Passion Performance & Professionalism

I had the pleasure of accompanying members of the AC junior team for a couple days at the USA Cycling Mountain Bike Nats in Sol Vista, Colorado. The experience provided a brief opportunity to see how we are doing as a Team and as individuals in a potentially high stress--and high visibility--race situation.

My first observation was that everyone was having a lot of fun. So we can put a big check-mark next to that item on the Team objectives list! It was clear everyone was there by choice, and had exhibited a considerable amount of dedication to get there and be competitive. The parents, coaches and sponsors all did their bit to help AC athletes achieve their goals too. So check, check and check.

Everyone raced fairly, looked sharp in their kits, and showed up on race day with clean, tuned and lubed machines. With our results ranging from victory to a bad day’s bonk, the AC Team showed support and respect for each other and their competitors. No doubt the AC athletes (and parents) set an example for others, win or otherwise. Check the Professionalism box big time!

So what’s the take-away? There were hiccups here and there, but the AC Team rocked and should be proud. What do the riders think? What can we do better as athletes and an organization to prepare for the next major event?

Good riding.

Death Ride 2009 - not as bad as you'd think

Well, we did it - Blair, Bill and I finished the Death Ride today (well, I made it through 4 of the 5 passes, but they did all 5 passes).

Think about these totals for a minute (for the three of us):

342 miles ridden
42,000 feet of climbing
28.5 hours of riding

It might have been, to use the oft-overused word "epic" - though I'd say that it wasn't nearly as hard as I would have expected (I did 94 miles of riding, and 12,000 feet of climbing - and was still feeling pretty good at the end). Blair and Bill took an extra three hours and finished the fifth pass, Carson Pass, which included a bracing downhill ride in the rain - they covered about 124 miles, with 15,000 feet of climbing in roughly 10.5 hours.

The day started early, with a 4 AM wakeup call, and a 5:30 start time. Although we had about 12 or 13 riders in the extended group, four of us (Blair, Bill, Greg and I) started together, and headed up Monitor Pass.

Rich, Bill and Blair at the start

Bill, Greg and Blair - about to head out

We stayed together for awhile, but first Greg took off ahead, then Blair and Bill headed out at a brisk clip.

My back side view of Bill, Greg and Blair

I stayed with my plan for the ride, and held to 160-180 Watts the entire day (a slower pace than the others)), so I solo'd the entire day.

We were fortunate to have perfect weather for (almost) the entire day - it started out at about 60 degrees, then warmed up by the time the sun came up as we ascended Monitor Pass.

View from Monitor Pass as the sun comes up

The weather stayed nice for the whole ride, until late afternoon (around 3 PM) when clouds came in and started raining on the riders who were ascending or descending Carson Pass.

The rest stops were uniformly very well-equipped, but very crowded. I found it was best to run in, get refills on water and/or Cytomax, grab a PBJ bagel, and then get going again. It would be easy with 8-10 stops to add 1-2 hours if you spent 10-15 minutes at each rest stop.

At the top of Monitor - first time

The Monitor Pass "tombstone" at the summit
(photo courtesy of Ed Schuller)

The scenery as we climbed and descended Monitor was really spectacular - the sun was coming up across incredible views of the valley, and the contours of the land were shadowed - it looked almost like CGI in some places (or maybe that was just the riding ;-)

At the bottom of Monitor Pass

This guy apparently finished the WHOLE ride
on this "elliptical bike"

After ascending Monitor from the back side, it was time to head back down towards Markleeville and head up Ebbett's pass. The descent was nice - really smooth and well-paved road, but there were the inevitable yahoos who were going WAY too fast, and would pass you without announcing "on your left" - I kept my speed below 40 MPH so it was pretty mellow descending (relatively speaking). Monitor Pass really wasn't all that hard - it felt a bit like doing Mt. Diablo, though there were definite effects to be felt when you got up around 8000 feet.

Heading up Ebbett's Pass, we were first treated to a nice gently rolling ascent (maybe 1-3%) along a beautiful river, which took your mind off the riding a bit.

Long, slow climb up Ebbett's Pass - this is a discouraging view!

Nice, shady climb up Ebbett's - before it got REALLY hard

Then the road kicked up, and by the end of the ascent, it REALLY kicked up - there was wave after wave of what felt like 10-12% grades. It took real concentration to keep the pedals going after you thought you were "almost done" but came around a corner to find ANOTHER steep 300 yard ascent staring you in the face. This pass topped out above 8700 feet, so it was a long haul to the top.

The rest stop at Ebbett's Pass

Proof that I made it to Ebbett's (first time)

At the top, I refilled the bottles, grabbed some snacks, and debated whether to head down the back side to then do my fourth ascent. After talking with people, I convinced myself that it "wouldn't be that hard" so headed down to the bottom. It really turned out to be not that bad - about 1700 feet of climbing, and no really nasty climbs. People were clearly starting to get tired, so I found myself saying "on your left" as I passed person after person - just held it at 160 Watts and spun the pedals till I got to the top (again).

The descent was a bit sketchy - the road had no center line, and there were often three or four riders abreast going up, and then others were descending really fast, kind of threading around the climbing riders. I took it easy, then headed down to the lunch spot. It was really crowded, so I passed on it, grabbed more water and Cytomax at the next stop, and then rode the remaining 14 miles back to the car. It seemed MUCH longer than when we rode it in the morning, but it was the end of the day after all.

When riders went through Markleeville, which was halfway between the lunch spot and the car, there were hundreds of people lined up on the main street, with cowbells and lots of cheering and hooting. It was really nice to hear the encouragement, and helped make the last 6 miles to the car.

Once at the car, I found that I was the first one back. A few minutes later, Greg rolled in (he'd done the 4 passes then stopped for lunch).

At the car after my 94 miles

We compared notes, then Blair rolled in - he had stopped for lunch and met up with a bunch of the other guys. Blair decided to go for Carson Pass, so we waited a few minutes to see if Bill would stop by the car, then Blair just headed up himself.

Blair deciding to take on Carson Pass - he left
quickly before he could change his mind!

He ended up taking about 3 hours from that point, and only hit rain on his descent. Bill was ahead of Blair and managed to avoid all the rain.

All in all, everyone really enjoyed the ride (as much as you can enjoy something like this) but it's not clear that we really need to do this again. It would be nice to do a ride up and down Monitor on our own, so perhaps we'll come back some time and do that pass again.

It's also important to note that this was Bill's birthday weekend (this was his birthday) and he and his wife Joey shared their gorgeous house with a huge crowd of guys, with wonderful food and conversation - quite a treat compared to our usual crappy motels at the races!

Everyone at dinner on Friday - discussing strategy for the Death Ride

Here is a link to the ride today.

Here are more pictures.

Death Ride Prologue - Fun at Altitude

Why do the Death Ride? 130 miles and 15,000 feet of climbing - what's the point? Three of us (Blair, Bill Buckingham and I) decided to try it this year (well, Blair and Bill decided months ago, and I just decided two weeks ago, without any further training). We regularly do 5000-7000 feet of climbing on our rides around Marin, but this is WAY more riding - long miles, altitude and lots more altitude. But we rationalize that it's "only" about a 65 mile ride of climbing - the rest is downhill...

We drove up on Thursday (the "ride" is on Saturday morning) to get acclimated to the altitude. Bill's house is at Kirkwood, and is a great base of operations at about 7800 feet altitude, so we're getting good hypobaric treatment here. Both the accomodations and the scenery are really unbeatable, so I guess we could just hang out and skip the ride....but we won't.

Bill's little cabin in the mountains

View from the living room (6 AM)

We did have a good day today - first an adventure trying to meet up with some of Blair's friends who were staying in a yurt (yes, a yurt). This particular yurt was owned by Tim, a friend of Blair's who actually works for Apple, and comes up here on the weekends.

Tim's yurt- it gets 20 feet of snow here in the winter

It's about 3 miles up a VERY rutted 4WD road, and took some looking (about 45 minutes) for us to finally locate it. But it was worth it - unbelievable views from the front deck, with no one around for miles.

View from the front deck of the yurt

After hanging out for awhile, we elected to head down to Markleeville, and get registered for the ride. We ran into a few more riders who Blair and Bill knew, got more tips on how to (and how not to) do the ride successfully. The summary is "ride slow, and eat/drink a LOT"

We headed out to Blue Lake road which is halfway up Kit Carson pass - one of the five passes we are to ride tomorrow. Our ride was pretty mellow - just to get us acclimated to the altitude. It felt pretty bad for the first 15-20 minutes, but then evened out - we did about 20 miles with about 1200' of climbing (from about 7100 feet to 8300 feet). Felt a lot better at the end, and I think we're ready to go for Saturday morning.

That's it for now - we'll post pictures and stories after the ride - wish us luck!

Cause/effect? Eat more, ride longer? Ride longer, eat more?

We had a "semi-epic" AC Masters ride today - Jeff, Ken, Tom and Katie Fox, and I did a big loop of West Marin. Over 84 miles of riding from Mill Valley, over to Nicasio and Pt. Reyes. See the full route here.

After Katie headed down to Stinson, the rest of us headed North to Marshall and climbed the Marshall Wall (not really that tough - not sure why it is so revered?) and headed through the valley back to Nicasio. Then back around to home. Yes, I will explain the subject of this posting - be patient...

It really becomes kind of tiresome to say it, but "we are very lucky to live here and be able to ride these roads!" kept running through my mind, especially on Marshall-Petaluma Road, which goes up the Wall, then down and through the valley all the way to Hicks Valley Road. No cars, no other cyclists of note, and just mile after mile of either pristine natural beauty, or multi-generational family farms that continue to raise happy cows, and happy vegetables.

Riding along Hicks Valley Road - no cars for about 40 minutes!

We benefited from near-perfect weather - mid-60's temperatures, high overcast clouds for most of the ride, and a nice tailwind on the way back from the coast. We stopped off at the Cheese Factory for a quick break - saw a couple of other cyclists there.

Tom, Rich, Jeff and Ken - about mile 65.

Since I'm trying to "prepare" for the Death Ride next week, I reasoned that it would be a good idea to get some "long, slow miles" into my legs this weekend, and then recover this week to be ready for the 15,000 feet of climbing on July 11th. Of course, riding slowly requires self-discipline, which I clearly lacked ascending White's Hill, then again on the pace line we assembled on the way to Nicasio, and then to Pt. Reyes. Burned a few "matches" that I really wish I'd had left on the back half of the ride.

We were able to get the sandwich at Cowgirl Creamery Cantina (today was lamb and shaved fennel) and had time to replenish some of our energy, but I clearly should have eaten more. By the time I reached Larkspur, after more than 5 hours of riding, I was pretty much toast.

Despite 4 bottles of Cytomax and water, and a Clif Bar, and half the sandwich, it clearly wasn't enough to offset the 4,000 calories I'd burned in the first 75 miles of the ride. I let Ken and Jeff head on home, and I quickly gobbled down the remaining Apricot Coffee Cake I'd bought back at Bovine Bakery in Pt. Reyes (3 hours before - why didn't I eat this earlier?).

I managed to ride about one more mile to my friend Fred's house, who was conveniently having a Fourth of July Party, where they were able to refill my tank with two burgers, and some other food I remember consuming in a fog.

After resting at Fred's for an hour, I headed up and over Camino Alto - found it wasn't nearly as tough as I was expecting - the food had restored my strength (and will to live) and I made it home without incident or much difficulty.

So the moral, and the title say it all - if you want to ride longer, you'd better eat more, and if you eat more you can ride longer. We all KNOW this, don't we? But sometimes you have to re-learn it the (semi-epic) hard way.

See you out on the road!

Gold Nugget Stage Race - Day 3 - GC Finale

We now return to the third, and final day of the Gold Nugget Stage Race - as we left our racers, Bjorn and Skyler had made significant progress in the GC, and had each won an event in the previous day.

On Sunday morning, we were fortunate to (1) only have to drive about 10 minutes to the race start, and (2) have an 8 AM start time, which meant it was cool.

That was the good news. However the course was fairly tough - a 12-mile loop with almost no flat spots - a lot of rolling riding, and some moderate climbs, particularly the last mile or so which was a long sustained climb along the side of canyon.

The 15-16 group was first out, and had a 3-lap race for 36 miles. I ended up in the follow van, to bring along spare wheels in case of flats. It was interesting to watch the race unfold over the 2 1/2 hours.

Junior 15-16 group at the start.

The Junior 13-14 group headed out a few minutes later, and Skyler and the boys traded lead for the first lap before the race began to break apart.

Junior 13-14 boys at the start.

The 15-16 race started out fairly fast, with the group sticking together, but pushing fairly quickly. They kept together through the first lap, but it was clear that there were going to be breaks coming up. Bob and Spence worked in the front for awhile, to help pace the group and support Bjorn.

Junior 15-16 on lap 1 (that's me in the follow van behind).

At one point in the race, Bjorn had to take a "nature break" off the side of the road - Bob and Spence saw that he'd disappeared off the back, so they quickly moved up front, and slowed down the pack to allow Bjorn time to catch back up to the pack. He was successful and then the pack sped up again.

Lap 2 of the Junior 15-16 group.

On lap 3, the attacks started in earnest. Bjorn took off and solo'd for a few miles, trying to stay away, but Chris Flanagan and Alastair Eckmann, who were both fighting for first place in the GC, wouldn't let that happen. They pushed the group hard and it split apart, into two pieces (Bob, Spence and Dom, who'd been working hard on the front, got popped off the back. Bjorn stayed with the front group).

There was a four-rider chase gruppeto that caught Bjorn, then the five of them hammered out the remaining few miles of the race on lap 3. Moving up the final climb, Chris and Alastair turned it on, and the other three (Bjorn and two others) worked to keep up with them.

In the last kilometer, Bjorn was pushing hard to catch and pass Chris and Alastair, but he'd probably burned too many matches on his solo - they were able to stay away, and the two sprinted for the final. Bjorn rolled in with the other two, and came in with fifth place for the stage, and with Third Place for the GC overall.

Skyler's race was two laps - the pack went out at a mellow pace, and after the first lap, it was down to Skyler, Henry and Ryan, who fought out the last half lap. In the end Skyler powered past the others, held onto a lead and solo'd a few seconds ahead for a First Place on the stage, and another Third Place on the GC.

Skyler finishing the 13-14 race - First Place!

Bjorn sprinting up towards the finish
(he ended up with Fifth Place in the race)

Bob, Spence and Dom rolling into the finish
after their workout as domestiques.

Spence, Bob, Dom and Skyler resting after the finish.

Enjoying the many amenities of the Fox's Sprinter!

Junior 13-14 General Classification:
Skyler with two wins, and Third Overall.

Junior 15-16 General Classification:
Bjorn - Third Place, Bob - Eighth Place, Spence - Ninth Place

Skyler and the other Junior 13-14's on their "podium"

Bjorn, Bob and Spence on the Junior 15-16 "podium"

This was a long (maybe even "epic") weekend of racing, with 94 miles total for the 15-16 racers, and 62 miles for Skyler in the 13-14 class.

The boys performed great, and it was really impressive to watch them work as a team, notably in the road races, where Bob and Spence worked hard for Bjorn. Both Bjorn and Skyler raced across the four stages and really pulled in impressive results, each with two stage wins.

The AC Juniors were the second largest group at this race, and really put on an impressive team effort - it was clearly the result of a lot of work in their training and racing over the past year. It also really showed that their teamwork and friendships helped them persevere against some very strong and determined opponents. This bodes well for the coming seasons for the AC Junior team!