Monthly Archives: September 2010

Focus on the top of the hill or the end of the ride

Ride reports (not Tu/Th)

I’m still not riding with my son (Kevin), as he gets some strange pains figured out (initially thought to be another kidney stone, but now possibly chronic appendicitis). Kevin’s going to have some catching up to do (literally!) when he’s finally back on his bike again.

Some aren't shy for the camera! This is at the top of Old LaHonda.
Riding in the mountains with just one arm available? Proof it can be done!

Today it was up Old LaHonda, down the other side to San Gregorio, then north on Stage to Pescadero, over Haskins, up West Alpine and then a return on Skyline & down 84 back into Woodside. 66 miles, 6800ft of climbing. No speed run today; I took some time to talk with people along the way, including a woman who I came across walking her bike up the last part of Old LaHonda (she’d been off the bike for six years raising kids), a guy who, as you can see in the photo, wasn’t camera shy at the top of Old LaHonda, and on my return, at Old LaHonda yet again, I came across a couple that were sorta kinda lost but not really. More interesting was that the guy had one arm in a sling and had his bike set up suitably to accomodate that.

Regarding the woman who hadn’t been riding in six years (she’s in the photo with the guy waving, in the yellow shirt to his left), I took a quick look at her bike and she could have it a whole lot easier. The bike was maybe 20 years old with a standard double crank and not a very large rear cogset, so she must have been struggling with some pretty high gears. She’s nuts to just brush that off as not being that big a deal… she’s got way higher gears than I would ever want to climb with, and I’m known to climb in pretty big gears, standing most of the way. Hope she still has some knees left!

Yes, it was a bit drizzly, but never cold. There’s something strange about being in a fog at 68 degrees. Still had a bit of a headwind going out to the coast, but not too bad. The gravel on Stage Road is less of an issue now, and I heard from some cyclists that Kings Mtn is now usable again (so we don’t have to work on an alternative route on Tuesday).

Sal on his single-speed fixed-gear bike, on a very hilly ride

The run from Pescadero over Haskins is always tough, one of those stretches that I can’t quantify why that should be the case. On paper, it doesn’t look that bad, but your legs feel it. But about the time I was feeling sorry for myself I come across Sal, our super-duper customer/domestique (did you know there was such a thing?) who runs our secret soda stop for the Sequoia Century. Sal was out there on his fixed gear bike, yes, riding over Haskins and Stage on a single speed! So much for me thinking I had it tough.

But it was climbing up West Alpine that I had an interesting revelation. As it would get steeper and I started thinking about easing up a bit, I realized that, in my mind, I was planning to throttle back about five pedal strokes ahead. Almost as if I were looking for an excuse to take it easier. Don’t do that!!! I decided that it was wrong to anticipate those next few pedal strokes; only bad things could come of that. So instead I just kept plugging away, and it worked. Focus on getting to the end, not the middle. Where you are is only relevant if you think about it too much. Where you want to be is what’s important.

Jailed on the Tourmalet

Ride reports (not Tu/Th), Tdf trip planning

Two months later and I’m finally going through the photos I took from the 2010 Tour de France. This was the scene with 9k to go on the Tourmalet, the last climb in the ‘Tour, Andy Schleck’s last chance to try and beat Alberto Contador. A big day! And an epic day for us as well, having gone to bed the night before with a raging thunderstorm rattling the windows, and having ridden that morning 25 miles in weather that varied from drizzle to downpour.

Normally, if you plan your ride so you’ll get to your spot three hours before the race comes through, you’re fine. This day wasn’t normal. At two different towns along the way, we were told bikes couldn’t get through. Stay here or go back. And this was with at least four hours to go! Thankfully, I had my Garmin Edge 705 with the Euro mapping chip, so I was able to find my way around the outskirts of each town and back onto the main road, ahead of the Gendarmes that were blocking the way. At one point we had a huge number of other cyclists following us; I felt like the pied piper.

The Gendarme from Hell

But then we came across the Gendarme from Hell. We’re riding along, then see some spectator waving at us and yelling something in Italian that we couldn’t understand, so we get off the bikes, thinking it’s the regular ritual, ride your bike when you’re out of sight, then walk each time you see a Gendarme. No, the guy waving at us was trying to tell us to go back before it was too late! The idiot Gendarme wouldn’t let people get past, nor would he let people go back down the hill. Once you were in his territory, if you were on a bike, you were in jail.

The second photo shows the dead-end side road the Gendarme forced us to leave our bikes on. We weren’t allowed to be anywhere near them, because he feared (correctly) that we’d get on them and fly up the hill as soon as he turned away. So instead of getting close to the finish, or at least up past the corner, where things open up to a dramatic view, we were stuck in this no-man’s-land. Even after the race went past we weren’t allowed down the hill for another half hour, and with

The "Bicycle Jail" on the Tourmalet
hundreds of cyclists backed up behind this guy, I’d just about had enough and decided to get something going, something to rattle this guy. He doesn’t understand English, he doesn’t want to explain in French, so what do do? Grrrrr. No, I mean Grrrrr. That’s what I did. I growled. And got other people to growl as well. One big mob of cyclists, many growling, had to be unsettling to the guy. But nowhere near as unsettling as the afternoon had been for us, his prisoners.