Road Ride Report LA Wheelmans Grand Tour

Last year I did the triple century option for this ride and learned a lot about myself. It took 21 hours last year and considering my biggest ride of this year had been 175 I realized that a triple just wasn't in the cards for this year but my bud, Brent was going for it again this year.

See the trick about double or triples is pace and staying in the draft as much as possible. This year it was just Brent and I but we usually have 2 or 3 others joining us. But due to injuries and common sense we found ourselves going it as a duo this year. So we would have to find others to work with.

Well to do this ride you have 24 hours to get it done regardless of distance....

125 miles (double metric)
200 miles
300 miles
and the granddaddy
400 miles (yes, you have to complete it in 24 hours to get credit)

The ride starts in Malibu right by Pepperdine University. We usually shoot for a 4:30 am start but today with registration backed up, it just wasn't going to happen. I signed in and got in line to check out. Brent on the other hand was doing other stuff. I get checked out and can't find Brent. I go back to the cars and he's there getting ready. I tell him I'm already checked out so he hurries it up but we are still way behind schedule and he's shooting for the triple. I really don't care what my time is but if he's going to get it done he needs to leave now. So after a few more minutes we are ready to roll but he still needs to scan out. He gets through quicker then I did but we are now 53 minutes late! Doesn't sound like a lot but if you're doing a triple you need to plan for a minimum of a 7 hour century. Brent says we are going for 6 hour centuries! That's a tough requirement.

So off we go. Brent leading point and I sucking wheel. Pace goes off right from the start and I look down at my Garmin and we are at 20+ mph through the rollers on PCH. That's a hard tempo but I plan on going along and helping when I can. I originally got talked into doing the triple but after evaluating my rides this year I thought the double would be doable but the triple was out of the question because I'd only done one ride all year over 175 but I have done 14 centuries this year. Well after we get through the rollers we have passed a couple dozen riders on the way. I ride up next to Brent and we start talking about the strategy of the ride. I tell him he's going a little to hard and might want to scale it back some. I just happen to look back and we have a double trail with about 15 riders behind both of us so we are running a train with about 30 tag alongs. No problem if they can hang, among these is a kid named Trevor. He's 25 years old and a fairly strong rider. He had on a Triple Crown jersey so he had some experienced. So he shared the load a few times and gave us a break. Brent was the only one of this group doing the triple and here he is up front pulling all these guys. (not to bright, I know).

Well we roll into the first SAG and get out pretty quick. We rolled in with a 20 mph average but with the stop it took us back down to 17.5 and we were there less then 10 minutes. Now we leave and as we do a big portion of the folks who followed us in, go with us. We are now rolling about 20 deep with Brent pulling. I'm second wheel and Trevor is third. We ride very strong for the next 20 miles and then Trevor goes off the front and starts shaming some of the other riders to pull. He yells at them to give us a break as it's been just us 3 all the 20 miles. So a few work forward and then the group shatters. We lose about half real soon.

We get to the next SAG and now we are down to 7 or 8 riders. We take a little to long here and Brent is yelling at me to let's go (that's a first) I mix my nutrition and we are off. Guess who is pulling? I tell Brent again to let some others go out front but he's saying they are to slow. They were doing okay at about 17 to 18 and it would of been perfect for Brent to get some rest but he just doesn't know how to suck wheel or even take advantage of the possibilities of taking it easy and saving some energy for later. So at this time we ride through residential with a lot of twists and turns and we come up on a couple other younger guys but their pace is slower. Finally Brent relents a little and we let these two do some work but a half hour later they are dropped and now we are down to 5 riders again. No problem. We get to the Lake Casitas area with a few rollers and this place has in the past really killed me but I go second behind Brent and he pulls us through here with a very fast pace but I can see he's starting to fall off on the climbs. Not overly steep but we've got about 125 miles into our legs by now and the pace has been intense. After we get through this section Trevor steps up as this is the area around where he lives and he has home field advantage. We work our way to the bike trail and the pace goes way back up again. We are still around 17 mph average!

So we start taking turns on the pulls again but Brent still does the majority of the work. I want to back the pace back down and every time I get up front I go back to a 17 mph but it's for only a short period as Brent or Trevor will come around and take over again. Good gawd, I'm hurting here guys! I really wish they'd back off but I know Brent is on a mission and I don't want him to fail because of me so I hold back the tears and Man-up and get back in line. Also about now my ass was cussing me out. It had gone from sore to burning hot to "Don't you dare sit down again". But some how I managed to tuff it out.

Now we get to Rincon and this is where the trip goes up the coast to Gaviota (50 more miles) and the double heads back. Trevor has a goal in mind to be in at 14 hours but it looks like we will shatter this. Brent on the other hand still has to go north by himself. I see a couple more triples heading out and yell to Brent to work with them (we had passed them on the way to Rincon, so I figured he could take it easy and work with them) but he didn't hear me and he probably would of just rode away any ways. Rincon is at mile 140.

So now we only have 60 more miles to go. We left with about 8 people but in minutes we are down to 3. Bob, Trevor and myself. We take quick turns at the pull but Trevor is not to good at holding a line and neither Bob or myself likes riding behind him. So we are really moving now. For the most part we are doing 23 to 25 mph and that's after 150 miles. We are doing pretty good at taking turns and we are now back to 17 mph average! We motor through Point Mugu and hit the rollers on PCH. I hung on as long as I could but the young guys got me here and I rolled in 5 minutes after them. Still a personal record for me on this ride.

http://app.strava.com/rides/11583304

And sorry to say but what I had told Brent about going so hard and not letting others take their turn at the pull came up. He ran up short at 240 miles again this year. Still one hell of a strong ride. And next year we will train for the triple and do it right. Brent is still training to do a quad though later on this year. Guy just keeps raising that freekin bar higher and higher.

 

Way to go Mike..very impressed with what you can do on the road! :clap:

 

Great ride report. Congrats on a great ride.
Jeff

 

Thanks for the report Mike, sounds like a good hard day of riding.