Wednesday Night Ride

April Statistics

April Miles: 721.87
April Elevation: 30,715
Year to Date Miles: 2563.07
Year to Date Elevation: 87,908

The heavy rain this month decreased my mileage. Last year, my April miles totaled 825.36, but I am still ahead of last year. It rained 19 of the 30 days in April, as the following graphic shows...

Posted 10:00 PM by John Henry

Oregon Randonneurs Three Capes Loop Brevet

Overlooking Capes Mears


The view from Cape Lookout


Climbing in the Oregon Sun!


Elevation Graph

Posted 11:00 PM by John Henry

Saturday's Route

The Oregon Randonneur's Three Cape 300K Brevet.

Posted 10:00 PM by John Henry

Cherry of a Ride

This little known ride is a real gem. The 2008 edition was the third year for the ride and Joanne and I have done all three.

After a continental at the local Super 8 motel where we spent the night, we check out and drove the short distance to the start of the ride. After paying our day of ride registration we were on the course at 7:45 am. We head through a quiet downtown The Dalles and then up Lower 8 Mile Road to Emerson Loop Rd. After climbing up to an elevation of 1148 feet, began a steep decent. After we had pick up speed on the Cannondale tandem, I took my eyes off of the road to look at my computer to see how fast we were going. I saw 39 and thought that was about what I expected. Then it came to me. I had set the display of my HAC4 computer to temperature, not current speed. 39° was the temperature, not our current speed!

The route is passes the first rest stop to an out on 8 Mile Road to where it turns to gravel and then back to the same rest stop. As Joanne and I were feeling well, we blew by the rest stop and continued on toward the gravel. This section of the road is genital rollers but it continues to climb. Since it is an out and back, we were able to wave "Hello" to several riders who were coming back as we headed out. After turning around, we picked up speed and were soon passing the riders we had waved hello to. One jumped on our wheel. We were happy to pull him along until he decided he had enough fun and returned to his left behind girlfriend.

The first rest stop on the 2008 Cherry of a Ride.

After leaving the first rest stop, we descend back to The Dallas via 8 Mile Road. The wind was in our face and as such we just putted along not working too hard. The route took us back through downtown The Dalles where a raised, red Toyota pickup truck tailgated us. The road was two lanes wide, but Big Red was happy to follow us through town at 20 mph. Jealous I guess.

We took the River Front Trail, a multipurpose path along the Columbia River before heading westward Highway 30. This is a gem of a road, lightly trafficked and with great views of the Columbia River Gorge.

Looking westward on Highway 30 outside of The Dalles

There is one thing about Highway 30, it climbs up to Rowena Crest Overlook. The climb is 600 feet in just 3 miles. But once on top, you are rewarded great views of the Gorge.

Looking east from the Rowena Crest Overlook

After leaving the Overlook, we descend into the small town of Mosier where we found the local cafe, the HWY 30 Cafe. Joanne and I must return and spend some time exploring this cafe.

HWY 30 Cafe in Mosier

But, across the street, one can buy a classic International Dump Truck if you have $4,500.

International Dump Truck for Sale in Mosier

We decided to skip the 10 miles through the Mosier Tunnels as we have been there, done that and scattered the tourists before. Instead, we headed up the toughest hill of the day - Dry Creek Road. This rises 1,700 feet in seven miles with several steep sections. During this climb several singles passed us. As they passed, they praised us. Seems climbing hills on a tandem is an achievement to one riding a single. To further there impression, we blew by the water stop on the hill and continued to climb to the top, where we enjoyed a fast, but windy descent.

Reaching the bottom of the hill, we could have turned to the left and returned to The Dallas in four short and flat miles. But no, we turned to the right and headed toward the final climb of the day. By now we were tired and we just limped along, hoping that beyond the next turn we would find the top of the last hill. We had that thought many times as there were many turns that were not the last turn before the final descent. Finally, it came, we descended and the ride was finally over.


2008 Cherry of a Ride Elevation Graph

Posted 7:56 PM by John Henry

Three Capes Postponed!

This weekend's event is postponed until next Saturday (Apr 26), same time, same location. We will be using the Three Capes route unless more unforeseen circumstances indicate otherwise. The event is still an ACP event.

Posted 10:00 PM by John Henry

Spring in Oregon

After suffering through 90° heat in California last week, I come home to Oregon to find a much different reality. This, from our Randonneur RBA...

"With snow forecast for the Three Capes route on Saturday, 3 capes route will not be run.

I'm currently working on a route that is in the Willamette Valley and does not go above 500 feet. The start would be the same and you'd travel as far south as Albany before returning to Forest Grove. I will be preparing the materials for this alternate route tonight. Start location is the same.

Still, if the weather looks anywhere close to freezing in the valley I will be postponing the ride until next weekend (Apr 26). I will make that decision before Thursday evening."

Posted 11:23 AM by John Henry

Posted 10:00 PM by John Henry

Posted 3:44 PM by John Henry

Comparing the 2007 and the 2008 Davis 12 Hour Challenge. Notice 2008 temperature (pink) graph!

Posted 10:00 PM by John Henry

Goals for the Davis 24 Challenge

I have been quite this week. I only road my bike on Wednesday, and did not work out at the gym at all. Why? Because I was tapering for the Davis 24 Challenge, a 24 hour time trial.

I did this ride last year, or I did the 12 hour version. I did 177.5 miles with an average of 15.5. Total elevation gain was over 8300 feet according to my HAC4. The reason I cut my ride short at 12 hours was that I had foot problems. I forgot to wear my orthotics.

This year, I have better orthotics, better training, but more weight (by 10 pounds). Also, the temperature is foretast to be 86°, 10° warmer than last year.

Goals:

1) Ride for 24 hours
2) Average 15.0 mph for the long day loop
3) Have a negative split; have a faster average on the second 12 hours.

Very high goals, but one must always reach.

Posted 5:07 AM by John Henry

Posted 10:00 PM by John Henry

Posted 10:00 PM by John Henry

Del's Tuesday Ride Writeup

We fittingly started our season on April Fool's Day this year.
Weather was sunny and although only 54 degrees it was an
excellent evening to ride. Much better than the rain, snow and
hail (sometimes all at the same time) I had been commuting in
the last 5 days. After a lot of emailing and other sleuthing, I
have 45 riders listed by name, and I know there are still a few
I don't know about. Please remember that signing in (legibly)
is a requirement, an important part of keeping the rides legal.
It is also a huge help to me in writing up these recaps and just
trying to keep track of rider's welfare. I pretend like I don't
really care, but have been known to wait around in the parking
lot after dark for overdue riders. The people who read this
missive all sign in, but some of your friends perhaps do not
know they are supposed to, so please remind them.

Mike and Dave made up the first early group, on the road
before I arrived at about 5:45 to sign in a bunch of eagerly
waiting guys. More than a dozen left the park about 5 or 10
minutes before six, including a few that didn't realize this was
not the "main bunch". And finally we had nearly 30 in the
actual peloton. We were just a few minutes late and a bit
confused as quite a few riders arrived late due to flat tires
and other mishaps en route to the start. There were several
new riders, including several Portland Velo riders who I did
not meet and could not keep up with. It was great to see
Pat Murphy back on his bike after missing the last half of
2007 recovering from a high-speed close encounter with a
vehicle. Pat was riding strong again, but cautiously. A new
rider was Sam Huffman, one of the stronger randonneur
riders, who recorded an interesting gps track of today's ride.

We started at an easy pace, delayed by stop lights in the
first few blocks. As usual, the pace increased significantly
as we left the city and enjoyed the rolling open roads. The
pack split up on high-speed Mountain Road and the yoyo
effects of the Advance roller-coaster. I've been too busy
to scout or pre-ride any routes lately, so was surprised at
how bad the torn up roads were through Wilsonville. Thanks
to everybody for riding sensibly through that pothole minefield.
It was also the opportunity for a few of us off-the-back chasers
to finally regain contact for just a few minutes before getting
shelled again by the diminishing pack on Wilsonville Road.
I spent a lot of the ride chasing with Jay, within sight of the
pack but not even close to contact. Frustrating. Wish I
could tell you the play-by-play on the climbs, but I was out
of it. I did hear that anonymous Mitch Lee perhaps "won" the
kom, with John Hatfield, Ken James and Mark Steger close.
Thanks for the surprise regrouping at the top of McConnell
I got to see the fast guys again briefly. Thanks to all for a
fun ride on a pleasant evening.

Posted 2:37 PM by John Henry

Posted 8:20 PM by John Henry

A very nice ride, even if a redneck in a beater black Ford pickup truck threw an empty can of deodorant at us. This caused me to wonder why this jerk would have a can of deodorant at hand and why it was empty. All I can say is that he needs to improve his aim, he missed us by a mile.

Posted 8:48 PM by John Henry

So good to ride hard again. It really is fun to have your lungs hurt.

Posted 9:55 PM by John Henry

Davis 12/24 Hour Roster

Roster for the 2008 Davis 12 and 24 hour challenge.

Stewart Thompson 12 solo
John Wayne Horton 12 or 24 solo
Ron Smith 24 solo
David Kees 24 solo
Jim Karanas 24 solo
Bobbi Fisher 24 solo
Brett Walker 24 solo
Kevin Marr 24 solo
Bill Brier 24 solo
John Lauer 24 solo
Hugh Gapay 24 solo
Lowell Morgan 24 solo
David Goggins 24 solo
Patty Jo Struve 12 or 24 solo
Joanie Heilinger 12 solo
Joan Grant 24 solo
Bill Albers and Debbie Albers 24 Tandem
John Henry Maurice and Mark Newsome 24 Team
Gary Franck and Joe Farinha 24 Team

Posted 4:43 PM by John Henry