"It's biz-ness, it's biz-ness tiiiiime!" -Flight of the Cochords
Remember last blog entry when I said without further ado and there was more ado, much more ado in fact and very little actual riding of bikes? Well ado time is over and now it's time for business, the business Racing the Relay. So without further (you know) let's get to it.
Moab Leg 1 Details
Remember last blog entry when I said without further ado and there was more ado, much more ado in fact and very little actual riding of bikes? Well ado time is over and now it's time for business, the business Racing the Relay. So without further (you know) let's get to it.
Moab Leg 1 Details
Distance:
|
54.4 Miles
|
Start Elevation:
|
4,020 Feet
|
Finish Elevation:
|
7,059 Feet
|
Total Ascent:
|
4,101 Feet
|
Total Descent:
|
-1,063 Feet
|
Net Elevation:
|
3,309 Feet
|
High Point:
|
7,094 Feet
|
Low Point:
|
4,020 Feet
|
Leg Notes
DO NOT underestimate this leg! The elevation map doesn’t look too menacing, but in reality it is a punishing 54 miles usually made worse by a head wind that nags at your motivation. This leg does have a lot of climbing, but it is also among the most scenic. It is a great way to start off a great race.
Watch for the Hole-in-the-rock at mileage 15.9 and Wilson arch at mileage 25.8.
Watch for the Hole-in-the-rock at mileage 15.9 and Wilson arch at mileage 25.8.
The race bible tells me not to underestimate this leg and having prior history with it I don't. It climbs, lots. No real big hills or double digit grades just a fairly constant 2-5% pitch with rollers here and there to keep things interesting. The real challenge for rider one on leg one is the race math. Trying to calculate the percentages and value of burning matches in your limited pack to stay with fellow riders or scaling back and conserving energy for what is going to be an endurance ride to the 'nth degree as opposed to a sprint. Unfortunately there are outliers in every sample population and those outliers in bike races tend to let their race legs rule out the rational voices in their heads and break free from the pack leaving the rest of us to debate whether to chase them or catch them later when they flame out. I've had this conversation, about this very leg and this ongoing quandary with Thad on several occasions. His response is always the same: "You need a power meter* then you won't have to worry about it." This was three years ago. Every Rockwell I bring up the same conundrum and every year I get the same phlegmatic reply from cap'n Engar, so finally I broke down and bought one. I got a great deal on a used Quarq crank-based unit that allows you to keep your carbon fiber racing wheels while giving you all the same info as a hub based power tap. Aaaand it's on Jenn's** bike.
*a device to monitor your power output in Watts. In a conditioned athlete it can reliably tell you (among other things) exactly how hard you can push and for how long
**the original plan was to let her use it this season while she tries to make her Triple Crank dreams a reality then as soon as she crosses the finish line in Jackson Hole, Pull it off La Canadienne and swap it onto the Talented Ms/Mr (gender uncertain) Ridley. But it took Jenn about two seconds to realize that the meter was an asset to be coveted and kept. So I guess I either train myself to the point that I'm leading the pack without problems or preoccupations or I'm in the market for a second meter.
I settle into a rhythm and while still pushing hard, I begin enjoying the ride. When I do get into my head it's more for entertainment than for anxiety and self doubt. I think of ways to make what is already an excellent event even better. For instance: They should give an award for the best team name. We had some good ones this year, like Earth Wind and Tyres, The Wasatch Chainring Massacre, or the all peri-menopausal aged women's team: Four Hot Flashes. They could let riders vote on their favourite and give a token prize, a T-shirt maybe, to the team member who came up with it. Great idea number two (one that I shared with Thad during the manic post ride high that comes when you finally get your first leg in the books and was told to sit on it until the buzz wears off, see if I still like it. Which I did and I still do). There should be nicknames given to each of these legs. I have pet names for people and things I spend far less time thinking about than these twelve discreet stretches of road.
 |
Thought bubble: "The Honeymoon's Over! that's a brilliant co-ed team name.
It works on so many levels. Where was this clarity of thought four months ago?" |
Possible Leg one Nicknames:
Ace-in-the-Hole-'N-the-Rock, Bikes On a Hill and Release the Hounds/Who Let the Dogs Out?
I went on like this (in my head) for the next 25 miles and was still mining mental gems when I hit the last big leg one hill, about 10 miles from 'Cello. It was here I encountered the climber from 'At Dawn We Ride!' (my personal favourite team name). The unspoken enthusiasm signified by the exclamatory punctuation seemed to have worn off as their team's Ace was struggling mightily. I complimented him on the solid moniker to which he responded "This is my first bike race of any kind... I don't know what I'm doing." To which I thought "Truth. And you're not the first cyclist to slam rudely into that sad reality on this patch of steep (and getting steeper) asphalt." I predict a long trail for Team At Dawn' with more hard truths waiting for them on the dusty byways ahead.
At the top of the hill I manage to group up with half a dozen other cyclists and we pace the last 8 miles to Monticello at a brisk clip crossing the time chip chute, finishing the 54 miles and 4100 feet of climbing in just over three hours, beating the best time I've logged in the last four tries by a full 18 minutes. A satisfying start to long race. I strap the timing chip to Jenn's ankle thinking it would be entertaining to pretend I'm removing the garter from her leg at our wedding reception but then I think "That's probably a good way to get smacked, and not in the 'love tap' way." So instead I smack her on the bum and send her off with the advice Josh texted us last night: "Be fast, be safe, have fun!"
Ace-in-the-Hole-'N-the-Rock, Bikes On a Hill and Release the Hounds/Who Let the Dogs Out?
I went on like this (in my head) for the next 25 miles and was still mining mental gems when I hit the last big leg one hill, about 10 miles from 'Cello. It was here I encountered the climber from 'At Dawn We Ride!' (my personal favourite team name). The unspoken enthusiasm signified by the exclamatory punctuation seemed to have worn off as their team's Ace was struggling mightily. I complimented him on the solid moniker to which he responded "This is my first bike race of any kind... I don't know what I'm doing." To which I thought "Truth. And you're not the first cyclist to slam rudely into that sad reality on this patch of steep (and getting steeper) asphalt." I predict a long trail for Team At Dawn' with more hard truths waiting for them on the dusty byways ahead.
At the top of the hill I manage to group up with half a dozen other cyclists and we pace the last 8 miles to Monticello at a brisk clip crossing the time chip chute, finishing the 54 miles and 4100 feet of climbing in just over three hours, beating the best time I've logged in the last four tries by a full 18 minutes. A satisfying start to long race. I strap the timing chip to Jenn's ankle thinking it would be entertaining to pretend I'm removing the garter from her leg at our wedding reception but then I think "That's probably a good way to get smacked, and not in the 'love tap' way." So instead I smack her on the bum and send her off with the advice Josh texted us last night: "Be fast, be safe, have fun!"
Moab Leg 2 Details
Distance:
|
44.7 Miles
|
Start Elevation:
|
7,059 Feet
|
Finish Elevation:
|
6,158 Feet
|
Total Ascent:
|
2,441 Feet
|
Total Descent:
|
-3,392 Feet
|
Net Elevation:
|
-901 Feet
|
Leg Notes
This leg will take you past the beautiful Abajo (Blue) mountains on the right. Passing thought the Comb Ridge at mile 37.5 is a majestic moment.
 |
| Crosswinds in this section last year were so severe that they blew our rider all the way over into oncoming traffic and eventually off the road on the other side. So, 'majestic' is one adjective you can use to describe it. Harrowing could also work, depending on conditions. |
Leg Nicknames: The Blanding Blitz or The Blanding Beatdown (depending on which way the heretofore ever-present wind is blowing) Abajo Does Not Mean 'Blue' and Into the Gap
 |
| Unbelievably, Really |
 |
| Leg 2, 2014 The wind has blown our boy Josh, literally and completely |
 |
| Jenn letting the peleton pull her along, 20 miles in, twenty five to go. |
 |
| Looks Ghetto, tastes uptown |
 |
| La Canadienne and the Green Machine chewing up the miles |
*Yep, you read correctly. They did the entire 12 legs, all 525 miles of riding as a two man team (low, long whistle). More on this later
 |
| I take a moment to break down Jenn's performance... only I don't because? What do I correct? Your helmet was a bit off center, clean up your lid-game? She just rocked that ride and she knows it. Time to get changed these will be the last facilities, meager as they are, for the next 100 miles. Info that Kim (up after Thad) may have appreciated. |
Moab Leg 3 Details
Distance:
|
56.4 Miles
|
Start Elevation:
|
6,158 Feet
|
Finish Elevation:
|
3,868 Feet
|
Total Ascent:
|
1,010 Feet
|
Total Descent:
|
-2,339 Feet
|
Net Elevation:
|
-2,290 Feet
|
High Point:
|
7,156 Feet
|
Low Point:
|
3,852 Feet
|
Leg Notes
 |
| Jacob's chair, only to me it doesn't look like a chair, it looks like a boot, which when you say that out loud sounds like a Canadian saying 'about' which when I point that out to Kim it makes her laugh but not Jenn. That's linguistic critique number two. We are officially on notice. |
Leg Nicknames: Jacob's Chair-man of the Board, Colorado River Run or Guess What?Cheese Butt!
What to say about Thad and more to the point, Thad's riding? We all came to this race trained, prepped and prepared, But Thad brought his game to a whole new level in 2015 to the point that he really should have been the climber and would have been if I could see worth a lick in the dark, but I don't, so he's not. If you had to describe our individual performances in the separate legs compared to our competition it would go like this.
 |
| We're really missing Rodney 'Rodzilla''s leadership on this bottle exchange, Also his wingspan and hand-eye coordination. |
Jenn: really good, excellent, OK
Kim : pretty good, really good, excellent
Thad: excellent, really good and you were cheating!
We are currently standing roadside and enjoying Thad's excellent leg. Once you get him in the saddle he is all business, which is great considering what time it is. This is the least dramatic leg in a near drama free race. Just Pickle Juice throwing down like a boss, cashing checks and spending cash like it's a bachelor weekend in Vegas. He chases down riders, one after another, tries to work with them then summarily drops them, leaving them in his wake like so much roadkill. Most times without even realizing he's done it.
Things got interesting when the clouds darkened on the horizon for a few minutes but nothing ever materialized. So instead of needlessly worrying about our man in the saddle we busy ourselves trying to block off the appropriate letters in the roadside sign so we can make it read 'cheese butt' in a selfie.
 |
| This is what a cheese box looks like. No, I'm asking. This is what a cheese box looks like? |
 |
| Kim's turn (finally!) She's geared up and ready to roll, game face on. |
Moab Leg 4 Details
Distance:
|
45.0 Miles
|
Start Elevation:
|
3,868 Feet
|
Finish Elevation:
|
4,318 Feet
|
Total Ascent:
|
1,923 Feet
|
Total Descent:
|
-1,457 Feet
|
Net Elevation:
|
450 Feet
|
High Point:
|
5,210 Feet
|
Low Point:
|
3,868 Feet
|
Leg Notes
This leg has a gradual climb out of Lake Powell up to a plateau summit followed by a gradual decent into Hanksville. Enjoy the view of winding red rock canyons all along the ascent and tall rock pillars and layered cliffs along the descent.
Leg nicknames: Dante's Inferno, Like a Bike Outta Hell or A 'Tandoori' Is a Clay Oven Used in Indian Cuisine, It Can Also Be Used To Cook Cyclists (that last one is a bit wordy but entirely accurate)
Thad pedals into the exchange at 3:30 on the nose. He just took down 55 miles of desolate wilderness in 2hrs and 50 minutes. He'll have some wattage numbers that are far too esoteric for most of the readers of this blog so I will tell you he averaged almost 19 mph, A command performance and one I would have thought hard to top but I would have been wrong.* Jenn hops to the ankle-wrapped time chips and while she gets that situated Thad gives Kim some last minute coaching which if it was anything like what he told me it probably consisted of "Go ride your bike." Which on the surface sounds so simple as to be facile, but is profound and insightful. We all ride bikes, we all love riding bikes, we are all capable of above and even well above average performances on our bikes. Today is no different. Go do what you came to do ("I can do it coach!") Thus calmed and prepped Kim heads out to do exactly that.*That sounds like foreshadowing... yep, that's what it is alright
"The waiting is the hardest part." -Tom Petty
Any Rockwell team at some point, hopefully before you register but definitely before you turn the first crank in competition, has to have a sit down meeting to discuss the division of labour. Who's going to ride which legs and what are the reasons for that? If we're doing this for fun, ride whatever you like, but if you're competing it behooves you to match a riders abilities to the terrain he/she will be tackling. Let me be right up front, Rockwell Relay gives no free passes to participants. None! Every rider will be tested by every leg he/she rides. The challenges can be obvious, riding over a mountain in the middle of the night for instance or through a national monument at an hour when everybody except convenience store workers are in bed. But others may not be as plain to anybody who hasn't raced before. Cyclist four does more than their share of climbing, rides the third longest distance of the four and gets the most extreme temperature changes of any of the cyclists. But the real challenge, the not so obvious one is the sitting around and watching your teammates finish their legs, put up their feet and breathe easy for the first time since the race started. Until you actually start pedaling there are lots of things that are on hold, not the least of which is your nutrition. Once you've ridden you can eat whatever you want, comfortable in the knowledge that if it was the wrong thing to eat you still have ten or eleven hours to make it right. For instance,Instead of a delicious fried chicken wrap in Blanding Kim got a tossed salad. Then she had to sit in the truck all day, watching her teammates one after another clean house, each performance better than the one that preceded it and assiduously studying the race bible's info regarding her leg, then reciting the stats to herself like a complex chemical formula she has to memorize for Dental Boards exams: "Two mile steep hill, then flat for a couple, then twenty more miles of hill then twenty of descent. " Repeat (like a mantra). And, to make matters worse, the mercury has been climbing all day, reaching its zenith about the time the timing chip was pulled from Thad's ankle and placed on hers. If she was worried about her performance she needn't have. She dug her way out of the Lake Powell Pit that Rodney calls the clay oven with hardly a sweat then began the long, hard, clawing crawl to the high point of her ride. The race bible calls it a 'gradual climb' but could just as easily have called it slow death. The last two years we have watched cyclist after cyclist weave, wilt and then drop like wounded ducks on this hill. Throw in the first actual headwinds (the ones I had been tracking on Weather Underground all week but didn't want to mention to Kim because she had enough to worry about) and you have to admire the gut check she is performing.
Right now I'm Kim's greatest biggest cheerleader. The relay skirts the edge of three National Parks which would be great if this were a week long tour. You could pull into an RV park, set up camp and take in the scenery before lights out and sleep until it's time to cover the next day's miles but this is a race and though we drive right past the entrances to Arches, Canyonlands and Bryce, we never actually go inside. Capitol Reef is different. The race takes us right through the heart of what the Race Bible identifies as the United State's Last best kept National Park secret, and it's still a secret, to me at least because every time we've done this race it's dark by the time we get there. When they began staggering the start and allowing us to roll out of Moab an hour earlier (actually two hours earlier last year) I thought I might get my chance. Mother nature had other plans however and it was once again dark before I even got close. If Kim can finish her leg in anywhere close to three hours I should be watching the sun set over the trees of Fruita rather than suffering in the dark as I ride by. If I have one wish for this race it's that I get a chance to do just that. I nervously watch the roadside sagebrush and scrub oak bend in the stiffening breeze and say a silent prayer for cyclist #4 as she grinds her way to the summit.
Next up Part 3: Fly By Night
Any Rockwell team at some point, hopefully before you register but definitely before you turn the first crank in competition, has to have a sit down meeting to discuss the division of labour. Who's going to ride which legs and what are the reasons for that? If we're doing this for fun, ride whatever you like, but if you're competing it behooves you to match a riders abilities to the terrain he/she will be tackling. Let me be right up front, Rockwell Relay gives no free passes to participants. None! Every rider will be tested by every leg he/she rides. The challenges can be obvious, riding over a mountain in the middle of the night for instance or through a national monument at an hour when everybody except convenience store workers are in bed. But others may not be as plain to anybody who hasn't raced before. Cyclist four does more than their share of climbing, rides the third longest distance of the four and gets the most extreme temperature changes of any of the cyclists. But the real challenge, the not so obvious one is the sitting around and watching your teammates finish their legs, put up their feet and breathe easy for the first time since the race started. Until you actually start pedaling there are lots of things that are on hold, not the least of which is your nutrition. Once you've ridden you can eat whatever you want, comfortable in the knowledge that if it was the wrong thing to eat you still have ten or eleven hours to make it right. For instance,Instead of a delicious fried chicken wrap in Blanding Kim got a tossed salad. Then she had to sit in the truck all day, watching her teammates one after another clean house, each performance better than the one that preceded it and assiduously studying the race bible's info regarding her leg, then reciting the stats to herself like a complex chemical formula she has to memorize for Dental Boards exams: "Two mile steep hill, then flat for a couple, then twenty more miles of hill then twenty of descent. " Repeat (like a mantra). And, to make matters worse, the mercury has been climbing all day, reaching its zenith about the time the timing chip was pulled from Thad's ankle and placed on hers. If she was worried about her performance she needn't have. She dug her way out of the Lake Powell Pit that Rodney calls the clay oven with hardly a sweat then began the long, hard, clawing crawl to the high point of her ride. The race bible calls it a 'gradual climb' but could just as easily have called it slow death. The last two years we have watched cyclist after cyclist weave, wilt and then drop like wounded ducks on this hill. Throw in the first actual headwinds (the ones I had been tracking on Weather Underground all week but didn't want to mention to Kim because she had enough to worry about) and you have to admire the gut check she is performing.  |
| Don't kid yourself, we'r supporting Kim by sending her peaceful happy thoughts |
Next up Part 3: Fly By Night
No comments:
Post a Comment