RudAwkning
06-29-2009, 10:44 PM
I’ve finished my 2nd fixed gear double this season. Even with the relatively small amount of climbing (5500’), it was still proof that there’s no such thing as an “easy double”. They all pose their own set of challenges.
I pick up my friend Breden from the airport (he flew in from New Mexcio where he recently relocated to) and we drive down the day before the event with 3 bikes. Friend Nicole can't get the time off, so she decides to fly down that evening. Quite a commitment for a first timer double century rider! It takes us 9 hours to get to Malibu, including a 45 minute stop in Paso Robles to visit his in-laws. Traffic into Malibu is godawful, but we make it to registration and then head off to our motel West LA.....a full hour from the start of the ride! Nicole is supposed to fly into LAX by 9:15 but her flight is delayed and we don't pick her up until 10:45. Our heads don't hit the pillow until midnight. A 3AM wakeup call comes waaaay too early. I feel tired until I find out that Nicole hasn't slept at ALL. She's suffers insomnia, and with the pre-ride jitters of a double and the hectic day of working and traveling, she gets zero shut eye. But we're up, showered, dressed and in the van by 3:45. We arrive early so Nicole could complete the late registration and we are on the road by 4:40.
The early morning ride consists of coastal rollers for a good 25 miles. I start hitting these pretty hard and figure I'd regroup with my friends at the highway exit. About 3 miles from the turnoff, Breden and a tandem roll up next to me. They'd helped him bridge up to me and we rolled together and waited for Nicole. A few miles later we hit rest stop one. Nicole is looking tired. She says she's having that sleep deprivation nausea feeling. I know that feeling all too well. I'm already sort of having a side cramp in my ribs. Breden is having some shoulder pain. What a trio we are!
While I'm waiting, another fixed gear rider rolls up to us. We get to talking and end up rolling out together. His name is Mike Melville and he's riding with his buddies Gill and Rick. I start pulling head with the 3 of them, not noticing that Nicole and Breden have fallen off the back. "Can we ratchet it back a notch?" I ask. "Sure thing!" Mike says. We slow down for all of 5 minutes and then the pace picks up again. Gil is in front with Mike and I spinning along with crazy legs. "He's got a 54 big ring." Mike informs me. "I think his ratchet is broken" I tell him. "Ease up the pace, Mr Goodwrench!" Mike tells Gil. For the rest of the ride, we all refer to Gil as "Mr. Goodwrench" which for whatever reason, I find hilarious and chuckle every time I hear. As we near the next rest stop, I double back and wait for them. They both look wiped and we're only 60 miles into this thing. Nicole is especially suffering at this point. I got to talking with Mike and he thinks it would be fun if we all rolled together. The more the merrier, always. After all, today's ride was more for my friends than myself. No need to race this one.
So the six of us roll on and about half way to the next rest stop, I point to out Mike's jersey to my friend Breden. "Alta Alpina 8 Pass Finisher". Wh-what? He's out here doing a fixed gear double only 2 weeks after completing what may be the hardest double out there?! I tell him congrats and he asks me if I know a "Becky Berka". Funny thing is I'd ridden the last 40 miles of the SF 300k with her and had seen her at the start of DMD. I'd also just added her as a friend on Facebook a few days earlier. Small world! It certainly was strange that I didn't notice his jersey earlier though. Why was that? Oh yeah! He had a hydration pack on earlier. Doh! He'd left it at the last rest stop. So with only one bottle for the rest of the ride, I tell him that between all of us, we have enough water to refill him as we rolled along. "I knew we joined up with the right crew!" he exclaimed.
We hit rest stop 3, and I check the route sheet. Next up is the climb to Ojai that my friend Alfie had warned me about. A notoriously long and hot stretch of road that eventually leads to lunch. We all ready ourselves, top off the bottles and carry on. So we're climbing some. It's warm but not too warm. Then the road hooks right and dips down. "This must be where the climb begins." I think to myself. The road rolls, and rolls and mildly rolls some more. The sun is up but it's not bothering me too much. Before I know it, we're at Ojai. "Where's the climb Alfie was talking about?" I ask Breden. We were both conserving for a final effort before food!
We check in, grab food (choice of sandwich or burrito) and find a shady spot. I'm amazed at how well this ride is supported. Ice cold soda, decent food, advil and enduralytes all ready to go in little cups, and tons of ice. If there's one thing that these doubles never have enough of, it's ICE. My only gripe was the fact that the V8s were low sodium. Oh well. Guess I'll have to drink 2!
As we begin to saddle up, the fellow doing the check in asks "Were you in Solvang?" That's the 3rd time that someone's asked me that today. I nod and he recalls me with my "girlfriend".
"Are you sure you're not thinking of my friend Alfie? He looks like me, rides a blue Argus and was with his girlfriend on that ride as well." I reply.
"Nope. It was definitely you. Really attractive woman too." he says. "Well I guess she just needed a wheel to suck." That comes out sounding all sorts of wrong. Leave it to me to not notice a hot babe on my 6 o’clock :P
So while I'm chatting away, my cohorts are getting antsy and giving me looks. "Aren't we still waiting for one more?" I ask. Apparently not, as Rick has already rolled on ahead. The pace earlier on was a little fast for him and he'd already DNF'd two doubles and didn't want to fail a third. Both Davis and Eastern Sierra had tested his meddle. He'd even asked me earlier if I'd wear a jersey for a double I'd never ridden. I tell him probably not, unless it was that really cool 40th Anniversary Davis jersey that I missed (wussed) out on. He says he'll give me the jersey as he didn't feel worthy of it after DNF'ing. "Nonsense!" I tell him. "Did that double beat the **** out of you? Did you give it everything you had? Then you earned that ????ing jersey!" "I never thought about it like that." he replies. "I'm going to wear it as a badge of honor."
The next portion of the ride is through some very nice, very affluent neighborhoods. Gated driveways, walled off property, driveways as long as runways. Must be nice! At this point, I've pretty much designated myself as the map guru/GPS. Ironic as I consider myself the king of bonus miles. But our 2 pack leaders, Mike and Mr. Goodwrench are blind as bats and the rest of the crew are just trying to hang on so I do my due diligence and call out the turns as them come. Great. The one guy without a computer on his bike who has a penchant for wrong turns is now dictating the route. We hit the final out/back which is a sketchy section of Hwy 1. We actually have to cross the Hwy too. We rush across and before I know it, we're in a blistering paceline. My legs are going numb just trying to keep up. Steady 21mph paceline into a headwind. Mr. Goodwrench pulls for an eternity. Then it's my turn. ****. I can barely hold on. My cadence and heart rate are already through the roof. But I try and do my part. Just as I'm about to pop, Mike pulls around me and yells "Time to rest!". Thank God. 5 miles on Hwy 1 and then we hook onto....another Hwy? This time 101. And it's even sketchier. Trucks roaring by at 70 mph and nothing by gravel, rumble strips and glass on the shoulder. I lose Mike and Gill. Headwinds are nasty. I'm tired.
We reach the turn off and I guffaw my way up the off ramp. I can see the rest stop. I stop, look around and realize that we've lost Breden, Nicole and Rick again. I top my bottles off, drink 2 Mountain Dews, a V8 and wolf down a Cup O Noodles. Nicole and Breden arrive. Nicole is tired and Breden looks......pissed off. ****. I ask him how he's doing. "Back and shoulder hurt" he says as we walks by me, no eye contact. Yup. He's mad. He starts fiddling with him stem and saddle and I check on Nicole. "Whew, those headwinds took a toll on me." I tell them both that we're all gonna try and roll back as a group. Breden rolls his eyes and says "That ain't gonna happen." I try and do my best to assure them that we'd stick together as a group.
Rick rolls in and informs us that he's going to roll the last leg with the wife. She's been on the sidelines since a cycling injury put her out of action. They're not quite sure what happened, but she woke up in the hospital missing multiple teeth and needing surgery to repair a fractured orbital bone. Ended have a titanium plate attached to her skull. Yowsa! But she was back in action and all smiles too!
We're officially on the return leg. 60 miles to go! The 5 of us roll out and Breden, having recovered, pulls for the next 5 miles. Hwy 101, Hwy 1, Bike trail and pretty much surface streets all the way back to rest stop 1. We're greeted inside with homemade chicken soup. This is officially one of the best staffed rides I've ever been on. Right on par with DMD, where my friends Alfie and Lisa were serving up Miso soup at the last rest stop. Inside, Breden notices that our drop bags are still here. We decide to take everything back with us. Good thing too, as we'd definitely be needing our arm and knee warmers for the final coastal stretch.
As I'm ingesting the soupy goodness, I notice a fellow in a GPC kit. I'd seen him several times earlier in the day and finally decide to as his name. "Mark Abrahams." he tells me. I'd a feeling I'd met him before as he rolls with a lot of people I know. He asks my name and I tell him. "I've seen your name on a lot of ride rosters." he informs me. I wish him a great rest of rest of ride and we saddle up for the last leg.
We're pretty much backtracking at this point and we know the last 25 miles of coastal rollers aren't far off. We make our way to the freeway on ramp and we're off like a bullet. Mr. Goodwrench decides to make full use of his 54 ring again and we're flying along at 21 mph. Egads! Crazy legs again. But if that weren't fast enough, Nicole decides it's time for a 2nd wind. She takes the lead and kicks things up to 22/23 mph. Crazy legs just got crazier. I wonder how Mike is handling this cadence with a 65 gear inch. Breden starts falling off the back. Just as the group starts to fracture, Nicole pulls off. Back to a sane pace. I check on Breden. He's hurting. I tell him we're almost there. Nicole falls back next to us and exclaims "Only 16 miles to go!" Then she speeds up and falls back in line. I turn to Breden and say "I really wish she wouldn't tell us that. I was really content thinking there were only 6 left."
The group starts to fracture a bit as the rollers get longer. I try and hang back with Breden but find that I'm doing my legs more harm than good trying to ride a slower pace. The rollers are pretty taxing and the only way to make it through them comfortably is by way of inertia and centrifugal crank force. I also want to get the lead out a bit too. I break away, throw the hammer down and plow the last 10 miles, making sure nothing is left in the tank. I catch up to Gil and Mike and we pull over at the last turn and wait for Nicole and Breden. They're only about 5 minutes back. And we're 5 minutes from being done with this ride. Breden pulls over and I hold out my first for some "bones" and exclaim "You did it!" He cocks his first back like he wants to punch me. He eventually gives me knuckles and says "????ing fixed gear double....I hate you." He'll get over it. And he'll feel better about the ride in the morning.
We all roll in together. Check in time 8:15pm. We beat sundown. Total ride time was 15 hours and 35 minutes. A long day in the saddle to be sure, but a satisfying one. It was a marquee moment for all of us. I completed fixie double #2 of 3 and hit my 5th Triple Crown double of the year to make the 1000 mile club (I almost did it before the solstice!), my friend Breden rode his first fixie double and completed his first Cal Triple Crown, and my friend Nicole rode her first double EVER! Oh, and our new pal Mike completed his 3rd fixed gear double this year. I still can’t believe he’s in his mid 50s, has 1 knee with nearly no cartilage, completed 3 fixie doubles, Alta Alpina, is going for the Stage Race and has only been riding for 2 ½ years.
We all chow down on some post ride chili and commiserate. What a ride. We exchange info and then decide it’s time to head back to the motel. Nicole is now running on nearly 40 hours without sleep. What a trooper. We get back, clean up and she’s out before her head hits the pillow. Breden and I aren’t far behind.
The next morning, we pack things up and head to Canter’s deli for a celebratory breakfast. I switch co-pilots as we drop Breden off at the train station for his return trip to New Mexico. The drive back isn’t any quicker. We leave LA at around noonish, make a 90 minute stop in SLO to visit some old friends and don’t pull into Oakland until 11:00pm.
Definitely feeling the aftermath today. Tired, sore but satisfied.
Stay tuned for the next fixed gear double century: Adventures in Death Valley!
I pick up my friend Breden from the airport (he flew in from New Mexcio where he recently relocated to) and we drive down the day before the event with 3 bikes. Friend Nicole can't get the time off, so she decides to fly down that evening. Quite a commitment for a first timer double century rider! It takes us 9 hours to get to Malibu, including a 45 minute stop in Paso Robles to visit his in-laws. Traffic into Malibu is godawful, but we make it to registration and then head off to our motel West LA.....a full hour from the start of the ride! Nicole is supposed to fly into LAX by 9:15 but her flight is delayed and we don't pick her up until 10:45. Our heads don't hit the pillow until midnight. A 3AM wakeup call comes waaaay too early. I feel tired until I find out that Nicole hasn't slept at ALL. She's suffers insomnia, and with the pre-ride jitters of a double and the hectic day of working and traveling, she gets zero shut eye. But we're up, showered, dressed and in the van by 3:45. We arrive early so Nicole could complete the late registration and we are on the road by 4:40.
The early morning ride consists of coastal rollers for a good 25 miles. I start hitting these pretty hard and figure I'd regroup with my friends at the highway exit. About 3 miles from the turnoff, Breden and a tandem roll up next to me. They'd helped him bridge up to me and we rolled together and waited for Nicole. A few miles later we hit rest stop one. Nicole is looking tired. She says she's having that sleep deprivation nausea feeling. I know that feeling all too well. I'm already sort of having a side cramp in my ribs. Breden is having some shoulder pain. What a trio we are!
While I'm waiting, another fixed gear rider rolls up to us. We get to talking and end up rolling out together. His name is Mike Melville and he's riding with his buddies Gill and Rick. I start pulling head with the 3 of them, not noticing that Nicole and Breden have fallen off the back. "Can we ratchet it back a notch?" I ask. "Sure thing!" Mike says. We slow down for all of 5 minutes and then the pace picks up again. Gil is in front with Mike and I spinning along with crazy legs. "He's got a 54 big ring." Mike informs me. "I think his ratchet is broken" I tell him. "Ease up the pace, Mr Goodwrench!" Mike tells Gil. For the rest of the ride, we all refer to Gil as "Mr. Goodwrench" which for whatever reason, I find hilarious and chuckle every time I hear. As we near the next rest stop, I double back and wait for them. They both look wiped and we're only 60 miles into this thing. Nicole is especially suffering at this point. I got to talking with Mike and he thinks it would be fun if we all rolled together. The more the merrier, always. After all, today's ride was more for my friends than myself. No need to race this one.
So the six of us roll on and about half way to the next rest stop, I point to out Mike's jersey to my friend Breden. "Alta Alpina 8 Pass Finisher". Wh-what? He's out here doing a fixed gear double only 2 weeks after completing what may be the hardest double out there?! I tell him congrats and he asks me if I know a "Becky Berka". Funny thing is I'd ridden the last 40 miles of the SF 300k with her and had seen her at the start of DMD. I'd also just added her as a friend on Facebook a few days earlier. Small world! It certainly was strange that I didn't notice his jersey earlier though. Why was that? Oh yeah! He had a hydration pack on earlier. Doh! He'd left it at the last rest stop. So with only one bottle for the rest of the ride, I tell him that between all of us, we have enough water to refill him as we rolled along. "I knew we joined up with the right crew!" he exclaimed.
We hit rest stop 3, and I check the route sheet. Next up is the climb to Ojai that my friend Alfie had warned me about. A notoriously long and hot stretch of road that eventually leads to lunch. We all ready ourselves, top off the bottles and carry on. So we're climbing some. It's warm but not too warm. Then the road hooks right and dips down. "This must be where the climb begins." I think to myself. The road rolls, and rolls and mildly rolls some more. The sun is up but it's not bothering me too much. Before I know it, we're at Ojai. "Where's the climb Alfie was talking about?" I ask Breden. We were both conserving for a final effort before food!
We check in, grab food (choice of sandwich or burrito) and find a shady spot. I'm amazed at how well this ride is supported. Ice cold soda, decent food, advil and enduralytes all ready to go in little cups, and tons of ice. If there's one thing that these doubles never have enough of, it's ICE. My only gripe was the fact that the V8s were low sodium. Oh well. Guess I'll have to drink 2!
As we begin to saddle up, the fellow doing the check in asks "Were you in Solvang?" That's the 3rd time that someone's asked me that today. I nod and he recalls me with my "girlfriend".
"Are you sure you're not thinking of my friend Alfie? He looks like me, rides a blue Argus and was with his girlfriend on that ride as well." I reply.
"Nope. It was definitely you. Really attractive woman too." he says. "Well I guess she just needed a wheel to suck." That comes out sounding all sorts of wrong. Leave it to me to not notice a hot babe on my 6 o’clock :P
So while I'm chatting away, my cohorts are getting antsy and giving me looks. "Aren't we still waiting for one more?" I ask. Apparently not, as Rick has already rolled on ahead. The pace earlier on was a little fast for him and he'd already DNF'd two doubles and didn't want to fail a third. Both Davis and Eastern Sierra had tested his meddle. He'd even asked me earlier if I'd wear a jersey for a double I'd never ridden. I tell him probably not, unless it was that really cool 40th Anniversary Davis jersey that I missed (wussed) out on. He says he'll give me the jersey as he didn't feel worthy of it after DNF'ing. "Nonsense!" I tell him. "Did that double beat the **** out of you? Did you give it everything you had? Then you earned that ????ing jersey!" "I never thought about it like that." he replies. "I'm going to wear it as a badge of honor."
The next portion of the ride is through some very nice, very affluent neighborhoods. Gated driveways, walled off property, driveways as long as runways. Must be nice! At this point, I've pretty much designated myself as the map guru/GPS. Ironic as I consider myself the king of bonus miles. But our 2 pack leaders, Mike and Mr. Goodwrench are blind as bats and the rest of the crew are just trying to hang on so I do my due diligence and call out the turns as them come. Great. The one guy without a computer on his bike who has a penchant for wrong turns is now dictating the route. We hit the final out/back which is a sketchy section of Hwy 1. We actually have to cross the Hwy too. We rush across and before I know it, we're in a blistering paceline. My legs are going numb just trying to keep up. Steady 21mph paceline into a headwind. Mr. Goodwrench pulls for an eternity. Then it's my turn. ****. I can barely hold on. My cadence and heart rate are already through the roof. But I try and do my part. Just as I'm about to pop, Mike pulls around me and yells "Time to rest!". Thank God. 5 miles on Hwy 1 and then we hook onto....another Hwy? This time 101. And it's even sketchier. Trucks roaring by at 70 mph and nothing by gravel, rumble strips and glass on the shoulder. I lose Mike and Gill. Headwinds are nasty. I'm tired.
We reach the turn off and I guffaw my way up the off ramp. I can see the rest stop. I stop, look around and realize that we've lost Breden, Nicole and Rick again. I top my bottles off, drink 2 Mountain Dews, a V8 and wolf down a Cup O Noodles. Nicole and Breden arrive. Nicole is tired and Breden looks......pissed off. ****. I ask him how he's doing. "Back and shoulder hurt" he says as we walks by me, no eye contact. Yup. He's mad. He starts fiddling with him stem and saddle and I check on Nicole. "Whew, those headwinds took a toll on me." I tell them both that we're all gonna try and roll back as a group. Breden rolls his eyes and says "That ain't gonna happen." I try and do my best to assure them that we'd stick together as a group.
Rick rolls in and informs us that he's going to roll the last leg with the wife. She's been on the sidelines since a cycling injury put her out of action. They're not quite sure what happened, but she woke up in the hospital missing multiple teeth and needing surgery to repair a fractured orbital bone. Ended have a titanium plate attached to her skull. Yowsa! But she was back in action and all smiles too!
We're officially on the return leg. 60 miles to go! The 5 of us roll out and Breden, having recovered, pulls for the next 5 miles. Hwy 101, Hwy 1, Bike trail and pretty much surface streets all the way back to rest stop 1. We're greeted inside with homemade chicken soup. This is officially one of the best staffed rides I've ever been on. Right on par with DMD, where my friends Alfie and Lisa were serving up Miso soup at the last rest stop. Inside, Breden notices that our drop bags are still here. We decide to take everything back with us. Good thing too, as we'd definitely be needing our arm and knee warmers for the final coastal stretch.
As I'm ingesting the soupy goodness, I notice a fellow in a GPC kit. I'd seen him several times earlier in the day and finally decide to as his name. "Mark Abrahams." he tells me. I'd a feeling I'd met him before as he rolls with a lot of people I know. He asks my name and I tell him. "I've seen your name on a lot of ride rosters." he informs me. I wish him a great rest of rest of ride and we saddle up for the last leg.
We're pretty much backtracking at this point and we know the last 25 miles of coastal rollers aren't far off. We make our way to the freeway on ramp and we're off like a bullet. Mr. Goodwrench decides to make full use of his 54 ring again and we're flying along at 21 mph. Egads! Crazy legs again. But if that weren't fast enough, Nicole decides it's time for a 2nd wind. She takes the lead and kicks things up to 22/23 mph. Crazy legs just got crazier. I wonder how Mike is handling this cadence with a 65 gear inch. Breden starts falling off the back. Just as the group starts to fracture, Nicole pulls off. Back to a sane pace. I check on Breden. He's hurting. I tell him we're almost there. Nicole falls back next to us and exclaims "Only 16 miles to go!" Then she speeds up and falls back in line. I turn to Breden and say "I really wish she wouldn't tell us that. I was really content thinking there were only 6 left."
The group starts to fracture a bit as the rollers get longer. I try and hang back with Breden but find that I'm doing my legs more harm than good trying to ride a slower pace. The rollers are pretty taxing and the only way to make it through them comfortably is by way of inertia and centrifugal crank force. I also want to get the lead out a bit too. I break away, throw the hammer down and plow the last 10 miles, making sure nothing is left in the tank. I catch up to Gil and Mike and we pull over at the last turn and wait for Nicole and Breden. They're only about 5 minutes back. And we're 5 minutes from being done with this ride. Breden pulls over and I hold out my first for some "bones" and exclaim "You did it!" He cocks his first back like he wants to punch me. He eventually gives me knuckles and says "????ing fixed gear double....I hate you." He'll get over it. And he'll feel better about the ride in the morning.
We all roll in together. Check in time 8:15pm. We beat sundown. Total ride time was 15 hours and 35 minutes. A long day in the saddle to be sure, but a satisfying one. It was a marquee moment for all of us. I completed fixie double #2 of 3 and hit my 5th Triple Crown double of the year to make the 1000 mile club (I almost did it before the solstice!), my friend Breden rode his first fixie double and completed his first Cal Triple Crown, and my friend Nicole rode her first double EVER! Oh, and our new pal Mike completed his 3rd fixed gear double this year. I still can’t believe he’s in his mid 50s, has 1 knee with nearly no cartilage, completed 3 fixie doubles, Alta Alpina, is going for the Stage Race and has only been riding for 2 ½ years.
We all chow down on some post ride chili and commiserate. What a ride. We exchange info and then decide it’s time to head back to the motel. Nicole is now running on nearly 40 hours without sleep. What a trooper. We get back, clean up and she’s out before her head hits the pillow. Breden and I aren’t far behind.
The next morning, we pack things up and head to Canter’s deli for a celebratory breakfast. I switch co-pilots as we drop Breden off at the train station for his return trip to New Mexico. The drive back isn’t any quicker. We leave LA at around noonish, make a 90 minute stop in SLO to visit some old friends and don’t pull into Oakland until 11:00pm.
Definitely feeling the aftermath today. Tired, sore but satisfied.
Stay tuned for the next fixed gear double century: Adventures in Death Valley!