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2003 Terrible Two
(Saturday, June 28 in Santa Rosa, CA)
See also my photo album from this
ride.
Email excerpt below, more comprehensible report later...
I started (along with 250+ of my closest cycling buddies - the largest
mass-start I've participated in by far!) at 5:30 after we received a
safety lecture from the ride organizer. He reminded us that our field
was larger than the TdF, and not to sling mud on us, but we aren't
nearly as skilled as the pros, so be careful! We started at a fast
clip, with a pace car trying to trip all of the stoplights as we
travelled through Santa Rosa. Some drunken maniac ran out into the
road and just stood there as the peleton swerved around him - what was
he thinking?! (he probably wasn't) A few lights turned before everyone
got through, and by the time we got out of town, things were pretty
well strung out. It wasn't too cold, which was worrysome, as it would
only get warmer from here out! It was a lovely ride along Bennett
Valley as the sun fully rose and I found myself leading a line of 10
or so people as we boogied towards the first climb of the day -
Trinity Grade. I was surprised to find that the climb was actually
pretty difficult (for some reason I had it in my head that Trinity
wasn't very steep - not true!). Fortunately only the bottom mile or
two is really steep and the rest is just generally uphill. I saw my
first walker here and wondered how he was going to do if he was
walking on the first climb of the day! Finally I got to the top and
started down the backside into Napa Valley. There were course
officials here and there emphatically warning us to be careful on this
descent, and I could definitely see why - it was steep and extremely
curvy, chock full of 10-15mph hairpins. No wonder a few folks crash
here every year! My front tire went squishy on a relatively flat and
straight section, so I pulled off to fix the flat (my first since I
switched to Avocet tires). A SAG vehicle went by just as I was
unmounting the tire and told me to just relax - they changed the tube,
found the wire that caused the flat, and pumped it up to my specified
pressure for me - now that's service! We merged onto Oakville Grade, a
stark contrast to Trinity in that it was nearly straight with great
visibility, yet like Trinity, quite steep. I wasn't going anywhere
near as fast as I could have since I don't know the road, but I hit
52.3mph anyways - yeehaw! Another 20 miles or so through beautiful
Napa Valley (I again got to see the balloons rise - one of my favorite
sights on any ride (also a feature of the Knoxville Double)) and north
on the Silverado Trail brought me to rest stop #1 in Calistoga at
about 50 miles. I rode with a couple from Palo Alto for part of the
final stretch on Silverado Trail - the guy was good company, but the
woman was pretty silent. I only stayed 8 minutes at the rest stop,
wanting to conserve time, as I had arrived only 40 minutes before the
stop closed. It was more pleasant riding for 20'ish miles through
another wine valley (Antelope, I think?) north of Calistoga, but my
right knee started really bothering me nearly as soon as I left
Calistoga. This was worrysome, as it felt fine on Trinity, but bugged
me after not even doing any hard riding for the previous hour+. I'd
made sure to stretch and take aspirin and endurolytes, but that
doesn't seem to have helped. As I arrived at the foot of the second
(and by many accounts, hardest) climb of the day, the Geysers, I
stopped to stretch a bunch, have some caffeine, and take an Alleve in
the hopes that it would shut my knee up. Geysers is a very steep climb
with very little shade and few letups in grade - after half a mile or
so my knee was being unbearable (stabbing pain with every pedal
stroke), so I pulled off and pondered. The usual pain remedies weren't
working, and there was no way I was going to be able to ride another
130+ miles of extremely hilly terrain with my knee feeling as it was.
I stretched a bunch more, enjoing a nice view down into the valley,
then tried again to ride up the hill. No dice. My ride was over - I
wasn't about to jeapordize the rest of the season (including the Death
Ride in two weeks and the Climb to Kaiser in four, both already paid
for (and expensive!)) in a vain attempt to finish this ride. I flagged
down the next SAG that came by and got a ride to the top of the
Geysers (which, by the way, looks like a HARD climb!), and from there
got a lift back to the start. At least my lights hadn't yet been taken
to the last stop, so I just picked them up at the start and went back
to my hotel. I enjoyed the part of the ride I did do, the support was
phenominal (and they had sustained energy and hammer gel - yay!) and
the course beautiful. I'll definitely be back next year. It was pretty
disappointing that my knee prevented me from finishing, as my legs and
the rest of my body felt up for a good deal more abuse (who knows if
I'd have made it or not, but that's moot), but so it goes.
Ride Stats:
| Distance: |
71.9mi |
| Total Time: |
5h 1m |
| On-bike Time: |
4h 44m |
| Average Speed: |
15.1mph |
| Average Speed (including stops): |
14.3mph |
| Maximum Speed: |
52.2.0mph |
| Total Climbing: |
~3,000 ft |
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| Rating (out of 10): |
| Difficulty: |
7, at least for the portion I completed. I'm certain the remainder is
much harder! |
| Support: |
10 - lots of helpful people everywhere |
| Food: |
10 - all the correct endurance fuels |
| Route: |
8 - very pretty |
| Overall: |
8, but I sure wish I could have ridden further |
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