Road Ride Report L'Etape De Tour

My ride time was 6:10. that was pedal time. Overall was loooong! Waiting for friends and schmoozing at the rest stops.
I saw Chris Horner coming down GMR. I guess Zabrieskie was on the start line too.
Man! That area is so beautiful! I saw MTBmaven. That guy rocks! He killed it on the downhill! Buh-bye!
The final climb past Baldy village was a death climb. I was rocking a 39x27 and my back started to seize up on the long final section before it flattens out to the top. People were zigging that section. People were cramping. People were stopped and bent over their bars. People were walking. I kept telling myself to keep going, don't stop baby, don't stop, but I failed and stopped for 10 to 15 seconds. That was enough to continue on to the top!
That stage of the Tour is going to be fantastic!!!
SherpaDrider completed his first major, epic road ride. He came across the line with the biggest smile of the day! Way to go Binh!
I liked this better than Breathless Agony. I liked the scenery way better. The views were incredible and the roads were excellent. The downhill was the bomb! Technical and fast and lots of them. The only place I felt bad was in the beginning. A headache kicked in right away but guzzling some water took care of that.
Of course I felt pain at the end but I didn't feel bad, I just sucked! :lol:
It's always cool to do a ride that the pro's do. I look forward to this next year!
If I was taller, this would look better


Binh dreaming of dirt! Don't worry guys. This road thing is a temporary phase. (love the uphills though!)


some scenery (cell phone) shots










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For whatever reason, Mtbmaven is the last photo in this set.
Good seeing you!

 

First of all, results are up:
http://www.cadencesportsonline.com/pdf/376_divisions.pdf

Even though they said they would not be timing the whole thing but just the two KOM segments, they do have full times. These are chip times so all the time you my have spent at the rest areas (about 45 minutes for me) is included. The list shows my total time at 6h42m which jives with my Gramin. The Garming shows 5h 57m of actual moving time.

328th finisher out of 955 total finishers, out of 1,450 registered riders.

Also saw Chris Horner coming down GRR. And yes, the downhills were an absolute blast! The section of East Fork Road going down from the intersection of GMR, GRR and EFR up to the point were it turns westward was the best. Coming down Mt Baldy Road at the end was a blast too though a little twitchy given the overall exhaustion. There were basically four climbs: 1) Claremont to Mt Baldy Village; 2) First KOM - GRM from Glendora to GRR, 3) GRR to Mt Baldy Village and 4) MT Baldy Village to the Ski Lifts. Yes, the last one was the most terrible possible. In and of itself it is hard even if someone drove you to Mt Baldy Village. Doing it after 70 miles of riding and climbing, when you are coming into it exhausted toyour limit, is a killer. Stopped twice in the shade to gather my mind and body. With about 1.3 miles to go it actually flattens out and you have a short 0.2 mile downhill which was incredibly decieving since the worst and hardest part of the entire race is the last 0.5 miles (average grade of just that last stretch is 15%!)

Ton of people though and really great event. Looked for everyone at the start but with 1,450 cyclists its pretty hard to find anyone. Found some of my Shoair buddies and saw MTBMaven at the final end.

Will I do it again next year? Absolutely heck Yes!!!!!!

Here is a link to the Garmin page:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/84249120

It doesn't contain the return from MT Baldy to Claremont. Just t see how much of a climber this was, go to the Elevation chart and change the measurement from Distance to Moving Time......

 

If they do this again next year, I'm in!

 

Let people know. I was talking with the mayor (of Claremont) during the ride. He is a big cycling advocate, and would like to see this or other similar events take place here each year.

 

Oh yes. Me too. Looks like fun!

 

Great ride! Beautiful day! I finished! Yeah!

 

great report. i too would like to do this next year but i want to do the KOM challange so hopefully it will e a different day.

 

crazy! while we where busy shuttling GMR with 13 riders... we kept passing you by... we helped out one roadie with his flat tire (who didn't know how to remove a tire)...

We saw a couple of guys with a Elliptical type bike... what was that? lol

 

Nice RR Liz. Wish I coulda joined you guys, but had to eat a tasty dish of BA.

Last picture of Brian is funny...kinda looks like the guy next to him - with the gut hanging out - is doggin' his KOM jersey.

 

It was a great day to be out riding. I was surprised to find out that only 850 people made it to the finish. Glad I was one of them. The few miles were absolutely brutal.

 

WOW! Just crawled out of bed at 1:00 pm. I was going to ride easy but the wind blasting all morning made me roll over and go back to sleep. That and my back and legs yelling at me to not move.
I felt bad for the people I saw coming up as I came down. So many were walking. I ended up zig zagging a little bit myself but it didn't help. Stopping for a minute got me up there but I felt like I'd failed because I had to stop. (get over it Liz)
The downhills and scenery were heaven. I feel like we were all pretty lucky to accomplish this. Since it's a tour stage and considered the Queens stage, if they pick something else next year, then this would not be the E'tape route.
Low point for me: stopping on the climb
High point: Giant Americano and a massive chocolate chip cookie in my van on the way home with NO traffic!

 

So am I to understand they had about a 40% DNF rate? 1,450 registered and only 850 finished?

Yeah, my son is mad at me. He says I'm all blah today. His words not mine but I agree with him.

 

http://vimeo.com/23314251

I'm not sure how this works but here is a video of a pro riding the last bit from Baldy village.
I FF to the steepest part at 20 minutes and am glad to see he hurt with a 39x23 considering I had a 39x27. If this doesn't come up then I guess go to Vimeo and search for it.

 

Thanks for the reports... looks like a cool event. I'd also definitely do this next year instead of Breathless, but I've got to earn that KOM jersey this year.

 

That guy checking out Brian has his belly sticking out! Major fail!!

Funny thing happened on the way to the top on GMR.
I have a good rhythm on the climb. Feel good but it's hot.
Suddenly Binh's voice breaks my concentration and throws my rhythm off;
"Liz Liz wait in the shade up there" I'm ahead of him. I turn to look and he's holding his arm weird. Did he get stung? Break his wrist and I missed the fall? :?:
I stop, he comes up behind me and never looks at me and looks at his hand which is holding his iPod and says "My iPod just quit. OHNO. Shit! Charge device?? Oh Shit"
"Oh too bad Binh, And you want me to do WHAT about it?" :lol::lol:
Tough it out musicless sucker! And he did! With strength and a huge smile!
Congrats on your first roadie epic Binh!

 

Haha jeff^d, nicely done.

 

That was a hell of a course yesterday. Did recon a couple times over the past month and expected it to be tough, but finishing up to the ski lifts after going 70 miles hard was something else. It was fun to see so many pros riding among us common folk. Lots of MTBers up front in the group also (Tinker, Nate Whitman, Dana Weber to name a few). I managed to finish in the top 20 despite cramping on the last climb (had the same problem at VQ). That grade is vicious on a road bike -- guys were zig-zagging all over the road on the last 2 km!

Kudos to the event organizers -- the course was clean (swept) and well staffed with police to stop traffic at intersections. Next best thing to a closed course. Now to watch the pros do that course at true race speed.....

 

Woohoo....lucky finisher number 100. 5:40 total time, only stopped for a total of 6 minutes to fill bottles twice. Rode 39 x 26 and was really wishing i put my 28 on at the end. I didnt stop but i was paperboying the hell out of the last climb. I may have added an extra mile or two with all the zig zagging .

 

Top 20?? nice!!!

What a day! After the HOT weather earlier in the week the cooler temperatures at the start line were a relief, ‘goldilocks conditions’! (just right ).

I went with 10 friends from work. The plan was ride together and save it all for the two KOM’s and not worry about the overall time. We lined up and shortly after that we were off.

It was really nice to have Claremont police stopping traffic for us, sweet! A full on support car was constantly checking on everyone, he helped quite a few people, that was awesome!

At the base of the climb we passed Bill Walton on his Frankenstein bike….not sure if he made it the whole way but he sure had a big smile on his face! Shortly after that Manny rode past with a small crew, I said ‘hey you are supposed to start in wave 1!’ he laughed and said they told him to line up in wave 3? He was laughing and joking and having a good time and still quickly disappeared.

About halfway up the first climb we popped out of the clouds, the skies were clear, you could see snow up top, it was going to be a perfect day

We made our way down GRR and then over to the awesome East Fork descent. Zoom-zoom, man is that fun! After that it was on the 39 back into town, the winds picked up and it was a little rough through there but I continued the ‘in it to spin it’ mantra and stuck to a slow pace.

Back in town we hit the rest station and geared up for the upcoming climbs. Eat, drink, repeat.

The start of the first KOM was not marked from what I could see, but I saw the timing strip across the road so I knew it was ON from there. Hit it hard and it went by pretty smoothly, felt better and was faster than my pre-ride.

Then we regrouped at the Aid station for the grind back up GRR to Baldy Village. That thing never fails to deliver the whoop ass, more up than down for sure.

Soon enough we were at the village. We knew it was now time for the real brutality to begin. 5 miles yes, but 5 miles that you count down every 1/10 of a mile and pray for survival. Let the games begin!

Soon after a car stopped in the road and shouted out to a rider on the side ‘hey are you giving up?’ He replied ‘yup’ but I shouted out some encouragement and told him he had less than 5 miles to go and don’t give up now. I hope he got his wind back and made those last miles.

Further up the sun was beating down and I was sweating like crazy, it took everything I had to continue and not stop for a break. People were stopped and some were off their bikes walking. It was pretty brutal. I heard one guy stalled, fell over and crashed on the ground while climbing, crazy!

Thankfully soon enough there it was, the finish line. Yes!! I felt a little faint and had to rest for 5-10 minutes at the top to get my wits back.

Then it was time for a ripper of a descent back to the start line. Sweet! Went by quickly and we hooked up at the bottom with a big pack for a fun ride back into town.

All in all an epic ride and will be really cool to see the TOC competitors rip it up in two weeks!

ps - how about nate coming in 2nd overall, yeah baby!!

 

Completed the ride with great friends: Brian, Liz, Beth, Lauren, Alan, Jen, And Luke. Weather was fantastic staying foggy and high 60s all day except the sun came out to add to the hell climb at the end. To my surprise, I got emotional at the final stretch at the top as my friends cheered me on to the finish. Another amazing bike experience that I will never forget and probably never want to do again Only remembered to stop for photos twice but no photos are required to keep this epic ride in the memory bank.

Liz, Alan, and Jen rolling into a SAG station...gimee some tongue Liz!


One of the final climbs in the background before reaching the village....scenery was amazing:


Liz and I before our final push: