PACTour Day 3/19 - By The Numbers

The morning layers are a process for sure.  Sunblock and lotion.  1 of 3 Chamois cremes.  Embrocation layer followed by leg oil.  At night Boudreaux's Butt Paste (Desitin plus a few cajun spices added for fun...)

Best sight of the day - Jerry back on his bike after yesterday's meeting with the tarmack.  Lon and crew got him a new handlebar and stem.  He likes their position better than his previous so far!!

Our morning peleton rolled out towards the Continental divide.  Jerry in the lead with Lon in tow and Will always smartly placed on a wheel.

Will and Jim at the first continental divide, just outside of Bozeman, mile 11 on the day.  The rest of the day would be downhill with a tailwind (sort of..)

You could fill an entire memory card with the scenery every day of the trip.

The prelunch peleton (again notice Will smartly placed.)

Screaming along a river towards lunch.  Minnesota may be then land of a thousand lakes, Montana must be know for rivers.  They are plentiful, beautiful and a treat to ride along.

After lunch we rolled with Lon and Susan.  Will knows what wheel to be on, natch.  John Newton rolled with us.  He has the same shoes as Will so it was a natural.

Today's easy 100 mile ride from Butte to Boseman.  Notice the high point at mile 11 at the Continental Divide, then the mostly downhill from there...

Ascent view of the ride

And Ascent view of the 10 minute run Will and Jim did following the ride.   I guess 100 mile ride isn't enough??

Jim and Will are riding Shimano tubeless wheelsets with Hutchinson tubeless tires.  Jim swears by them and won't ride anything else.  The are safer, more comfortable and faster than any other combination.

Would you ride 2000 miles in 2 1/2 weeks on this saddle?  The Fizik Arione K:1 seems to be working for Jim, somehow...

You may wonder how can Will stand to be away from home for 3 weeks?  Well besides the fact of being able to hand with his awesome dad 24/7 he can text and AIM his girlfriend, alot.

Today Will and Jim knocked out a cool 100 miles in 6 hours - 16.8 mph.   

You may wonder what a PAC Tour day is like, well wonder no longer.

First a Key:

D - Departure Time

R - Rest stop

L - Lunch

M - Motel

D - 1 hr. Alarm goes off.   Jim gets up and showers, gets Will in the shower.  They get sunblocked and dressed.

D - 30 min. Will goes to breakfast.  Jim gets coffee and packs up the room.  And puts on layers of lotions and potions.

D hour (say 7am)  Will and Jim move bikes and gear outside, pump tires, fill Gatorade

D + 20 min Jim and Will rollout (have you ever known Jim to start a bike ride on time?)

D +2 hr  R1  Snacks (generally fruit) and drink

D + 3.5 hr R2 Snacks, drink and reapply Chamois creme

D + 5.5 hr L Food, drink and reapply Sunblock

Sometimes a R3 in here, depending on distance of ride.

D + 8 M (3-4pm generally)

D + 9 bags dragged to room, bikes washed and stored in room, repairs made.

D + 10 Shower, massage, chill time

D + 11 Dinner (now around 6pm)

D + 14 Bed (9-10pm)

Other tasks include laundry (maybe every 3 days.)  Shaving legs (every 3 days.)  Getting things organized for the next day.  Blogging, etc.  As you see, unless you are a mutant who can ride 100 miles a day on 5 hours of sleep there is only 1-2 hours of free time before bed.

Today went well, we rode easy but made good time, so Will decided we would do a run afterwards.  We planned 20 minutes, but the legs only allowed 10 minutes.  That's fine, baby steps right?

Dinner tonight was at McDonalds as it was convenient (100 meters from our room) and lunch had been high quality (grilled chicken breasts on a tortilla with lettuce and Caesars dressing plus baked beans.)  Those of you who know Will know that he is "good" with money.  He taught dad that you can buy 2+ McChickens for the price of 1 "regular" chicken sandwich.  Needless to say dad and son filled up at McDonalds for $10 plus change.  Normally we spend twice that much...

Tomorrow is an "easy" 90 miles to West Yellowstone, MT.  The boys plan to ride hard tomorrow, then do a 20 minute run.  Will has massage scheduled post ride.  Hopefully we can find a swimming pool too.

Thanx for reading.

PACTour Day 2/19 - All You Need is Love

Beautiful, warm (mid 60ish) morning rolling out of Missoula this am.

Will looking happy on the rollout...

The World Famous Testicle Festival.  With Jim's current apocalyptic view of the current state of affairs on this planet, is it a wonder that they want to nuke us out of existence?!?!

We rolled a few miles of I-90 today.  Interstate on the left, train on the right.

The early morning peleton was sizeable.

Everything in order and in its place on PAC Tour.  At the rest and lunch stops you take off your gloves, wash your hands.

And then dry them before digging into food and drink.

Will was already looking a bit pekid a the first stop.

We rode from rest stop 1 to rest stop 2 with Jon Jahant, PAC Tour crewmember, masseus nonpareil.  Will suffering in the background...

  

Top of the 3 mile climb from lunch, heart shaped cut out of trees.  "All You Need is Love."

Over the top of the climb Will and Jerry.  Georgetown lake (at 6300 feet) to the left.  Poor Jerry would fall hard over a railroad crossing at the bottom of the descent.  He's OK and bike can be fixed.

Wes will be so proud to see Will "enjoying" his first ice bath.  100% recovery guaran-damn-teed.

Daily stats, Garmin Training Center Style.

Ascent software view of our ride.

Nice topographical course tracing.

Tough day for Will.  We rolled out OK, but after the first stop we had gradual false climbing for the next 50 miles.  Jon Jahant rode with us from Rest 1 to Rest 2, which lifted the pace a little for poor Will.  (Jon's dad, George, was supposed to be with us on the tour, but, tore his biceps tendons playing some silly SWAT team games...)  We rode alone from Rest 2 to Lunch (mile 80) now noticeably going uphill 1-3% for 20 miles into a headwind.

Will was cooked at lunch.  We tried to recover him with humor, food and drink, but it didn't work.  There is a 4-6% 3 mile climb 5 miles after lunch and Will was riding slow.  Over the top, however we started a long gradual downhill for 20 miles with a tailwind riding at 30-35mph with only an occaisional pedal stroke to keep the speed up.  Will was coming around until our friend Jerry stacked it over a nasty railroad crossing at the bottom.  Wonderful townspeople of Anaconda came to our aid and one older woman drove Jerry to the hospital and a nice man in a pickup truck took Jim, Will and the three bikes the 5 miles to the next Rest Stop so Jim could make the calls to alert Susan and Lon what had happened.

Will learned about cannibalization today from this.  When Jerry hit the ground a Nutter Butter snack fell from his pocket.  Will later ate this.  Jim had been nursing a slowly leaking rear tire (which needed replacement, not just a repair) so when they got to the rest stop Jim swapped wheels with Jerry's felled bike.  Hey he wouldn't be riding it, right?

Will recovered enough for the 30 mile ride to the Super 8 from the last stop.  He drank 2 servings of Hammer Nutrition Recoverite (strawberry flavor which apparently rocks.)  Jim then dumped him in a cold tub and added 20 pounds of ice for recovery.  He should have wings in the am for sure.

Will is listening to Steinbeck's East of Eden, which is his required summer reading while riding.   Jim has been listening to his "ultimate playlist."  Jim's apocalyptical attitude improved today listening to Queen's "Bicycle Race" (I don't want to be a candidate, for Viet Nam or Watergate,all I want to do is Bicycle! Bicycle!)   Rod Stewart's "Passion" pretty much sums up cycling enthusiasm.  Over the top of the climb today, just past the heart cut into the side of the mountainside, not really worried about Will, but trying to keep his spirits up and keep him going the Beatle's "All You Need is Love" came on.  

With a good attitude and love, anything is possible.  Thank you for reading.

PACTour Day 1/19 - Speedy B-Day

In the morning all the bags are thrown on the Motel Trailer.  I bag per rider, 40 pound limit, off to the nights hotel.  Water and Gatorade come from here in the am and pm.

We had a sizeable peleton rolling out of Kalispell. Will is riding 4th wheel.  It was chilly, around 55 degrees (trust me no complaining.)

Will deciding on what treat to eat at our first rest stop - mile 26.  There is a little bit of anything you could imagine wanting.  Powerbars, candy bars, crackers, chips, licorice, nuts, fruit, etc.

Our friend Marc, from Belgium.  He likes to drive the pace hard.

His fiance and our friend Cat.  You may recall that Cat came down to SA for the frigid January training camp.

Just before lunch we passed this beautiful cyclotourist.  Some how she showed up at lunch and ate lunch with our group.  The men didn't seem to mind as they seemed to be very interested in her.  (Not Jim, natch.)

Will and Jim at the picturesque lunch stop.  Their noggins are blocking the snowcaps across the lake.

After lunch Marc and Cat have taken off their outer layers of clothing, as a Belgium and Swede will do.  The Texan in the background (Will) has removed his vest, but still has his arm warmers, knee warmers, and gloves on. 

We rode by beautiful lakes, rivers and streams all day.

The afternoon peleton was quite reduced.

Probably because we averaged nearly 20 mph.

Ascent software perspective of todays ride.

This years Ridge of the Rockies T-shirt.  Each day's rides listed on the back - like a concert tour!!

At the end of the day you recollect all of the clothing you have shed during the day at the various stops.  Here is our friend Jerry Sorenson looking for his stuff.

The evening white board tells you all you need to know.  Most important is what time is breakfast so you know what time you have to get up!!  We have another long day tomorrow - 140 miles with a little more climbing than today so we have to get up at 5:30 again for 6:00 breakfast.

Great day.  Will and Jim rode with our friends Marc Leuckx and Cat Berge all day.  Marc and Cat never missed a pull, Jim participated about 1/2 the time and Will found being at the back behind the rotation most comfortable for him.  No sustained climbing today and we kept the heart rate down for the most part.  Susan surprised Jim at lunch with a Birthday cake and the obligatory rendition of Happy Birthday.  Jim seemed bothered by this, but you know he enjoyed the attention...

The stats were pretty impressive (particularly for Will who has a total of 120 miles of riding in his legs this year...)  148 miles, 7:40 ride time, 9:10 total time, 19.3mph, 4800' climbing, 12,000 calories burned for Jim.  That should work off part of the birthday cake.

Will did amazing.  Only on a couple of the short climbs did he get a little winded and after lunch we went a little hard and his quads hurt a little - a few Endurolyte caps at the next rest stop fixed that.  Jaime is worried that this will burn Will out early for the week, time will tell.  Will did throw out a classic Turk line "I can't ride this fast.  I can't ride 20 mph - when we were about 120 miles into the ride..."

Jim and Will plan to run for 30 minutes after each ride, they skipped today to see how the bodies respond/recover from the first big effort.  Will did get a massage which he enjoyed and should help his recovery and performance.

Tonight we overnight in Missoula, apparently Missoula is felt to be the Austin of 20 years ago.  I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing, or whether that predicts good or bad things for Missoula 20 years from now - that is for the reader to decide.

The next 2 days are cool in that we do the exact rides that the family did last year.  Tomorrow is Missoula to Butte (home of Levi) and the Butte to Bozeman.  Hopefully tomorrow's ride won't start exactly like last years, when Jim and JW got pulled over be a state trooper 50 feet from the motel for running a red light...

Thanx for reading!!

PACTour Staging Day - And then there were 2

What makes PAC Tour work is consistency.  Same Motel Van/Trailer.

Same Lunch Van/Trailer.

Will chills w/ Nintendo DS in the motel.

PAC Tour CueSheet and Map.  Perfect as always.

Attached to the handle bar using the Lon Haldeman crafted original chipclip w/ velcro fastener.

Tomorrows ride (Day 1 Kalispell to Missoula) is one of the longest days, nearly 150 miles of riding.   Makes you wonder if you would choose Poison over Missoula?

Terri and JW wimped out of PAC Tour this year.  Recall that last year Jim told JW that PAC Tour would be the hardest thing he ever did in his life, to which JW commented "Good, I'm glad I'm getting it out of the way early."  Terri had no interest in riding again yet, she says she will do another transcontinental when the boys graduate from college.

Will and Jim flew into Kalispell yesterday.  The day started off on the wrong note when Jim couldn't find his wallet before the 6:30am flight.  Finally we gave up and the Turk scrounged a couple of hundred dollars (at least 40 $1 bills) for pocket cash and Jim's passport so that he could get on the plane.  Jim and Turk retraced all of their steps the night before and couldn't find the wallet which sucked.  

For some reason, the gods were smiling and when Jim unpacked his bag in Montana the wallet was right on top with his shaving kit which he had thrown in last!!  Needless to say everyone was relieved, even if Turk has no spending money for a few weeks.

Kalispell is basically in Glacier National park and Will and Jim were planning to drive (with their new friend Joel Goodman) into the park and up the Road to The Sun, but the rental cars are only at the airport.  Kalispell is similar to many small towns and there is only one taxi/shuttle service which answers the phone when they need business.  Apparently they didn't need business today so they couldn't get to the airport to pick up their vehicle.

So Jim and Will went to see the Dark Knight (marginal movie in Jim's opinion.)  The movie theater was 3 miles from the motel, so Jim had the bright idea that they should hitchhike.  Will had never hitched before and was impressed when they got a ride!!  They also hitched home and were sat in the bed of a pickup truck, with the chained Pit Bull.  The driver and his accomplice were drinking tall boys, naturally.  Jim and Will decided that the best place to hitch hike is next to a red light!!

The ride starts tomorrow (Jim's 45th B-day.)  150 miles from Kalispell, MT to Missoula MT.  Nearly 2000 miles in 19 days of spectacular roads and scenery back and forth across the continental divide.  No corn and soybean this year (darn.)

PACTour Training Camp

With Jim and Will getting to go out of town for 2 1/2 weeks to ride the Ridge of the Rockies Jim and Terri went out to dinner the night before the obligatory, preparatory, training camp.

They made it "Date Nite" including Will and JW with their girlfriend/bff Andrea/Chelsea.  Terri and Jim probably enjoyed the concept of "Date Nite" more than the teenagers who were told it was happening, not asked....

6:30 ride start time (Nate and Matt made sure we started 15 minutes late, natch.)  JW looks awake and thrilled to be there...

Midway up Blanco Road Park and Foxy drilling the pace for the group.

Matt was concerned about the number of riders who showed - 13.  That happens to be Jim's favorite number, so all good.

Natedog and Turk.  The only time Turk was seen smiling all day??

Will and Jim looking hot and happy at their last water stop, the GVTC building on Upper Smithson Valley road.

Jun was doing well on the ride, and found a position of comfort to recover in during the water stop....

Will's Garmin tells the tale of the day.  100+ miles.  6 hours.  5000' climbing.   Hot and humid.  Perfect training for next week's PAC Tour Ridge of the Rockies.

Another way to look at the route and data using Ascent software on the Macintosh.

And another Ascent view of the ride map and profile.

Since Will is nearing college age, our 1 day training camp for the PAC Tour Ridge of the Rockies seemed appropriate.  21 straight days of work for Jim this month, soccer camps, girlfriends and vacations didn't leave time for a longer camp.   Hey, the boys will be pulling all nighters and cramming for exams in college and we all know how effective that type of preparation is...

We rolled from Bicycle-Heaven at 0645 Saturday am with loose plans to ride 200k.  Several riders needed to finish the ride earlier than others, so the route was planned but left dynamic.  We rolled with 13 riders - the 4 Slauson's, B-H reps Matt and Foxy, B-H team riders Phillips, Ayers and Bentley, Jenny and Park, and special guests Dan Lazarine and Jun Longhurst.

We rolled up Blanco Road over 46 past Edge Falls (bone dry despite the recent rain.)  Stopped in Kendalia to eat (Will had 2 breakfast tacos) and refill fluids.  From there Jim planned to head towards 281 then drop down Rittiman to keep as many riders together as long as possible, Nathan suggest continuing with the original plan and head up to Blanco on Crabapple.  Good move as we might have bailed earlier on the ride if we headed back toward B-H with the riders going shorter.  Plus the Crabapple, Trainer Wuest, 102 rodes are some of the coolest roads to ride around.

Jun, Dan, Jim, Will, Nathan, Bentley, Jenny and Jeff continued on and ended up with a little over 100 miles at a pace slightly faster than Brevet pace, but lower than the pace that would have been attempted if a few certain someones had decided to show for the ride.  The riders who headed back from Kendalia ended up with a highly respectable 70+ miles.  We were all exhausted after the ride so musta been a good one.  Jun bailed on the longer ride a little earlier as we unfortunately rode fairly near his house at about mile 80 so he quietly slipped out of the group there.....

Check the blog daily over the next 2 1/2 weeks and follow Jim and Will on their PACTour adventure which starts in Kalispell, Montana this coming Tuesday 7/29 (Jim's b-day coincidentally - what better present for a father than to start a ride across the country!?!?)

Oh, and any morale support will be appreciated.

Brevet Riding - The best bike riding?

Garmin Training Center perspective of the Brevet.

Ascent software view of the brevet.

Ascent gives you alot of ways to look at your ride data collected by the Garmin 705.  Jim bailed on the last third of a ride - you can see the loss of heart rate and cadence data for the last third.

Another look at the route we did.  Started and ended at the top.  Jim did the First part (yellow track) then left the other 3 to finish the ride (in red.)

Brevet riding is possibly the ideal cycling approach.  It is a race, albeit mostly a personal race.  You have a specific route and ride and a maximum amount of time to complete it in.  The results are listed alphabetically, not in finishing time order.  It is challenging physicially, like all cycling.   It is challenging mentally in that you have to navigate a route and have your brevet card signed at various stops on the way (and also not lose your brevet card...)  You can ride it solo or you can ride it in a group.  Brevets arguably give you the best possible combination of options to choose in approaching and riding the event.

Bicycle-Heaven Racing Team sponsor Richard Perez came up with the plan to ride this 200k brevet last weekend and Jaime and Jim agreed.  The logistics included camping out at Jaime's the night before (Jim worked until 2am the night before the brevet and had to be at work at 4pm the day of.)  RP and Jaime actually got a real nights sleep, Jim got 2 hours.  Touching bases that evening Jim was not surprised to learn that RP and Jaime were drinking beer getting ready.  Jim secretly hoped that they might overdo it a little and come down with a bit of "Brown Bottle Flu" the next morning so Jim didn't have to get up after 2 hours sleep.

Unfortunately, Jaime and RP got up so at 4:30am we headed up to Austin from New Branufels.  We rolled into the neighborhood where the ride started at 5:45, and were a little concerned as we were the only car/riders there!!  We met the ride leader Wayne (the ride started and ended at his house, and he was the only other rider so we had 4 for the brevet.)  After putting on lights and waiting for Jim to get his crap all together we rolled at around 6:15

Wayne, the ride organizer, provided our map.

And cue sheet. Wayne heads up the sponsoring club, Hill Country Randonneurs.

We headed east and south to cross over 35 towards our first control at Lytton Springs.  You stop at a control to get your brevet card signed to verify that you did the course.  It is customary (plus polite and convenient) to buy some food and drink at the control points.  We had stopped earlier at a Starbucks since no one had had their morning coffee.  The other three sucked down their Latte's, Jim's hot coffee was still 3/4 full when we rolled our so he rode the next 5 miles or so finishing it.  You get the idea the brevet cycling is often at a sensible, conversational pace.

After we went thru Lockhart we lifted the pace and did a 4 man rotation heading towards San Marcos, the site of the next control.  Jim left the group in San Marcos and drove the car we left there home as he needed at least another hour or two of sleep before work at 4pm!!  Conveniently Jim missed the majority of climbing as the route headed back towards Austin.  RP suffered and tried to bail, but the fellowship of brevet riders would not allow this so Wayne, Jaime and RP all completed the 200k.

There was talk on the ride of doing PBP in 2011.....

For more info on brevets check out our national brevet governing body. Randonneurs USA.

Longmont/Boulder CO. Cervelo Style

                                                                              

Hola my friends.  I have enjoyed a rare week out of the shop and a visit with our Canadian friends at Cervelo.  Got a chance to ride some nice bikes.  1.5 hours on a P3 carbon.  1.5 hours on a Soloist Carbon SL and a 4 hour 3 climb ride on a the R3Sl the stiffest, lightest, most comfortable bike I have ridden.  Here are a few images from the week.  

A well deserved post ride meal.  Pizza and a Chimay red after 4 hours in the mountains.  I could barely wait for the pizza to hit the table.  

     A photo for Rob aka "the father".  He loves dirt or unpaved roads.  In the city of Jamestown I was caught by a Vitamin Cottage rider and asked him which way I should go given I was wanting 3 more hours after the first climb.  The temp was hot for the locals, but the San Antonio riding had me feeling o.k.   He gave me a nice route which included about 3 miles of dirt.  Note the snow caps in the distance.

      This was the scenic overlook from the high point of the ride.  Continental Divide is down there somewhere.  I later stacked it up in a hairpin.  I was able to slow it down to under 10 before I went yard sale....good thing as I was at almost 50mph about 10 seconds before.  I may have R.P. give me some downhill pointers later.                                                   
                                    Choices.... what to do?????

 I continued on through Jamestown, past peak to peak and back around through Ward. I finally got my legs back on the decent into Longmont.  Normally 10.5 miles does not seem like a long way.   It was clear who the locals were, as I got passed by men, women and children on this 4 hour trip.  

        Thanks for checking the blog and see on the shop ride on Saturday.