Author: James

I rode out along the west side of the river to Lake Chelan with most of the group. We had a double paceline going into the wind which made good time. Then we fragmented once we turned into Navarre Coulee road for a nice climb on quiet roads up to the lake. I arrived there over an hour ahead of schedule, for meeting Susan and the kids, so pottered around at the SIR food stop for a while until they arrived. Then headed into a nearby campground with a play area for the kids to run around and explore.

Eventually left to ride back by myself along the way I’d come. Unlike last year, this year I actually had a tailwind all the way back which made the ride much more pleasant than the slog at the end of the 200K last year.

All in all, a good way to end 4 days of riding in the sun.

Lake Chelan

Mileage: 76 miles

Average Speed: 15.8 mph

Elevation Gain: 3860 ft

A shorter day today as we were all going to go to the carnival in the afternoon. I followed the same route up Badger Mountain that I rode last year (after omitting a 20 mile loop at the start before the main climb).

Susan and the kids met me near the summit and then we all spent some time hanging out at the top before a speedy descent back down to the Inn.

Near the summit

At the summit

Mileage: 52 miles

Average Speed: 12.3 mph

Elevation Gain: 5558 ft

All of the group were heading out on the same route today and we picked up speed taking advantage of a light tail wind (and Chris Ragsdale pulling the group along). I was on my regular road bike today which made sticking with the group easier. Gradually the lead group whittled down as we kept going at about 25mph.

Once it was down to 5 people I got dropped on a hill and settled down to riding with a couple of other people as they caught up and we formed a second group. Legs felt good up the first main hill but felt the distinctive feel of a rear puncture towards the top. Stopped and took a while to fix it only to get on my bike and ride around the corner to find the SIR support stop nearer than expected. Would have walked up and fixed it there if I’d known!

Thankfully that was my lot of punctures over for the trip.

Had a nice long climb up Stemilt road and then decided to do the “bonus” climb up the Mission Ridge ski area to test the legs. That climb was reminiscent of Mt. Baker, except at a steady 10% rather than 6% grade. Then it was all downhill back to the Inn and a nice Italian dinner.

Mileage: 78 miles

Average Speed: 11.7 mph

Elevation Gain: 9631 ft

I rode my fixed gear for its first extended ride (I’d ridden it a couple times commuting last week). I don’t have clipless pedals for it yet so I was braking more than should be necessary on the down hills and had a hard time staying with the group on the descents. As the bike will only go as fast as my legs will go around and I didn’t really want my feet coming off the pedals and getting hit by the pedal continuing its rotation I kept it at around 25mph max.

It was a pleasant enough ride and the bike handled well on the climbs. It was an out and back route and there was a really strong headwind coming back which was a bit of a slog. You know it’s a strong wind when you’re going downhill, standing, and only doing about 8 mph.

5 miles from the finish back at the hotel there was a loud clattering from my back wheel and I stopped to investigate. I’d run over a large nail which had gotten jammed between my tire and brake and torn my tire side wall.

I got the wheel off and booted the tire with a dollar bill (with the help of Steve holding my bike while I worked and providing morale support). It all held together to get me back to the Inn and the end of a successful first day.

Faster than the girls, just …

Mileage: 61 miles

Average Speed:14 mph

Elevation Gain: 4162 ft

Today it rained, snowed and shined (multiple times) but we still made it up to the school for a couple hours of bike riding practice. This time Caitlin got one of the smaller bikes as well and gave it a try without the pedals. She quickly wanted the pedals back on as she felt that would be easier but by the end was practicing gliding with them off again.

Ashley’s gliding really came along and she had a brief try with pedals on. She went for the best part of 2 hours and was enjoying herself for the whole time (had to be dragged away). Tuesday, the next session, should see the breakthrough to actual pedaling!

Ashley on bike

Caitlin on bike

Dad on bike

Helping Caitlin

Ashley solo

The pedals go back on!

A momentous day yesterday as Ashley started down the path of learning to ride without training wheels as part of her school’s cycling program. I took the pedals of her bike in the morning and we walked it up to school (her sitting on it for part of the way and pushing herself along).

After school she, a couple other kindergarteners, and of course Caitlin on her 3 wheeler, met up with her PE teacher to start practicing. They started by pushing themselves along with their feet (with the seat down as low as it could go) and got the hang of balancing by gliding for progressively longer distances. Once they get the hang of that the pedals will go back on and they’ll start really tearing around the school playground.

Ashley was delighted with herself as she glided for longer distances. (Though was hyperventilating a bit with nervousness at some stages. 🙂 )

Here are some action shots.

Pre-ride briefing (spot the sister on the 3 wheeler)

Delighted with herself

Stabilizing hand

Downhill glide

Gliding along

The results are in for the 300K at the start of April. There were 57 riders (56 of whom finished). It’s difficult to compare times between rides due to differing terrain and conditions so one way I’m using to get a feel for my level of improvement is to compare my position within the pack.

My time of 16:00 hours was in the middle of the pack with 23 riders with a faster time (i.e. 40% of the people beat my time).

Last years 300K had 106 riders, with 96 finishers. While my actual time was essentially identical, 16:04, 60 people were faster than me then (i.e. 56% of the people beat my time).

So am I improving or were there more strong riders out last year during the PBP year? Who knows? It doesn’t really matter but is fun to look at.

We’ll see how the 400K goes next month.

Here’s a shot of my new bike. All set to enter the world of fixed gear riding.

I went with the Redline 925 in the end.

As I’m bike shopping at the moment for a new fixed gear/single speed bike I thought I’d put up a picture of the last time I rode a single speed.

Matching pairs of mamacharis were our means of transportation around Utsunomiya when we lived there in 1997/98.

10 years on and I think what I’ll be riding will look slightly different … but could well be less useful 🙂

Twas a fine soft day.

The 2008 brevet season has started and Saturday was the Spring 300K ride (actually 190 miles). 50 of us started out from Lacey (near Olympia) at 7am.

A 7am start doesn’t sound too bad until you factor in a late night with friends playing Rockband and a 4 am alarm going off to allow me to have breakfast and drive down to the start on time. Still I kept telling myself that 3 hours sleep just allowed me to practice riding sleep deprived for the longer rides later in the season.

The ride started in Lacey and headed out to Johnson Point and back for some nice rolling countryside. A quick tour of downtown Olympia followed, then south through the rolling hills of Capital Forest and down to Vader, Chehalis, and Centralia checking out some of the areas that were flooded this winter. Returning north past the steam plant, more rolling back roads brought us back to Lacey. All in all about 7000+ feet of climbing. Think of it as a hilly one day STP, for those familiar with that ride in the NW.

The rain actually held off until around midday and then came down pretty steadily for the rest of the ride. I did the first 100K in around 4 ½ hours, the second in 5 ½ or so and the 3 rd in 6 (from my rough calculations as my GPS ran out of batteries after 150 miles). I finished at 11 pm, 16 hours after starting (beating my time from last year by … 4 minutes).

It was a bit of a shock to the system as I’d missed the 200K last month so my longest ride since PBP last year has been around 80 miles. A bit of a jump in mileage but I got into my rhythm and the miles trundled along.

Couple of points of note where some of the nice long climbs in the area, my arms taking a battering from the chip seal (need to consider wider tires as people on 38s seemed pretty comfortable relative to my 25s), a very welcoming manned control at mile 153 at the top of the penultimate hill where about 7 volunteers were gathered under the SIR canopy; refilling water bottles, making hot chocolate, dolling out pizza and anything else you needed. It was a much appreciated rest stop before heading off into the fading light for the final stretch.

I think I’ll try some liquid food on the 400K next month as I found it tough to find decent stuff to eat at the various stores along the way and relied on a lot of junk snacks which I don’t think kept me with sustained energy for the whole ride. My energy levels were flagging for a bit during the middle of the ride as I started to bonk. It’s a fine balancing act getting nutrition levels right for a long day or multiple days in the saddle.

I rode with various people during the course of the day and as always it was fun to see the range of people attracted to this sport, from riders on their first 300K to seasoned long time randonneurs.

Now that the aches have faded I’m starting to look forward to the 400K next month (and some warm weather riding at Northwest Crank in Wenatchee later this month).

Rolling hills (Johnson Point)

Photos from Seattle Randonneur (http://tinyurl.com/48bwsd)