finish and went quite slow at the bottom. My tracklog on Google MyMaps includes my warm-up as well as the race.

After the event, my family gave me a ride down, as racers were not allowed to descend. Hell, a lot of cars are not allowed to drive up!

Half the cars in New England have a sticker

All in all, the race was a wonderful experience. I forget how beautiful New England is between visits. I totally recommend racing
in front of your family even if they are not sports fans.

For contrast, read men’s overall winner Phil Gaimon’s report.

alchaiken@gmail.com (Alison Chaiken)

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by Vince Cummings

I decided to do a new double century called the White Mountain Double to get my third official double for the year in the Triple Crown series. This ride climbs to the top of White Mountain after a flat thirteen mile warm up. The climb gains 6000 feet in twenty miles. After that the ride skirts near the northern boundary of Death Valley heading east. Then it swings north for many miles before turning west and heading back southwest over a long climb and through Benton to the start/finish in Bishop California.

I really like the Bishop area so I took some vacation days from work and went up a couple days before Saturday’s ride to acclimate to the altitude and to explore the area. All the weather reports I heard were for record high temperatures all over the area for Saturday.

By Friday night I was a little apprehensive about the heat. I also had an upset stomach due to too much carbo loading. I went to bed fairly early but could not sleep much.

The ride had two ride starts. The first start was at 4:15 for the predicted slower riders and the second was at 5:15 for people who felt that they could finish the ride in 14 hours or less. I felt fairly confident that I could finish within 14 hours since I finished the Eastern Sierra reroute with about 1500 more estimated feet of climbing in much colder but just as harsh conditions as I expected to find Saturday.

At 2:15 AM I wasn’t sleeping though so I decided to try and make the early start. One thing I learned on this ride was that it is a good idea to check the tires for damage as soon as possible after getting up. I waited until about a half hour before the ride start to find a thorn in my front tire. Fortunately I had a new Michelin Pro Race 3 with me and this was a good excuse to put it on with a new tube.

I made it to the ride start on time and we rolled south down Highway 395 on time at 4:15 am. I led for awhile but fortunately someone else came to the front for most of the ride to the foot of White Mountain. I stopped to take off my vest at the turn off to Death Valley Road right before the start of the climb. This allowed me not to have a dry vest when I got to the top and it kept me from racing up the first climb.

After about 10 minutes I got a good rythmn going and I was able to pass most of the riders who got ahead of me when I put on my vest. I stopped at the first bathroom though and this took about 10 minutes. Then I stopped at the rest stop to fill my bottles.

Even with all those stops I only counted about 10 riders in front of me. So I wasn’t feeling too bad about the ride when I got to the 10000 plus foot paved summit of White Mountain ( a dirt road continues to near the 14000 foot plus summit).

I checked in at the summit station and put my vest back on. The descent wasn’t too bad and it was getting quite warm already.

The next stop was at the same aid station to make sure I had enough Perpeteum to last the next aid station. I stopped again at the bottom of White Mountain Road to drop off my vest and a thermal shirt and my back tail light to have them transported to near the final aid station where I would pick them up later.

After about 6 more miles of very fun descending I was finally at the low point of the ride and the long flat desert road stretched out before me. At this point there was one rider about 1/4 mile in front of me and I was riding with another. We caught the other rider (Jim Poppy from Palo Alto) but the other rider didn’t want to work as hard so he fell back.

We filled our bottles and headed toward Gilbert Pass. I was climbing pretty well at this point and Jim fell back. After the climb though he quickly caught me and we worked together for a few miles (maybe only 5 miles). This was tiring and boring for me though. Even though it is faster to work with two riders it is so monotonous that I chose to go slower instead and let Jim keep a faster pace.

The next rest stop was at a bar appropriately called “The Boonies.” After a 20 minute break there I took off and Jim took off a few minutes later. By now the desert road was getting a little boring and I had developed an annoying habit of looking at my cycle computer every 30 seconds. At this point I started making a mental note to look at the computer as little as possible and just concentrate on the scenery. This strategy worked quite well especially after a short climb dropped me into a beautiful desert basin surrounded by painted mountains. This was at mile 110 and I was feeling a second wind which lasted all the way until the next stop which was the smoothie station.

I arrived at the smoothie station a few minutes behind Jim. A couple fast 5:15 am starters caught us there. After a smoothie and a fresh dose of sunblock and fuel I was ready. Now it started to get hot. As I started the climb the two 5:15 starters passed me. This was first time anyone had passed me since the start of the White Mountain climb 100 miles ago. Jim was well ahead of me too. But no one really took off at light speed and I kept them within sight (as much as I could see with all the sweat dripping sun block into my eyes). This was another 15 plus mile climb and I was very unprepared for it. Although I was still climbing at a decent pace it did throw my calculations for the ride off.

At the next station I could feel a mild bonk (is bonk an adjective?) and the heat was starting to slow me as well. I let someone park my bike for me and I took a seat with a cold cup of water for about 10 minutes. When I got back on the bike I noticed that my computer had been zeroed out. It’s a newer cateye and it has a hair trigger on all the functions so it’s best to leave it on “distance 2″ because if that gets zeroed out the other information stays. On all the other functions a simple touch can wipe out everything but distance 2 and total odometer. I only mention this because I think it may be a better idea to decline an offer of help with my bike on doubles. I think just gently laying the bike down is a better idea rather than letting someone else touch it or spending time trying to think of a good place to keep it standing.

Back on the bike I hit the last climb of the day and I was still climbing ok but definitely not fast. The downhill into Benton was the easiest part of the ride. I passed the rest stop and came to the foot of the last climb of the Eastern Sierra reroute. Fortunately at that point one of the ride volunteers came driving up and told me I had missed the stop. I took another 10 minutes at this stop and was anticipating the promised tail wind that I had enjoyed for the final 37 miles of the Eastern Sierra reroute earlier this year.

That wasn’t happening on this day though. I rode by some flags and they were flying straight into my face. So I went into survival mode. The two 5:15 starters who had passed me earlier had stopped at the rest stop for an extended break because one of them seemed to be suffering from too much water retention, with similar symptoms to the ones described by Russ Steven’s on his Hoodoo attempt. These were two riders who probably could finish a ride like the normal Eastern Sierra Route in 11 to 11.5 hours or better. As I geared down for my struggle with the headwind they passed me at about 19 to 20 mph. I thought about grabbing their wheel since I am sure they weren’t going full speed but thought better of it since I was getting pretty tired by now.

Once I hit mile 190 I knew I would get my Triple Crown for the year so I decided to take a break or two on the way in. I pulled over just after the sun went down at a place that looked comfortable and safe to rest a few minutes. I felt something on my leg, looked down, and the mosquitoes were getting ready to inject. Needless to say this kept me riding into Bishop which led to a shower and dinner at a reasonable hour and a fair nights sleep. The next day I was feeling better than usual after a double and stopped to explore the June Lakes area and Bodie State Historical Park.

So if I had a good nights sleep before the double I would have started at 5:15 and probably not been much faster throughout the ride. If it wasn’t for the mosquitoes coming out as the sun went down I would have stopped one or two times in the last ten miles. Thanks to both of these things though I finished exactly at 7:00 and was able recover enough to enjoy the drive home.

The double itself was nice. Good support and friendly staff at all the rest stops. The route was difficult because after the first three climbs there is a 70 mile (approximately) trek north which on this day was into a headwind. The headwind wasn’t so bad but the ride had a fairly small turnout (83 started) so there wasn’t much help for the headwind. Of course the predicted tailwind from Benton to Bishop turned into a strong headwind as well which probably cost me about a half hour at least. Anyway, all that is part of cycling and since I didn’t really draft anyone all day, I feel more of a sense of accomplishment for finishing this one which is my toughest double to date.

Here is the link to more information and results for this double…http://www.ndzone.com/

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Categories: Ride Story
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I want to say thank you to everyone who sent words of encouragement over the past few days. They have really helped me get through this week and help me gain the perspective that a DNF after 350 miles in <22 hours is more of an accomplishment than a failure. There are infinite outcomes that could have actually been serious and worthy of feeling devastated. I emerged safely and uninjured. That is all that matters. Thank you so much to everyone who was thinking of me and praying for me while I was on the road. I believe a large part of the reason I emerged safe and sound despite all my difficulties was because you were all with me in spirit.

I also want to say a very sincere thank you to everyone who made a donation in honor of my father to the American Cancer Society. 101 donations were made so far (including personal checks), raising $7738.60 to fight cancer. This is completely amazing and far exceeded any expectations I had before starting this fundraiser. I am totally blown away and I am extremely grateful to all of you for your support.

If you are still reading, here is the Reader’s Digest version of what happened.

The HooDoo 500 course is a 519 mile loop that starts and ends in St. George, Utah. The ride goes through amazingly beautiful country including portions of Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. I was one of 13 solo riders who started at 7 am on Saturday. Solo riders are allowed to have a support vehicle during the race. The support vehicle provides “leap frog” support during the day which involves stopping along the road to provide the rider food, water and whatever else they might need. In a race situation, riders don’t want to loose time stopping to get food or water. The picture below shows Sheila and I doing a rolling water exchange at the top of a hill with the support car and the beautiful scenery in the background. Still photos do not do justice to how flawlessly my crew handled exchanges when I was moving 20 mph faster than they were. The other photo is of me climbing a particularly steep but gorgeous stretch of road.

More photos taken by Franz Kelsch can be seen here:

At night, the support vehicle follows with special lighting and signage to protect me from traffic and make sure I am doing ok. One of the most surreal moments of the ride occurred at approximately 9 pm on Saturday night. A mountain lion jumped from the hillside on the right side of the road and crossed just 15-20 feet in front of me in the pitch darkness. Amazing.

I had one of the best support crews I could have possibly hoped for – Sheila, Franz Kelsch and Paul Vlasveld. Not only did they come with tens of thousands of miles of cycling experience between them, but Paul also came with a fully equipped van! I can’t adequately express my thanks to these people for supporting me. Even though they didn’t get to pedal a single mile of the course, they were right there for me (with very little sleep) every inch of the way.

The race started extremely well. I predicted beforehand that my biggest competition would come from David Holt. David is a very accomplished, RAAM qualified rider who had previously placed 2^nd and 4^th as a solo in the Furnace Creek 508. He also holds a Furnace Creek two-man team record for his age group. Despite David’s abilities, I found it relatively easy to keep him in sight for the first 200 miles of the ride. Maybe not as easy as the next photo implies, but I was in my element. I probably could have passed him earlier, but I was determined to not go off the front too early in the ride. Too many rookies fail that way. I like to think all the other riders were thinking, “Who is that guy – how can he go that fast wearing sandals?”

After about 100 miles, the only problem I had was a mild case of cramping. I kept this at bay by liberally taking salt and electrolyte tablets. I also noticed I was really thirsty and drinking a LOT. We had a scale in the van to weigh me during the race. During long training rides, it was not uncommon for me to loose a few pounds if I did not drink enough. However, when I stepped on the scale at mile 115, I was about 7 pounds heavier than I was at the ride start. I was confused by this, but not concerned because it seemed to indicate that at least I was not getting dehydrated. Plus I was feeling great! I was a few minutes ahead of my spreadsheet predictions, and still keeping pace with the leader. Maybe the cheap bathroom scale fell out of the support van one too many times.

Around 6 pm, the lead rider stopped to switch bikes and I suddenly found myself in the lead. Then the serious climbing started and I just kept inching ahead. I made it over the 9600 foot summit of Boulder Mountain, and by 12:15am on Sunday morning I was leading the race by almost 30 minutes. Not bad after 285 miles and 21,000 feet of climbing. However, even at this point I knew something was wrong. Despite keeping ahead of the competition, I knew my climb rate was far below where it should have been. I was also developing difficulty eating and drinking. Had I stopped at this point and given myself time to recover, it might have been an entirely different race. However, I was unwilling to give up the lead. That is where things really started to go downhill. Everything that is, except the road.

The next 5 hours proved to be extremely difficult. In all endurance events, it is extremely critical and difficult to ingest enough calories (~ 300 calories every hour), water and electrolytes while continually pushing your body to the extreme. I kept getting weaker and basically stopped eating and drinking. When I tried I just got too nauseous. Somehow I kept telling myself I could work through it if I just kept moving. But one thing that never happens on an endurance ride is improving your performance without food or water. Finally at mile 300 I stopped and my crew convinced me to sleep for 15 minutes. However, this was too little too late. I actually managed to ride my bike another 50 miles very slowly, eventually getting passed by the rider I had followed for so many miles. Finally, I just couldn’t go any further. When I got off my bike at that point, I immediately started shaking and the crew got me into the van with blankets. They tried to get me to drink small amounts, which led to much throwing up. After sleeping for an hour and a half, I awoke still shaking and still throwing up. I honestly can’t remember anytime in my life when I felt physically worse than I did at the city park of Circleville, UT at 6:45 am. I really didn’t know what was wrong or how to solve it. We had brought Cindi Staiger’s phone number along and had the presence of mind to try and call her for advice, but of course we had no cell phone signal. At this point, the crew and myself were very concerned with my medical condition and were not willing to risk my health or life just to finish the ride. That is when we decided to abandon the race and get ourselves closer to medical options.

So what went wrong? While I may never know for sure, I have some very good theories. First of all, I am almost certain I ingested too much salt and water early in the ride. I have spoken with my doctor and he concluded this is the only reasonable explanation for my weight gain during the ride. Next, I failed to keep eating. While my loss of appetite was almost certainly caused by my electrolyte imbalance, my real mistake was choosing to continue pedaling after this problem occurred. I’m reasonably sure that the lack of food led to hypoglycemia, which led to the shaking, weakness and vomiting that eventually put an end to my race.

In hindsight, I might have been able to recover by sleeping in my support vehicle for several more hours. By the time my support crew returned me to the hotel at 8:30 am, I was already feeling slightly better, but I was still overweight and visibly “puffy” – Sheila said I looked downright beefy. Over the next four hours, I alternately slept and peed until I was almost back to my pre-race weight and feeling almost normal. Had I been on the course, I would have likely gotten back on my bike. I had ideas of asking my crew to take me back to the point I abandoned, but Paul had actually left with his van and went hiking in Zion for the afternoon. Sheila called it “devine intervention”. We went out to the finish line at the front of the hotel, and I found it a bit difficult to be in the St. George heat. Could I have still biked? Who knows? David Holt finished at 5:30pm. By 7 pm when we went to dinner, I was able to eat and drink and really wanted to be on my bike.

So what did I learn?

1. Keen sandals are awesome. I was so worried about my feet being the weakest link for high mileage. My feet never hurt. Yes, you can do real cycling (and touring, and walking and commuting) in sandals.
2. It is really not appropriate or intelligent to attempt to win an endurance event at a mileage you have not previous attempted. Trying to win this race caused me to make a number of bad decisions. I took too much salt instead of just slowing down when I started to cramp. I didn’t stop to rest when I could no longer eat.
3. Never ever change your nutrition the day of a big ride. I had only used SaltStick pills sparingly during previous long rides. This ride I probably took more than 15 in a 10 hour period. Pay attention to your body. I felt something was wrong at least 5 hours before I abandoned the race. I should have stopped to figure it out rather than hoping it would magically work itself out.
4. You cannot think clearly after 300 miles on the bike. All of this seems ridiculously clear now, but none of this seemed obvious during the race. As a team we should have known what our primary goal was (winning vs. finishing) and how we would tackle certain situations. We had never seriously considered the possibility that I would not finish. Thus, we were completely unprepared to deal with that situation and come up with alternatives.
5. If you are having serious problems during a ride, get help. If you can’t think straight, rely on your crew. If you have a doctor or experienced friend you can call, do so. If there is a checkpoint nearby, go there and see what they have to say. There will be more resources there (and probably cell phone coverage) to help you decide if waiting, abandoning or going to the ER was the best course of action.
6. Don’t be so quick to give up. Two hours stopped on the side of the road seemed like an eternity to me. But in reality, even after that rest I had still covered 2/3 of the course in 24 hours and still had 24 hours left to do the last third. If you really can’t think of anything to do to solve your problem, but still have time, then try doing nothing. A lot of the time your body will sort it out itself.
7. All of the above rules go out the window if you think your life or health is in jeopardy. In this case do whatever you have to in order to get medical attention.

Although my hopes of finishing (and possibly even winning) the race were dashed, I accomplished a personal best for miles and feet of climbing in a 24 hour period. Luckily, by Monday morning, my electrolytes recovered fully. Then I got an unexpected chance to go home with some added sense of purpose.

At 6 am, I suddenly woke up and felt the need to go to the finish line at the front of the hotel. I found out that the final rider was likely lost on the last section of the course, a portion that goes through a park where support vehicles are not allowed. This section usually takes less than an hour and the rider had already taken over 1.5 hours. I asked the Race Director if it was ok to go out on my bicycle to look for the rider. I got permission and quickly rode off into the darkness. About 4 miles from the finish line, I located the rider who was moving very slowly due to fatigue and confusion. I gave him a pep talk and told him he did not have much time to beat the 7 am time cap. After I finally reassured him that I could lead him and wouldn’t let him get lost, he suddenly found renewed energy and fought toward the finish line. I escorted him to the finish line with a mere 7 minutes to spare. So although I did not finish, I did get my picture taken at the finish line with a very appreciative Jeremy Frick. Ultimately, only 7 of the original 13 solo riders finished the race.

It was incredibly disappointing to not finish, but success in ultra-endurance races often boils down to experience, learning from mistakes and learning how to recover during a ride. At 40, I like to think of myself as a very young rookie. The overall winner, David Holt, is 57!!!

In the end, was the race worth everything I had to sacrifice to get ready? Probably not. Will I try it again anyway sometime? I probably will. I just need to find a way to tackle these events without them coming in the way of the truly important things in life. Things like getting a good night’s sleep, truly enjoying the path to get ready, and always making sure my wife knows she is more important that even the most serious bike ride.

One more thing I learned: Unless you get paid to ride, there is no such thing as a serious bike ride. If it is not fun to get ready for or to do (or to blog about it afterwards), it is probably not worth doing.

Thanks again for your support and encouragement before, during and after this ride.

Russ Stevens
Click the link below to view my fund and tribute page to my dad, Wayne Stevens.
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/hoodooforyou

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by Marcia Morrison

Masters National Time Trial Championships: July 1, 2009
Weather:  mostly cloudy, mid to high 70’s
Division:  Master’s Women, 60-64
Average Speed:  20.6 mph
Time:  35:46

This year the race was in Taylorsville, KY.  Yes, it is a long way to go for a short time trial, but we make a 3 1/2 week trip out of it visiting friends and family in Colorado, Michigan and Wisconsin.  Besides that it motivates me to lose a bit of weight and gives me something to look forward to.

The course was a 20K out and back on a hilly, but non-technical course.  The course was different from last year’s course.  It was hillier.  In fact the whole course was hills with false flats.  Last year’s course was easier than the Beat the Clock course on Canada Rd. in Woodside and this year’s course was more difficult than Canada Rd.  The climbs were steeper and longer.  Unlike last year this year’s course was closed to traffic.  All start times were delayed 2 hours because there weren’t enough course marshalls and the sheriff didn’t get the road closed off in time, so now my new start time was 3:48:30.

Looking at the racers signed up I knew the best I could hope for was third place.  This was my 4th national time trial and every year my goal is to be at least in 5th place.  Fifth place puts you on the podium and you receive a medal.

I was seeded first, but I had the 2 strongest racers in front of me. (They moved up to the 60-64, but were still 59 at the time of the race.  It is called cycling age, whatever your age will be in 2009.)  My friend Martha, a multiple national and world champion, was 30 seconds in front of me.

The time trial started with a very short flat distance and went right into a 3% climb.  Previous racers said to take it easy on the first climb.  I was getting closer and closer to Martha.  I thought I must be going out too hard and Martha is playing it smart.  I found out later she stopped briefly to fix a rubbing brake.  I shouldn’t have slowed down and should have kept my own pace.  However, my power was around 225 watts on the hill, so I probably was going too hard for me.  It was a straight course, so I saw her for the first half of the race.

Before the turn around I passed two riders, so I knew I was at least 6th.  Right before the turn around I saw a third rider and shortly after that I passed her, but she quickly came alongside me on a climb.  Then that was the last time I saw her, so I was excited to think I had met my goal of being in 5th place.

A few times on the way back I was in the wrong gear.  I stayed in the big chain ring on a hill that I thought was shorter.  Another time I thought I was in the big chain ring and I wasn’t.  I attribute that to just being tired.  Al put a chain guide on my bike which increased my confidence for not dropping a chain.

After the turn around we had a strong headwind.  On the last downhill coming into the finish line I wanted to go as fast as possible, even though I was nervous about being in the drops and going fast.  I didn’t reach my speed goal, but I think the headwind had something to do with that.

I felt good during the race.  The only uncomfortable feeling I had was a hot feeling.  I think I put on too much leg salsa and a Chinese linament as they both generate heat.  (Also, forgot my HRT which I didn’t realize until I was in Michigan).

I gave my best effort and that’s all I could hope for.  A good indicator of strong effort for me is that I had the dry heaves after the finish line.

When Al saw me he said I was in third place.  I was thrilled because I surpassed my goal of being in 5th place.

2009:  3rd
2008:  1st
2005:  5th
2004:  4th

It looks like one of these years I need to be in 2nd place in order to have a medal for each place.  It probably won’t happen next year with all those young 60 and 61 year olds in 2010.

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by Marie Becker

Towards the end of 2008 Pat Becker and I were sitting around trying to decide what our goals for riding would be in 2009.  Both of us were burned out from all the training for the Death Ride, so we decided not to do that this year, and picked the Summer Solstice up in Quincy in the Feather River Valley on June 27 instead.  Its scalable, so depending on how much riding/training we could get in would determine the length we would ride.  The longest version of this rivals the DR in difficulty, but you have the option of doing a 100k as well.  This sounded good to me, and I have friends who live up in Quincy we could stay with, so that was our “big” ride for the year.  Cathy Switzer decided to join us, and she brought her husband Larry up there too.

About a month before the ride I was talking to a friend here at the office, and turns out he has a cabin up in Quincy, right on the route of the ride.  What are the odds of that??  And in reviewing the route with Bruce, his comment that “you’re  not riding up the hill past the Nelson Creek bridge are you? do you have good brakes on those bikes for the ride down??” it made me think that maybe I hadn’t given enough consideration to the difficulty of this ride before I signed up.  Hmmm.  Too late by then, you go until you can’t go any more and enjoy the ride!

So Pat, Cathy, Larry, and I all drove up to Quincy Friday and agreed to meet at the fairgrounds Saturday at 7:30.  If you’ve not been there, this is a beautiful place, small town in the mountains.  We rode over to the fairgrounds and had no trouble finding each other.  Small town and evidently not many riders participating.  There were literally no other riders there.  And I mean none!  My friends who live there told us after the ride there is a big music festival there that brings in thousands, but for the ride we think about 170 signed up.  Those doing the 200k likely started earlier, and we never saw them.  In fact we started counting both riders and cars as we rode because there just weren’t but a handful the whole day of either!  We see more riders on our weekend rides down here in the valley than we saw that whole day.  Actually was kinda nice, but a little weird.  And we did have a clue about this the day before when Pat and I drove the route to see how steep it was and only saw one porta potty on the entire route.  We were worried about that… until we rode.  It really was sufficient, there was never a line!

The route is rollers through a beautiful meadow in the beginning, and then you climb a bit to the first rest stop and the one porta potty.  Never pass up an opportunity to pee or eat, so we chatted with the folks there, took a group picture while listening to Jimmy Buffet, and headed off to what is referred to as the Hogsback.  Now I don’t really know what a hogs back looks like but it must be ugly!  Are they all humpbacks?  This was a 4 mile stretch with a grade of 14% for too much of it.  When 11% feels like a relief you know you’re  climbing a mountain.  Both Pat and Cathy are stronger riders than me, so I didn’t see their butts for long and they were gone.  I tried my best to stay in my “happy pace” with a lower heart rate so I wouldn’t burn out before I got to La Porte (it is an out and back route).  But those double digit grades are tough!  I did feel good when I made it to the top, and was rewarded with beautiful scenery.  Snow on the tops of the mountains, fields of some big yellow flowers, maybe onions of some sort… it is called Onion Valley after all.  And more rollers all the way to La Porte.  The climbing just never really stopped going or returning.   The final long descent into La Porte was fun and fast. The road was wide and well paved, and with the sweeping turns and non-existent traffic you could easily reach speeds of 40+ mph. While exhilarating, in the back of my mind I knew I’d have to climb right back up after lunch, so I’d better enjoy this while it lasted.

Lunch was at the fire house in La Porte, population of 26 .  [cid:image001.jpg@01CA00B3.01CEDA80] Even smaller than Quincy.  And they must be worried about those folks down in Quincy as evidenced by the Neighborhood Watch sign.  If there are only 26 of you in town I’d guess you pretty much always know what everyone else is doing… but those folks down in Quincy, well who knows about them.  I caught up with Pat and Cathy for a minute at lunch.  They were getting ready to head out as they planned on doing the full 100 miles (an extra 30 flat miles at the end of the 100k route) so we chatted for a minute and off they went.  I had a roast beef sandwich which I shared with a beautiful black lab who lived there, chatted with two young guys who rolled in (one from Stockton, one from SF), and off I went too.

As you all know riding after lunch is a challenge sometimes, as your legs can think you’re done.  Then you hit some of those stinkin hills you sailed down, and you now have to climb back up.  That one long sweeping hill, in the full sun and 10% grade, it was just ugly.  One of those times where you just stare at the asphalt as your front tire rolls over it and your brain says over and over, just keep pedaling!  I rolled up on Stockton who was walking his bike up.  At lunch I learned this was his first century ride, that some dingleberry told him to do this ride.  Poor guy, there are no hills to train on in Stockton.  But he intended to finish!  So I continued to just pedal, pedal, pedal and I got to the top of the thing.  I stopped there for a minute to contemplate life, and why I think doing things like this is a good idea.

I pulled out my camera and took a few pictures, then tried to take one of myself.  Hmmm.  Lots of people seem to do this and they don’t look like dorks, I need to practice this!  Stockton showed up about then and volunteered to take one for me.  I must have looked more like a dork than I thought!  Then we rolled off together, and came up on San Francisco.  We hit the top of the Hogsback and the boys went sailing down.  Lots of switchbacks and very steep, but you get down a whole lot faster than you go up!  Back to the one rest stop, made use of the one porta potty again (really one of the cleanest ones ever) then down into Quincy.  As I rolled through the meadow at the bottom who do I find but both Pat and Cathy hanging out under a tree.  Since all the hard climbing was in the metric they decided that doing the flat 30 just for the sake of saying you did a 100 miles seemed silly and they waited for me.  As Cathy said, we start together and we finish together, which we did!  Even Stockton finished, rubber legs and all.

After a quick shower we went back for our BBQ dinner.  Again, no line and no steam table.  A BBQ wagon, you told them what you wanted and they made your plate.  Some of the best BBQ chicken ever, then we headed over to Cathy and Larry’s and we finished off all the wine they brought.  A hard ride, but a great day with good friends in a beautiful place!!

BTW… Cathy’s ride notes consist of hanging out under the tree with Pat and having some wine at the end.  So whether it was a “hard ride” was dependent on the rider !

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by Paul Metz

Don and Barbara from the “Alameden Cycle Touring Club” want to do some climbing on the free day in Lake Tahoe on the Prologue.  They haven’t done much climbing on their tandem, and want to see how it would go.

We get up a bit early, hoping to leave by 8am to do the easy side of Kingsbury Grade, and return by 10am for Randall Braun’s ride to Echo Lake (echo lake).

We leave a little late, and I mention to Randall that I wasn’t sure we’d be back by 10am, and he suggests that we take Pioneer Trail, and meet up at HW 50/South Upper Truckee at 11, instead.  That sounds good, as none of us had ridden that.  He told me his route to the meeting place.

I lead the way, since I’d looked at the maps and had been in Tahoe before.  I picked the main roads, not knowing that road work was in progress.  Partway there, near the Y, the bike lane was closed, so we took over the slow lane.  We went a little farther, and the slow lane was also closed, so we took over the *only* lane in our direction.

We try to go fast, so as not to block traffic too much.  I think we were doing close to 20mph through there.  Although it was a bit stressful, I was happy to point out to Don and Barbara that no one had honked at us!  We made it into Nevada, and turned onto Kingsbury Grade.

Kingsbury Grade from the Tahoe side doesn’t climb much more than 1000′; the grade seems around 7% according to the gradiometer I bought for $3 off John Mazzella years ago.  Traffic wasn’t bad, but when I saw one HUGE truck climbing up, I got off the road and motioned Don and Barbara to do the same.

Signs at the top said this was a 9% grade!  The math doesn’t add up; 9% x 3 miles would 1800′. Perhaps there were some sections of 9%.

After some photos, we head back down and look for Pioneer Trail.  It came up quickly, so we ended up making a square turn.  It has a gentle grade and is quite pretty.  I got a photo of a bike route sign that had a typo and another mistake.  I started talking to a cyclist going our way.  He introduced himself as Rabbi Jonathon, and as we chatted, we realized we were both from New York, and that he went to my high school! (We didn’t meet there, he graduated 9 years later).
When we hit the downhill, the tandem left me in the dust using their LBS (pounds).  Part of me wanted to race to catch up, but then I decided to take a picture of the lupin, and take it easy.

We hit HW 50, and saw the bike path.  I try to ride over the dirt to get there, and almost fell over; the dirt was looser than I’d expected.  We walk to the path, and get to go a couple hundred feet along it before we’re off the path and in a bike lane on HW 50. Whoopee.

We arrive at the rendezvous a bit early, and Randall isn’t there.  We consider backtracking his route.  Don is short of water, and takes the tandem back to a gas station, while Barbara and I talk.  Randall shows up from a different direction!  He didn’t want to spoil the surprise of the next day’s riding, so he took a different route.  It all worked out.

We start up Meyers Road, and I hear people mention “Log Cabin”.  This is on the photo scavenger hunt list (a surprise idea from Connie)!  I ride off to the right near the lower gate to get a photo, and someone in the cabin comes out to tell me that this is where the Vikingsholm caretakers lived!  The cornicework was added as a tribute to Vikingsholm.  I use the ascent to take photos of a lot of the riders.  We had seen Vikingsholm from the dinner cruise last night.

Crossing HW 50 at the top of Meyers is not fun.  Cars come downhill fast, and there’s a turn so you can’t see as far uphill as you’d like.  As I am approaching the summit of Meyers, I hear someone getting honked at.  Someone took exception to Mike McGeough crossing HW 50.  It was suggested the people cross the road quickly, and ride the wrong way on the opposite shoulder.  Not legal, but safer.

Across 50, the road may have a different name, perhaps Echo Summit Road.  We get a history lesson from a man in suspenders; cargo was winched up to Echo Lake, and came down Myers Road into Tahoe.

At the store in Echo Lake, many of us chip in $5 (Randall’s idea), and we got bread, lunchmeat, mayonnaise, chips, vodka dip(!), etc. to share.  We ate at the picnic area that had been covered in snow a few weeks earlier.  Now, the ground was just squishy.  We sit on the benches, tabletops, and logs that were available.  Someone had spread mayonnaise on a slice of bread and left it, and I put my sleeve right in it!  The “bathrooms” there were of the cement portapotty type; no running water.  I rinsed the sleeve out in Echo Lake before seeing the sign about not contaminating the water.  Oops!  Well, it already had at least one Cheeto in it.  I saved one loaf of bread, and carried it back inside my jersey for use by the Prologue.  (Does this loaf make me look fat?)

As we get ready to go, I realized that in my rush to leave in the morning, I hadn’t put on any sunblock.  I borrow some to put on my nose, but I was quite pink for a day.

We return down Meyers to HW 50, and get to use a bit more of the bike path than on the way out.  We duck under the construction tape to make use of an almost-open Bikeed bridge just before Sawmill Road.  To get back “quickly”, most of us go over Tahoe Mountain Road.  The name should have been a  hint.  It had several hundred vertical feet of climb, perhaps at 10%.  Then the road changes names and zigzags before depositing us on Fallen Leaf Road.  We did this in the other direction the next day.

Two of the group take off for Fallen Leaf Lake (I think it was Vickie and Karin), which I understand is also quite pretty.  I want to get back to camp, so I lead the remaining riders down 1.5-lane-wide Fallen Leaf Road.  About 1 mile from camp, I could feel my rear tire going flat.  I’d had a rash of rear flats lately, which is one reason I didn’t try the loop into Nevada that Alison, Franz, and Anne went on.

We make it back to camp, and the little bike shop at the entrance has a 25C Michelin tire for $17, just a little wider than I usually use.  I replace the tire (which I finally notice is a bit worn), the tube, and just in case, I add some electrical tape over the rim tape (this puncture seems to be on the spoke side of the wheel).  It’s been two weeks now, and no rear flats!

See more photos

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by Brian Chun

Vince Cummings and Brian Chun biked from home and then merged at Landess and Morrill Rd. @ 6:15 am, starting from Milpitas, taking short stops in Livermore, Carnegie motocross park, and the Patterson Jack in the Box on Sperry Rd. Russ left much later with the Reverse Hamilton Challenge group (Sheila, Hoags, Guy, Kryia, Ken Emerson, McGeoughs) to overtake Brian at Del Puerto Canyon @ mile ~20 and later catching Vince, then passing Brian again along Isabel canyon after stopping with Vince at the Junction.

Brian climbed with and then changed a soft tube at the closed Lick Observatory (locked shut, no restrooms or soda machine access), arriving much later after Russ and Vince, then went home with Safeway and Taco Bell stopovers. Cold evening San Jose winds, total time a whopping 1600 hrs for 178 miles (home start) 8709′ with the last 2 miles of Mt. Ham backside at hiking, not biking, speed.

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