The Kaos Theory

Well the day finally came to ride the fund raiser for the American Lung Association, Reach The Beach 2006. I decide to ride the 55 mile route from Amity to the finish line at Cape Kiwanda/Pacific City. Once again I had trouble sleeping before the ride, not that the ride was overly difficult, I just get too damn excited. So I awoke at 4:30, showered and gathered all my gear together. When I say all my gear, I mean EVERYTHING. A few rides back I forgot my rain jacket and of course it rained and I was miserable. If it snowed, I was prepared. I rallied the family together, wife, daughter and the 2 dogs and loaded them all into the SUV and headed off south to the starting line. The reason everybody was coming on this trip was because we were planning on staying a couple of days at the beach after the ride. That’s another post entirely.

The weather report indicated rain showers in the morning and a high around 60. One thing I’ve learned about the weather prognosticators in this area is they don’t know their ass from a teacup when it comes to forcasting. Before we left I checked the radar map at weather.com and saw that most of the precipitation had already moved east. We left at 7:30am and made good time. Parked at the drop off zone, unloaded the bike and dressed. The weather was perfect, some high clouds but no rain and no wind. I got my bib, kissed the wife and kid, petted the dogs and I was off. This ride didn’t use Dan Henry markers painted on the road but yellow arrows attached to trees and stop signs or anything they could find. Luck for me I hooked up with 3 other riders right at the beginning who kept the same tempo as I did. I have to say that was the best riding if done in a rally yet. Each of us would take a turn at the front for awhile and then peel off and take a spot at the back. We were hauling ass, passing people like they were standing still. All of this without killing ourselves. We worked like that for the whole first leg the the town of Sheridan. We averaged over 17 mph for the first 15 miles. For me this was a good sign because as always my goal is to average at least 15 mph for the race and there were the coastal range to climb before the day was done. I was ahead of the game. I ate some grub and talked to my wife who was waiting with the entourage at the rest stop. At this point I lost all three of my riding buddies, they had either left in a hurry, ran off to the john or something else. Slightly bummed, I set off solo. I knew this next section had a few more hills but I had good legs and attitude. I passed many riders(this was a first) and had not been passed since about the first mile. I used other riders in front of me like a carrot on a stick. I’d see them up in front of me and dug down to try to catch them. This was cool, I kept passing these riders who had left several minutes in front of me. About 5 miles from the next stop I caught and passed one of the original three riders. I was expecting and hoping he’d latch on to my wheel so we could team up the rest of the way but my pace was too much for him(I don’t get to say that very much). I cruised to the stop still keeping my overall average at 16.1.

The next section of the route was going to be the most difficult based on the profile. It was uphill over the coastal range for about 15 miles. It wasn’t super steep but it was up, with false flats and some minor downhills. Compared to some of the other rides like the Daffodil Classic, my legs were in much better shape, couple this with the fact that I hadn’t changed out of my 53 for the whole ride, I felt real good. Most road bike now adays are geared like mountain bikes with 27 speeds. Well, I have 18 and it shows on the hills. This is where I was starting to get passed. At one point I looked back to see if there was anybody gaining on me and i couldn’t see a soul. Next thing I know a group of 4 riders ripped past me like I was standing still. Any kind of Mojo I had went by the wayside. I plodded along trying to keep my speed up knowing that at some point the road would point down. This is where I met a guy named Darren. All of a sudden this voice comes from behind me and says “I think I’ll just sit behind you for awhile”. At first this kind of pissed me off. I’m struggling up the hill and this guy wants to ride MY wheel? He rode behind me and finally passed me and started to leave me but turned and said “no problem, I’ll lower the pace”. That was cool. I give him a lot of respect for that. He slowed and I picked up the pace so I could get on his wheel. He pulled me up a good portion of the hills. Very cool. We rode together for 7 or 8 miles talikng about different rides we’ve done and things like that. We even pulled over to help a girl who had problems pumping up her newly fied flat. Darren got out his 9 dollar pump and finished it off for her. His karma points went over the maximum for that gesture alone.

Finally we started on downhill portion to the coast and I knew the rest was mostly flat except for one hill. This hill was so steep ther were cyclist littered all up and down it in various forms of pushing theirs bikes. This is where Darren and I parted ways, I knew I couldn’t keep his pace up ths hill so I bode him farewell and put the Eddie in the granny gear and ground out the mile or so. Once at the top I felt a great sense of relief, the hardest part was behind me so I thought. After you crest the range and get closer to the beach, the wind changes significantly. It becomes a steady on-shore headwind that would slow you down so much on the downhills you’d have to peddle like you were on the flats. The last ten miles were like that. Then the evil signs began to appear. “10 miles to go, you can do it” or something like that. “9 miles to go, heart, mind and soul” Arrrrrgh, they were pissing me off. They made each mile seem like they were taking FOREVER. At this point my legs were tiring and didn’t need this pseudo self help BS at every mile. Finally I crossed highway 101 and I knew I was almost done. I knew my legs were. I’d gone out real fast for the first 2 and 1/2 legs and now my legs were feeling it. At this point I really couldn’t care what my average speed was, I just wanted to get to the finish line. The road just seemd to keep going and going, I couldn’t see the end. Just like that, I emerged from behind some beach houses to see a whole group of people clapping and cheering on my efforts. This made the last few miles melt away in my mind and I was full of piss and vinegar again. I crossed the finish line with my arms extended high in the sky like I’d won a stage on one of the grand tours. I spotted my family grinning and clapping my arrival, all was good again.

Ride stats: 55 miles in 3 hour 45 minutes, averaging 14.6 mph. Pics to follow.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 22nd, 2006 at 7:38 pm and is filed under Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.