One Hundred Sixty-Seven

ROF SAG Station

A few hours ago we arrived home from Maupin, the host town of this year's Ring of Fire 12 and 24 hour time trial races. If you weren't there, you missed out on one incredible ultra. The course was epic. The weather was made to order. The competition was phenomenal.

I rode basically the same bike I rode at Race Across Oregon - at least the gearing was the same: 44x17. I used 56 cm Nitto Albatross bars instead of the riser bars that made my hands numb at RAO. The bike only had one brake (a Paul V brake) and one headlight this time. (Unfortunately, my wiring was a little sloppy and I had some problems with the connectors coming loose from the taillight at night.) For tires, I used a comfy 35 rear tire, a 28 front, and thorn resistant tubes. The Van Dessel could have supported someone twice my weight with ease.

I'm happy with my "race". My mileage was composed of the day course plus three night loops and some change. Nothing to brag about, but I really wasn't trying to ride as far as I could. Since this was my first long ride since RAO, I wasn't sure how far I could go. My objectives were to get in a good training ride, test out the Albatross bars, see how Ensure works for me, and minimize my time off the bike. Three out of four isn't bad.

The first thing that lured me off the bike was the scenery. I couldn't resist stopping to take and pose for pictures. Otherwise, I did a pretty good job staying in the saddle during the day. But by the second lap of the night loop I was getting very sleepy and a little fatigued. It was tough deciding whether to push through or to give in to the temptation to stop. On the one hand, stopping seemed like such a cop out, especially given my aspirations for RAAM. But on the other hand, it was hard to see the point of risking injury or impacting my ability and desire to stick to my training schedule. I ended up taking a 2 1/2 hour nap after the second lap. Maybe I should have tried to keep riding. Maybe I did the smart thing. Who knows? In any event, I came away with a renewed appreciation for the need to ride fast and manage time off the bike.

One of the best things about this year's ROF were the people. I made a point to learn a few more names (seems almost everyone knows mine) and get to know my fellow riders a little better. Bill Nicolai greeted me at the start. My wife and frequent crew chief, Julia, snapped a good picture of Bill passing me as I was changing glasses. After the race Bill gave us a copy of his awesome RAO race report, pictures included. Near Little John Snow Park I started playing leap frog with Jan Acuff. Later, Julia helped Jan out with water as she struggled on the big climb up 197. I complimented Jan on her beautiful pink Trek. On the way toward Dufur, Tyler Tabor and I rode together for quite a while. Tyler doesn't like to descend, so he made the perfect partner for a guy on a fixie. However, he's quite a climber. As Tyler was disappearing up 197, John Climaldi caught me on his bent. John turned down the offer of an ice cream bar from his crew, so I got it instead. (Thanks, John!) I learned that John is good friends with Robert Johnson of TerraCycle. (Robert always gives me a warm welcome whenever he sees me visiting Sacha at the shop.) Another John - John Henry Maurice - kept me company on the long climb up to the Bake Oven Summit. John and I both work with computers (he works at PCC), so we talked some shop. At the turn-around George pretended to be a cone for us. Then we all had a brief party before getting back to business. After the race, we enjoyed breakfast with Glenn Johnson and his friend. Glenn had great animal stories to tell. One involved a close encounter with a raccoon (or perhaps a porcupine) that could haul ass. Just before we left, I got to talk with Kenneth for a while. I enjoyed our conversation very much. We would have talked longer, but Lara kept informing my that it was time to go and everyone was waiting. Of course, there were many other old and new faces: Ben Larson was there, I saw the perfect way to mount a headlight on Urs Koenig's bike, Chis Hopkinson was pretty in pink (pretty damn fast!), etc. And George gave me my first pair of ski goggles!!

On the way home we stopped at a park in The Dalles and at Multnomah Falls.

Thank you George and Terri for a wonderful weekend!!