Road Ride Report Breathless Agony!!! Post Your RR!

Let's hear the ride report from the roadies out on the long haul up Hwy#38.

I jumped in to ride and support several riders. Have never done this route. Morning started out nice and cool. Perfect weather for riding those grinding hills.

Jack Rabbit....they call that a road?? Pot hole centeral. There was no line to follow but just mash the pedals and hope for no break downs. The % grade was brutal but felt fairly strong. Was sweating buckets due to the humidity. Saw so many riders down with flats.

Before Jack Rabbit we had a good paceline going but some nasty glass/wood on the road that it was too late if you were in the middle of the pack. Saw two guys get flats instantly.

Next was the random water bottle flying out from someone's cage and three of us running it over without anyone going down.

Fuel stops were quick and I was pounding the water/salt tabs like it was an all you can eat buffet.

Once we hit the 38 it was steady climbing all the way to the end. Felt strong overall since I planned on just a steady ride and not hammer it up at the start. Felt much better up Hwy38 and never looked back. Passed quite a few riders as my second set of legs kicked in.

Great finish and the ride down was windy that really slowed the MPH's down. Loaded up and had a good lunch and feel pretty good. Standard tired but enough to get home clean up the bike and heading out for a few drinks.

BA is ride that all should at least try once. Hope everyone had a safe ride!:wave:

 

I heard from a fellow rider that something bad happened on the downhill heading back to the cars. He saw someone in the road with a sheet over him and paramedics tending to some other riders. I'm pretty much speechless about that not knowing the details.
I hope the STR crew gad a great day!
I did L'etape. It was epic.

 

I'm too tired to post about it. Great day and nice people. I heard about a rider going down but no details.

 

Two words - amazing and Ouch!

I know Nate Adams went down early into the ride and messed up his shoulder. Hadn't heard about a crash on the way back though. I sure hope it's not true about the sheet thing! Chris B did 5hrs and (small) change - that guy is amazing! Me: 6:47 to Onyx.

Pain Freak - how did it go for you, Romeo and the rest of your crew?

 

Hope riders that went down are ok. Certain section down the 38 can be tight with no shoulder. Post any details. Here is what I found on the CHP site. Let's all hope for the best.....

Incident: 1125Type:Traffic Collision - Major InjuriesLocation:SR38 JEO BRYANT STThomasBrothers:609 4Jinfo as of:5/7/2011 8:15:37 PMADDITIONAL DETAILS5:36PM3 BIKE TC * 11803:40PMALL ON RHS3:28PMPER DUP BICYCLISTS HIT A POTHOLE - NEG VEH TC3:26PMPER DUP 3 VEHS INV - VEHS VS BICYCLISTS PER L11303:22PMALL ON RHS

 

Little easier to read...

Looks like someone hit a pothole and maybe took 2 other riders down? Crossing fingers.

Incident: 1125 Type:Traffic Collision - Major Injuries
Location: SR38 JEO BRYANT ST Thomas Brothers: 609 4J
info as of: 5/7/2011 8:33:24 PM
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
5:36PM 3 BIKE TC * 1180
3:40PM ALL ON RHS
3:28PM PER DUP BICYCLISTS HIT A POTHOLE - NEG VEH TC
3:26PM PER DUP 3 VEHS INV - VEHS VS BICYCLISTS PER L1130
3:22PM ALL ON RHS

 

I had a fun day. I can do a quick run-down right now.

Showed up at like 6:30am, parked pretty far away, got set-up, ran into a buddy and went to get ready to start. My buddy was waiting for someone else so we hung around for a bit, but the group with all the fast guys from last year took off, so we decided it was time to go and took off with them. Then, the group got split at the first light and the fast guys were off. The second group did not have any stragglers, though and we made our way up and over Redlands and ended up catching group one in Moreno Valley at a light. Visibility was bad and we saw another group of riders that were all stopped on the side of the road. That group had a crash. 3 guys went down, one was taken in an ambulance. MMMMDan can tell you more, he is one of the riders that went down.

We continue on. Get to Jack Rabbit, its rough, but not too bad. Some of my rides take me down dirt roads on my road bike, so I'm used to it. I start to pull away from the group, but realize that's not smart, so I sit back and thr group re-groups on the 60, minus a few people. We roll through rest #1 and hit oak glen with a group of about 8-10 rides now, it quickly dwindles into like 5-6 riders. Once Oak Glen gets steep, its just 3 rides, then 2. I ended up cresting with a guy named Ryan and we descended at an easy pace. We had another couple guys catch back onto us on the flat portion to rest #2. Another quick stop and we are headed up damnation alley.

By now it was just Ryan and I and we pushed out way up to Rest Stop 3 in just over an hour. Nothing exciting here. Rest #3 is where we got split up. I guess I took a longer break and headed out a little late. Started pushing up to Onyx. I got mentally drained near the end. Should have looked at the course a bit more because I kept thinking I'd see the finish after every corner. It got to me and I had to stop for a minute and calm down a bit. Then I was back off to the summit. Total time 5:03. Ride time was right at 5 hours. Improved from a 6:50 last year. I had a good day.

 

amazing ride! Wow, breathless agony for sure...but the views were even more breathtaking. seeing the snow capped mountains and the smell of the fresh mountain air definitely took my mind off the pain. Weather was also perfect.

I pushed off around 6:30 and started out with a decent pace. I think i was a little conservative at the MC since this was my first time so i had a bit more confidence this time around. It seemed like i was doing a lot of passing so I kept pushing until i caught up to a decnt pace line and held. Like Chris mentions above, visibility was pretty bad at one point and i had to take my glasses off because water had totally condensed on it. This slowed me down since my eyes tend to tear up quickly with wind.

Jack Rabbit was a welcome sight...(mtb at heart). It wasn't as bad as i thought, though decending is probably a differnt story. I kept looking over to the left at all the trails thinking it would be nice to come back on my mtb. Anyway, i push a 9mph pace up to the top and passed a lot of flats! Next we jumped onto the fwy which wasn't very fun with all those semis buzzing by then a quick stop at rest stop#1.

i zoned out on the climb up Oak Glen then woke up on the decent...wow, that was fun! Next thing we're at rest stop #2. Top off, stretch, then back out up damnation alley. This sucked a bit more outta me and ended up spending more time a rest #3. I mustered up whatever energy i had left and started up again. The rest of the way was grueling. This is where i got passed a lot. I kept looking down at my GPS counting down the miles...and as i started seeing the frequency of riders heading down i knew the end was close. eventually i crawled in a bit after 1, maybe close to 1:30...i actually don't remember what time he called off. I was out of it and barely made it off my bike with out falling down. haha. I crammed a bunch a snacks down my throat and let my feet breath for a bit before heading back down. the decent was nice and relaxing....didn't take it too fast since the clock has stopped and the cross wind was strong at times. I think total time was a bit ove 8 hours back to sylvan park. a lot better than the 9:40 t MC. I scarfed down a huge burrito then headed home. good times.

thanks again to the organizers and all the volunteers and support staff! Finally, heeling vibes for all the riders that went down.

 

Was a good day yesterday. Toughest century i've done so far. Unlike the faster guys it took me close to 9hrs to onyx and around 1.5 hrs back down to the finish line. Started at 610 and was up top at 3. Im very happy with the results but def. Need to get better for next yr.

That being said, was nice riding with lesper which pulled me for miles, and painfreak, jeff and slappy! Ive nevered stared at the pavement this long in my life hahaha! Overall was a good day and looking forward to nxt yr.

 

I was behind Nate when his front tire blew early on in the ride...freaky, brand new tire, brand new tube, same setup I run...it sounded like a gunshot and then he looked like he was riding on ice...the third guy in the crash went in the Ambulance...heard rumors that he was ok, and that it looked really bad because he ended up in the middle of the road bleeding heavily from the mouth

Worked SAG and the Summit the rest of the day... Driving down 38 and went through there right about 3:50 and saw two CHP cruisers and a Moto with a car there, but didn't see anything else.

This morning, I've got some bruises in some funny areas.

I think I'd rather crash on the MTB...so far those have resulted in a few broken bones over the years, but the road crashes hurt way, way more.

EDIT: Just downloaded the Garmin...speed at the time of the crash was 30 mph on flat ground.

 

what brand of tube and tire ? just curious and why does it blow up? puncture ? thats scary on a fast downhill indeed. Never thought this can happen.

 

I vote for tire bead not properly seated. Eventually the tube sneaks out and "bang". One should take time to "break in" a newly mounted tire.

 

We had a good group but some were faster then others so we didn't do much riding together but I liked it, as we could all move at our own pace.

My ride started out early. Brent and I got to the venue at 5:15 am. We were ready to roll by 5:30 but got a phone call our bud Jose was running late ( no surprise here). Got in line for registration and then seen Romeo-New2mtb and Nick-Good'Ol Slappy. I was still looking for others. Seen a few from my road club but they weren't riding with us. We finally get everyone registered and in line to check out. Brent and I had already checked out and waited around for 18 minutes for the rest of the crew to get through. So off we go. The first SAG isn't supposed to be open until 8 but this year I understand they were ready at 7. But our plan was to go out conservatively and we did. We had sent Jose out early as he's our slowest rider at this time. We caught him about 3 miles out. Heading over to Jack Rabbit he got in our pace line but wasn't able to keep the pace and backed off, after all it was going to be a long day. We hit Jack Rabbit and here we splintered. Romeo had told us he hadn't trained enough for this but I never believe him because he's the king of secret training rides. Nick decided to hang with him for the climb up. I had a great time on this part and passed many more then passed me. It was cloudy here but the temps were about perfect for climbing. We get to the first SAG and I'm only a few minutes behind Brent, soon the rest of the group pulls in. We all jump into the lines for the restrooms and then head off to look at the food. The ads say they'll have Hammer Products there so I didn't bring my gel. I'm told there isn't any left or endurolytes either. This isn't good. As we are getting ready to take off Romeo jumps in the restroom line, DOH! He didn't know you get this out of the way first. So we spend the next 15 minutes waiting for him then we are out. At this point I see FFW pull in and then Lesper-Loren. Jeff also comes in. Now the group is complete.

We start up the Oak Glen climb which is the toughest part of the ride but it's at the beginning. I had done this section a few months back with most this group on a training ride so I knew how I wanted to ride it. Slow, really slow and steady. I 'm soon being passed by a ton of people but I keep my composure and stick with the game plan. I felt really great once we get to SAG #2 at Mill Creek. We were there a while and I asked Brent if he'd seen Nick & Romeo. He said he thought they'd left, so we walked around for a while looking for them. We got nervous that they'd left so we went out. About 3 miles up Damnation Alley Nick catches me. It was a relief to see him. I didn't see the others until we got to SAG#3. The pace here was a little better then Oak Glen but by no means was it easy. We were seeing a lot of 8+% grades for sustained times. I was no longer getting passed like I did at Oak Glen and I picked up the pace a little. Vehicle traffic had picked up some what but most drivers gave us room but you always get those that don't want to share the road with bikes.

This is where we start riding into the trees and the scenery and the air becomes very nice although noticeably thinner. The riding also seems easier then what the Garmin says. I get to SAG #3 and ask again for some endurolytes and I'm told they ran out hours ago. This really gets to me as they claim there will be this available. So we sit around waiting for the rest of the guys to show. Jeff & Nick have been there forever now and we tell them to go ahead. Jeff takes off like a rocket and that's the last we see of him until we get to the top.

The ride out from SAG#3 (Anglelus Oaks) isn't to bad as we see some rollers now but we still have about 3K of climbing to do. Thankfully the weather was cooperating and it was rather nice riding.Now the grades for the most part are down to a manageable 4 to 6 % but with all the climbing and miles in your legs it's very difficult to climb very well. Now I'm starting to have some cramping issues because of no supplements. I ate a bunch of banana's at SAG 3 but it didn't help. I had to back off and spin even though I had energy to ride harder but would almost cramp instantly when I pushed to hard. Loren had stayed behind with Romeo to make sure he got out alright from SAG 3 and he caught me about 4 miles from the top. He pulled over after a while though and I went around and kept climbing. These last 4 miles are the toughest of the whole ride though. I kept looking at my Garmin thinking it was broke because the freekin mileage wouldn't change.

Finally I get to the top, where Jeff, Nick and Brent are waiting. Poor Jeff has already been there over an hour. But the weather up top was nice. I've done this a couple of times and it's always been cold and windy but today it was great. Nick had been there a long time also but Brent was only 10 minutes ahead of me. About a half hour later Loren rolls in and another 15 minutes later Romeo rounds it off for us. Jose had knee issues and had abandoned before Oak Glen.

We talked it over and Loren and Romeo were going to ride down together and Nick, Jeff, Brent and I took off. Brent grabbed the front soon and I jumped on his wheel and we were off. Got into the high 30's in no time. After a while Nick came up and took over the pull. And it continued like this for a while until I finally tried to pull but that was a disaster. We went from high 30's to high 20's in a very short time. Jeff came around and took the pull back and we were back on stream. We stayed like this until we got to some rollers and then I was dropped. They waited at Angelus Oaks and we regrouped there. Now it gets steeper here and the pace was furious. We never got passed on the dh. Brent was out front at one point and pulled a ways he finally pulls off and gets in front of me but Jeff and Nick get a gap on us. Brent is able to close it but my quad cramps and won't let me go with them. So I back off but keep them in sight all the time until I see Brent pull over. I knew something was wrong and I thought he had a flat but it turns out he lost his masterlink on his chain and we look but can't find it. I think we had about 12 miles to go to the finish and Brent decides to coast back. So we go and I wanted to see if we both coasted how far he'd get from me. He got a good half mile on me and then he stopped thinking I was falling off but I knew I'd need to help him on the flats and that one little hill on the way back. So we go again and I just hang with him and we are still going 27 mph and we even passed a couple riders! Even without a chain he passes people! I help him with a push on the back over the little hill and then we hit the flats. He grabs onto my shoulder and I pull him along. Now we get a 2% grade and he's able to draft off me for a few miles. But we get caught by some lights and go back to him holding onto my shoulder. Not easy after a hard day in the saddle but we make it back and we all meet up and have some really good grub.

I finished in 8 hours which is what I was hoping for. I am in awe of these folks who turn in a sub 6 hour climbs on this ride. I think next year I'll do the L'etape ride but I know I want to do this again. Thanks to all my mountain biking friends who have a road fetish!

Great job ChrisB and FFW you guys killed it.

 

Hardest ride I have ever done. Left redlands a few minutes behind a some friends at 6:15. Not a great start as I wanted to leave at 6, forgot to reset my computer, then it was even reading and finially my rear blinker fell off and broke. The climb into Moreno Valley and the decent towards the freeway was heavily overcast. I had my glasses on but was viewing over the top as it was impossible to see through them. JackRabbit was not nearly as hard as I though it would be but it was deffinitly rough. Much worse if you had to come down it. The highway scetion was nto too bad as there was a decent shoulder.

Got to RS1 at 8:09 Met up with Romero, Mike, Nick and Brent and carried on. Took off for Oak Glen which was bad but luckily we preroad it in January which made a huge difference. Made it to RS2 at 10:00 downed some more groub and then took off. We preroade damnation alley in January talso so we new mostly what to expect. Once I made the turn up to Angeles Forest it was new riding for me. Not too bad but I could deffinitly stat to feel the burn. I have no idea what time I made it to RS3 but I do know I tried to eat and drink as much as possible considereing I didnt want to eat. Forced a banana down and half a clif bar.

Took off for the fianl climb, was told it was 19 miles but i think it was actually more then that? So many rollers early on I was thinking the climbing has to start soon right, not really the climbing was all at the end. We had one good fast bumpy descent and the it was on. Caught Painfreak somewhere in the middle of the climb and then about a mile later I hit the wall. Finally I stoped took a leek and asked how much further it was (since my mileage was offf from the start), they said 6 miles! Popped a gel and took off, 15 mins later the gell kicked in and I could ride again but only for so long as I stoped again. This time my legs were teasing me with craps. Asked again how far and the said 4 miles. Road some more and the cramps were officaly. And for some reason when I asked again it was still 4 miles! Finally I just put my head down and creaped up the mountain slowly. Left then right and i look up it is teh same thin again, left then right. This went on more then I would have liked, each turned seem like dejavu. I just kept staring at the pavement and every once in a while looked at the creek on the side and though about the cold water. Riders kept flying down the mountain so I must have beeen close. Finally the road flatens out and I am about half a mile to the top. Checked in at abourd 3:00 and then layed down. All I could put dwon were two oragne half and half a soda. I was out of breath and wanted to relax.

Finally got up took pictures with the reaper and the elevation sign and took off for home. The first descent was great 35mph+ then a slight up hill which was amazingly easier then the last one I just did to the top. Once I reached the rollers I was able to find a gear and powered though them all the way to the Angeles Forest and the descent to Redlands. That was so much fun and I am sure it will have improved my descending ability. I didnt hit a single stop until the park. Once at the park I was actually hungry but grabbed/made a burrito but supriseingly could nto finish it, finish three drinks though. I do not know what my average was to the top but my "ride time" was closer to 9 hours up and 11.5 total.

Special thanks to Romero (new2mtb), Nick (goodOlappy), Jeff (jeff'd) who was just too fast, Mike (pain freek) and Brent who I just met. It was nicing training with you guys and riding Yesterday. Also I have to say this was one of the best supported, staffed and supplied rides I have ever done if not the best (cool breeze is also a great event). At teh top I had no intention of doing this again although I really want to do the KOM century challenge next year.

 

Yeah I agree, I had the same thing once and my neighbors came out side when it went off, BANG!

 

scary indeed.

i just switched over to tubless (hutchinson atoms) running about 100psi and i swear i was rolling a lot faster. even jack rabbit felt soft under my wheels. I didn't have to pedal on most of the decents and i was still keeping up with people spinning like crazy. I've been running tubless on mtb for awhile now and im convinced it's the way to go for road as well. I probably passed at least 15-20 flats on this ride...not to say tubless will save you from eveything but it's definitely worth the extra insurance.

 

Nate here - Continental 4000S w/ Kenda tube. Had 4 rides on this setup before yesterday so not an issue of 1st time setup/ride. Had ~110 psi but after the crash, looking at the tube, it look snake-bit. I was summoning all my mtn bike skills to wrestle and keep the bike up knowing Dan and others were behind me but when my back wheel slid out I went into tuck and roll mode. Dan's comment about me looking like I was on ice is the perfect analogy.

Glad to know Dan is up and walking and that the 3rd guy is better off than first appeared. As for me, my left shoulder is messed up (same one I hurt in mtn bike crash in Nov, so no surprise there) but no collar bone injury. Left side of rib cage is really sore - I think just bruised w/ all the coastal cartilage stretched/compacted on impact. All in all, I feel fortunate as it could have been so much worse. Definitely scary though. Thanks to all my friends who helped!

 

wow good to hear your okay. very lucky the injury wasn't that bad considering the speed you were in and the pavement, it could have been much much worse...heal up fast!.

 

No Kidding

 

I heard that on excessive braking, the rims overheat which can cause a blow-out. We have a drum brake on our touring tandem just for that purpose. It doesn't use the rims to stop us on long downhills.
Nate, glad you're not hurt worse. That is just gnarley!