cycling rocks

hard monday multiday raceday

taken 08/05/2006

The company we kept was full of ultra athletes, CAT 1 racers, ex-pro’s, pro’s, Furnace Creek 508 champion (and the only one to complete a Double Furnace Creek 508) Steve Born, Suzy “UltraWoman” Degazon, Velonews and Bicycling magazine writers, some weekend warriors like me. Even the non-pro’s routinely race and ride double centuries. Remember, I’ve only been riding for 18 months. I was outclassed, but everyone was so friendly and humble and very supportive. In addition, Brian Frank and his staff at Hammer Nutrition worked triple overtime to make sure bikes were built and loaded/unloaded, fuel and water was accounted for, transportation arranged, rooms secured. Everything was clean and breakfast, lunch and dinners were on time. For FOUR days! You could count on them for just about anything. The photographers and video people were capturing as much as they could. Some of us felt like models and movie stars. I can’t wait to get the DVD.

I hadn’t done any riding thru mountain passes; Saturday’s Highline Hammer was climb after climb after climb. Starting in West Glacier, a fueling station was setup so everyone could fill their bottles with gels and powders. Follow cars and SAG Wagons would provide us with more fuel and water during the ride. We didn’t have to carry a darn thing.

I asked Ben Delaney of Velonews if he was going to ride the ‘A’ or the ‘B’ ride. He smiled, “I want to ride hard. I’ll probably go with the ‘A’ group.” It wasn’t until he was first to cross the finish line that I found out he was a CAT 1 racer from Colorado. Amazing. Very strong. Lotsa strong riders here. My roommate, Lewis, does doubles regularly and will compete in the Xterra race in Utah this coming season. He’s a very strong rider who kept up with the lead groups.

In my typical fashion, I led the whole shebang the first twenty miles from West Glacier to the start of the 3,700 foot climb at Logan Creek. Broadmark Capital rider Owen Gue rolled up to me and asked, “Puttin’ the hurt on?” I laughed. This is the only time I’m going to be up front! At Logan Creek folks started passing me. For twelve miles we climbed. I passed people. I got passed. It was wonderful to look up the mountain and see our destination. I was amazed to look down the cliffs to see the ground we had covered. It was inspiring to see other cyclists who weren’t with our group tackling the climb; with panniers and using their granny ring. I was proud to look down at the speedometer clocking a decent pace of 9.47 ave.

I made a pit stop at the top of Logan Pass. I was so intent on the bathroom stop that I made a move to get onto the sidewalk. Unfortunately, I cut off Robert who crossed wheels with me. His five mile an hour fall wasn’t a big deal. I felt bad however. That shouldn’t have happened.

The next leg is an 18 mile descent and rollers to St. Mary that was COLD. Even with arm warmers, vest, gloves I shivered the whole way down. Negotiating the turns was easy and the road was well groomed for the conditions. Note: There had been a fire that week that had closed the pass. Luckily they reopened the pass on Friday. Unfortunately, there was still a little soot and haze in the air. Fire helicopters were still working to squelch some problem areas.

Joe Arnone passed me up the climb. He must have been going almost three times my speed. Incredible. It was amazing to watch that much power going up the hill. He’s also an ex CAT 1 rider and he’s the type to jump back and forth from group to group like it was nothing. He’s the one who literally pushed me and four others up a part of a climb because he wanted us all to summit together. I couldn’t imagine how strong one can be to carry themselves plus push people up a hill. Is that what it’s like to have Lance give you a boost up a hill like I’ve heard so many times? How could I let him down? I trudged on to keep pace and we summited.

I rushed to St. Mary hoping it was the lunch stop and while they had sandwiches on board, it was recommended to lunge forward because climbing the next 2,000 feet on a full stomach would be a lot more work. Fair enough. I know what that’s like. Let’s go.

I finally made it to East Glacier after 37 miles of climbs and rollers. I was tired, but I felt good. I ate these sandwich wraps that they had in the van; later, these will come back to haunt me. At the time, they were very good. Now, instead of taking the van to next summit I started out for the ride to Marias Pass. Some folks were smart and didn’t ride the whole thing, rather they hopped in and out of the van’s for parts of it. Riding the entire route was not a requirement.

The ride guide recommended sitting out this part if you were going to skip any of it. I thought I’d be okay, however the 20 mph headwind was demoralizing. Then, my legs stopped working. My brain said, “GO!” yet my legs ignored the request. It was all I could do to keep an eight mile an hour pace fighting the winds on the flats. If you’re not careful, you could get knocked off the shoulder onto the highway where RV’s, cars and trucks traveled on the 70 mph highway. My eyes were tired of looking thru the lenses of my sunglasses so I hung them from my backpocket. Normally, this is fine but even today I can’t find them. I honestly think they blew away. I lost the ability to keep up with anyone who passed. I then gave up and just soft pedaled until a SAG wagon returned. I got off my bike, turned off the computer, took off my HR strap and my helmet. “Do you have room for one more?”

Brian said, “We came back just for you.” I was so relieved to be done. I found another sandwich wrap and wolfed it down with potato chips. My ride was over. We picked up a couple more weary riders who felt the same. Whew.

After the finish line festivities, we took the van to the hotels for showers and then were transported back to the office for a wonderful spaghetti dinner and much needed free massage. By now, my stomach was really aching. My head was hurting and disoriented. I wanted to throw up, but I guess my technique is not good. I could not make myself hurl. Hanging out as long as I could I asked my roommate for a ride back. He was happy to oblige. He said something about me being green around the gills.

I spent a sleepless night with chills, night sweats and frequent trips to the bathroom. Telltale signs of food poisoning. The fever woke me up every thirty to forty minutes. I considered going to the emergency room to get my stomach pumped. It wasn’t until nine-thirty in the morning that my fever broke and most of the diarrhea passed. I’m so glad this didn’t happen during the ride.

I missed the morning recovery ride on Sunday. No matter. I couldn’t ride anyway. I later found out one of the drivers also had food poisoning. We must of had a bad batch of wraps, the mayonnaise or it got spoiled or something.

Despite getting sick, I still had a great, wonderful, thankful time and I hope to make it out to Whitefish next year. The views were spectacular. The support and hospitality could not be matched. The people were more than friendly and I now have a personal vendetta against the mountain — to complete the Highline Loop some day.

P.S.

Thursday’s morning ride was unplanned but great. I had time to join Brian and a couple guys before checking into the hotel. It’s been a few days since riding and it felt good to spin the legs. My bike was surprisingly easy to build. It traveled well in the hard case.

Friday’s big group ride was fun as well; a great precursor to Steve Born’s seminar on fueling. His knowledge and experience on endurance events and nutrition is so strong. James Stevens is the new “Dr. Bill”. Hard shoes to fill after Dr. Bill’s retirement but his research background and nutritional work and studies make him an excellent candidate. Hammer did us all a favor by hiring James.

There was so much more that I could report on, but to keep this at 1,500 words or less I’ll stop here. I’m sure others will chime in on their reports to give additional perspective and their sentiment on the whole thing would be the same as mine. Completely awesome.

Total Miles - 86.86
Total Elevation Gain - 12,573 ft
Ave HR - 143 bpm
Ave Speed - 14.8 mph

Monday, August 7th, 2006 at 12:07 pm.
Filed under Cycling.
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