This entry i plan on incorporating some of the info we obtained from the Rotary Club (our hosts) as well as our own experiences and photos i managed to take. one of the items we received was a 'newspaper' for the ride. i wish they had mailed these to us, even if we had to pick up the remainder of the rider packets at the start line. looking through this on sunday morning, the day *after* the ride, i'm thinking "why couldn't they have given us this info a week earlier?" oh well. it'll make for a few laughs as i regale you with stories from our ride. :-)
2009 Tour De Blast saw 1600 registered riders (there were a few day of ride sign-ups).
only 2500 riders allowed per forest service permits.
yesterday's ride saw cyclists from as far away as MA, Virgin Islands and Bulgaria.
the youngest solo rider was olivia, age 12.
if/when anyone comes up to me and tells me they're thinking of doing this ride my 1st piece of advice is to overdress. i don't care what the weather forecast calls for, what the temperature is supposed to be, overdress! we have a complete head-to-toe outfit from assos (www.assos.com) that's rated 'cold weather rider' meaning it'll keep us warm and dry down to temps in the 30s. with the exception of the 1st 15 miles i so wanted it!
forecast was for 66 in toutle, our start/finish line. what i didn't take into consideration was that at 6am it was only mid 50s! plus, for every 1000 feet of elevation you drop 4 degrees on average.
even if you're working on the way up and don't need as much to keep yourself warm, there are significant downhills on 'the way up' not to mention 1/2 of the ride is the descent! we reached speeds up to 30mph on the downhills, and people were passing us! the windchill we created, not to mention the fact that there was a decent wind blowing. we were starting to feel like a sail being caught so we didn't open it up as much as we might've otherwise.
i had packed warm and mid-weight for us. this is what we had:
matt - shorts, wool socks, jersey, the paper warm-up jacket from the STP2009, a gore jacket, and a hood thing (think wetsuit hood or ski hood) - it covers the neck all the way to the top of your head with a cutout for the face, and his mid-weight gloves - waterproof, full-finger gloves.
libby - shorts, socks, shoe covers, rain pants, jersey, gore jacket, light weight gloves (fingerless) and mid-weight gloves, my STP2009 warm-up jacket, and ear warmer headband thing. i left the
stp jacket in the car because the gore jacket usually does the job. and as it appeared we were going to miss the rain i left the shoe covers in the car. BIG! HUGE! mistake! my feet were ice cubes, i had both pairs of gloves on my hands, and matt gave me his STP jacket 1/2 way up the mountain. i was still cold.
we saw bits of fog, sun, wind, rain, and sleet - and snow, although this was in packs along the road. there was a moment when we both, unknown to each other, considered bringing up the idea of just turning around!
the newspaper has a nice article on this: Good gear paves the way for a great ride. by M Bartlett MD.
Anyone who has ridden the Tour De Blast knows the weather variations we experience. what the elevation changes and locale, we have ridden through sun, fog, sleet, rain, snow and slush. The ride starts at about 500 feet and winds up at 4200 feet. however, if you complete the entire ride, you will have covered an elevation change of over 8,000 vertical feet. june temperature, of course, vary with the conditions, but they usually range between the low 40s and 60-70s in the sunshine. The 1st bit of advice is to prepare ahead for the weather...check the forecast the morning of. Secondly, determine the type of rider you are. clothing choices and accessories may be different if you're a casual social rider who does not intend to ride the entire Tour. on the other hand, for the "roadie" who wants to set the Tour Record, your gear will be light and scant. ... For the new riders, a rule of thumb for cycling states, "don't overheat yourself." you want to be a little cold just before the ride starts. if comfortably warm at the start, you'll roast on the ride. another rule involves the concept of 'layered clothing'...layering allows you to add or subtract layers before you get to cold/hot. ... inner layer, closest to skin For this layer you want wicking material which takes the moisture off of your skin and transfers it to the middle layer. avoid cotton. for cold, wet rides consider a long-sleeved version with a turtle-neck/zipper. ... outer layer This is a critical layer because there are multiple functions involved. you need material that is windproof, breathable, lightweight and rainproof. ... head We can lose large amounts of heat through our head. for extra warmth add one of these under your helmet: cycling cap, ear bands, earmuffs or a lylra headband. you can even get gortex helmet covers that fit right over your helmet. ... hands All cyclists should wear biking gloves. they save your hands in a fall, offer a quick clean of your tires if you ride through glass and provide critical warmth when needed. for cold weather use silk glove liners under full-fingered gloves. pack some 'hot short' finger warmers for the descent or extreme windy rides. be careful to allow for good grip on the handlebars. descents can make fingers extremely cold, decreasing response time.
looking back on my clothing choices to pack i'd still take what i did, but here's what i would take in addition.
matt- heavy-weight gloves, 'warm hat', shoe covers, long pants - if he didn't want the assos legs i'd pack his heaviest weight cycling pants. he could unzip the ankles and roll them up to knee-length if he wanted to be a little cooler. a long-sleeve base layer and his assos jacket.
me- heavy-weight gloves, 'warm hat', shoe covers, my assos pants. long pants with the rain pants over top would not have kept me warm enough, and the assos doesn't keep me warm if it's really windy, so assos and rain pants for me it is. my long-sleeve base layer instead of the gore jacket and my assos jacket - if i get too warm i could take it off or just unzip. i'd wear the shoe covers even if it wasn't raining next time - my feet got really cold long before they got wet.
the newspaper also has a mile-by-mile guide to the TDB. if it's written as i hope it is i'll inject our thoughts, experience and pics as we go.
here's the route we rode. be sure to click the 'view elevation' button near the top right corner! it'll show the grades of the road we had to climb.
mile 0:
Toutle Lake High School. registration, showers, pasta (after), and parking.
turn east onto state route 504 and start your climb. we left the school at 6:45am, not long after keith colburn (deadliest catch captain of the wizard) had taken off. we saw him standing in line for his rider number.
mile 3ish:
TDB photographer
ah. this is easy! what's the big deal?? LOL ok pic. great of matt, you can just see a portion of my face, but great shot of my waving hand! LOL. they just don't know how to take pics of tandems! rule 1: be on the opposing side of the road so you get less 'head on' view! oh well. i've learned to wave when matt says 'photographer'!
mile 5:
edge of the blast zone and the toutle river runs alongside the road. so peaceful! the river had rapids and was running pretty fast and furious.
mile 10:
during the blast.
you begin to feel the pull of gravity on your legs now as the road turns upward toward your destination. you are on a new hwy as SR504 were destroyed. i think this is probably where we pulled over and i rolled up my rain pants to the knees and matt took off his gore jacket for the stp jacket. we were feeling pretty warm already and figured we overdressed.
mile 11:
view the Corps of Engineers' earthern dam across the north fork of the toutle river. it's 1800' x 165' tall in 1989 to slow the river and allow the sediment from the mountain snow melts to drop out of suspension behind the dam.
mile 15:
(actually mp16) hoffstadt bluffs visitor center. the rides' 1st pit stop. plenty of food, water and energy beverages. have to admit as far as the organized rides we've been on go, this had the best food. 4 different types of brownies, bananas, oranges, 3 types of sandwiches, and a few other goodies! we were feeling pretty good at this point. it was about 8am when we arrived.
mile 19:
hoffstadt creek bridge you will enter the blast zone. the bridge is spectacular in its own right as it rises 370' above the valley floor and extends for more than 3000 lineal feet. it gets very breezy here so consider adding another layer of clothing to ward off the chill and use caution as teh gusts can get exciting. we felt the wind but were lucky to avoid the awful gusts. quite a view of the valley however!
mile 20:
now you're really feeling the burn in your legs. soon you will have risen 1500' since the start of the ride. your next goal should be to make it to elk rock viewpoint at mp27.
the fog looms..
mile 27:
here you can again get off your bike and enjoy a respite and fuel up. the vistas are incredible again here as they crater is now only 10 miles away. be cautious not to cool down too much as the next phase is perhaps the most challenging and the temperature has been known to drop 20 or more degrees between elk rock and johnston ridge.
we hit fog long before here. at least it seemed like forever. it had to be at least 30 minutes on the clock and probably only about 3 miles LOL! this was a pretty grueling part of the ride. a very long uphill you just had to keep the pedals going. it had gotten really cold with the fog. we weren't too cold because we were working so hard, but once we stopped you could really feel it! i rolled down my pants to the ankles and fastened them up. after we got our food (same as the last stop) we wandered over to a tent one of the volunteers had set up. it covered a fire pit that had a nice hot roaring fire surrounded by chairs. people, including us, took off shoes and had our feet up as close as we dared. matt took out and put on his blue gore jacket and gave me his STP jacket. i put on my mid-weight gloves *over* my summer gloves.
while we were here it started to drizzle. i'm standing in line for the portaloo and thinking to myself 'this is going to be cold. i'm freezing. i will be miserable. maybe we should turn around. well, it's not really raining yet. maybe we start out and if it starts to come down we can turn around then.
it was about 10 when we reached this point. 6:45-10am = 3hrs, 15 mins to go 27miles. there was a sign posted that read "the 1st rider arrived at 8:23am"! man that rider was really moving!
you are now entering the 'heartbreak zone'. yes, the grade is mostly downhill for a six mile reach, but you know in your mind the going down into coldwater lake at the valley floor simply means you have to gut it out on the return.
the fog was still with us, precipitation was more than just that moisture stuff you get with fog. it even sleeted for a few minutes. i learned later that it was here matt was thinking about turning around. but we had already given up almost all that elevation and if we turned around it meant we had to start climbing again! so we forged ahead, we hit our top speed of the day during this downhill; 37mph.
mile 32:
you encounter the coldwater ridge visitor center at 3,200'. coast down the hill to coldwater lake and enjoy the leg rest along the way. the hwy changes direction often so check brake action and watch the speed. having enjoyed the rest in th coast to the valley floor you need to reengage the muscles and tough out the steep 1800' climb to your destination at the johnston ridge visitor center and the eastern terminus of SR 504.it was during our climb out of this valley we saw keith making his descent.
mile 42:
you made it! you can take a much deserved rest and refueling from the team of friendly rotarians present. on a clear day, my words will be woefully inadequate to describe the close-up of the mountain and its crater. in your fatigue and exhilaration to have conquered the mountain, you will be struggling for words and emotional control. throw a snowball at a friend and start back down...often the grade is 6% down, the steepest slope allowed by the washington state department of highways.i tell you, this last 6 miles were a lot like the climb into volterra - a cat1 hill, only worse since we had been climbing for the past (almost) 36 miles! there were a couple times i really didn't think i was going to be able to keep 'putting 1 foot in front of the other'. matt was great at encouraging, and a lot of riders who passed us at this point did give encouraging or at least friendly conversation, even if it was just 'good morning'. in the last couple hundred feet we saw packs of snow still collecting dirt and grime alongside the road. we arrived about 12.10. matt had predicted noon. we had said before we started if we weren't there by 2pm, that no matter where we were on the route we were turning around. it was actually warmer here than at the 2nd food stop. the fog had lifted and there was no precipitation coming from the sky. but it was very cloudy and windy. there was no mountain to view! oh well.
mile 50ish:
we're cruising back and the wind really started blowing from the side. on a tandem we're a much larger profile and we get hit like a sail taking a full gust, so we had to slow our descent. we still were able to maintain close to 30mph on the downhills. we planned and were able to do the descent in 1, not stopping except for photo ops on the way.
mile 70ish:
the rain started. thankfully these last miles were mostly flat or had very little climbing so we could open up and just pedal, pedal, pedal to the finish. the thought of the pasta i think really loomed like that carrot. on the way during the rainy bits we ended up attracting a line. the guy immediately on our wheel announced his presence which was nice, and shortly after that he told us there were 3-5 people in line behind him.
mile 83 finish line:
once again you return to Toutle High School. thoroughly spent, power up with as much pasta buffet and ice cream as you want. rehydrate and kick back with rotarians and discuss the ride. your entry fee and the revenue from sponsors allow the longview rotary club to fund many worthwhile charitable endeavors, from fresh water systems in africa and latin america to scholarships for promising students often unable to fund their own post-high school education.matt enjoyed the ride so much he wanted to add some miles, as he totally overshot the driveway into the school where we were parked! OOPS! LOL.
according to our garmin we spent:
8:40 total time for the ride7:03 actual bike time for the ride
6:12 average pace
9.6mph average speed
83.23 miles total distance
6700 calories burned
