Michael.-@CH2M.com
Susan,
Good job on completing an awesome and challenging race. Team Bag Balm
and all the teams did awesome this year - despite the weather. The solo
riders, well, they weren't quite as lucky.
Though I skipped RAO this year, I have ridden the past two years as a
2-man relay team and as part of a 5-person team 3 years ago.
Anyone who does this race Solo (how about solo fixed-gear!!) deserves
some recognition and kudos!! Those last 10 miles (TS 5 to Timberline)
are a killer.
So .. .. .. MAJOR kudos to JOHN SPURGEON from Hillsboro. He rode 532
miles - SOLO, FIXED GEAR - only to DNF due to FATIGUE at the corner of
Timberline Road & HWY 26 around 4 AM on MONDAY. He rode for nearly 48
hours!!!
John - You've got some guts! Good Job!!
Hope to see you, as well as many other OBRAites, out there for RAO 2006!
Michael
(2-Person Team, Thunder & Lightening)
-----Original Message-----
From: Susan Otcenas [mailto:sus-@teamestrogen.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 07, 2005 8:13 PM
To: ob-@topica.com
Subject: [OBRA Chat] Race Across Oregon - long
Race Across Oregon took place this past weekend.
http://www.raceacrossoregon.com/info_index.html I was the crew chief
for a
4-person team dubbed Team Bag Balm. Team Bag Balm was a mixed team
consisting of two men (Scott & Richard) and two women (Linda & Laura),
along
with 5 crew members (me, Kyle, Jeff, Jay & Michael). What follows is an
account of the race from my perspective. I hope you enjoy reading.
________________________________________
Saturday, 3:30 am. The alarm won't go off until 5:00am but I'm already
awake. I'm trying to will myself back to sleep, but everything that
needs
to be done pre-race is swirling through my head.
Saturday 4:45 a.m. Well, sleep seems pointless now, may as well get up
and
shower.
Saturday 6:00am Leave the house. Gas up the RV we rented as our "lead"
vehicle, which will carry the riders. Gas up my Nissan pickup truck,
which
will be the "pace" car, following the active rider for the entire 538
miles.
My 2-seater Nissan is a last minute substitution for Scott's Subaru,
which
had mechanical issues on Thursday night. The Nissan is small and the
gear
needed by the pace crew (food, drink, medical supplies, maps, etc.)
barely
fits. They will be unable to recline the passenger seat to sleep. Stop
at
Starbucks. On the road to the Holiday in at PDX.
Saturday 7:00am We arrive in time to cheer for Ken Morton, the lead-out
rider for the Candy Ass Llamas. The 2-person teams leave at 7:00 am
(the
soloists left in the dark at 5:00 am). Now we have two hours left to
out
9am race time. We put the signage on the vehicles (numbers, "bike race
ahead" signs, the Team Bag Balm Banner).
Saturday 7:30 am The riders arrive and begin stowing their gear in the
RV
and loading bikes.
Saturday 9:00am Scott, our lead-out rider, departs along with the other
4-person teams. The weather is sunny and cool, and we're all excited.
Scott
will ride the first 20 miles. No exchanges of riders is allowed during
that
mileage. The crew vehicles must all move en masse to the 20 mile
location,
at which point exchanges may begin. During those 20 miles, the riders
will
be followed by a neutral support vehicle carrying wheels (for flats).
Race Start to Time Station 1 (Maupin): The first part of the race takes
the
racers all the way up Highway 26. The climb is at a steady grade of 6%.
All
of the Team Bag Balm racers are climbing well. Our strategy for the
race is
to have each rider out on the course for approximately 30 minutes at a
time.
So all of the riders get a piece of the climb. The views of Mt Hood are
incredible. The morning is clear and the mountain still has a lot of
snow
on it. Laura gets the leg over Bennett Pass and waaaaaaay down the
other
side. I think she enjoyed the descent!
We arrive at time station 1 in Maupin at 3:57 pm, having covered 120
miles
in 7 hours for an average speed of 17.14mph. This is impressive, given
the
amount of climbing in the 1st 120 miles. We are 14 minutes behind Team
Head
Hunters, which is our only competition in the 4-person mixed team (they
have
3 men and 1 woman on the team).
Time Station 1 (Maupin) to Time Station 2 (Fossil): Heading out of Time
Station 1, we make a hard left onto Bake Oven Road. A few weeks ago
when we
pre-road this course, Richard was the lucky winner on this climb. Today
it's Linda. The sun is out and the climb is long and hard. The 1st
four
miles are the toughest and Linda guts it out in the heat. Then the road
climbs more gently before finally reaching the top of Bake Oven Summit
at
3516 feet. Laura has some cramps at ~mile 150 and we have to pull her
off
the road early. Must get her to eat more food.
The descent into Antelope is a screamer. During our pre-ride, Richard
passed a minivan while tucked in on his aerobars. Today, Laura gets
this
descent - no passing of minivans permitted! Somewhere between Antelop
and
Fossil, we reel in our 1st solo rider, Cadet Bryant. Catching him this
early, I know he will be a DNF for sure.
At 7 pm we begin "actively" following our rider. What this means is
that
the pace car must closely follow the rider, such that the rider is
always in
the headlights of the pace vehicle. Up until this point, the pace car
would
pull over, watch the rider go down the road a 1/4 mile or so, then move
up
the road again, pull over, etc, which is called leapfrog support. At
7pm
that all changes. This is where the race becomes very intense for the
pace
car drivers. They (Jeff & Michael) must stay close enough to the rider
to
keep him/her in the headlights, yet simultaneously manage to not run
over
said rider. This will be tricky in the pitch black night when a rider
is
descending a hill at 30 miles per hour. This also means that if the
crew
needs a "biology break", or needs to swap drivers due to fatigue, the
rider
MUST stop. Rules are rules. It is our understanding that some teams
give
their pace car riders pee bottles, but ya know, we just ain't that hard
core.
We reach the time station in Fossil at 8:18pm. The Head Hunters have a
solid 30 minute lead on us now. 3 gals in a white minivan supporting
another rider ask to use the RV's bathroom. We joke about charging them
$5
apiece to offset the RV rental fees.
We've covered 191 miles in 11hrs 18 minutes - average speed of 16.9
miles so
far.
Time Station 2 (Fossil) to Time Station 3 (Long Creek)
Linda is on the bike and does the first part of the climb out of Fossil.
Scott finishes the climb to Butte Creek Summit and gets to scream down
the
10-mile descent into Service Creek. We do an exchange at the bottom and
Richard takes over. The crew hops into the store at Service Creek -
they
had just closed but let us come in for drinks - I buy some iced coffee.
It's
8:30 pm, its dang near dark, and I sense a long night ahead.
Darkness falls and now is when the race egins to feel a little surreal
to
me. The riders are getting tired. The crew is getting tired. During
daylight, everyone had been pretty boisterous. Sitting up, chatting,
cheering each other on a lot. Now, the RV has gotten very quiet.
Riders
are coming in from their legs, getting some food, and stretching out on
the
bed in the back of the darkened RV. Up front, we turn off the CD player
and
chat quietly. Our RV drivers are Kyle a friend of mine from Gig Harbor,
and
Jay, a friend of Richard with whom he works at HP. Both have generously
given of their time to support a team of riders that they hardly know.
As
it gets later and we get more tired, I wonder if they are still having
fun.
Now that it's dark, we begin catching solo riders more frequently.
These
roads out here are deserted and we can see along way up and down some of
these roads and climbs. All of the pace vehicles are required to have
flashing yellow lights on their roofs, so the teams are easy to spot in
the
total darkness of Central Oregon. As we pass riders, we peer at the
vehicles to read their team number off the side of the car. It's our
way of
keeping tabs on the progress of the race. All the riders we'e been
catching
so far are rookies.
We reach Time Station 3 in Long Creek at 1:01 am. After 16 hours on the
road, we have covered 270 miles. Average speed so far is about 16.9
mph.
The Head Hunters are 54 minutes ahead of us.
Time Station 3 (Long Creek) to Time Station 4 (Prineville).
We get our first Llama sighting sometime after leaving Long Creek. We
see
Ken at the top of a summit, ready to descend with music going strong
from
the top of his pace car. We cheer for him during one of our exchanges.
We
see the llamas off and on for a while. In fact, we dang near kill a
llama
during one of our exchanges. Laura was finishing and Linda was taking
over.
Candy Ass Lisa was descending directly behind and during the transition
attempted to go around our pace vehicle. Unfortunately, our pace driver
didn't know she was so close behind him and when he pulled out a little
to
left it looked like he nearly caused her to run right into the back of
our
pace vehicle. At least, this is what is all looked like from my perch
in
the passenger seat of the RV. And it freaked me out. It freaked out
our
pace car driver (Jeff) too. After everyone piled back in to the RV, we
had
a pow wow on exchanges. We decided to slow them down during the
darkness
hours. Up to this point, our finishing rider would come barreling up to
the
RV, while our starting rider would start cranking up the speed. The two
would cross wheels and the new rider would take off. High speed
exchanges
mean little time lost. But given the conditions - dark (and did I
mention
it's raining now too??) - and our increasing tiredness, we decide that
the
safest thing to do is slow it down. Get the finishing rider to stop at
the
RV and the starting rider to take off slowly. We can resume out
previous
method after the sun comes up. Unsafe riders are dead riders and we
want to
bring home everyone in one piece.
The night wears on. I make a lot of hot soup and oatmeal for the
riders. I
make sure Laura eats. Laura doesn't like to eat. Linda & Scott are
having
some vague intestinal issues as well and food is starting to become
unappealing. But everyone knows that calories are critical to finishing
the
race. Richard, on the other hand, has a stomach of iron. It seems he
can
eat anything. He will eat most of a 1/2 pound of sliced salami before
the
trip is over.
By 4:15 am, I'm getting tired. I've been awake for 25 hours. While
everyone else has gotten some sleep (Kyle & Jay in the bunk over the
driver,
the riders in the bed at the back of the RV and Jeff & Michale in the
passenger seat of the pace car) I've been awake continually. This is a
situation of my own making. I'd planned on getting none. But after my
back
seizes up at 4:15, I decide to lay down. I leave Kyle & Jay in charge,
and
climb up in to the bunk. Of course, I can't sleep. I listen to Jay &
Kyle
talk. Linda finishes a leg and comes back in. She makes a comment
about me
finally going to sleep - I comment that I'm just laying down. I do
manage
to snooze for 20 minutes, but then I'm up again for good. There will be
nomore sleep for me.
I can't recall where we are when the sun comes up. Somewhere around
Mitchell, I think. Sometime in those first hours of daylight, we pass a
solo rider sitting in the rain in the bushes at the side of the road.
His
pace car is stopped and a memer of his crew is holding a plastic sheet
around him. He looks like hell. Tired, and in some distress. We pull
the
RV over to the side of the road and I jump out to ask him if he would
like a
cup of hot cocoa. He just looks at me and nods. I raced back to the RV
and
made him a huge cup with extra cocoa. We leave him sitting in the
passenger
seat of his pace car. I hope he finishes, but I have my doubts. AN
hour or
so later, we see him back on his bike again. He's sitting up riding no
hands. We all lean out the windows of the RV and cheer for him, telling
him
to hang in there, he's looking great. He smiles and we leave him. We
don't
see him again.
At around 6 or 7 am, I start brewing coffee. Having the RV has been
awesome. Besides the microwave, which has been allowed us to make hot
water for cocoa, soup and oatmeal, it has plenty of electrical outlets
for
charging batteries and making coffee in the coffee pot I brought along.
It
also has a refrigerator, so we have not had to rely on coolers. The
coffee
drinkers (me, Scott, Linda & Jay) are loving the Costa Rican blend I
bought.
We arrive at time station 4 in Prineville at 9:34 a.m. We have covered
406.5 miles in 24.5 hours. Average speed of 16.6 mph. Jay & Kyle get
Taco
Time for breakfast at the gas station. Shockingly, we are told that
Team
Head Hunters has NOT checked in at this time station yet. We can't
believe
that we could have passed them in the middle of the night without
noticing.
Our working theory is that they skipped the time station. We wonder why
they would do that, and what the time penalty will be.
Time Station 4 (Prineville ) to Time Station 5 (Chevron Gas Station, Hwy
26,
base of Mt. Hood)
After the sun came up, the rain pretty much stopped. We even got some
sun
for this section. The course flattens out a bit. We go through Madras
and
pass Smith Rocks. I make my first finishing-time estimate of 7:30 pm,
which
I eventually revise to 6:30 pm. Richard & Linda call their families to
let
them know what time to arrive. In Warm Springs we take the right turn on
rt
3 towards Ka-Nee-Ta. The winds begin to pick up. Lots and lots of
wind.
That would be a headwind, for the most part, with some really vicious
cross-winds thrown in for good measure. The riders climbed a loooong
pass
into the teeth of a headwind that felt like it would knock me over
standing
outside the RV. Laura started it, with Linda and then Scott fighting
against the wind. We pass 2 more solo riders on this climb. We get
down on
our knees and and bow, saying "we're not worthy, we're not worthy". It
really put some smiles on the faces of a couple of very tired cyclists!
It's around this time that we crew made two very bad mistakes. We
received
a radio call from the pace vehicle that Richard had pulled over. His
skewer
was not properly tightened on his front wheel. Two exchanges later,
Linda's
front brake was not closed. This was frightening stuff for all of us.
Fatigue makes us careless and we are concerned that we are making
mistakes
that can get someone seriously hurt.
The biggest challenge on this entire section, for ME as the crew chief,
was
keeping everyone eating. Stomachs were becoming finicky. Laura could
barely force any food into herself. I practically force fed her. A few
crackers here, a banana there. A pop tart (hey, it was the only thing
she
would agree to at one point :) Two packets of GU before each leg. I
made
lots of sandwiches for the riders who could stomach them.
Finally, we begin the long climb towards time station 5. We roll ever
upwards through the pine forests, and the rain begins to come down hard
again. Earlier in the day we heard that it was foggy and misty up at
Timberline, and we begin to worry about snow. Jay, Kyle & I discuss our
strategy for the final 6 mile climb up to Timberline. All along, we
have
planned to change riders every mile on the climb. It's VERY steep and
we
want to get up there as quickly as possible. Having taken the bikes on
and
off the draftmaster more than 60 times already, we know that it will
take
too much time to do that with one mile pulls. We decide to fully
assemble
all the bikes at Time Station5. Bodies and bikes will go inside the RV
(with 1 bike in the bed of the pick-up, due to space constraints. We
will
then just pull riders and bikes in and out more quickly during this
final
phase.
We reach Time Station 5 at 5:19 pm. Just 10 more miles to go, all
uphill!
We've covered 529 miles in 32 hrs and 19 minutes. Avg Spd of 16.36 mph.
Time Station 5 to Finish.
Everything goes smoothly in the last 10 miles. We get everyone smoothly
in
and out of the RV for their pulls up the steep climb. I can't imagine
the
burn in their legs at this point. Scott does one pull where two large
deer
jump out into the road in front of him. He doesn't miss a stroke. 0.6
miles before the finish, we let all of the riders out of the vehicle so
that
they can cross the finish line together. We crew members zoom up ahead
so
we can cheer for them as they cross the finish line. The race
organizers
are waiting and cheering them on as well.
Final official finishing time is 6:23 pm, 33 hours and 23 minutes after
leaving Portland. They finished with an average mph of almost exactly
16
mph.
Standing at the finish line, I felt the world shift beneath my feet.
Now
that is was all over, I felt like I was going to fall over. Scott
mentioned
that he felt dizzy too. On our way down the mountain after the ride, we
saw
the 2nd and 3rd place solo riders finishing. We stopped the RV and hung
out
the windows, cheering for them to keep going. I can't imagine how deep
these men must have been digging to find the strength to make that final
climb.
-------------------------
Scott, Richard, Linda & Laura are 4 amazing people. Never once did
anyone
say they didn't think they could do it. Everyone maintained a positive
attitude. During the planning stages of this ride, we discussed what we
all
hoped to get out of this ride. While everyone wanted to be competitive
and
do their best, I think all of us had the over-riding goal of coming out
of
this better friends than we went in. Mission accomplished.
Susan
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