Idaho's Stop-Sign Solution

Haven't been posting too much lately as I've been getting ready for this Saturday's San Ardo Road Race. But I picked up the September 2009 Bicycling issue and on page 22 read with much interest an article by Bob Mionske. Bob is the author of "Bicycling and the Law" and writes how Idaho handles bicycles and stop signs/red lights. It is exactly the way I've been saying and handling stop signs myself.

For the last 26 years cyclists in Idaho can roll through stop signs - legally. When a cyclist approaches an intersection with a stop sign, the cyclist must slow to a "reasonable speed," but doesn't have to come to a complete stop if there is no opposing traffic. My rides are almost all in rural areas and it seems pretty asinine to come to a complete stop at stop sign controlled intersections when you are clearly not a hazard to other traffic. I've always argued that coming to a complete stop is even dangerous as you now may have to pull out of your cleats or risk being unstable as you try to balance at the intersection. As a pilot of small planes, I like the saying, "out of altitude and air speed" and it applies to bicycles too; in other words, your bike is now too slow to maneuver well and more likely to get into trouble if evasive action is needed. I've even slipped on the street when my cleats make it seem that I've stepped on an ice rink rather than the road service.

As far as red lights are concerned, Idaho allows you to come to a complete stop but then proceed if safe; in other words you can treat the light as if it was a stop sign. A couple of years ago in Santa Cruz, California, I was out stretching my legs with a short ride, as I had the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey to race the next day. I was on the outskirts of town coming up on a left turn controlled by a light. The light was red so I actually stopped but since I didn't see a car within a quarter of a mile of the intersection, I started up again and pedaled through the red light. Immediately I heard a siren go off in the distance, with a loud acceleration of a car's engine - it was a California Highway Patrolman racing up to pull me over with red light and siren. The patrolman kept me on the side of the road for over a half hour before writing me a ticket for not stopping and waiting for the red light to turn green. I never did receive the ticket but that's another story, and another case of me breaking the law...

Calistoga to Pt. Reyes Station

Esmeralda climbing the 300+ steps

What an incredible ride! I had vistas, hills, valleys, rivers, oceans, etc. Once again I was looking for a one-way trip that would provide me with the above, and give my wife and daughter something cool to see when they picked me up - the ride from Calistoga to Pt. Reyes Station is perfect. Not only do you get all the above but you also get a great bakery at the Station as well as the chance to tour Pt. Reyes National Seashore and the 1870 lighthouse situated way out on the point.

The Lighthouse

The ride is a good 58 miles (93 km) long and has challenging climbs and high speed descents. You get to ride through the towns of Santa Rosa and Petaluma , which may not be the high point of your ride, depends on how you like the towns. Hitting all the stop lights in Santa Rosa was kind of a pain but I did like riding through the old town. I had never been to Petaluma before so I did enjoy the trip through town and the right turn onto D street to start the long ride to the South West and eventually the town of Pt. Reyes Station. As usual, you can get all the information, including route directions and elevations from MapMyRide and the download from my Garmin.

Once in Pt. Reyes Station I found a public restroom right next to a small playground that was perfect for changing out of my bike clothes and putting the bike on my wife's car. Then a short walk to a bakery you can't miss - just look for the line coming out the door. The bakery is called Bovine Bakery and I've included a link from a fellow blogger who did a great posting on this wonderful place.

A trip to Pt. Reyes wouldn't be complete without a side trip to the lighthouse constructed in 1870. This is a must see for all lighthouse buffs out there. Here's a link for information on this neat place.

Jade with the 300 steps

The ride took me 3 hours and 18 minutes. I ended up crashing the Marin Century ride as literally hundreds of roadies were on the same road as myself. There also seemed to be some kind of ride coming out of Pt. Reyes Station too. Another huge group of roadies with different kind of numbers on their backs and yet another group with green wrist bands on. I enjoyed all the company on the ride down and was not bothered by any of the traffic that was relatively light. Check out my ride below and enjoy:


Oh, if you have a better way to get there or other variations of this ride, please comment below. I really like to get a locals take on routes. See my trip to Bodega Bay; Mat, of Bodega Bay Cycles commented on a much better route to get me to Bodega Bay from Calistoga.

Photo by Jade

Calistoga to Bodega Bay

I shot this pic of Bodega Head at the end of my ride...

The variety of the type of rides available to Napa Valley roadies is amazing. On this ride I decided to leave the warm valley behind and head for the cool coast, which is much closer than you think. This Sunday morning I headed both North and West to finish my ride in Bodega Bay, roughly 44 miles (70km) away. I made it a one-way trip as my wife and Jade would meet me at the bay for lunch and a sight seeing trip. Then with the bike safely on the bike rack we would drive North and work our way back home by driving next to the Russian River.

You have a couple of choices on getting over the hills that separate Calistoga with Santa Rosa but I don't recommend most of them. The most direct way is via the Petrified Forest Road all the way down to Calistoga Road as it enters Santa Rosa - this was the route used by stage one in the '09 Tour of California. But the pros had the advantage of a closed route; you don't. The Petrified Forest Road is narrow, steep, and has a lot of traffic that does not want to give up an inch of space, especially to a bicycle rider. With this said, I decided on taking Franz Valley School road to leave the Napa Valley. This road is right off of the Petrified Forest Road as you are leaving Calistoga. You're only on this road for less than a mile and you make a right turn onto Franz Valley School road. You can check out the route, as usual, below via MapMyRide and the data provided by my Garmin Forerunner 305 unit.

Franz Valley School road is the first major climb of two climbs you will face on this trip. I could also do a Napa Valley Hills post on this road. It is a sustained climb of around 2 miles with a grade higher than 7% at times. At just over 9 miles you come to a T-intersection with Franz Valley road, make a left turn and you immediately start the 2nd major climb of the route. You crest this climb at around mile 11 and face a 8%, technical descent for around 1.5 miles - be careful here. I locked up my rear wheel on a nasty right hair-pin turn and almost got myself in trouble. Thank goodness that no car was coming up the road as I needed the whole road to save myself.

You now descend into Santa Rosa and here I took Fulton road to travel South to Highway 12 and the trip West. The 12 has a lot of traffic and you can avoid it by taking a bike path just south of 12. I did take the path after riding the 12 for a short time. I'm not sure I would do it again as the bike path is loaded with recreational riders and people walking their dogs. The path is limited to 15mph and going any faster would be hazardous due to the above mentioned traffic. In the future I would probably stay on 12, where the bike lane is wide and you can keep your speed up all the way into the town of Sebastopol. You now have several miles of light climbing as you leave Sebastopol. The climbing actually surprised me as I figured I would have a gradual descent all the way down to the coast. The grades are light but you will certainly notice them. Your other problem as you get close to the coast is the traffic, so watch out for the huge motor homes that will pass you a foot away!

Eventually you'll see a restaurant with picnic tables on the left side of the road just before you enter the actual town of Bodega Bay. I swung left here and patiently waited for the wife and kid - lunch of fish & chips tasted great and we had an enjoyable trip back home via the Russian River - enjoy.

Calistoga to Davis, California

The Glory Hole. Photo Credit: http://daviswiki.org/Morning_Glory_Spillway?action=Files&do=view&target=glory_hole_02.jpg

My next race isn't until mid August so time for another travel guide. The family needed to take a trip to Sacramento this last weekend to visit a friend on her birthday. The trip to Sac from Calistoga is about 80 miles by freeway but I realized I could skip the freeway and have a long ride too. By bicycle, you can almost directly go to Sacramento by traveling over mountain roads. Davis is a small college town (UC Davis) located just West of Sacramento. After looking over a map, I decided to ride over the mountain range that separated the Napa Valley (where I live) from the Great Central Valley (where Davis and Sacramento are located.)

The idea came from the Tour of California back in February. The tour racers did the reverse, traveling from Winters (town close to Davis) over the mt. range and down through Calistoga. The route the tour took is a little different from the one I took but longer too. I didn't have the time for a longer route, as my wife and daughter were meeting me in Davis, where I would load up the bicycle and travel the rest of the way to Sacramento. So time constraints made me take a shorter and less challenging route.

My route is still 60 miles of great scenery; from grape vineyards, mountain vistas, a couple of lakes, a cool dam (check out the spillway called the Glory hole), and moderate climbs. The traffic was light as I left at 7:00 am. Temperatures were good too; 50's in the beginning of the ride, to low 80's after 3 plus hours of riding. Check out my ride via MapMyRide:

Calistoga, California

Photo Credit: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1-KQaSii290/SC8qqNe69TI/AAAAAAAAEZw/9bSARGRzecI/s400/Calistoga.jpg

As of last Thursday, July 2nd, I've been residing in Calistoga, Ca. My move to Northern California almost complete, as I continue to unload boxes and hang pictures on the wall. I went almost two weeks with very little bicycle riding; 5 hours one week, and only 1.5 last week – just too much going on with the move. My wife actually moved the whole house a week before I could leave. I was teaching summer school and it didn't end for me until July 1st. But starting last Sunday, I've hit every day on the bike. I only have time for an hour ride in the morning as I need to be here when my wife leaves for work as Jade is usually still sleeping. But what an hour it is. Days are warm here, with highs in the 80s and low 90s but the mornings are terrific, if not a little too chilly. The last three days have found me pedaling away with temps in the high 40s to low 50s – but the summer is young.

I have found the perfect 20.7 mile loop that takes me clockwise around Calistoga which I complete in around 1 hour and 6 minutes. The scenery is breathtaking, with redwoods and other pines in the hills competing with the grape vineyards on the valley floor. I promise to get my camera out and start taking pictures of the many rides in my new neck of the woods. Yesterday and Monday I was riding by when the “Old Faithful Geyser of California” was erupting. This geyser goes off about every 30 minutes or so, with a 60 feet tall eruption of scalding water and steam – quite a treat.

The picture above, by an unknown photographer, shows the geyser with Mt. St. Helena in the background

The morning ride also goes past a balloon launching site on Lincoln Ave. Here's a few pics of a couple of hot air balloons launching I took back in April when we were first checking out the town:


Another with my 8 year old daughter Jade in the foreground:



Here's my route via MapMyRide:


Though I now ride this loop clockwise as I find less traffic on my side of the road at this hour when most people are heading off to work.

San Diego Epic Ride

As I’m leaving San Diego for Northern California I put in my last Saturday ride with the San Diego Cyclo-Vets a couple of weekends ago. Naturally it turned out to be an epic ride. An epic ride…every roadie has had an epic ride at least once in their cycling career. This is a ride where something happens to make that ride particularly challenging. It could be running out of food and water, getting lost, going much farther than you originally intended, getting rain, hail, snow, etc., on the ride.

On this, my last Saturday ride in San Diego, I got several of the above conditions. The ride started as usual and we made it to the first regrouping point without incident. As we left for the Torrey Pines part of the ride it started raining. Not a downpour just a light rain. It turns out that San Diego roadies hate and fear rain more than most as they are used to 72 degrees 24/7 and 12 months out of the year. Since my primary residence was in the Mojave desert, where we long for rain, it was no big deal for me but the other Cyclo-Vets panicked and wanted to end the ride. After much discussion it was decided to keep riding but alter the ride to head East and North and into the neighboring city of Poway. The idea was that the weather was coming in from the West and by heading East we could avoid it.

This diversion worried many of the riders as they had not been in this direction before. Now myself, the non-native of the group, wasn’t worried a bit because I take this same ride on my own on Sundays. My only problem was that I didn’t eat as much as I usually do for breakfast as I was only expecting a 43 mile ride of various intensity levels. I also carried water and food for a trip of about that length too. Though I was wearing arm warmers I didn’t have leg warmers or any other type of cold weather gear – this is San Diego after all.

Well to make a long story shorter, the ride out to the far point of the ride went without a hitch, with the exception that the weather did not improve but only got worse. We were now climbing the tough pitch up Scripps-Poway Pkwy road and I’m now consuming more calories than I planned on. I’m also cold and wet but realize I only have to ride 12 miles or so and I’m back in a warm apartment with plenty of food. We get to the top of the grade and wait in the drizzle for the tail end of the group to finish the climb – this takes longer than I expected as the last guy had fallen pretty far behind. My teeth even started chattering from the cold and this is San Diego in the early summer. Thank God, the tail end guy comes up and says, “go without me, I’ll be okay.” So off we go down the screaming descent of Scripps-Poway Pkwy road. Somewhere down the descent I realize that I can hardly feel my legs as they are actually getting numb from the wet and cold and I also realize that I’m hungry and I’ve already eaten my one and only power bar and have drank most of my sports drink and water…but I’ve only got 10 miles to go, on what has now become a 50 mile ride instead of 43.

We finish the descent and make the left turn onto Pomerado Rd and the group wants to stop again, this time at a mini-mart for food. I’m real hungry now and pretty short on fluids too so you would think that I would welcome this stop but I get impatient. I’m smelling the barn and have done this ride many time in the past – so I say my goodbyes and take off on my own and figure I’ll be home in less than an hour. Look at my MapMyRide map at the end of this post and you can see what went wrong and how I ended my last San Diego ride in Epic proportions. I should have stayed on Pomerado Rd but for some reason, probably because I was feeling sorry for myself, and had my head down while I was riding, I failed to make the left turn to remain on Pomerado Rd and instead was now heading West on Spring Canyon Road. About 2 miles in, I realize I’ve never seen this particular scenery before and must be going the wrong way. To make matters worse, I took a right turn and realized I have no idea what direction I’m going. The cloud cover and drizzle prevented me from getting any bearings and stupid me, I forget I’m riding with a GPS unit (Garmin Forerunner 205 though I now have the 305) which has the capability of giving me heading information. So I do a U-turn and back track and end up on Scripps Ranch Road and the Scripps Ranch neighborhood. This friggin neighborhood is all vertical and all the roads start with Scripps this or Scripps that. I’m now completely out of food and drink and realize that I loaned my emergency money, the $10 I keep in my bike bag, to my daughter the other day. I grab my cell phone to call my wife and find out that the battery is dead…damn, I’m going to have to stop and ask for help. I find a guy working on his front yard and he kindly tells me how to get back to Pomerado Road but his directions sound like, “take Scripps (fill in other part of name) to Scripps that, turn right on Scripps this, and another right on Scripps that and you’ll be there.

I finally make it back to the apartment, wet and cold. I’ve covered 63 miles and have sat on the bike for 4 hours and 19 minutes. I expected a ride of 43 miles and a total bike time, including regrouping stop points, of around 2 hours 45 minutes. I usually eat a large bowl of oatmeal and drink orange juice before a long ride but since I didn’t expect this, I had only a half bowl of cereal and no juice and didn’t even bother to completely fill one of my water bottles. At least the other bottle had a sports drink in it. I didn’t even bother taking my gel flask as I figured the single power bar and sports drink would be enough. There is a moral in this story somewhere…now I have to spend the next 6 hours moving all the stuff in our apartment into a 16’ truck for the journey back to the Antelope Valley to prepare for our move to the Napa Valley...

San Diego and Coronado Island

With my next race a few weeks away in Bakersfield I thought it was time for another travelogue. I spend every other weekend in San Diego and on Saturday, I always ride with my club, the San Diego Cyclo-Vets. This ride is intense, loaded with race simulations, so on Sunday I look for a scenic recovery ride. The ride I currently favor is traveling from our apartment, located in the Serra Mesa neighborhood of S.D., to the silver shores of Coronado and the bike path called the Silver Strand. We've got friends in Coronado, so I make it a one way trip and my wife, Esmeralda, is waiting with the family car. The way I've composed the ride, it is 35 to 43 miles depending what you do in Coronado. The shorter ride is straight to our friends house, the longer version is to the end of the strand, ride through town, and stop at the Ferry Landing. I prefer stopping in Coronado, but I've seen others really make it an adventure and ride the Ferry back to San Diego and home.

Here's the shorter version via MapMyRide:


Coronado Island is really not an island. It is connected to "mainland" San Diego at the South end and the Town of Imperial Beach. The North end of the Coronado is connected to San Diego by the Coronado Bay Bridge but bikes are not allowed on this bridge. When I created the MapMyRide route they still had not opened a new extension of bike path that skips riding into Imperial Beach or IB as the locals call it. That part of my ride was not the high point of the route but you don't have to worry about it anymore. Right before mile 29 you pick up a new bike path that will completely avoid IB and take you directly to the Silver Strand.


Star of India

My version of this ride takes you past some pretty cool scenery. It does have some areas that are pretty congested though, so I like to make this ride first thing in the morning. The best views, prior to arriving in Coronado, are riding past Sea World, coming into the harbor area and the tourist attractions of the Star of India, and the USS Midway. You pass under the North end of the bridge and travel South past the Navy base. The route is pretty straight forward but look at it closely. Finding the first bike path can be a little tricky. On my map, it is between mile 23 and mile 24, at the end of 32nd street. It looks like I'm traveling on the 5 freeway but you'll be on a well constructed bike path to the west of I5. You want to cross some water (Sweetwater River) on the Gordy Shields' bridge (A San Diego Cyclo-Vet legend) so head straight for the I5 and avoid what looks like a bike path over water just west of Gordy's bridge.

Enjoy the ride!

Mark Reynolds San Luis Rey Road Cycling Classic

Here I sit in room 214 at Littlerock High School waiting, more patiently than my students, for the bell to ring at 12:13. It's only 11:13 and my kids finished their State mandated STAR testing over an hour ago - just another hour of baby sitting on my side, and another hour (might as well be 100 hours)of socializing on their side. I thought I would put the time to good use (at least use)and post on the next upcoming race on my schedule. I'm still on the fence for this race but I really need to get back in the saddle and put a race behind me after my accident. My wife has to leave race day for Calistoga so my attendance in the race is "up in the air."

The race is for Sunday, May 3rd, and is in honor of Mark Reynolds. Mark was killed by a mountain lion while mountain biking in SoCal.

The race is an 11.6 mile loop (my MapMyRide says around 11.3)with a fair amount of climbing to separate out the riders. I believe I will compete with the Masters 45+ to take advantage of the more experienced racers - didn't help me at Murrieta but let's hope my accident was a fluke.

Here's my MapMyRide with profile:

My Colnago C40

With my training time curtailed by injuries and the fact that a business trip will knock out my next race (San Diego Omnium) I thought I would do a post on my racing bike. I'm on my spring break so I've got some time.

C40 Frame:

The 2001 frame is beautiful and gets a lot of attention wherever I ride. Handling is great with the Colnago sweeping into turns w/o much thought on my part; the Colnago just seems to sort out the turns why I just watch my line. This is a great bike particularly for racing. It is stiff enough to sprint well and is a great descender. I have done 100 miles or more on the bike without problems.

Strengths:
Light enough to win a mountain stage
Stiff enough for Tour strongmen to sprint on
Great longevity/durability for carbon
Pedigree
Appearance
almost everyone else ISN'T riding one (darn elitist mentality)
Get a used one for less than most new junk costs

Weaknesses:
would prefer 1&1/8 inch fork- but not a big deal.
odd size seatpost (28.0mm) means you need an expensive colnago post (or a Thomson), unless you buy an adapter shim (28.0 to 27.2) allowing you to run whatever post you want.

Thomson Masterpiece Seat Post:

Strengths:
The lightest, strongest, best made, safest, easiest to adjust seatpost BAR NONE!!!!

Weaknesses:
None (Well, a little pricey)

Fizik Arione Seat:

Strengths:
cool looking, light weight, a lot of real estate.

Weaknesses:
Mr. Happy goes to sleep if I'm careless in my positioning.

Gruppo:

I have the Campy Chorus 10 set with some modifications; I dropped the stock crank and installed an ultra torque chorus 10 crank. I did the installation myself and it was much easier than dealing with traditional bottom brackets. The cranks are nice and stiff and I like the beefier bearings you get with the ultra torque.

My old rear derailleur was getting worn out and a friend had a Campy Record RD with less than 500 miles on it. He didn't need it and sold it to me for a song - it took a little time to settle in but now runs great.

Look Keo Pedals:

I have the carbon body with the chromoly spindle. I've used Looks since they were the first to come out with clipless pedals. The Keo's are light and strong but there was an issue about a recall notice; see past post.

Strengths:
Weight, easy to enter and exit and easy to service.

Weaknesses:
Cleats wear pretty fast.

Headset and Fork:

I use a Chris King headset which is just about bullet proof. In fact one of my buddies with years of bicycle mechanic experience said the my bike would crumble eventually around the headset. King makes a great headset - enough said.

My front fork is new (old Look fork destroyed in crash) and is an original Colnago carbon street fork with an alloy steerer tube. I've been riding my time trial bike so I still don't know how this fork will affect my ride. It was tough to find as by bike has a 1" steerer tube with most bikes using 1 1/8" now. Anyway, the Colnago fork does go nicely with the C40 frame so I just have to see how it rides.

Bars and Stem:

My old bar and stem were also wiped in the crash so the new ones are untested but here's what Trek says about:Bontrager's Race X Lite Blade, VR Road Handlebar is light, strong, comfortable, and a great upgrade for your road machine. Its high-compression molded-carbon construction is feathery light, damps road vibrations to fight fatigue and has the most natural shape you have felt in a handlebar.
- Blade refers to the flat and wide top section that distributes hand pressure better and allows for more hand positions.
- VR stands for Variable Radius, and refers to the Lance designed bend that is ergonomic AND was optimally designed for modern shift /brake levers.
- Double cable groove works with Shimano,SRAM and Campy
- No Rider weight restrictions (Like all Bontrager products)
- Compatible with Clip-On Aerobars
- Only 228 grams (42cm) and much stronger and more fatigue resistant than light weight aluminum bars.

I'm using the 44cm bars as I've got pretty wide shoulders. I bought it with a matching stem: Bontrager Race XXX Lite OS Carbon Road Stem. From a review: The Race XX Lite OS is the latest carbon stem from Bontrager, and it their first road-only offering. It's made from high compression moulded uni-directional carbon fibre, with a forged aluminium (and very highly polished) front plate. With the high price it's going to be hard to justify this stem from a value perspective, but the performance is certainly without question second to none. I feel price may not play a factor in the decision to buy this stem though…

Both the bar and the stem were price listed at around $250 each but I got them from the Trek Superstore for around $225 for both - a special they have going right now.

Campy Vonda Wheelset:

I like this set and like the looks of the G3 spoke pattern on the rear. They are strong, and I'm tough on wheels. They run about 1660g which is not too bad for a $600 wheel set. They climb well and spool up okay when sprinting. When replacement time comes I'm thinking about the William system 38s.

Strengths:
Very smooth, sort of aero, faily light, and quite strong.

Weaknesses:
None noted, especially at this price.

For rubber I use Michelin Pro Race 3. If you look at my bike pic you'll see that I have a Pro Race 3 gray on the front and a Pro Race 3 blue on the back. I buy them in pairs and got a good deal on the grays from ebay. I'm one of those that rotate tires. When my rear starts going flat (shape not air holding ability) I take it off and rotate my front to the rear. I usually get around 2400 miles plus on these tires. They're pretty flat resistant for a racing tire, light wt., and really stick to the road during turns.

Well, there it is. I'm sure this post will bore my usual half dozen readers and my wife would only roll her eyes at this post. Of course, she's not one of my half dozen readers!

Look Keo Pedal Recall

I've got Look Keo pedals on both my racing and time trial bikes. I really like these pedals so I was surprised to run across information regarding a recall of these pedals in a bicycle forum post.

The recall only affects the first generation of Keo pedals with a chromoly axle. Check out Look's website for more information. The recall affects those pedals manufactured between January 2004 and December 2005. As it turns out, both sets of pedals that I own were built in 2004 and are under the recall notice. How do you know the manufacture date of your pedals:

The date of manufacture stamp is pretty small. I had to take my glasses off and use a flashlight to determine the date on my pedals - it's tough getting old.

Look's website has a link to find the nearest dealer to you who will replace the axles for free. I took both sets to my local REI store in San Diego. It took them about 10 minutes to replace the axles, so no big deal there. Look's website does not tell you what will happen if you don't do the upgrade, so I asked one of the mechanics at REI and he said he was told that you risk having the pedal break off at the crank - ouch.

New Bicycle Club for 2009

It's official. I am now a member of the San Diego Cyclo-Vets Bicycle Club. I have been spending just about every other weekend in San Diego since my wife and oldest daughter moved down here for work and school respectfully. We can't sell our house in the Antelope Valley in this terrible economy and I couldn't switch jobs so we have had two residences starting last July. It's not a great situation but it is always better to make "lemonade out of lemons" so I enjoy riding in San Diego's weather as much as possible.

In my attempt to learn routes in the San Diego Area, I started hooking up with a couple of local bicycle clubs. The first group I tried was the Swami's. I still love their hard Saturday training ride up to Escondido and back but it was a pain to get to their starting point on the coast. The Cyclo-Vets also have a great Saturday ride that starts out of the parking lot of "The Coffee Bean" located at Mission Valley Mall right off of Camino de la Reina. Their starting location is just 6 miles from our apartment, which is located just North of Qualcomm Stadium. I can get to the starting point of Saturday's ride by bicycle. I drop down the bike path that starts at the South end of Murphy Canyon Road and ends at the North end of Qualcomm's parking lot. From here I exit the parking lot at the SouthEast end onto Rancho Mission Road, take a quick right on Ward Road and another quick right on Camino del rio North and just keep going West until Camino del rio North becomes Camino de la Reina. I stay on Camino de la Reina until I get to the Mission Valley Mall and The Coffee Bean on my left.

The Saturday ride leaves at 8:30 am and has several variants; see the Cyclo-Vets website for further information regarding this ride. I always ride the Torrey Pines loop. It is the longest of the options and composed of a very spirited group of riders that travel at race pace at various points of the ride. There are at least three regrouping points for this ride to allow more sedate riders a chance to ride with the group again. The Cyclo-Vet's website does not give a "play by play" of the route but I've made a map of the route by using my garmin and MapMyRide site. It is not complete in that I show the end on Aero and West Canyon Rd but that is where I jump off and head to our apartment. Other riders branch off around this point too. There are a lot of ways to get back to the Mission Valley Mall from this point. You could go back to the Mall by using the bike path North of Qualcomm as described above or take Balboa Ave back down to Moreno and back track your way to the Mall. I get about 47 miles in from my apartment to the Mall and back to my apartment.

Tour of Tucson

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I wake-up in a Tucson hotel room at 3:30 am and realize I probably have strep throat, if the burning pain surrounding my tonsils and my hot forehead mean anything. But I did not drag my wife, and youngest daughter on a 7 hour road trip just to pack it up and head home back to Lancaster, California. Besides, I didn't get to race at all in 2008, for various lame reasons, and I started training in earnest for this event in mid June - so the race had to go on and I'm in it.

This is the 26th El Tour De Tucson, or just El Tour. It covers 109 miles around the perimeter of Tucson. Over 8000 riders can show up for the event with up to 5000 of them riding the 109 mile version of the race. A certain group is in this event to win, another group is trying to make "platinum, gold, silver and bronze"; which are set times to finish created by the organizers of the event. Last year was my first El Tour and I missed platinum by 1 minute and 44 seconds. I needed to break 5 hours and missed it by the amount of time it took me to pee and also to fill up one of my water bottles (two separate events). I still averaged nearly 22 mph for the race but to miss platinum by such a slim margin...you just don't realize what that extra 9 miles does for this "century ride". In any case, I'm back in 2008 to break 5 hours and take my platinum designation and medal.

But now I'm sick and I'm going to have to pull off an exhausting day's ride. Last year I made the mistake of arriving at the starting line too late - 5:00 am for the 7:00 am start. This put me at the very back of the gold group, within 20m of the rear of gold. I spent the first half of the race working my way past the hundreds of riders that were between me and the first platinum rider. So my strategy this year was to get up early (hence my 3:30 wake-up time) and get to the start by no later than 4 to 4:30. And damn, it worked. I arrive just after 4:00 to find myself only 20m behind the platinum line - now I only have 2.5 hours of sitting in the cold street before I can start the race. This is made much easier though, if you enjoy people watching. I watch the hundreds and then thousands of other riders showing up and lining up mostly behind me. Finally the PA system comes to life and invigorating music begins to play. El Tour is one cool event and I'm glad, illness or no illness, that I'm sticking it out. Check out El Tour's web site.

I listen to Robbie Ventura speak on the PA system. This year's tour is dedicated to the one time pro cyclist who placed 1st in the both the 2001 and 2002 El Tour. And now it's time to start. The platinum riders head out first and after about a minute my group at the front of the gold section begin to move. This has been a point of contention for many El Tour riders, as the race starts when the organizers say it does and the clock is ticking even if you are still stuck in traffic hundreds of meters behind the finish line. The event is very well organized and executed and all participants wear a timing chip on their left ankle so it is hard to believe they can't set up the computer timing system to start all racers when they actually cross the starting line - but what do I know?

Anyway, I'm into the first right turn before I know it and all riders are standing on their pedals and going hard for position. I'm minutes into this race and I'm already at 30 mph with a heart rate jumping into the 160s. Water bottles are skipping around the road ahead of us and everybody is jockeying for position. Even at 30 mph I have riders flying past me on the left and right and all riders are spread out on the street from curb to curb. Once again I realize that this is no fun ride but a ride that's going to take my full concentration from start to finish. As an experienced road racer I'm used to my competitors having certain skills on the bike. As a Master's racer, I can count on those skills but here you have skills all over the map and a single rider crash can take down an extremely large field. Also, in regular road races I'm used to the group taking it easy the first few kilometers, I can't remember a single road race where we leave at maximum speed with zero warm-up...part of El Tour's charm.

Map of the course

Around mile 7 or so, my Garmin tells me I'm averaging 25 mph. The first river crossing is coming up and the group begins to slow down dramatically. I'm just about to jump off my bike and run it across the quarter mile dry creek bed when many of the fans yell, "it's hard, you can ride it." So I make the mistake and attempt to ride through the sand bed. It is harder than last year but riders in front of me are mushing out and falling down. I leap off my bike and jam up a guy riding on my tail. I give my apologies and pick up my bike, cycle cross style and start running. Last year I was pretty cavalier about the crossing as I just walked my bike through the creek bed but I did miss platinum by less than two minutes so this year I'm running.

I climb out of the creek bed and mount my bike and aim it down the road. I look far out front and see just a thin line of riders as far as I can see. What I don't see is the motorcycle escort for the lead group and the lead chase group. So it is off at 25 mph again as I move up on one rider after another, resting behind certain riders to recover a little in their draft. If I think about it, I can feel my sore throat, and a little thought intrudes; I'm going to really pay for this after the race is over.
(see picture of 1st crossing above, taken in 2005 by johnmirandaphoto.com)

I'm over 40 miles in now. I've hit speeds over 40 mph in the rollers, I've passed many riders and have come across my first platinum riders. I'm in a section of the tour, before the second river crossing, where there is a long down hill section. I'm just crusing with a pack of around 40 riders. You really need to be patient in El Tour and I have not. I know that I may have pushed myself a little too hard with over 60 miles still to go. I'm thinking this over when I hear something behind me. I look over my left shoulder and see a mixed tandem just blowing past the field on the outside. Most riders are just watching them fly by but I realize it's my ticket to the lead chase group. With the tandem still 10m behind me, I punch my campy shifters and begin to spool up my cranks and jump to over 35 mph which is just perfect for jumping on the back of the tandem. One other guy figures out that a tandem train is something you don't want to miss and he jumps on too. We ride this train for many miles, just blowing past scores of rider. This mix tandem is fast, the male captain and his female stoker are in full concentration at nearly 40 mph, with me and one other guy hanging on for all we got. Finally the road begins to level out and my garmin announces a 2% grade - that's it for the tandem. I feel like the 3rd stage of a rocket as I detach from the tandem and bridge up to a large group and then I see a magical thing; a motorcyle with flashing lights! I've reached the main chase group for El Tour. I know it can't be the front guys who will finish the tour in the low 4 hours but my garmin is telling me I'm at a pace to finish in around 4:30 so I know I'm sitting in with the platinum guys and I'm sitting pretty...but then the second river crossing comes up.

I still can't do it. How do you go 5 hours and not pee? This year, I put my 100 oz. camel pack on my back so I don't have to waste time filling up a water bottle. The two water bottles I'm carrying on my bike are full of a complex carbohydrate drink so I don't need to worry about fuel. But drinking a large percentage of my camel pack means I got a full bladder and damn, I have to stop again. A lot of guys are just peeing off the side of the dirt trail in full site of spectators and riders. Hell, I still have trouble peeing in a stall if just one guy is in the rest room with me let alone a few thousand people running and milling about. I stop at the porta potties, located within 60m of the end of the dry creek bed, lay down my bike and run for the first empty one. I resist the urge to time my urination but I know the seconds, and the chase group, are moving on. I finally finish and grab my bike and make it to the solid road surface. I grab a small banana piece from a volunteer and shove it down my throat and take off.

I'm now on the short but steep climb on Snyder. I stand on my pedals and push hard, passing rider after rider but I realize I've lost a lot of ground, as I can't see the motorcyles anymore. I notice the photographer on my right, just as I sit down and spool up my RPMs. I hear his digital camera firing like a machine gun, you can see one of his pictures at the top of this post. Near the top of the climb one of the spectators yells out encouragement. He tells us that we are all in the platinum group, my garmin agrees with him but it also shows that I'm real close to 5 hours now and I still have a long way to go.

I start running out of large groups to bridge up to. My style is to grab onto a big group, rest in their draft and then take a flyer, basically an attack in a typical road race, and I bridge up to the next group. Unfortunately, the next group is about a quarter of a mile up the road but two other guys jump on my wheel and we work together until we've caught the group. This group is too slow so off we go until we literally run out of people to chase. Hell, I still don't see a motorcycle but I also don't see any big groups ahead. This is troubling as we now have to work by ourselves. We're at mile 70 and the three of us are working hard. The wind is blowing about 10 mph and it seems to always be a right or left quarter head wind. We pass many stragglers and at around mile 80 I start feeling the first flickers of danger in my quads, a tightness whenever I stand on the pedals. We have now picked up another rider or two but one of them cramps hard and drops away. I know we are working too hard and I look back and spot a group of 20 strong cyclist working well together and coming up quickly behind us. I tell the other two to slow down and jump into this group. This is perfect. The group is young and strong. I'm probably the oldest guy by 10 years (this would make me feel pretty good but I know there are a lot of guys older than me in the lead group and they are so far out in front I can't even see them). This group has leaders and we start a very effective rotating pace line. We pass many groups and soon we have maybe 40 riders in our group. This breaks the effectiveness of the group down as wheel suckers begin to take there toll. I've pulled at the front many times now and realize I'm paying a price. I start to look with envy at the guys in the back who have avoided riding "at the front".

Around mile 95 we latch onto the main chase group again! The motorcycle with its beautiful blue and red lights are flashing. I remark to one of the original two guys that struggled with me for miles that all we have to do is hang with this group and we're in. My garmin now tells me we are on a 4:50 pace and I start having platinum dreams...and then it happens. The group does a surge and I spool up to match it and a blinding cramp travels down my left thigh. I immediately straighten this leg to work out the cramp when my right leg cramps too. I try to twist my foot out of my Look pedals but my feet might as well have been in a vice. My legs are cramping so bad I can't put out enough torque to get the pedals to release. Shit, it takes only a few ounces of pressure to normally release my foot from the pedals and I can't do it. My speed drops from 23 mph to 17 and I'm going backwards as far as my group is concerned. One of the two guys slows for a second and looks at me without saying anything but I can see that he wants to know what I'm doing. I say one word, "cramp". He acknowledges this with a head shake and scurries up the road to avoid being dropped by the pack. Finally the end of my group flows by and I'm officially OTB.

It is one of the most horrible feelings in bike racing, and the most lonely. I look behind me and can't see a single rider. I look down at my garmin and see I'm at mile 101 - so close. The next 8 miles are a nightmare. My legs are cramping so bad that I can barely maintain 15 mph and yet nobody is passing me. I come across a couple of riders that have flat tires and I think how bad they must feel to have come so close to breaking 5 hours...and I remember I'm one of them. Somehow I make it through the city and within a mile of the finish, a traffic cop doesn't see me and opens the intersection to traffic, forcing me to stop. This is real bad as my cramping legs don't want to hold me up, I need to keep moving. He apologises to me and says he just didn't see me. I lose two minutes waiting for the light to turn green.

I cross the finish line in 5 hours, 13 minutes and 26 seconds. I take 493 place out of over 3600 riders. My average pace is 20.7 mph. The announcer actually calls out my name and city. My wife and daughter perk up at my name and see me cross the line - the benefit of being shelled off the back and coming in alone. Here is the link for the results: El Tour Unofficial Results 2008

I limp over to my wife, the only thing keeping me up is my bike. Quite a change from last year when I finished strong but still over 5 hours. I realize that I didn't put in enough long miles before the tour. I put in a lot of intensity which would have been great for a typical 60 mile road race. And once again, my first thought right after the girl took off my timing chip was, never again. But within 30 minutes I was telling my wife that next year...