What's wrong with your cranks?

Nothing, there power cranks!

Rode 23 miles on the Cannondale with an average of 16.3 mph, but only 286 feet of gain.

Posted 8:49 PM by John Henry

Easy Wednesday Night Ride

...except for Hibbard hill.

But once on the top, the view was great!

Posted 9:54 PM by John Henry

You have to ride hills in the rain if you want to finish The 508

Tuesday night Tualatin ride. I arrived a bit late for the 5:30 pm start but it did not matter as none of that group was there. Perhaps the rain had something to do with that.

So, I started to get my bike ready when I realized that I had forgotten my Garmin Edge 305 with the route programed in. Sigh. Oh well, I do have the old fashioned paper map.

Then I realized that I forgot my pump and CO2. Another sigh. Oh well, this would give me incentive to stay with the group.

I left with the 5:50 group, well the 3 folks of the 5:50 group that showed up. Actually, I left 30 seconds after they did and had to work hard to catch them. But once caught, I could hand with them. The course is mostly flat till we got to the fist climb of the day - Scholls Mountain Home Road. There, I dropped back but stayed within sight of the others who waited for me at the top. We then descended down to Hwy 99 and this is where the 6:00 group caught us. But, there was only eight of them. The two groups merged and rode together until Sunset Rd (and hill). There, I got dropped and rode in alone (using my paper map to find my way).

Posted 9:43 PM by John Henry

Life from the back of a tandem

Well, since Mark is taller than me, and he does have many years experience in tandem captioning, we decided to switch positions for the 400K ride on Saturday.

We reconfigured my tandem and off we went. My observations...

1) You sure do see a lot more from the back of a tandem.
2) The captain sure does move around a lot.
3) All you can do when descending is to hang on and trust.

Saturday should be fun.

Posted 9:58 PM by John Henry

Monster Cookie

The Salem Bicycle Club Monster Cookie Metric Century had some happy riders!

Posted 10:17 PM by John Henry

"You sure do like the big ring"

Mark Janeba and I will volunteer on the Oregon Randoneur 400k ride on May 9. Because we will be working on the day of the ride, we will be "pre-riding" the route next weekend.

Earlier this week, Mark sent me an email with the subject line "Dangerous Thoughts". He was suggesting that we ride a tandem on the pre-ride. Now, we have ridden a lot of miles together, but never on the same bike.

So, this morning we set up my Meridian tandem for the two of us. When we were done, it fit him rather well, but he did have one complaint, the same complaint all stokers have, "It sure is tight back here!"

Once the bike was set up, we took it out for a forty five mile pre-pre-ride. All went well, but we soon realized just how far apart our to pedaling styles are - Mark spins, I do not. Mark has plenty of fast twitch muscles, I do not. I like the big ring, he hardly uses it.

On my long rides, I usually spin at a maximum of 85 revolutions per minute with 75 being more like it. Mark's average is over 95 rpm, so we had some compromising to do. I gave Mark permission to say "shift" whenever he felt the need, and he did use the word a lot.

After crossing the Wheatland Ferry, we made a quick stop at Maude Willamson State Park where I took this photograph.

Posted 9:04 PM by John Henry

If you want to finish The 508, you must ride hills with Del.

Last night, I returned to Tualatin and rode with Del and his shaven legged minions. They took me on hills in which I did over 2000 feet of elevation gain in just 28 miles.

I survived with the group I was riding with, and actually did quite well. I was very happy.

Some ask me why I do this. Perhaps this quote will provide some insight:

Dutchman Theo de Rooy is sitting in the Panasonic team car after abandoning the 1985 Paris-Roubaix. He's covered in mud after spending a major portion of the race on the front, escaping in the Arenberg Forest. He's interviewed by American reporter John Tesh of CBS Sports...

de Rooy: “It’s a pile of shit, this race, it’s a whole pile of shit … you’re working like an animal, you don’t have the time to piss and you wet your pants … you’re riding in mud like this and you’re slipping and … it’s a pile of shit, you must clean yourself otherwise you will go mad …”

Tesh: "Willl you ever ride it again?"

de Rooy, not hesitating for a second: "Sure, it's the most beautiful race in the world!"

Posted 11:40 AM by John Henry

If you want to finish The 508, you must do hills!

The first two hills are Walnut Hill, westbound and then east bound. Next is Amity Hwy. The knife like hill is Rice Lane which is one mile of 13%. The last three hills are Eola Hills, eastbound, westbound and then a final eastbound.

Total elevation gain was over 4,500 fell in 60 miles.

Yes, this hurt.

Posted 8:34 PM by John Henry

Joanne's Colnago is back!

Posted 12:00 PM by John Henry

Tonight's Ride

Posted 8:00 AM by John Henry

Three Capes 300 km Report

Three o'clock in the morning comes awfully fast. In times past, this would be bedtime for me, but on Saturday morning it was the time the alarm was set for.

I never heard it. I did not sleep well and actually turned it off ten minutes before it was to ring.

All night I was worrying about what I was attempting to do - ride 300 km (187 miles) on my heavy rain bike in questionable weather. This would be my fourth time riding this Brevet, so I did not have the "new adventure" jazz; instead, it was the "been there, done that, must I do it again" attitude.

I was out the door at 3:30 am and picked up Mark Janeba at 4:00 am. We were at the start at 5:15 am giving up plenty of time to get our bikes ready for the 6:00 am start (in the dark).

Promptly at the appointed time, sixty of us left the Grand Lodge parking lot. I intentionally stayed in the back allowing everyone to drop me. My plan for the day was simple - ride easy and finish. I had no hopes of breaking any personal bests.

The plan worked.

Soon, I was last, but none the less, some who started late passed me. Greg Olson, someone who rode my first Watermelon Double with me a decade ago, caught me. He never starts on time, but always finishes very early. He slowed and we caught up with each other's happenings. But soon, I let him go as I could see the need for speed in his eyes.

After a few miles, I met up with Ray who was not feeling fit today and decided to ride to the Timber control and then head home. He seemed chipper enough to finish, but he was not listening to my encouragement. One he left me for home, I rode the rest of the route alone - 162 miles.

I took it very easy on the the Wilson River Hwy, first climb of day. I did manage to catch two others at the summit, but they stopped while I continued down the other side. Then, as I approached Tillamook, I did manage to reel in a tandem just before the control. But, I always was trying to keep my heart rate down.

After Tillamook, the rode the Three Capes Scenic Loop by myself. This was the wettest portion of the ride, but I never really got wet. I could not call it rain, but more like a heavy, wind driven drizzle. Oh, the wind was out of the south, so I did have to ride into it.

When I arrived in Pacific City, there was no one at the coffeeshop Mark and I always stop at. I ran in, got a great bowl of veggie soup and was on my way in just 15 minutes.

Next cam the Sourgrass climb, and I was happy to experience very light traffic, but I saw no other riders until I reached the Grand Ronde store, where I had to repair a flat tire. There, I met Greg Miller, who knows my RAO Teammate Mark Newsome. But he left before me and I never saw him again. In fact, I never saw anyone again for the rest of the ride.

Usually, I am pretty tired when I reach Grand Ronde, but my strategy of taking it easy seemed to be working as I still had lots of energy for the last metric. I rode to Amity where I got ready to ride in darkness, and then started off for Forest Grove. In the last 37 miles, I had only three very short stops. The first was to put on my Rando vest, the second to fill a water bottle and the last to talk to Susan France who was checking on riders.

I reached the finish at 9:45 pm. My average was 13.4 mph with an average heart rate of 109 bpm. My time off of the bike was almost two hours while time on the bike was nearly fourteen hours.

While I was nearing Forest Grove, I realised how my perceptions change because I was riding in the dark. I use a strong, battery powered headlight which lights up the rode in front of me, but everything else is in darkness. Because of this, I found that I was noticing lights across the valley where in daylight, I do not notice anything on the other side of the valley. Also, smells are much more intense. I passed a home with folks hanging out in a car port. I could hear them long before I could see them. But what I notice the most was the smell of the bar-b-que chicken. It was almost enough for me to turn around and ask for some!

Posted 1:10 PM by John Henry

No, not one of our bikes.

Posted 6:08 PM by John Henry