No mans land

Today I participated in a 50 mile charity ride to raise funds for Interfaith Food Bank of Amador County.

This is the second year of this event, and returning again as the guest celebrity rider was Chris Horner the 2011 Tour of California Champion.

 

I signed up for this ride a couple months ago as just something to do, help out a good cause and get in some social miles on the bike.  As the ride got closer the word was that Chris might not be able to ride, he was suffering from a blood clot.

 

While that took some of the fun out of the ride, it was still for a good cause and I would get to ride in a part of the state I hadn’t ridden in before, so I was still looking forward to it.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, because next week I am doing Levi Leipheimer’s King Ridge Fondo, where there will be around 7,500 riders participating.  They said that those starting in the back of the pack could be 20-30 minutes before they cross the start line after the ride begins.

 

Luckily for us and thankfully for Chris, he was cleared to ride again last week, so we were actually going to get a chance to ride with him.

 

Rather than drive the 2.5-3 hours over to Ione (South of Sacramento CA) my wife suggested I go ahead and get a hotel room over there (This was and still is greatly appreciated).  I pondered bringing some sleeping pills for the hotel, I don’t sleep well to begin with and I figured in a strange place it would be even worse, but I balanced that with not wanting to be groggy the next morning, so I decided not to take any with me.  That was a mistake.  I woke up about 2 hours after going to bed, tossed and turned for the next 2 hours, then finally got up for about 2 hours to surf the web.  I finally fell back asleep with about 1 hour to go before my alarm went off.

 

The weather forecast had a 30% chance of rain.  So I dressed for that; I figured that because this was for a good cause, it was bound to rain on us.   The day started out overcast and cool, which was actually very welcome, because it had been in the 90+ range over there the previous few days.

 

As the ride started out they had a photographer vehicle in the front with Chris right behind it.  They had everyone ride up alongside him and get photos taken with him.  I thought that was a pretty cool personal touch that they added to this ride.  I think I was in the second row for quite a while as they were taking pictures, because there are over 40 pictures of my ugly mug either behind or next to Chris.  I figured that was all well and good and that it was probably the last time I would see him until the closing festivities.

 

After I had my picture taken, I put my head down and began to churn out some miles, trying to track down everyone in front of me.  We had several good pacelines going and chewed up the first 10-15 miles in no time at all.  The course consisted of several out and back two out and back loops

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/117134799

 

As is usual for me as soon as we hit the hills, even the rollers, I get dropped.  I still feel like I hauling too much lard up the hills, I just can’t hang on the hills.  Give me the flats and I can hold my own.  Unfortunately a lot of the time I end up riding alone due to getting dropped.

 

This was the case somewhere in the teens.  Around mile 17 I hear someone over my shoulder say “You are out here in no man’s land" I snorted and looked up and was shocked to see that it was Chris Horner.  He rode alongside me for the next 2-3 miles.  We talked about the Tour of CA and the big climb they had up Mount Hamilton this year.  I told him how after seeing those guys do it, I wanted to see what it was like, and that I was reduced to the walk of shame for probably 30-40% of it.  That is a mean hill.  He laughed and told me that he had done that ride as a training ride the week before the tour and that there was a charity ride going over the same route.  He said the mountain was littered with people walking and cramped up on the side of the road. 

 

When he decided it was time to catch up with the next group, he said bye, wished me luck and took off like I was standing still.  He was up the next hill and had caught the next group who were 500 meters ahead of us, before I was even ½ way up the hill.  I gave some thought to trying to stay on his wheel, but that last for about oh .00023435 seconds and I said nope can’t do it.

 

All in all it was a beautiful day, the ride was very small, maybe a couple hundred riders.  The rest stop was nice, it wasn’t lavish, but they had water/Gatorade/cookies/bananas/granola bars.  Chris was off the bike taking pictures with people, signing autographs and just generally chatting and answering all kinds of questions.

The terrain was mostly rollers, but even the downhill sections had uphill portions.  Nothing just went up and down, it was all stair stepped.  The only prolonged downhill was when leaving the rest stop and coming into the finish. 

 

The atmosphere put out there to the participants was excellent; It was low keyed and very friendly.  I will make sure to put this on my list of yearly rides.

 

Here are some pictures from the day

http://totalfocusphoto.exposuremanager.com/g/ridin_with_chris

I’m in numbers 6392 through 6438.  I never get a good photo at these things or at races, so I wanted to make sure they got at least one photo of me.  I think I’m in more pictures here than I have been in all of my other racers or events combines.

 

I also have a few of my own photos from the event here.

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2183864909432.21194 42.1031270010&l=2769a188e4&type=1

 

 

 

Looks like a good time. Glad you got to ride with Chris.

What a cool story Scott! Hope that it does become a fun yearly event for ya.

And hey I didn't know that you came down to my hood to ride Mt. Ham, that's where I had my big fall (down the backside of the mt.) but before that I had a nice climb up, isn't it a lovely ride...long but enjoyable!

:Danni

Yeah Marie and I rode it earlier this year, well rode and walked.

I almost crashed there too.  I had so much speed coming down the hill, I didn't make one of the turns and thankfully it put me into the mountain instead of off the edge.

I think I will try it again some time, but we won't do the 50+ miles we did before the climb this time.

Are you all healed up?

Scott

Well the bones are healed, but I'm still dealing with pain due to it being stuck in a static position for 2 months. But I'm doing physical therapy (which hurts like HELL) but it's helping me get my range of motion back.

What route did you guys do? Yeah we were halfway through a century when we got to the top, and after all that climbing (we did another climb before that) I didn't get to enjoy the downhill! That's the best part!

:Danni

Hey Dani,

this is the route we did for Mt. Hamilton
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/292933

Next time we need to cut off the 50 or so miles at the beginning.

But we learned a few lessons.  There are no resources out there, so you better bring enough water and food to be self sufficient.  If it wasn't for a CDF station letting us refill our bottles, I think we would have been vulture food out there.

Lesson two is that Marie is overly optimistic, she kept saying we have to be near the top, it's probably just around the corner, well 5 miles of corners later, we finally got to the top.

Lesson three when you can look down the mountain and see the road directly below you from the previous switchback, it's steep.

Ohh don't cut of those first 50, they are so beautiful! I love that route, it's so peaceful...well, when the motocycles aren't buzzing by you...

If you guys come back, let me know!

Basically, we did it the hard way. Going up the backside and down the front.

I'm better at judging the ridge-line now. I got fooled on that one because the higher stuff was all hidden from view.

I know, it's so deceiving!! Sneaky buggar, you think oh I'm near the top...but no such luck is to be had. It's a beautiful ride though, isn't it?

Marie lives down there, so it's in her back yard.  I'd like to try it again.  Maybe next year.