Category Archives: Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

Endless ramblings regarding the every Tuesday & Thursday-morning bike ride, leaving Olive Hill & Canada Road at 7:45am, rain or shine

What a difference a day makes!

Personal stuff, Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride

A customer came in the other day, mentioning that he missed my regular entries in the Almost-Daily-Diary. Thought there was something worthwhile in what I’ve been writing. There are so many reasons why I’ve cut back on updates over the last six years, but in the end, there’s a very real need I have to put things to paper (well, that’s how it used to be… paper, not electrons). It’s helped me to sort out what’s important in my life, and sometimes I’ve written about things that others might have considered doing, but decided hmm, that’s OK, let Mike do that because it’s just kind of crazy. Like how I used to ride absolutely 100% no-matter-what and actually looked forward to really nasty weather.

Getting back to the customer who missed my regular musings, in a nutshell I felt a sense of shame for not keeping the diary up. Shame. That thing you feel when you’re a bad person, vs guilt, which is what you feel when you’ve done something wrong. Am I really a bad person for not keeping up the diary? Why isn’t it just plain-old-guilt? The reason is because I feel I actually am a better person when I get my thoughts out there. Not because I’m doing something for the benefit of others, but because it helps to ground me and identify purpose.

So yesterday I started writing a very lengthy piece about stuff related to getting older, not just on the bike, but what the “getting older” experience is like in general. Why it seems we frequently encounter the frustrated angry old-timer who thinks the world has gone to hell compared to what he grew up with (and I’m focusing on guys because women may think this stuff, but most don’t seem to feel as comfortable griping about it in front of random strangers). In the end, I split that piece into two separate entries, one regarding the physical decline of a cyclist (me) over the years, focusing just on cycling, and the other, the angry old guy part, I’ll post separately at a later time.

But today’s entry will serve as a bit of an update to yesterday’s. The difference a couple days makes, between Tuesday’s really slow solo ride, and today’s ride where Todd, one of our regulars from the way-back days, showed up. You see, Todd is FAST. Thankfully he had just completed the infamous “morning ride” which can sometimes require a similar effort to an actual race. But when he rode up to me I was thinking, oh no, is he going to be able to turn the pedals slowly enough? Will he be able to make it to his 10am meeting in time?

It wasn’t easy, and that’s exactly what I needed. Someone to push me. Someone to provide a wheel to draft that I dare not lose, since it would be so much tougher trying to catch back up than hold that wheel, no matter the cost (I did lose Todd’s wheel on the beyond-category (joking) rise from the base of 84 heading towards Tripp Road).

Strava says I was at 99% max effort for both the entire ride as well as the climb up Kings. And I agree; if there was 1% more to be found, I wasn’t finding it. It was my fastest ride for that version of the Kings ride since August 18, 2022, at 1:47:33. My fastest Strava time for that ride was June 14, 2012, at 1:33:04. So “just” 14 minutes slower.

And yes, if Todd hadn’t been there, I would have been at least 5 minutes slower today. Thank you Todd for showing.

Finally made it up Ventoux. Sort of.

Tues/Thurs 7:45am ride
This is Kevin (my son, not ex-pilot) in 2009, his first time up Ventoux, my second or third... have lost track). This is as far as I've ever gotten, due to road closures during the race.
This is Kevin (my son, not ex-pilot) in 2009, his first time up Ventoux, my second or third… have lost track). This is as far as I’ve ever gotten, due to road closures during the race.

Ventoux and I have a bit of history. It was my first big climb in France, on my first trip, back in 2000. A bit of a mess; the day started in the mid-80s but by the time we got to the base of Ventoux (as part of 7000 other cyclists in the “citizen’s” event/race at the Tour de France) it was getting a bit cloudy, and as we suffered our way up it got colder and colder and then it rained… I was one of the few prepared for nasty stuff, having experienced a wicked turn of weather for the worse a month prior on Sonora Pass. But many others not so fortunate, one person even dying from exposure. By the time I got to Chalet Raynard, just 4 miles to go, they closed off the summit. I wasn’t too happy about that, so close to my goal, but they had to make room for a steady stream of ambulances and busses that were hauling people off the mountain to safety.

The next two trips to Ventoux were with Kevin, and each time we got a bit further before the gendarmes shut down the road. Frustrating, but close enough to enjoy the amazing views and it’s one of those climbs where getting that close is close enough to still write you “climbed” Ventoux without attaching an asterisk to it.

I think I’ve still got it in me to do one more climb up Ventoux, maybe this Summer or the next. Flash forward now to this morning. It was raining outside, so I set up the trainer. Not so bad I couldn’t have ridden, but I still need to get the bike set up for it. At 7:45am I did get a text from ex-pilot, wondering where I was. Yikes. So he was brave enough and I was being a wimp? Shortly after came another text, “Just kidding.”

I was looking over the various Zwift ride options, and noticed the tab for “France.” OK, that might be interesting, what’s on tap? The only recognizable one was Ventoux. Did I have enough time for it? What would such an obnoxious grade feel like on a trainer? How would I feel if I didn’t make to the top?

It was brutal. I should have started earlier. It was also pretty realistic; I could place every turn, all the steepest parts felt so familiar. Not much of a warm-up, just a couple miles of 4 or 5% grade and then it hits with all cylinders.

It’s not THAT long a climb, nothing like the Galibier. Just under 13 miles/21 kilometers, and just over 5000ft. The Galibier is 34 kilometers less 5k descent in the middle, with a total of 6,960ft of climbing. But it’s relentless with very long stretches of grade just over 9%. Zwift doesn’t quite get the atmosphere right though; in real-life, the mid section of Ventoux is the worst because any view you might have is completely obscured by the forest around you. No such forest on Zwift. And yet they still managed to capture the Lunar-landscape feel toward the top, even without the forest providing contrast.

It’s also a bit odd that the view from up high is the sea… definitely not the case in real life. I’ve read that on a particularly clear day you can catch a glimpse of the Mediterranean, but on Zwift, the sea is everything you see looking south.

That 10k to go marker… where is it? In real life, you live for that 10k to go marker; it feels like you’re almost there (nevermind that you’ve still got over 6 miles, substantially longer than King’s 4.3 miles in total). Zwift provides you with a display in miles, but let’s have kilometers please; they progress more quickly!

And no food stands on Zwift. There are crowds cheering you on, but if you look not too closely you’ll notice it’s the same people, usually wearing the same outfits, doing the same waves. One woman even shows up multiple times in the same scenes. Weirdly, you start looking for her.

Time was running out. The idea of finishing by 10am and heading down to the shop with my wife at 10:20 (after a very much required shower) was not a reality. I started to worry this was going to be yet another attempt that didn’t quite make it to the top! Surprisingly, I was able to coax more out of my legs the last four miles than I had the rest of the way, spurred on by the dreaded fear of not making the time cut.

I did make it. With two miles to go I decided there really wasn’t a choice; I had to. I *think* the very top is a bit different on Zwift than in real life; a big flat area with a road that circles around it, which is kind of the Zwift way of doing things. Kind of like the real-life Barcelonette.

Because I was running late, it was just up the hill, all ascent, no change to race back down and accumulate some miles. This was all effort but very few miles. Did it feel like actually climbing 5000ft in the real world? Surprisingly, yes. I felt the effort for several hours, not something I’ve previously experienced on Zwift. Much of that might have been from the added 30 or so watts I pushed during the final part of the climb.

Will I do it again? Probably, but with a bit more time, and a bit more of a warm-up before hitting the climb. Will I ever be able to deliver as much power on Zwift as in the real world? Not likely. I did find I was doing better, or at least it felt a bit more real, if I allowed myself to rock side-to-side a bit. But overall I’m convincing myself I can’t let rain stop me from getting out in the real world.