This ride was one tough cookie. The ride sounded easy enough, 3 days, 266 miles and 11,000 feet of vertical elevation. Several mistakes made this trip a serious head ache...
Pre-Trip Mayhem
My chain broke taking out my rear derailer during a test ride the night before the ride. I was there on the side of the road staring at my broken derailer and bent hanger knowing that in 12 hours at 6:30 the next morning I was to be departing on my first serious multiday ride. I thought to myself "How am I going to pull this one off?". I threw myself on the mercy of my friends and family and made some phone calls. I was able to secure a commuting bike a TREK 7.4 FX that had been neglected in the garage of my friends step dad for several years. The tires were fat, the chain was dusty, the seat post slid down as I peddled, the handle bars were flat. I don't want to say bad things about the TREK 7.4, it is a good bike for city riding/commuting but it was never designed for touring.
I showed up in the parking lot of Safeway in Santa Rosa, CA to meet up with the other members of the ride. I got some unusual stares from some of the riders when they saw the bike and introduced themselves. They couldn't believe I was going to attempt this ride on that bike, they would stare and ask questions like "So, that's the bike you are going to use?" and "Are those tires comfortable?". It was clear that my fellow riders didn't think this bike could handle the 133 mile first day, much less the 11,000 feet of vertical climbing through the Sierra Nevada mountains. One thing I learned while training for the SeaFair marathon is to just do it. Prepare as best you can and pull the trigger. Circumstances will never be perfect, you will never have all the advantages and giving up before you start is lame.
Day 1 - Santa Rosa to Yuba City (The Butt Hole of Northern California)
The ride started out in the dark morning of the Safeway parking lot. We rode to highway 12 and then proceeded to climb Trinity grade. This is the steepest three mile climb of the trip, to be honest it wasn't too much worse than my commute home in Seattle. My friends warned me about this one, but I found the less steep but further distance hills much more daunting. It's funny how your body adjusts to what it is use too. I was the second rider to the top of the hill, 30 seconds behind the lead cyclist and 20 minutes ahead of the slowest person of our crew. At this point I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders. I knew that I wasn't fated to be the slowest rider on the trip, that I wouldn't be the one everyone else was frustrated with for not being prepared, or fit enough, or fully invested in a $6,000 carbon fiber frames with Dura Ace components.
My chain broke taking out my rear derailer during a test ride the night before the ride. I was there on the side of the road staring at my broken derailer and bent hanger knowing that in 12 hours at 6:30 the next morning I was to be departing on my first serious multiday ride. I thought to myself "How am I going to pull this one off?". I threw myself on the mercy of my friends and family and made some phone calls. I was able to secure a commuting bike a TREK 7.4 FX that had been neglected in the garage of my friends step dad for several years. The tires were fat, the chain was dusty, the seat post slid down as I peddled, the handle bars were flat. I don't want to say bad things about the TREK 7.4, it is a good bike for city riding/commuting but it was never designed for touring.
I showed up in the parking lot of Safeway in Santa Rosa, CA to meet up with the other members of the ride. I got some unusual stares from some of the riders when they saw the bike and introduced themselves. They couldn't believe I was going to attempt this ride on that bike, they would stare and ask questions like "So, that's the bike you are going to use?" and "Are those tires comfortable?". It was clear that my fellow riders didn't think this bike could handle the 133 mile first day, much less the 11,000 feet of vertical climbing through the Sierra Nevada mountains. One thing I learned while training for the SeaFair marathon is to just do it. Prepare as best you can and pull the trigger. Circumstances will never be perfect, you will never have all the advantages and giving up before you start is lame.
Day 1 - Santa Rosa to Yuba City (The Butt Hole of Northern California)
The ride started out in the dark morning of the Safeway parking lot. We rode to highway 12 and then proceeded to climb Trinity grade. This is the steepest three mile climb of the trip, to be honest it wasn't too much worse than my commute home in Seattle. My friends warned me about this one, but I found the less steep but further distance hills much more daunting. It's funny how your body adjusts to what it is use too. I was the second rider to the top of the hill, 30 seconds behind the lead cyclist and 20 minutes ahead of the slowest person of our crew. At this point I felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders. I knew that I wasn't fated to be the slowest rider on the trip, that I wouldn't be the one everyone else was frustrated with for not being prepared, or fit enough, or fully invested in a $6,000 carbon fiber frames with Dura Ace components.
The remainder of the day was a little boring, mostly flat. I ultimatly covered 133 miles successfully completing my first century ride. I was able to keep pace with the fastest riders in the pack. I decided to stay back on a few of the breaks to mingle with some of the other riders. I found it much more intresting to talk with the other riders rather than suck air with the riders in the front.
Day 2 - Yuba City to Sierra City
Day 2 - Yuba City to Sierra City
Day two was a mere 80 miles starting my climb into the Sierra Nevada Mountain range from Yuba City. The climb just before the dam where we ate lunch was tough. But the steep decent was well worth the slow climb :).
This is when the scenary started to shift from the central valley flat lands to the mountains and trees we had all hoped we would be seeing. I unfortunatly didn't take any pictures on this day, I am kicking myself for not having done this becasue the views were unbelievable.
We arrived in Sierra City and stayed in a strange cabin/hotel/trout farm. It was a strange town but the people were happy to have us, I guess they don't get a ton of visitors.
Day 3 - Sierra City to Lake Tahoe
Day three was the shortest day in distance but there were some signifiant hills to overcome. I don't know if the hills on this day were more relentless than the previous two or my body was just getting tired but by this day I the riding was really starting to get to me. My "sit bones" were not feeling good at all.
Day three was the shortest day in distance but there were some signifiant hills to overcome. I don't know if the hills on this day were more relentless than the previous two or my body was just getting tired but by this day I the riding was really starting to get to me. My "sit bones" were not feeling good at all.
I decided to hang back on this day with my friend Dante who had taken SAG the previous day because of an injured back. He decided to ride day three but wanted to take it easy. I was happy to ride at a slower pace by day three. The sceanery was ablosutley amazing.
We finally ride into a condo in Lake Tahoe, it was a great cap to a trip. There were BBQ celebrations but I had to leave early to get to Reno for a bank audit the next day.
The term they used on this ride was EFI it stands for "every f***ing inch", it is the goal for riders to complete the entire event without the use of our support vans. I can proudly say that I am a EFI guy :).
Lesons Learned
If you don't have a really nice bike, don't bother shipping it. In repairs and shipping costs I spent more money than the bike is worth and I never even had the opportunity to use it. I regret not renting a nice bike in Santa Rosa, CA it would have cost less and I could have had a much better bike and ultimatly a smoother riding experience.
