Year: 2010

Selected photos from the various rides on the remaining 3 days.

Friday was a day of climbing (~70 miles with 3 decent climbs). The last one was up to the Mission Ridge ski area. It’s always a good sign of a decent climb when you reach snow level.

Susan and the kids drove over Friday night so on Saturday I decided to do a straight climb up Badger Mountain from the front side so that I’d be back for the afternoon (~40 miles). 2 1/2 hours of steady climbing from the hotel door. Eric and Maggie caught up to me for the last couple miles to the summit where we relaxed for a bit at the SIR support and then turned for a fast descent. It started sleeting and hailing on the way down so it was good to lose a bit of altitude and get back into the sun.

Saturday afternoon saw us heading over to Ohm gardens. (My legs felt the slopes a bit walking around with Ethan on my back 🙂 )

Sunday was the 200k (126 mile) ride and a magnificent loop around the east of Wenatchee. A good climb followed by Rift Valley type landscape on the other side of the mountains.

Northwest Crank – Day 1 Thursday (Wenatchee to Ephrata)

The day greeted us with clear blue skies and temperatures in the 70’s. A pleasant change from the rain and overcast skies in Seattle.

We all headed off at 9am towards Quincy. A brisk tailwind kept the pace high and I was glad I was riding a bike with gears this year. The last time I was out here two years ago I rode my fixie on this ride and was spinning out and unable to keep up with the group. The max speed on my fixed gear with it’s current gearing is about 25mph (and at that speed my legs are really spinning!).

About 15 miles into the ride everyone, except me, took a left turn to head up to Pallisades. I’d decided not to go that route due to 6 miles of gravel which I thought my tires might not be wide enough to deal with. I heard later that they would have been OK.

Anyway I found myself all alone heading east towards Quincy and Ephrata. It was a great day though and I didn’t mind. Here’s a shot from the side of the road en route.

I made good time to the half way turn around at Ephrata and as there was no time pressure decided to have a proper lunch. The good thing about these rides is that all that matters is calories as you’ll be burning through whatever you eat. This was my oh so healthy lunch.

Then is was time to head back and face the headwind. It was very strong from the get go and I settled into a fairly slow pace. About 10 miles later I saw a group of 4 people behind me which was a welcome sight. This was the lead group from the Pallisades option who had looped around and were now returning on the same route as me. I latched on to them and picked up the pace considerably (they are all strong riders and towed me along for the next 20 miles or so to a manned support stop).

Grabbed a quick sandwich and then it was time for the final stretch back to the Inn (22 miles or so). The winds were even stronger here and it was difficult to get a good draft even with the group. Eventually they pulled away from me and I was left to battle in by myself. You know it’s a strong wind when you descending a steep downhill and if you stop pedaling the wind actually brings you to a standstill!

It really made you feel you were out in the elements. I got back to the Inn around 5pm. Now we’ll see how the body recovers ahead of tomorrow’s hilly ride.

P.S. This was dinner

A light drizzle saw our group of 36 riders take off at 7am on Saturday morning from the start just outside Starbucks. The “fast” riders promptly took off into the distance, finishing eventually in 11:37 hours (exactly 4 hours ahead of me). I rode with the second group for the first couple of hours but eventually had to drop off the back as we hit our first climbs at Chuckanut Drive. The pace was a little faster than my body was feeling up to so I decided to continue at my own tempo along the 8 mile rolling climb.

Got a bit of everything on this ride with rain, hail, wind and, if not sun, at least glimpses of blue sky. I was even tempted to take off some of my rain gear at some points.

The middle stretch was a bit of a slog into the wind and I wasn’t feeling particularly fast. Hopefully the spring camp in Wenatchee and a series of back to back days will get my legs faster for the longer rides ahead.

An unfortunate incident in the final stretch back along Highway 20. It was dark at this stage and three of us were riding in a pace line in the wide shoulder alongside the road. The lead rider didn’t spot a curb jutting out into the shoulder until the last moment and swerved very late. The rider behind him went down and I had no where to go and went down as well. There’s a sinking feeling when you know there’s nothing you can do to avoid a crash and just hope for the best. I hit the ground on my left side but all my rain gear protected me from any real road rash. I quickly got up to get the bike, and myself off the road, and then checked for damage. I’d scraped up my elbow a bit and bruised my hip. The front wheel wasn’t turning but I was able to straighten it out in the lights of  a concerned car full of people who had stopped to see if any assistance was needed. Fortunately the other rider was OK as well.

Then it was back on the bike for the final 25 miles before I could seize up. It would have sucked to DNF that close to the finish after over 160 miles.

Ultimately finished in 15:37 near the back of the field.

A break from the SIR rides this weekend as I’m going to do next weekend’s Bellingham 300k rather than the one being held this weekend.

I decided to join the Cascade Training series ride that was going from Magnuson Park around Mercer Island for a quick training ride to focus on raising my cruising speed. I rode with the Purple group who average 18-20 mph on the flats, apparently the Orange group, while stated as 21mph+, can range up to 25 so I left that group for another day.

I like the loop around Mercer Island and it was a good chance to do it at a decent pace. A front group of about 10 people broke away once we picked up the pace a bit on Mercer Island and I rode with them comfortably enough (until a slow puncture near the end of the loop made my bike start responding pretty strangely and I slowed down to nurse it in to the regroup before we headed back over the I90 bridge). I swapped out the tube and was good to go by the time everyone had caught back up.

I saw a couple people I knew from previous rides which was fun. The Cascade rides have a bit of a different feel to them than the SIR ones but it was a nice reminder of my first season training for STP in 2005.

Here’s the elevation for the ride:

I got up at 5am for the drive up to Bellingham for the start of my first brevet of the season. The fine weather forecast and build up to the ride on the mailing list resulted in about 80 people showing up. Not bad considering there had been a 200k the previous weekend that most people had ridden in as well.

I got on to a fast group of 25-30 people for the 30 mile run to the first control. We were moving at a great fast pace. The advantage of a large group means it’s much easier to move at a faster pace without needing to work as hard. The first control was a quick stop to get cards signed and then straight back on the road. Unfortunately there was a traffic light immediately which split the group and I saw the bulk of the group vanish up the road. I got a chase group going with the 6 of us who had been caught at the light but to no avail. Eventually had to ease back on the pace as it became apparent that we weren’t going to be able to reel in the pack.

We still were making good time and I eventually rode in a group of 3 with Ray and Dennis to the next control (with one bonus hill of about 2 miles thanks to a missed turn).

The next stretch from 60-90 miles was along Chuckanut drive out of Bellingham, a lovely stretch of scenic rollers. At this stage I was riding with Ray and Shan (who I rode most of the rest of the ride with).

We passed an enormous field of daffodils in full bloom approaching LaConner and after the left hand bend onto Fir Island road one of the fields had tens of thousands of snow geese covering the field and periodically taking flight to fly in mass around the area.

There were heavy winds for the last 30 miles of the ride which made it a bit more challenging and dropped the pace a bit. Unfortunately they were cross winds and there was too much traffic to form a proper echelon to take advantage of drafting so it was pretty much everyone for themselves slogging it out.

It was a lovely sunny day and I ended up with a personal best time for this distance of 8:50, 5 minutes better than my previous best set in 2007. I ended up leaving Ray and Shan for the last 2 miles and time trailing it in to make sure I beat it. My legs felt the 2 mile sprint once I finished but it was a nice way to end the ride.

I’m still waiting to see what the fastest times were but I know that most of the people in the group I started with for the first 30 miles finished in around 7:20 which is pretty impressive! (I ended up 32nd of the 84 riders which is around my usual place somewhere between the middle of the pack and the top third)

Highlights for the ride included:

1) fast group for first 30 miles

2) large flocks of white snow geese sweeping through the sky

3) large field of yellow daffodils

4) time trialing the last 2 miles at 20 mph+ to get best time

5) lovely sunny day and good company

Elevation profile (deceptive as while the last stretch was pretty flat it was all into strong head and cross winds)

The route map and our loop around NW Washington