My server suffered a motherboard failure. I have migrated the site to a new server and a new version of NetWare (OES-NetWare 6.5), but there is still a lot of work to do. All of my cgi scripting is broken!

However, I am leaving on vacation and will be away for two weeks. I will just have to wait until I return before I can attend to the site.

Since the site has been unavailable, I have redden the Torture 10000 (T10k), the ABC Ride and the Yaquina Head Century.

The T10k site is here, but don't go there unless you can deal with truly ugly html.

Quoting form the site (without their formatting):
"Torture 10,000 Century: Here's how to pack in 10,000 fabulous feet of climbing into 100 miles. Starting at MHCC the first 20 miles take you up, way up, to the top of Larch Mountain for your first refueling opportunity. Make sure you bring a jacket for the descent, since even in the heat of summer the 7-mile drop from the top can get quite chilly. The course turns south traveling along the Sandy River, past Roslyn Lake and up into Sandy for your second refueling stop at Meinig Park. The next 11 miles feature fun rollers, beautiful views of Mt. Hood and a 2-mile descent along Eagle Creek into a tunnel of old growth forest. Be sure to stop at Eagle Fern Park for refueling stop number three before heading up to loop around George featuring quiet rural roads, breath taking views, and a descent that brings you back down to Eagle Fern Park for refueling stop number four. Now you get to climb back up through a tunnel of moss covered trees back to Meinig Park for your fifth and final refueling stop."

In my opinion, the Mt. Shasta ride is more difficult. The Mt. Shasta gives you three long steep climbs, while T10k only has one long climb, and it is not very steep at all. The rest of the T10k is mostly rollers, some long though.

But, the T10k did provide me with my first near miss of a deer. As I was descending at over 40 mph, a deer walked into the road in front of me. I lock my rear wheel and missed the deer by less than six feet. But, my rear tire was wasted - all of the rubber was scrapped off by the skidding. But did I abandon? No, like a fool I finished the next 60 miles with a rear tire that could have let go at anymomentt.

Next came the ABC Ride. While the longest distance is 62 miles, I did make it into a century by riding to the start from my home in Salem. I left just before daylight and saw the sun come up in front of me while the full moon was setting behind me. Very nice.

Lastly, Joanne and I rode the Yaquina Head Century on our Meridan Tandem. We will be taking it on ovr vacation, so we converted it to touring mode (removed the carbon fiber fork and low spoke wheels). This ride was a test and it performed well.

Posted 10:25 PM by John Henry

Lat weekend, I drove down to ride the Mt. Shasta Summit Century. This was one of the hardest rides that I have ever done. I completed three of the four major climbs - Parks Creek, Mumbo and Castle Lake. By the time I finished the Castle Lake climb, I was done. I was toast. I was finished.

The Parks Creek climb came first and in the early morning. I felt good on this climb and held myself back as it was going to be a long day. Next came several rollers, but no real climbs. None the less, I gained a lot of elevation getting to the next major climb of the day, Mumbo.

Mumbo was hard, because it is very steep and it was getting hot. But I was still riding well and intended to finishing all four climbs.

That thought came to an end with the Castle Lake climb. While it was the shortest of the three, it was the hardest. It was now very hot and I was truely suffering. In fact, I had to stop four times in the last four miles just to recover so I could get to the top. Once there, I knew my day was done and the Mt. Shasta climb would have to wait for another year.

Here are some stats:

Parks Creek Climb:

Dst: 13.3
Avg: 6.7 mph
Alt: 3579
Avg HR: 135 bpm
Avg Temp: 65° F


Mumbo Climb:

Dst: 11.78
Avg: 6.8 mph
Alt: 3055
Avg HR: 131 bpm
Avg Temp: 92° F


Castle Lake Climb:

Dst: 7.31
Avg: 5.5 mph
Alt: 2057
Avg HR: 137 bpm
Avg Temp: 98° F


Total for the day:

Dst: 107.93
Avg: 11.3 mph
Max Speed: 45.9
Alt: 10948

Posted 10:12 PM by John Henry

Two links today.

The first is a story on the Co-Motion Classic that appeared in the Eugene Register-Gaurd

The second link just makes me want to shake my head.

Posted 7:12 AM by John Henry

We can now say that we are tandem bicycle racers.

That's right, Joanne and I rode in the 2005 Co-Motion Classic.

We were able to do this because of the new "C" division this year. "C" riders are tandem teams that have never raced before. Now I have done some long distance rides before, but none of them are considered a race. So, Joanne and I decided to join in on the fun. The "C" division has just two stages; a 7.5 mile time trial and a 18 mile road race.

Now you would expect that we would train for this race. Nope. I just continued with my long distance training and Joanne kept riding with The Salem Bicycle Club. Well, we did do a little bit of time trial practice on the Wednesday before the race.

On Saturday, we woke up early and drove down to Cottage Grove for the time trial. At the race meeting, we learned that there were just eight teams including us and they ranged from a team who purchased their first tandem just two months before the race to a young team with shaved legs and aero-helmets. But luck of the draw (?), Joanne and I were to be the first out of the gate.

We had an hour before our departure time, so we decided to slowly ride the course to get a feel for it. It started near the edge of town and headed westward up into the foothills. After four miles, the inclined steepened and I shifted into our largest cog. The chain dropped down in between the cassette and the spokes pulling the dérailleur in toward the wheel. This cause the dérailleur hanger to bend 30 degrees or more. In short, we broke the bike.

I can not describe the depth of despair that we felt. There was no way we could fix the bike in time to make our start time in the time trial. We could not ride in the time trial. We could only load up the tandem and head back to Salem and hopefully the local bike shop could fix it.

An hour later, we were standing in The Bike Peddler watching Brian take a hammer to our dérailleur hanger. I could not watch and excused myself to the rest room. Went I came back, Brain was fine tuning the bike. It was fixed! We took it out for a 25 mile ride into the east Salem hills and it ran perfect!

On Sunday, we drove back down to Cottage Grove for the road race. As per the rules, we were given the time of the slowest tandem, plus three minutes. We were now in last place, 18 minutes back. Well, we never thought that we could win.

The eight of us started the road race. The leaders were the young couple on the Burley, followed by two tandems captioned by "racer" dad with their children as stokers. A set of nine year old twin girls were the stokers for one team (one rode the time trial and the other rode the road race). A five year old son the stoker of the other parent/child tandem. The other teams were older folks, like Joanne and I.

The course was around Cottage Grove Reservoir, and was mostly flat except for one small hill on the back side followed by shape descent and then a tight, left hand turn (posted at 15 mph). However, the largest hill was just before the finishing line, which was at the top of this hill. After the start, we rode as a group, except for the slowest team which dropped off right away.

This was our first experience of racing and I must admit, it was quite different and it was a lot of fun. Our goal was to finish no slower than fifth place. To achieve this, we intended to ride in the pack, never leading, until the final sprint and then let her rip! The Burley had the same plan. They covered every break and never lead on the first lap.

The first test was the hill on the back side of the course. It broke the pack in two and Joanne and I found ourselves in the lead group! This proved to us that we could climb with the rest of the teams. The second test was the finishing line hill. Again, we stay with the lead group. On the second lap, the groups came together. At the far end of the lake, at a hard left had corner, a tandem attached and we found ourselves dropped off of the lead by several lengths. Joanne and I worked hard to catch up as if we got dropped now, we would be out of contention. We managed to claw our way up to the lead group. Then we came to the back side hill. Again, there was an attack, and we stayed with the lead group, but we went anaerobic to do so. I decided not to race down the hill, but let the 15 mph turn regroup us. This plan worked and we were fifth coming out of the corner, but I blew a shift and we spun our peddles coming out of the turn. This was enough to drop us off of the lead group by 100 feet or more. I decided not to work hard to get back on, but to slowly bridge back in time for the final hill.

To my surprise, the official's car passed us! They must have thought that we would not be able to bridge back. I took this as an insult! At the corner at the foot of the hill, Joanne and I were just a few feet back. We took the corner hard and passed the official's car and then started up the hill proper. We peddled as hard as we could and we caught one team on the lower section of the hill. We continued our efforts to catch the next team which was the father/son team. The son turned around and saw us coming and yelled "Full steam ahead Dad; here they come!" If I was not working so hard, I would have laughed. We caught and passed them to take third! From the depths of despair to the heights of elation!

I would highly recommend the Co-Motion Classic to anyone who every thought about trying out their “racing” legs. It was a real blast.

Posted 9:08 PM by John Henry