Instead of racing today I decided to be on the other side of the camera and photograph the San Jose Bicycle Club Four Person Team Time Trial. At first I was not sure where to upload the photos since I usually put the personal photos on our own SmugMug account and the ACTC photos on the ACTC’s SmugMug account. I decided to install Gallery2 on my website and put them there. [See Photos]
I also installed a sidebar to show the recent albums uploaded. You can see that in the right side bar.
I can embed thumbnails of images from the Gallery 2 photo album into this blog post, as shown below.
This past weekend, Paul and Franz competed as a two man relay team in the 25th Furnace Creek 508 bicycle race (see Prairie Dog Team Website). We were lucky to have Russ and Sheila crew again for us. We started on Saturday morning at 9:00 am and finished on Sunday afternoon at 5:17 pm, for a total time of 32 hours, 17 minutes.
Watch Our Video
Preparation
We started the trek on Friday. After loading up the van with bikes and supplies we headed down to Santa Clarita.
We had a few mishaps on the way down. The first one was Paul seeing in his rear view mirror that one of his spare wheels had bounced off the top of the van. We were on a freeway so we had to go to the next exit several miles down and back track. It was hard to figure out where the wheel was, so we stopped at a rest stop and searched. Sheila finally found it, still in good condition.
The other mishap was some exploding coke cans. We had put them near the dry ice to cool them fast, but they froze and exploded.
After arriving, Russ and Paul worked on getting the signs on the van and then we had the inspection.
Saturday morning it was up early and get ready. Since the start hotel was not that far from where we were staying, Franz decided to just bike over there instead of try to put his bike up on the top of the van.
Start Line
It was a lot of fun to have so many friends at the start doing the race on other teams. Franz, Gary F. and Joe F. were at the starting line.
Eight Stages
Franz did the “A” rider stages again this year so he started out with the first stage from the start to California City.
We had a police escort for the first 5 miles. The support vehicles have to drive out to the 24 mile mark and wait for the rides.
The 84 mile ride over to California City was fast with both a tailwind and a cross wind at times. Franz arrived at 1:25 pm and made the hand off to Paul. He then headed to Trona.
Paul made very good time on this state, averaging 20.3 mph.
This year we were doing much better which allowed us to drive the support vehicle on to Trona and wait. Last year we had to go into the follow the rider mode at 6 pm. Since we could get to the time station before 6 pm, we could drive ahead and be ready before Paul finished the stage. Franz decided to switch to his bike with the triple since he would be climbing Townes Pass.
Paul arrived at 5:27 PM, and Franz made my way towards Townes Pass as the sun was setting.
One stage that Franz didn’t feel like he did well on last year was this stage 3, from Trona to Furnace Creek. This year his time was 6:03 compared with 7:17 last year, so nearly a 45 minute improvement.
It was now dark as Franz started to climb up Townes Pass. Unlike last year, it was much warmer, but there was a strong headwind. Once he reached the summit, Franz switched to his other bike, which had the bright light on it. It was then a 5,000 foot drop down into Death Valley, then the long ride over to Furnace Creek.
At 10:56 pm, Paul took over and started the stage to Shoshone. That involves considerable climbing, up out of the Death Valley.
He arrived at 5:27 am, so we needed to do a night time switch, which meant Franz could not get out of the car and get the bike ready until after Paul reached the time station. It was still dark as Franz left for Baker. After 7:00 am, the support van could go ahead and get to Baker in time for Paul to enjoy a milkshake before Franz arrived.
Franz came flying into Baker at 8:53 am.
The stage to Baker was slower than last year but there was a headwind instead of the tailwind Franz had enjoyed previously. He was glad to get off the bike, if he could only get his leg over it! But when he did he found they had bought him a cheeseburger and fries. Wow that was great.
Powered by the milkshake, Paul made his way towards Kelso.
At 11:30 AM, Paul arrived at Kelso and Franz took the hand off and headed to Almost Amboy.
Being his last stage, Franz took off fast with the plan to ride this 33 miles as fast as he could, despite the climbing. Besides Franz had that power from the cheeseburger that he had eaten in the van on the way over.
After the 2,200 foot climb, it was a very long descent down to Almost Amboy. It was not as fast as last year when we had the tail wind but Franz still was able to average 18.9 mph. Paul then started the last stage to the finish.
The Finish
Just before the finish, as is customary, Franz got back on the bike so we could cross the finish line together.
It was really the effort of the entire team, both riders and crew, that made this such a rewarding experience.
We were happy we finished 69 minutes faster than last year and within 7 minutes of our target (See Results).
Five us (Eric, Doug, Kley, Luke and myself), all finished the Everest Challenge. Doug took my photo (above) after finishing the event. Doug came in 2nd place in the Masters 55+ and I can in 5th place with a total time of 14:47:48 (see official results). Kley and Luke competed in the Masters 45+ category. Eric was riding in the non timed category.
The Event
This USCF two day stage race is the California/Nevada State Climbing Championship and is considered the hardest two day USCF race. It was the most difficult cycling event I have ever completed, with over 200 miles and 29,035 feet of climbing.
DAY 1
Saturday we left the motel in Bishop and drove 6 miles north to the ride start. It was a bit cool, around 49 degrees. I decided to put on knee warmers, vest and arm warmers. The Masters 55+ started first at 6:45 along with all the female Pro/CAT1-5 racers. There was 11 men and probably 50 women racers. For the first 8 miles it was a neutralized start, so the pace was only about 18 mph on a mostly flat road. With the cool air I wanted to go faster to warm up. Doug was riding beside me and shivering so much his bike was shaking. Then the climbing started and the faster riders took off. I stayed with the leaders for awhile but I had already decided to keep my heart rate below 158 due to the two day event, so I backed off a bit. I mentioned to Doug that the guy up front was the one who won last year so he started to chase them.
From the very beginning I felt my legs were sore, even though I had take a couple of days off the bike. I think I did too much training in the week before the event. I realize that I had already climbed about 25,000 feet in the 7 days prior to starting the Everest Challenge. That would mean by the time I finished the two days I would climb almost 55,000 feet in 9 days. I think I should have tapered more.
I was riding my newer bike with a double crank. The first climb was up to Mosquito Flat. At 10,250 feet it is the highest paved road in the Sierras. It was cool for the entire 22 mile climb with an average grade of 5%, maximum of 11%. I reached the summit at 9:50 am. The descent was fast (over 41 mph) but still cold so I was glad I had worn what I had on. We biked over to the second climb up Pine Creek to 7,420 feet. On the climb I was passed by the first Pro/CAT1 male riders who had started 55 minutes after we did. It was the easiest climb of the day, with an average grade of 7% and nothing over 9%. I reached the summit at 11:55am and my average speed from the start was now up to 13.2 mph. It was now getting warm so after the descent I stopped to take off some clothes.
I reached the 3rd climb at 12:38 pm. This is a 20.4 mile climb up to Bishop Creek at 9,835 feet. It averaged 6%, but the last mile had some sections at around 15%. I was doing the math in my head. So far I had biked 6:04 so I was thinking if I made this climb in under two hours, I would be able to finish in around 8 hours. Certainly I could climb 6,000 feet over 20.4 miles in 2 hours, right? Wrong! It was a long climb with virtually not portions that leveled off to provide any recovery. The legs started to yell at me, enough is enough! The last 3 miles had some very steep sections which tested my tired legs. I started to cramp and had to stop for a couple of minutes before I could go on. I was a bit disappointed in how I did until I heard from others who seemed to have suffered also. Even Doug said he had cramped on that part. I finally reached the finish line at the summit at 3:13 pm. My average heart rate was 145 for the day and I had averaged 12.4 mph. You can see from the graph below I was keeping my heart rate out of the red zone through out the day. My total time from the start was 8:26:40, which was 5 minutes faster than my calculated best possible time.
DAY 2
I was determined to do Day 2 smarter. They were handing out filled water bottles on Day 1 but I had mistakenly taken some water bottles that I didn’t want to give up, so this meant extra time when I had to stop to refill my water bottles. This time I took other bottles that I was glad to get rid of. I also skipped the knee warmers to avoid the wasted time to stop and get off the bike to take them off. The biggest change however was I decided to use my old bike with a triple (which I had luckily brought along). The climbs on Day 1 were fine with a double (except the last part of the last climb) but I knew that tired legs would not work as well.
We got up at 6 am, loaded the car with everything, since we were checking out. It was a 16 mile drive south to Big Pine for the start. The temperature there was colder than for Day 1, at 42 degrees. We started again with the women racers at 6:45 am.
The neutralized start took us 3 miles back over highway 395 to where we started towards Palisade Glacier, starting at 3,940 feet and finishing at 7,800 feet. It was a tough climb, averaging 8%. I noticed immediately that I could not get my heart rate up as high as the prior day, a clear sign I was fatigued. It was warming fast so the cold temperature was not much of a factor for long. It was a beautiful hill to climb, especially up near the turn around point, which I reached at 8:20 am. There was a water stop there but I was prepared and didn’t need to stop riding. I just threw my empty water bottle into a bin and took a filled one and then off down the hill. When I reached speeds of around 40 mph, the bike started to shake a bit, which is why reason why I don’t like to descend on my old bike, so I had to brake to keep the speed under 40 mph.
Once I reached the bottom, it was biking the 3-4 miles back to the start for the easiest climb of the two days, up the Death Valley Road to 6,545 feet in 8.5 miles. With an average grade of 5% it seemed like we were not really climbing. I did not see any riders in front or behind me so I started to wonder if I had missed a turn. Then the lead rider from the men’s pro racers passed me. I reached the summit at 9:53 and did a slow turn around without dismounting, grabbing another water bottle and a Cliff Bar, which I ate on the way down. During the descent it was now clear we had actually climbed quite a bit since I was able to get up to about 31 mph.
After passing the start once again, I turned right to head up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. It was a 21 mile climb up to 10,100 feet with an average grade of 6%. But the bottom third had a long section with 9-12% grade so I was glad I had the lower gearing and really use it. This was the last climb of the event and seemed to go on forever. Even though I was putting in a full effort, my heart rate would only go above 142, compared with Day 1 when I was holding back to keep it below 158. I already knew the top 3 miles would be tough and they didn’t disappoint. The grade was averaging 10%, but sometimes steep. Even some of the young racers that we just now catching me were not going past me very fast as they were grinding it out. It was one of the hills where you can look up and see the miles ahead and wonder how in the world will you ever make your way up to the top. After a brutal climb to within 1.5 miles of the finish the grade did become a tad easier but was still hard. I crossed the finish line at 1:06 pm, with a total riding time of 6:21:08. My average heart rate had been 138 for the day and I have averaged 10.4 mph. You can see from the chart below the lower heart rate compared with the first day (click to enlarge)
Overall
Overall for the 2 days, I finished in 14:47:48, coming in under my goal of 15 hours. I was amazed I was only a single minute off my estimated best time. I am pretty sure I had the best time for anyone 60 or older, but they don’t have that category anymore. The last time they had a category for 60+, the winner was 40 minutes slower than my time.
I am happy that the event is over but did really enjoyed it. We had fantastic weather and the support at the event was as good as it ever gets.
Next up is the Furnace Creek 508, in less than 2 weeks!
It was only 5 days ago that we were in Utah and I rode up Alpine Loop to see the snow from a recent storm. I did not take a jacket and was very cold on the way down. Today’s long ride out to the junction was HOT HOT HOT. Kind of like out of the kettle into the fire.
I was leading a long ride for the bike club. The official start was in San Jose, but I figured starting from Morgan Hill would be the same distance, please riders said they were going to meet us along the way. To meet meet the timing I would have had to start biking from home at 6:30 am, but it was still dark so I asked Ann to drive me 6 miles towards Morgan Hill and I started there, at about 6:55 am. It was warm enough, despite the early hour, that I did not need any arm warmers. Ten minutes later I met Gary F and we rode together up Monterey to Bailey. We then made our way over and did the first climb of the day, Metcalf. I did the climb slower than usual because I had a long ride ahead. We had to wait at the top for any riders to show up and then only two did.
We then started down the backside and were met by Russ and Joe F. Not long after that Cindi S. was coming the other way and turned around to join the group. We made our way of to Quimby for the second climb. Quimby is a nasty climb of nearly 2,000 feet with some sections that approaches 20% grade. I had not really tried to time the climb up there for years so I did push a bit harder to see how I was doing compared with several years ago. Since those prior times were all set on a short ride, I felt good with my time which was less than a minute off my best time ever and better than I ever did in 2004.
Russ and Gary had gone ahead of me but the others were all behind. There was not waiting at the top of Quimby by the leaders so I headed down and to Mt. Hamilton road where I caught them getting water. We then had the long climb up to the top of Mt Hamilton. It was already getting hot. We passed Louise M. on the way up, she had started the climb earlier. Russ had reached the summit before anyone so Gary and I stopped just long enought to fill our water bottles then head down.
Due to the heat our plan was to turn around at the bottom and make the climb up Mt. Hamilton before it got too hot. Gary, Russ and I stopped at the Isabel Creek to wait for others. Then we started to talk about going to the junciton, per the orignal plan. No one else showed up so we headed out to the junction, not realizing how hot it was going to be.
I had a simple lunch, a turkey sandwich and some potato chips. Russ and Gary both had a big lunch with a lot of french fires. I thought I could never eat all those fires and climb up the backside.
We didn’t take too long to eat because we knew the temperatures would continue to rise. We each bought a Gatorade to stick in our back pocket because we knew that two water bottles would not be enough to make it back to the summit in this heat. I ended up drinking mine on the spot then filled the bottle with water to carry.
On the way back we saw a couple of cyclists headed in the same direction, pulled off the road resting in the shade. One yelled out that it was 112 degrees. I check my cyclometer and it was reading 112, although it tends to read high when in direct sunlight. But then my body was in direct sunlight!
The three of us were biking together until the last climb before we descending back to Isabel Creek for the start of the big climb. Then Russ started to move ahead and Gary started to fall behind. As we started to climb up the backside of Mt. Hamilton, I slowed was gaining on Russ but I could no longer see Gary. I caught Russ as we approached the spring at the 3 mile mark (3 miles from the top) so we stopped there to splash some water on ourselves and cool off. We waitd for awhile and still no Gary. I started to worry about him since he is a faster climber than I am.
A van was now coming up the hill so I flagged it down to see if they had seen a cyclists. As it was stopping I could see that Gary was in the van. I guess he had some issue so the driver offered to carry him to the top. Russ and I got back on our bikes and finished the climb to the summit. There we found Gary laying on the ground. He had become dehydrated, was cramping and even had the chills. I rush up to get him a cold drink and then he used some water to cool himself off. We knew we needed to wait for him to recover.
Eventually he wanted to go ahead and bike so we all started down the hill. Then it was a climb back over Quimby. After reaching the San Jose Valley we could really feel the heat again, after a bit of cooler temperatures at 4,000 feet summit of Mt. Hamilton. Russ headed his own wan and Gary and I headed back to Morgan Hill. Gary was not feeling well so we stopped at a McDonald’s to cool off and have some drinks. I wanted him to have more time to hyrate. We filled our water bottles with ice and water there and then headed back home.
I dropped Gary off in Morgan Hill and then biked home. It was past 6 pm when I finally finished. I had biked 135 miles and climbed nearly 13,000 feet. My HRM showed only 11,900 feet, but last time I did this same route it was 12,700 feet. We’ve been under a high pressure system resulting in a reduction of accumulated gain. I will use 12,800 since I did an additional climb up Santa Terresa to Miller this time. This was therefore the most climbing ever on a training ride.
If I had done all five passes on the Death Ride, I would have biked 6 miles less and climbed 2,000 feet more, so this was some training ride.
I finished, along with a limited group of 300 cyclists, stage 4 of the Tour of Utah, called the 300 Warriors. It was a great experience to ride a stage of a pro race on the same day when all the route signs were up (such as “KOM 5K”), and some of the people who had assembled early for the race cheering you on. Although the roads were not closed for us, we had a police escort for the first 15 miles.
We were the citizen riders so we started at 6 am on Saturday, 4 hours ahead of the professional riders. The 99 mile course started the 14,788 feet of climbing in Park City, Utah, traveled over to Midway, down Provo Canyon, then up over the Alpine Loop. We went down American Fork Canyon, over Suncrest to the Salt Lake Valley, took local roads over to Little Cottonwood Canyon, then the last big climb, up to Snowbird Ski Resort.
The 300 riders started in the dark. Even though it was August, it was cold, around 42 degrees. The route took us from Park City over a hilly course to Kamas then to Midway. After making one climb we had a very fast descent. It was too dark to see my speed, but when I checked my HRM later, it was 41 mph in the dark! I was hanging with the lead riders then, but the group was growing smaller with each climb. I stayed with them for about 25 miles. I was too far back in the peleton on a climb when I noticed a gap was opening up ahead of the riders in front of me. I made my way around the riders who were dropping off but I could not quite catch the leaders before they went over the crest. From that point I rode the course mostly sole, occasionally getting with one or two other riders for a few miles. After 33 miles I made it into Midway, averaging 21.5 mph, which was fast considering we had climbed over 1500 feet.
Ann drove SAG but I didn’t feel she needed to follow the course. After taking us to the ride start, she headed over to Midway where she was was waiting when I arrived. I made a very quick stop, just long enough to fill my water bottle and remove some of the clothes I had been wearing due to the cold temperatures at the start. Since we had been advise to not have the SAG’s try to go over the Alpine Loop, she then was able to head home for a short period then head over for the second meeting place at mile 70 on the route.
I was able to catch two other riders leaving Midway. Since we had 11 miles on highway 189, with a lot of traffic, I was hoping to ride with others to be more visible, but I eventually went ahead of the others. The ride from Midway to the start of the Alpine loop was more rollers. I reached the turn up the canyon faster than I expected, averaging 21 mph. The climb up the Alpine loop took me 1:05. I was keeping my heart rate down to the mid 150’s, knowing we had a lot of climbing ahead. After reaching the summit, at over 8,000 feet, we had a fast descent down American Fork Canyon. We were being held up by some cars driving down and had to make our way around some of them when we had a clear view. A few miles after reaching the valley, I arrived at the second meeting place where Ann was waiting.
She filled my water bottles and handed me a PBJ sandwich, which I ate as I took off again.
I felt I had enough to finish from there and so she headed to the finish at Snowbird. I turned right up Suncrest and reached the summit in 31 minutes. It was then a steep downhill to the Salt Lake Valley. Once I reached Wasatch Blvd, it was the start of a lot of climbing as I made my way to Little Cottonwood Canyon.
From there it was a very difficult climb. The grade was a bit steeper than Metcalf, and it seemed to go forever.
Maybe it was the miles at speed on my legs, but I had to grind it out. It took me 1:15 to reach the finish.
I finished in 6:29, which was 30 minutes faster than my goal. The pro winner of the race came in at 4:15. Some other well know pros were Oscar Sevilla at 4:17, Tom Danielson at 4:19 and Tyler Hamilton at 4:27. Danny Pate, Will Frischkorn and Freddy Rodrigues did not make the time cut. I was happy I was able to complete the 98 miles and 14,778 feet of climbing under 6 and half hours.
After eating lunch, we headed back to the finish where Ann and I waited for the Pros to arrive and so we could take their photos.
This chart shows my heart rate and altitude (click to elarge).
There has been an evolution from using only using heart rate measurements for training purposes to measuring the power output of the cyclists. To meet this need training method several approaches have been taken to develop power meters than read out the power in watts, being applied to the pedals.
Two Components
Most power meters are in two components. There is the mechanism to make the reading using something like a strain gauge. This is either built into the crank, the hub or some other part of the bike where power being applied to the pedals can be measured or estimated. Then there is the computer head which is mounted on your bicycle handlebar where you get the reading. The computer heads offer other cyclometer features including speed, distance, heart rate and even GPS on some models. The communication between the two components is either via a wire or wireless.
ANT+SportTM is a 2.4 GHz wireless network with standardized communication between devices including bike power sensors, speed sensors, cadence sensors and heart rate straps. This allows separate manufacturers to independently develop sensors and computers, allowing you to pick and choose your favorites to create a system that meets your needs. For example if you have a Garmin Edge 705 GPS based cyclometer, which offers not power measurement sensor, could be coupled with the SRM or Quarq crank to read out power and could be used instead of the computer heads offered by those companies.
This offering is from the Saris Cycling group (makers of the CycleOps cycling trainer). It uses a special hub and handle mounted computer to measure and display the power at the pedals. It requires a rear wheel with the PowerTap hub. There are wireless options. It adds weight to the bike due to the hub and the need to use a wheel that can accommodate the PowerTap hub. It is also expensive, especially for the wireless version. Although there is a 2.4 Mhz wireless option, it does not support ANT+SportTM so you are stuck using the PowerTap computer which really looks looks like a prototype built by an engineer for development and not a product ready for the mass market. It can be used on a bike trainer to measure your power output. Moving to another bike will require moving the wheel and the computer head.
Best For : Those looking for a reliable approach to measuring power and are willing spend considerable money and take a weight penalty.
This offering is from Schoberer Rad Messtechni. It uses a special crank to measure the power to the pedals. There are a variety of versions to match some of the popular cranks, including DurAce and SRAM. SRM supports ANT+Sport so you can either use it’s computer head (which kind of looks like a prototype) or another device that supports ANT+SportTM such as the Garmin 705 Edge or iBike.
Best For: Due to the extreme expense it is geared toward professional cyclists or those who are prepared to spend as much measuring power as they might spend on a good quality road bike.
This offering is from Polar, famous for heart rate monitoring. It uses a device to measure chain tension on the bike and transmit that to certain models of their heart rate monitor or cyclometers. It is can be difficult to calibrate and but once it has been it can have a reliable output. You do the power level read out on compatible Polar heart rate montiors (such as the 725i) or Polar Cyclometers. When used with the latest CS600 cyclometer, you can get an efficiency readout on the cyclometer. This efficiency is an estimate of what percentage of the calories being burned by your body go into moving your bike along, a step beyond just measuring power.
Best For: Those who use Polar advanced cyclometers or heart rate monitors and are looking for a lightweight and less expensive approach and are willing to go to the effort get it properly calibrated.
This offering from Velocomp is a relatively new approach. It is different in that it does not directly measure your power output as is done with the above products. It measures the parameters of what you work against and then calculates what your power would need to be to achieve the speed you are going. Except for the front wheel pickup it is all contained in a well designed computer head that is about as large as the computer for the PowerTap and weights 100g. You can also easily transfer from bike to bike. It has some negatives. It can not be used to measure power on a bike trainer. It also seems to have a short battery life due to using a non rechargeable watch type battery. It needs to be mounted so it gets a clean air flow since it uses wind speed in it’s calculations so use with aerobars can be difficult. Cost: Moderate to Expensive.
Best For: Those who are looking for a less expensive and very lightweight approach to estimating power. Those with aero bars should look elsewhere.
This offering is from Quarq and uses a special crankset to measure the power, similar to the SRM approach. It offers ANT+SportTM compatibility. It’s computer head is one of the more sophisticated cyclometers you can buy and has a GPS option. Cost: Expensive
I finished the very difficult Devil Mountain Double on Saturday. It is 206 miles with 18,600 feet of climbing. It is probably the most difficult double century in California. My final time was 15 hours, 32 minutes, a big improvement over last year
I was happy with my time since it was hot again. I got worried coming up Mines Road because of the heat and started to get a bad case of hot foot. There was a breeze this year that helped. I really focused on drinking all day, and took a lot of Endurolyte tablets. I was so worried about cramping again on the backside of Mt. Hamilton that I went up slower than I probably needed to, but I never did cramp anywhere on the ride.
I was also happy to make it to Norris Canyon, the last section, before dark. I don’t like biking on Crow Creek Canyon road in the dark due to all the traffic. I had carried my one pound light the entire day and could have got by with a small Cateye light.
I left the aero bars on the bike which was a good thing. It gave me an alternate position not only for my hands but when I am in the aero bars I get a different position on the saddle, which greatly helped to take some pressure off a tired butt. It was either that part of the body or my right foot that hurt the most.
This year I used my newer bike with only a double crank, but I had no big issue with the higher gearing. I would have preferred to climb up Sierra Road with a triple but the better handling of the newer bike was a benefit on the rest of the ride.
Summary
Here is a detailed comparison with doing the same event last year.
2007
2008
Body Weight
135
139
Bike Gearing
Triple (30/25)
Double (39/27)
Total Time (hr: min)
18:12
15:32
Riding Time (hr:min)
14:51
14:31
Avg. Speed (mph moving)
14.1
14.3
Stopping Time (hr:min)
3:21
1:01
Average Heart Rate (bpm)
136
136
Maximum Heart Rate (bpm)
167
169
Average HR Climbing Sierra (bpm)
142
146
Issues to Deal With
Significant Cramping
Significant Hot Foot
Weather
Hot No Wind
Hot With Breeze
Time Comparison
This chart shows my arrival times into the various rest stops. You can see that for the first 115 miles, up to the junction cafe, I did almost the same between both years. Last year my times slowed down considerably due to cramping on the backside of Mt. Hamilton. Click the chart below to view enlarge.
Stopping Time Comparison
This shows a comparision between my stopping time between years. Times shown are in minutes. Most of the improvement in the total time was due to a signficant reduction in the amount of stopping time at the rest stops.
Stop
2007
2008
Diablo Summit
6
1
Morgan Territory RS
5
4
Mines Rd RS
7
4
Junction Cafe
40
18
Cramping on Mt. Hamilton
25
0
Crother’s RS
47
9
Pet the Goat RS
35
2
Sunol RS
16
4
Other, stop lights, mini rest stops
20
19
Total Stopping
201
61
Last Time
I don’t plan on doing this event again. It is very difficult and takes out of you far too much. Since I had a difficult time last year, I wanted to do it again to see if I could do it right with better training and more of a focus on hydration during the event. Having accomplished that, I don’t feel a need to repeat it.
There were twelve club members who took on the Solvang Double Century challenge this year, including Joe Farinha, Dave Zajac, Jon Kaplan, Gary Franck, Barry Schwartz, Marnel King, Barbara Murphy, Fred O’Leary, Louise McCracken, Steve Sundstrom, Ken Emerson and myself. In addition I knew a couple of others that I ride with that joined the event. This is the account of my experience.
Last week I took a look at my data from last year trying to figure out how I could improve on my time. I wrote about my strategy in a prior personal blog entry.
Just as we did last year, I started with the 7:30 am group, the ones that wanted to be timed. Joining that group was Gary Franck, Joe Farinha and Kley Cordona. This 7:30 start group is made up of mostly fast riders. We had a large gathering, maybe over 40 riders. The pace was brisk but I didn’t feel over taxed. After 20 miles we turned to head up Foxen Canyon. This has two moderate climbs and after the second one there is a longer descent. It was on this second descent that I lost the group last year and never was able to catch back on.
My strategy this year was to stay right near the front of the pack for the second climb so I had a better chance to stay connected. It may be the fact that this year there were no tandems to chase down the hill, or that I had been working on descending down faster, but in any event this time I was able to stay connected to the front pack, something only about half the group were able to do. We lost the other half on either the climb or the descent and I knew that they would never be able to catch back on.
We stretched out to a single pace line. Except for a few wheel suckers at the back, everyone was taking a turn pulling, some longer pulls than other, which was okay. One guy, who was particularly strong, would ramp up the pace every-time he pulled. I found myself right behind him on a couple of rotations which meant I had to drive hard to hang on his wheel, then do a pull and still keep enough left to rotate to the back.
I had already planned to skip the first rest stop and sure enough this group went right by it. We made one wrong turn which costs us an extra 2 miles and some lost time trying to get back on course. There were some rollers right before the 2nd rest stop (our first one) that proved a bit difficult due to the pace. I was glad when we finally stopped with a total of 84.8 miles averaging 22.0 mph.
Some of the group had a very quick stop, just enough to fill water bottles. I needed a bit more time but was was able to get back on the bike in less than 6 minutes. There was only one other fellow from the 7:30 group who started with me by the name of John who was from Nevada. He and I biked together for awhile. We were soon joined by others from the 7:30 group that had taken a little longer at the rest stop. But there was a couple of young guys who were driving the pace too high for me, so I eventually dropped off the back. I slowed down to wait for John who had fallen off earlier. We biked together, taking turns pulling until we hit the check point at Morro Bay. We had to wait 1 minute there to get the dot to prove we had gone to the turn around point.
While riding through Morro Bay I hit a bad bump and came down on the back of my saddle, which tipped up the nose. I couldn’t get it to move back level. Although it was quite awkward to ride like that I decided I could not afford to stop so I rode that way until the lunch stop, which was another 14 miles from Morro Bay.
It took me about a minute to fix my saddle and then another 6 to 7 minutes to get some food. We saw some of the 7:30 riders leaving, so John and I jumped on our bikes and caught them.
We started to form a pace line behind a tandem and rode with that group for awhile but eventually some of us moved out ahead and we never saw the tandem again. Soon it was just John and I again as we pulled into our third rest stop with an average speed of the last section of 19.5 mph. The pace was clearly slower while we kept behind the tandem for those miles.
After a 5 minute stop John and I took off, again just the two of us. I hit another bump and my seat got tipped once again with the nose pointing up. I didn’t want to take the time to fix it again so I decided to just keep riding that way. It made it hard to use the aero bars but I felt maybe I could just wait until the next stop.
We were taking turns pulling but on one uphill grade on Highway 1, where I was pulling, I notice that John had fallen way off the back. I had been doing some calculations in my head and figured at this point I had some slight chance to finish under 10 hours so I made the decision to ride on solo, which I did for the last 50 miles. I had a thought of skipping the last rest stop completely but was down to a half of water bottle so I made a 1 minute stop for water. Fatigue was setting in so I was having a hard time keeping my heart rate up. Fortunately we had a tail wind now. There were several club members at that stop who had started earlier. One told me that Gary was about 10 minutes ahead of me, so I jumped on the bike to chase after him. I noticed at that point I had averaged 20.6 mph rolling from the start.
On the way up Drum Canyon, I heard a popping noise so I stopped to check my bike, only to find I had broken a spoke. That was so unexpected for a light guy like me. I wrapped the broken spoke around another spoke, opened up the brake, then jumped back on the bike and started to climb. I had yet to fix my saddle and wondered if I had time. I decided to stop again and to level the seat. As I started to climb again I kept worrying about breaking another spoke and was not sure how hard I should be torquing the pedals as I climbed. I decided to climb carefully, but steady. I was getting very tired and found it hard to do the math in my head to see if I could still finish under 10 hours. My rolling average speed had now dropped to 20.1. When I made it to the summit, I was wondering how fast I should go down, considering it is a rough road. I decided to ride down fast, just hoping no more spokes broke.
Periodically I would calculate again how much further I had to go and how much time I had left. It seemed to be an impossible task and I was about ready to give up trying to make it under 10 hours. I felt lucky to make all the traffic lights in Beulton, thinking one single stop was more than I could afford. That final uphill as you are entering Solvang was just about enough to kill my chance. I then started to hit the traffic in the town of Solvang so I turned right one block early to take a back street.
I finally made it to the end and clicked the split button on my Polar Heart Rate Monitor just as I came to a stop. I was almost afraid to look down but when I did it read 9 hours, 59 minutes and 51 seconds. Ann was there, a bit surprised I finished so fast. She watched my bike as I ran to check in. I had averaged 20.3 mph for the entire ride and had a total stopping time of less than 23 minutes. Funny thing was that I felt better than I did last year after finishing 43 minutes slower.
Today was a long distance training ride. The route started at the normal location and headed down to Bailey and then up Metcalf. I biked from my home and met up with Gary F. in Morgan Hill, timing it so we would meet the other riders on Metcalf. Four of us were route rebels and went off the published route after going up Metcalf. The great weather beckoned us to go up Quimby West. Then it beckoned us to to up Mt. Hamilton to the summit. We decided, why not go out to the junction for lunch. Three of us then descended down the backside of Mt. Hamilton and biked the 19 miles out to the junction cafe.
This would make a great long distance training ride route for the future. I biked from my home in Gilroy but a start in San Jose at Redmond and Meridian would end up with a good distance with a lot of climbing.
This chart show the climbs for the entire route. They are plotted against time so the slope should be a constant if I am climbing at an even rate in terms of feet per minute. You can see my heart rate never went that high because I was holding back on the climbs due the long distance I had to go. Click the graph to enlarge.
When I finally made it home just before dark I had logged 141 miles and 12,700 feet of climbing. I believe of all the training rides I have done this was both the longest and had the most climbing. It made for very good training ride for Devil Mountain Double since we had to do the backside of Mt. Hamilton after about 90 miles and and considerable climbing already. For DMD it is usually not the early climbs up Mt. Diablo and Morgan Territory, but the backside of Mt. Hamilton that takes it’s toll.
