Crusty Cassette

“I earned good Karma last time,” Doug reported looking up from his plate of hash browns covered with gravy and tobasco sauce.

“And I’m cashin’ it in today.”

Doug was referring to the last century bike ride we had done together a couple of weeks ago where we encountered headwinds in three of the four directions we rode. Now he was tempting fate by asserting that fate owed him a tailwind back from Teko to Pullman.

Once the road cyclist finally leaves the bike path and ventures out onto the open road, he or she will eventually try for that first century, a ride of 100 miles completed in one day. Such long group rides were quite popular social events in the early days of the 20th century.

The Twin Rivers Cyclists offered two shorter but demanding rides recently with the Bite the Bullet Day Tour and the Huckleberry ride. Men and women of diverse abilities and training participated setting their own pace to meet the distance challenge.

Today’s ride would be different. Unsupported and without much fanfare, Doug, Chris, and I set out to do a century. Tom Witt of Troy joined us. This was to be his first century ever. We weren’t concerned that he could do it. We’d seen him ride. He’d beaten me up the spiral highway on I Made the Grade, had done both Bite the Bullet and the Huckleberry ride comfortably. Tom is lean and fit and fast. We found that out today.

Chris rode an extra 9 miles over from Moscow to join us at Dissemore’s in Pullman. I had mapped a likely route at 107 miles but wasn’t at all sure I wanted to push to a century today. Heat and wind can change one’s mind. But Tom showed up and we wanted to get him to his goal, a first century.

We had chosen to tour the small towns of the Palouse north of Pullman. The fields south of Pullman are all already golden waiting for harvest, north toward Palouse they are just turning, and further north green dominates. The best way to see the country is on a bicycle. You’ll notice those hills more and appreciate the descents.

Temps about 10 degrees lower than in the valley had brought us up top. This is a great route to do on a Saturday. The little towns are no more than 10 to 15 miles apart making it possible to get food and water nearly everywhere without having to carry much. But on Sunday the small groceries and cafes are not dependably open.

Palouse is the gem with its two parks and a grocery but it is only 15 miles out. Going north on 27 we took the Farmington cutoff just short of Garfield. Farmington has a beautiful park, good water, clean restrooms, but no food. The men’s room was severely short on TP today so Farmington lost one star in its rating. Six or seven miles further north lies Teko nestled around and over a steep Palouse hill.

Chris was ready for lunch at Teko though it was only 10:30. He lured me into the café with promises of a milkshake but we found only the breakfast menu available. Three orders of hash browns and mine of pancake and sausage later, and Doug made his bold claim for tailwinds.

Doesn't this look a Largent Lunch? _______________________ “Are you sure this is your first century,” I panted to Tom.

“Yeah.”

“Then start behaving like it,” I complained.

We left Dissemore’s about 7:36 with Chris already sporting a 10 mph average. Just as I feared, we set out too fast, enjoying nice tailwinds. Tom stayed with us on every hill and even took a turn or two pulling—that is riding out in front to break the wind for the riders “drafting” behind. He didn’t look like a rider concerned about having enough strength to finish the day.

But then none of us did. We did take full advantage of each community stopping for food and water. But back on the road we always seemed to push that pace to 20mph or more. Tailwinds helped, drafting helped. But could we really ride a century at 18.5 miles per hour? Tour de France riders wouldn’t think that was much, but it is a good 2 to 3 mph faster than I usually ride even for shorter distances.

Doug’s Karma wasn’t helping much as we climbed out of Tekoe toward Oaksdale only 12 miles away. In fact, Doug’s Karma became a synonym for head winds. Doug complained we-of-little-faith had spoiled his Karma. Doug began to drop off the pace. The Karma wasn’t working.

Chris would get more miles on the day and decided to return directly through Garfield rather than riding out to Steptoe and back on Dry Creek road. We needed those extra miles to get Tom a century, but we decided we could go back with Chris and add Albion Loop for the extra miles.

Chris apparently felt he didn’t need to hold back for us and picked up the pace outside of Oaksdale. I went with him and despite the winds we faced, we had a nice pace line. The pace line reduces the effort each trailing rider must make significantly. But after a couple of miles I knew I couldn’t hold it. I pulled out of the line, indicating to Tom that he should take up the slack and I’d fall back to the end of the line for a rest.

Chris must have felt guilty and backed off. Tom, however, didn’t. He shot around Chris and took off. Doug and I rode together for a few minutes while I recovered. Then I sped up a bit, catching Chris who shook his head. “Doesn’t look like Tom’s going to have a problem with this century,” he remarked. “No,” I agreed. “I’m going to give him some sh . .” I said catching up with Tom. Tom kept agreeing we needed to pace ourselves but he couldn’t seem to resist the challenge of going fast. Too much riding with the Matt Morra Fast Thursday crowd, I guess.

In keeping with the full service First Century we offer, I gave Tom one more chance. At about 70 miles leaving Garfield for Palouse, I knew I’d never keep up the pace with Chris who was as usual beginning to sense the end and riding correspondingly faster out front. Tom was hanging back behind Doug and me when I suggested, “Feel free to ride up there with Chris.”

“I guess it’s worth a try,” Tom said scooting by us.

Just one more rule Tom didn’t understand. First rule on these club rides. We don’t leave anyone behind and generally ride at the pace of the slowest rider or we wait at the top of the hills for the group to reform.

Second rule. Don’t try to catch Chris, also known as Cruel. For a time we could see them both, Chris out in front a few hundred feet. And then they were both gone. I glimpsed Tom briefly as he crested the big hill ahead and I thought he’d stop and wait there for Doug and me. But Tom is fast and strong. Had he not already ridden farther than ever before in one day, and had Chris not had a significant lead, Tom might have caught him.

We found Tom waiting above Palouse. “Learn the error of your ways?” I asked.

“Yeah, Chris is really strong,” he said.

Chris left us for real at Palouse and Tom behaved himself quite nicely most of the way back though he did surge around me up one hill. But now he was beginning to show fatigue. It’s a big jump from 70 to 100 miles and we were going to finish with more than 100. Doug waved us on saying he’d pedal around Pullman waiting for us but didn’t want to add Albion Loop.

Chris had suggested Albion would add only 10 miles. I suspected more. By the time we finished Tom and I had 110 miles for the day at a pace of 18 mph. Oh, and that first century? 5 hours and 28 minutes, thank you. Probably the fastest century I’ve ever ridden. And now that Tom knows he can do a century, he’ll probably expect to ride them all at 18+ mph.

Doug’s Karma may not have helped Doug, but it definitely pushed Tom today.

More Picture

For the Ride of it. --Corrie

It seemed like a good idea last Tuesday when I proposed we ride up the Troy grade just outside of Kendrick. Doug that it was great. He liked the idea of descending the Spiral Highway at the end of the ride.

Even Dave Tibbals on his recliner, er, um. . . recumbent, thought he'd give it a try. It being that famous climb which amounts to about 2.5 miles of 8 to 9 per cent and another coouple of miles ta 6 to 7.

It wasn't the climb, however, that taxed our legs and made Doug complain all day. It was the wind.

We picked up a head wind going east on highway 12 and it stayed with us all the way to Kendrick. Not, bad, but it did make us work.

Brief sighting of Chris: Rather than drive down, Chris met us enroute but refused to turn around saying he didn't feel like doing an out-and-back. Of course, he was riding with a tail wind when we met him a couple of miles up highway 3.

By the time we saw Chris again, we had ridden in a head wind all the way to Moscow and now to Pullman. The wind, as it often does, seemed a thing alive and bent upon blowing in our faces. East wind on 12; north wind enroute to Troy; west wind to Moscow and Pullman. Chris promised us a fine tailwind from Pullman to the Valley and he was right.

Tibbals made short work of the climb and Doug said he just liked to complain during the ride. "It burns calories," he explained.

So our legs were more tired than we'd expect becausse of fighting the wind. Chris went the wrong way which was probably the right one today, but we got the workout.

A few pics and a couple of videos

For the ride of it. Corrie

107 degrees on Sunday, overcast and scattered light showers on Friday.

Pump Up the Pulse was a race when I first started cycling. Steve Largent says when Mark Schmidt stopped charging a fee, people lost interest. Too bad, this tour through the rolling hills north of Pomeroy offers fields of green and little traffic with hills aplenty as well as swift descents.

I've ridden it with the club as formal event and with Largent on occasion. But it has been some time. The 4th of July may not have been the best day to call for a club ride. The park was packed with booths and music and a potluck planned for 5.

Only Mike, Lance, Corrie, Debbie and Scott showed up. It was enough, though. The winds picked up as we rode giving us a fair tailwind going east. Mike and I remembered the old swtichbacks that added drama and color to the route. We knew they were gone but couldn't decide jsut where and how the change had taken place.

We didn't figure on losing 12 miles, though. We expected 50 and had only 38 back at the park. Mike wasn't satisfied. Yes, it was Mike demanding we ride more. Lance and Debbie had had enough and opted to wait in the park as the remaining three of us added 12 miles. Actually it was a mileage discount. We turned up Peola rode which climbs sharply for 4 miles before settling in for some rollers and 1 or 2 percent of gain. So, we added 6 out, and 6 back. 12 mikles for the price of 6. Such a deal.

Lance had never done the course. He came fully prepared with a sandwhich as did I. Though I didn't start lobbying for a lunch stop at 10:30. And another closer to noon. Claimed he needed energy because he was runner. Then back in the park he refused an opportunity for ice cream because he wasn't exercising and so didn't feel hungry. Could have taken up the bargain mileage offer, Lance.

Lance packs up after second lunch

We saw only a spot of sunshine throughout the day and fully enjoyed the tailwinds. It got fairly tough across the top going mostly southwest into the wind as well as having to deal with those Palouse rollers.

Jan and Niki had opted for a Kayak trip over a bike ride. I don't understand that but I did understand the burgers, salads, and pie and cake oh, and ice cream back at Lance's place.

We even had fireworks of our own when the fire department showed up to put out a bottle rocket fire in a neighbor's shrub.

That's enough fireworks for me. I'd rather ride.