Crusty Cassette

The bluest skies you've ever seen are in Seattle
And the hills the greenest green, in Seattle . . .
--Bobby Sherman

Slideshow

Dropped!

This was going to be a long day. I was somewhere near 15 miles in the 150 mile CHaFE event. I watched as Chris pulled away chasing that pack I couldn’t catch. We’d been doing 20 mph into a headwind.

CHaFe is a charity ride for the Panhandle Alliance for Education. At 150 miles, it will be my longest ride of the year. We started in Sandpoint at City Beach, rode to Bonner’s Ferry, then east to Troy, Montana, South to Clark Fork and back to Sandpoint.

For those who felt 150 was too much, the ride began offering Half Chafe last year. Linda signed up for the bus ride the 70 miles to Troy where the HalfChafers began about three hours later than the full Chafers had at 6:30 am.

CHaFE provides the full meal deal, and I mean that literally. Your registration bought you not only the usual SAG support but a pasta buffet dinner Friday night, breakfast Saturday morning, two beers and dinner Saturday night (and you got to keep the glass), as well as a technical tee-shirt.

But the real star of the show was the landscape. Seattle has nothing on the blues and greens of the sky, the rivers, and the trees of the Cabinet mountains of the Idaho Panhandle.. I loved Forest Grove to the Oregon Coast. I loved Glacier/Waterton. But the Panhandle with lakes and rivers and streams is just as beautiful. It is my new favorite ride. Unlike Rhapsody, Ramrod, and STP, I’ll likely return to ride CHaFE as long as they have it. Yes, there’s some traffic on the last stretch but not like STP or Ramrod. Hey and no ferries to wait for as Cliff and I did at Rhapsody. And this one is just a couple of hours away.

Our wet spring no doubt helped keep the greens at their most lush but this is rich country. I had never driven from Bonner’s Ferry to Troy. If you haven’t, let’s get started training for next year’s CHaFE. It is only 150 miles. There’s no better way to see this country than from your bike.

In CHaFE’s first year Chris finished first. It is not a race, but, well, you know how we ride these things—a supported ride is a great way to stretch yourself. Shoot, there were two vans with nurses, motorcycle, mechanical, and SAG support as well as five food stops. Why not let it all out?

My miles are up. I was ready for this ride. I loaded the course into my gps with an expected 9 hours and 22 minutes of riding time. But I hoped I could hold to just under 17 mph for a 6 hour century. Could I hold that pace for another 50 miles?

Not if I tried to catch Chris. I let him go and reassessed my position. Clearly there were riders out ahead of me who seriously outclassed me. But then, there were many behind and they were nowhere in sight.

Alone!

CHaFE broke into five distinct rides for me. The first leg was perhaps my worst. The second was clearly my best.

I needed companions to share the ride and the work but I found myself 25 miles from Troy and alone. Out front I could see a bike but I couldn’t seem to get any closer. Then it was two and in front of the second a pack of 5 or 6.

If I could catch them, I could draft and save my legs. Of course, catching them might burn me out. To catch them, I’d have to be faster on the uphills than they were. I swooped into the rises from the descents and then stood to maintain speed. I began to close.

First I caught the last rider, Dwight, who tagged on behind me. Then the second, who turned out to be Chris paying the price for dropping me in the first leg. “Go ahead and draft all you want,” he advised as we swept past. Chris never drafts and doesn’t let you draft on him. He’d ride his own ride today. I’d ride mine.

And finally, we had closed the gap to become the back of the pack. I’d later become the front of the pack as it broke up on the biggest hill just outside of Troy.

The third leg took us over low-trafficked roads and the prettiest part of the day. Did I have anything left after chasing that group? Dwight and I joined up again and rode together over the switch backs that had everyone shaking. Yes, I used granny, but the climb was short. I scarcely remember it at all.

Back out on the rollers of the main route, Dwight fell back a little on each incline. Alone, I slowed and spoke to a cyclist wearing a backpack. The rider coming up behind wasn’t Dwight but someone new and he zipped by.

I couldn’t let him pass unchallenged. But I didn’t want to exert myself too much either. After all, there were nearly 70 more miles to go. I caught him gradually and we rode silently together measuring one another. I let him go on the descent. If he were going to lose me it would be on the downhill.

But I stayed with him. Eventually I passed him and he seemed to drop back out of site. Then suddenly he was back. He was making another run at me. I used the standing technique again. And he stood too. But I stood longer feeling the rhythm of the bike, hearing the swooshing of tires on pavement. My legs liked the stretch standing gave them and nowhere did a swooping blind corner turn into a serious extended climb. I held him off to the Bull Run rest stop at 97 miles.

Bull Run Rest Stop at 97 miles

The fourth stage turned due south into a head wind after first making a long climb. Even going down hill, I had to stay in the aerobars and pedal. I wasn’t getting any free-rides here.

And now riders began to appear ahead of me. These weren’t full Chafers fading back to me. Those guys were long gone. I wouldn’t see them any more.

These were half-chafers and the stragglers of that lot at that. 80 miles was more of a challenge to these folks than 150 was to me. I was still averaging over 18 mph but the head wind was eating into that average and into my energy and will. And I was alone save for those I passed. I passed my last full-Chafer somewhere shortly after Bull Run.

The final Leg: Linda was out ahead of me. She’d come through Bull Run an hour ahead of me but when I pulled into Clark Fork, a friend said she’d left only five minutes before. But he warned me she was riding hard and enjoying her new bike. I wouldn’t likely catch her.

I munched my huckleberry ice cream bar and contemplated 27 more miles of headwind. This was going to be tough, But I was wrong. We turned a bit north, picked up that quartering south wind and I began to make something like the times I had been posting in the first half.

That began to be fun as I picked off Half-Chafers giving each a cheery reminder that beer was to be had at City Beach. And suddenly I felt fresh and strong. Well, okay that left knee was complaining and occasionally seemed ready to fail, and maybe I wasn’t standing on the hills as much as I had been doing.

But the Clark Fork River was blue, so blue, and the day was finally warm—yes, heat.

They announced your name and number as you finished over a loudspeaker and the party was in full swing—full lounge as bikes and bicyclists lay strewn about the green at Trinity at City Beach Sandpoint. Linda rushed forward to take my picture.

“Where’s my beer?” I demanded.

I’d done 150 miles in 8 hours and 30 minutes or 17.7 miles per hour. Most of that time I had lost in the last couple of miles through the streets of Sandpoint.

It had been a strong ride for me; faster than I could possibly have expected to ride and though I had been dropped, I was the winner of my own race.

I look forward to sharing this or the 80 mile ride with TRCers next year. We need to support regional rides like this one.

For the Ride of it Corrie

Stephanie enjoys her climb

Slideshow

Everybody has a story but me.

Stephanie completed her first ever century today. The Winchester Century is probably not the one I’d recommend as someone’s first century but then neither is the return from Joseph. Many of our members have recorded a first century on that route. Stephanie is a young mother of four boys 8,6,4,2. No she’s not obsessive/compulsive though you might think so to see her take ‘em all on an ice-cream ride. She doesn’t have much time for long rides, so trains hard on the hills. Two-kids in a trailer seems to be a pretty good training plan for Winchester. She and Linda scooted away from Jim and me on the grade. They didn’t even wait for us at the usual spot near the power line. Probably lost in chatter.

It should be noted that Stephanie is acquiring the accoutrements of a cyclist one at a time. Her bike is a hybrid. We made her get tubes before we’d let her join us on the Wawawai extension to a Sage Bakery Ride this summer. Next she go cycling shoes with cleats and pedals to replace those old soft-soled tennis she’d been using. Now she needs sunglasses and a mirror.

Linda’s Dahmen Barn Easy Does Ride cancelled but she got to ride up Winchester, down CuldeSac Road, and met “A Tandem, a Triple, and a TransAmerica Tour.” With rain and road construction on everyone’s mind and the fact that a climb up the Spiral Highway is not everyone’s idea of Easy Does It, meant Linda had no takers at 8. We’d left at 7:30 and were nearly to Barr Road. Linda thought she could catch us by going up Lindsay Creek when she called me.

I talked her into going home for the pickup and meeting us at the Thunderbird Inn at CuldeSac. That turned out to be perfect. Just as I began to call her, she pulled in.

Linda and Stephanie promptly rode off together chatting away. Probably didn’t even realize they were climbing one of the toughest hills around here. Linda said she hadn’t even used granny on her new bike.

But Linda hasn’t broken that running habit which has kept her from logging enough miles for this ride. Jim suggested CuldeSac Road. He’d actually ridden it and Stephanie had driven it. It’s about 10-13 miles long starting near Reubens and running into downtown CuldeSac. Linda’s awash in pictures and ecstatic about that road. You can read about her adventures on Linda’s Blog. You’ll want to hear about the couple on a cross country tour with 9 year old triplets.

Jim’s been mountaineering the last couple of months and more notable for not riding than for riding. He figured a climb up the old Winchester Grade would be good cross training for his assault on Mt. Rainier next weekend.

Jim’s cross-training is working better for mountain climbing than for cycling. He was plagued by cramping all morning. We stuffed him with French fries at Miss Lily’s in Winchester and he stopped complaining about cramps.

He graduated from the Spokane Mountaineering School last weekend with a climb near Jasper in Canada. Next weekend he’ll attempt to climb Mt. Rainier. He’s hiked all the way around it, ridden around it twice, and how wants to climb it. Yes, ropes, pitons, crampons. Just call him Mountain McCracken. Of course, he has one more session on Saturday at Mt. Rainier, crevasse rescue. They’ll be lowered into a crevasse and, one hopes, be rescued promptly.

I think I’d rather be on my bike . . .Well, maybe I do have a story. Next weekend is CHAFE which will be my 16th century of the year and first ride over 125 miles this year—maybe my only ride over 125 this year. Oh, and there’s that flat I had at the Casino. No punctures, no snake bite, just a tiny hole that didn’t make itself known until the bike had sat in the sun and warmed up nicely pushing all the air out of my front tire.

Did we get wet? No. Did the wind blow? Well, some out of the north on top and up Magpie, but in the valley, sunny and 73 degrees and nearly windless. And why do I love the Winchester Century? Take a look at Jim, making a bend on the climb in a tree lined section and tell me you wouldn’t want to be riding there.

Don’t forget, you’ll get your chance on the Bite the Bullet Day Tour on June 27th. Just a few weeks away. I hope the fields are still as green as they were today.

View of Colfax and East from Green Hollow Road.

"What do you see?" I wanted to know.

Dave had asked me to call him at 5:30 am this morning before driving to Pullman for Dave's Super Century--a ride we'd been planning for over a month.

Pullman, Palouse, Garfield, Oakesdale, Steptoe, St. John, Endicott, Colfax, Palouse again and back to Pullman. Dave mapped it at 138 miles, just right for a training ride for CHAFE and for STP. Chris promised to ride and Lee threatened to start at 6 an hour before our posted 7am start. But would the weather allow it?

I smiled at Thursday's pouring rain. It will stop by Saturday, I thought. And the forecast briefly showed some sunshine on the Palouse. We were a go. Lee decided to start at 6:30 and try to beat us to St. John's for lunch. Would Chris show? Hard to say. He's been more enigmatic that usual this spring.

"I see rain," Dave said.

"i'm getting a cold<" Dave said.

"I really want to do this," I said.

What did I see? Well, light streaks to the west and spots of blue. No rain and I prepared to Razz Dave about the rain.

Lee's 4x4 pickup with a bike rack was mute testament that Lee had already left. I'd promised to call him back if Dave and I chose to cancel. But at 46 degrees and a tailwind, neither of us wanted to give up the day's ride.

The chase was on. Dave and I stayed only a few moments in Palouse. The west wind was enough from the south that we continued to have a push all the way to Oakesdale. But that wind was cold. I pulled out the baggies I'd brought in case of rain and put them over my toes. I forgot that the Palouse in May requires wool socks.

I was shaking from the cold in Oakesdale as I called Lee. "We're thinking of turning back on Dry Creek," I told him.

"I'll wait for you at 195," he ansered. He'd started at 6:20 and had a fair lead on us despite the 20mph we'd been doing much of the way. But we were struggling now. The wind was not only cold but stiff and out of the southweat. Endicott began to sound farther and farther away.

None of us, however, really wanted to turn back. How to get a century?

Green Hollow is a hidden valley complete with a stream, green trees, small farms, and wildlife. Three miles to the west of Steptoe, Green Hollow Road turns and climbs sharply through wheat fields then flattens for a couple of miles before sharply dropping to the creek bed. What goes down, must go up apparently. And up, and up!

272 from Colfax to Pullman starts with another steep 10% climb followed by 15 miles of rollers which have graduated to being hills. Dave and I had fun riding these hills but knew Palouse to Pullman was going to make us pay.

We hadn't promised to wait for Lee and he'd made it clear we didn't need to. But when the route changed, Dave and I didn't want to drop him.

The hills held him up but mostly he was right behind us. We did drop him back to Palouse and to Pullman. He was at the parking lot waiting for us when we got back from adding extra miles for our centuries. He settled for 94 miles and complained that he'd forgotten his running shoes and allowed he go to Anytime Fitness for a workout.

Dave said, "We have better sense than that."

I suggested "not much better.

When Dave and I started out for Palouse at 7, we were doing 15 or 16, then 17 and pretty soon 19. Every hill was an occasion to see who'd be king. That question was largely answered last week when Dave beat me up every hill but MacIntosh.

I though perhaps I'd get him on the rollers this week with momentum built up. Dave's inclined to go hard early and I'm inclined to maximize my momentum before hitting the hills hard. Unfortunately that doesn't compete very well. By the time I was ready to hit it, Dave was already well ahead and I would burn myself out trying to catch him.

Late in the ride I changed my strategy to go into a rapid spin in a high gear. I could make ground on him, but never enough to beat him. Not until the end of the day did I feel Dave begin to fade just the least bit.

Next week he's ridng the Apple Century in Wenatchee. The following week, I'm doing Chafe in Sandpoint. It will be at least three weeks before Dave and I can hit the roads together.

So Someday Dave is once again One-Day Dave. Your welcome, Dave. Now slow down!

For the ride of It Corrie