Better stoker pix

Tuesday, 29 July

Here are a couple more stoker photos by a better photographer, Jo Wienert, who was on the second-place bike in the B category.

I swear this image is photoshopped. We're going around turn 1, and I was sure that we were in the inside gutter every lap as we approached this turn. This looks like we're in the next county--which would almost be possible on that course! See how many times you can pick out the word Co-Motion in this picture. :)

Here's another photo of the beautiful King Estate Winery. In case you're just desperate to do a race that starts and finishes there but don't have a tandem, you're in luck: the Eugene Celebration and Willamette stage races (September and April) both have stages there.

More stoker photos

Monday, 28 July

Let's see if blogger can do this:

A little chatting early on.

Pacelining.

Oops! This is how most of my on-the-bike photos turn out!

I think he was getting tired of me trying to take pictures of riders behind me. But this is the only one of that batch to turn out! Note that the son is captaining this bike and the father is stoking.

How many years before this father and son duo swap spots on the tandem?

Hill-less was a hoot!

Monday, 28 July

I was initially disappointed when the road race at the Co-Motion tandem stage race was substantially revised for 2008 and the big hill (the Wolf Creek climb) was removed. Then I realized that also removed the nail-biting descent. :) The alternative route selected was two laps of a weekly "training ride" (unsanctioned race would be a more apt description). Each lap featured Sprinters Hill (500m?) and Welders Hill (1K?) and a couple of draggy roller things. But not long after Welders Hill at the end of lap 2, we turned off the circuit and back to the King Estate Winery, which meant a pretty hard climb on the Lorane Highway and then a 1K ascent to the finish line. It turned out to be a ton of fun.

Our "A" category started first (and rode farthest). We were neutral going down that hill on the Lorane Highway because of some bad pavement, and just a few miles after we started racing, one of the bikes broke a spoke. So while they got a wheel change, the rest of us (well, the men, anyway) had a pee stop and then we were off and racing. The pace was fast but not furious all the time, and it was great to be in a group of just tandems.

At the end of lap one, the big guys wound it up and showed us how they can put out 1200 watts and go ripping down the road. They did this again, but didn't get too far either time. Another male/male bike pushed the pace the second time up Sprinters Hill, but things came back together. People were getting tired by Welders, and then the race split for good on the Lorane climb. The gaps established there were pretty much held all the way to the finish. The Canadians proved not to climb as well as they sprint, and they only beat us by 2 seconds at the finish line, and only 29 seconds in the overall GC. We were second overall and first mixed tandem.

I had some moments of concern halfway through the second lap when my legs felt absolutely dead on one of the hills. It felt like we had a flat, which we did not, and it was really hard to climb. But then on the bigger climb, my captain rode straight through the field to the front and set tempo all the way up. And my legs were fine. All I can figure is that on the earlier hill, I was working harder than he was. I was probably back there with my head down, figuring it was a hill and I need to go all out, while he was watching the group and keeping us in a steady position that turned out not to require as much effort as I thought. It was a pleasant surprise to discover I had more left than I thought!

I have long maintained that racing tandem is so much fun that perceived effort is less than actual effort, and yesterday was a day to prove it. It was great to be absolutely spent at the finish line (those two hills do that to you), and then to sit around at such a great venue for postrace conversation and awards. Thanks to everyone at and connected to Co-Motion for putting on such a great race for us!

And I even got my slice of apple pie on the way out of town. :)

Naysayers

Saturday, 26 July

For all you naysayers who think a tandem crit is just too far outside the realm of bicycle racing possibility, here's proof that they do happen. See, everybody lines up just like at any other crit. They don't call GC leaders forward at this stage race, though. Might be too hard to get a tandem and two riders through the pack up to the front?

And then they're off, and they go around corners like at any other crit. These pictures are the B crit here at the Co-Motion stage race. In the A crit, which I saw from the inside and thus no pictures, we had a few moments of excitement. "The big guys" (two Canadian men; the stoker is blind--they're the only team of two males who aren't father/son) clipped a pedal in turn 1 early in the race, and that sort of put a damper on everyone's tight cornering habits for a while. Maybe 15 laps into the race, the big guys launched an attack, and the stellar sprinter team of Gann/Gann (father/son) from Medford or Ashland or somewhere else Down South) jumped to go after them--and snapped their chain. The captain's foot went flying off his pedal, and the chain was looping around into space, but they kept the bike up. We saw Gann junior fishing part of the chain out of a tree later during the race. And then about 75 meters from the finish line, the big guys blew a tire. Nobody could tell who had flatted and there was just that briefest hesitation which put a might big hiccup in the sprint.

So, although I had a few laps of hating life early in the 35-lap (!!) crit, I survived. The TT this morning was much more fun. No one agrees on how long it is. I think it's advertised as 10K, but the mile markers along the way indicate it's about 7 miles. Our time was 3 seconds faster this year, and the only team that beat us was the big guys.

Tomorrow is the road race. No Wolf Creek climb (or descent!) this year due to road construction, so we do two laps of "the Thursday nighter." A couple of sorta hills per lap, and a 1K climb to the King Estate winery at the finish.

Sweetness

Friday, 25 July

No racing to report yet (that starts at 10:03 tomorrow), but lots of Sweet Life. This is about 5% of their display case. I was jonesing for some apple pie, but they were out.

So I had this instead. Completely vegan. And gone in a hurry. :)

Gustav

Thursday, 24 July

Meet Gustav. He's the guardian owl of my garden. He has done a spectacular job this year of keeping away the tiny little birds that love to feed on my crops. His head bobbles and swivels 360 degrees, so sometimes he looks like he needs an exorcism, but that's all part of what makes him look scary. I used to use a big net over the berry bushes, but the little birds would hop along the ground, get under the edge of the net, fly up into the bushes, and then not be able to get out. I felt bad for them. Gustav is much better. But I feel bad that he spends all winter in the shed with his head on the shelf next to him. I'm pretty sure he's a muggle owl, so he can't get a seasonal job delivering mail to students at Hogwarts.

Here's what Gustav is defending. Mmmmm. A big batch of raspberry jam is next on my agenda.

Here's the critter in my garden with the DNA to be a hunter, but he does a much better job of watching the lavender grow and picking up dirt off the patio with his fur, only to deposit it somewhere indoors at the first opportunity.

And you thought this was a tandem and cycling blog? Hold your horses, I'm off to a tandem stage race--road race, time trial, crit, and all. I'll try to post something about the actual race and not just the delightful repasts that await us!

While you wait for a tandem report, pick a number between -15 and +15 and join the pool for how much weight PruDog will gain or lose on his vacation! Read the comments for this entry. You can also go read David Longdon's report on what he considers the most fun he's ever had on two wheels (warning: some of you will think he's crazy!).

Perilous times

Wednesday, 23 July

My opportunities to go for real bike rides these days are so few and far between that when I get one, it's more useful as a stress reliever than as part of any focused training regimen. So I was excited, more or less, to head out for a couple hours this afternoon and chase some demons out of my brain. Turns out I just exchanged those stressful demons for the stress of some extremely close near-misses.

I was heading north on Juanita Drive, flying down the hill to the stop light at Simmonds. Literally out of the blue (well, maybe grey--it was still cloudy), a golf ball falls out of the sky and bounces off the pavement less than 6 feet in front of me. Mind you, I'm going 31 mph (the radar told me so), and that little white orb is probably going even faster. I instinctively cringed and ducked as much as you can on a bike because I had no idea which direction the ball would bounce. I never saw it again, but I had to wonder what good ANSI and SNELL certification does against errant golf balls from the Inglewood golf course.

I continue on my way home, much relieved to NOT have the headache a golf ball might have induced, even with a helmet on. I'm rolling up to a stoplight when a kid on a BMX bike comes flying out of a blind driveway without even looking up. I had enough time to wonder if he was going to crash into my front wheel or my right leg, but I was surely going to get t-boned one way or another. He was apparently practicing his right hook slides, because about 6 inches from my front wheel, he pulled hard right (he still hadn't seen me). I was proud of myself for not swearing at him, but I sure yelled a lot.

A block past that stoplight I was rolling up to, I came onto what appeared to be a 3-car accident. I must have missed it by less than 60 seconds. There were a lot of stunned-looking people standing around, and neighbors were just starting to come out of their houses. Traffic hadn't even started to back up, although one car was stopped in the middle of the street and another was diagonal in the intersection.

Is it a full moon? Is someone doing a bad job of trying to kill me? Is it safe to go out in my backyard and pick raspberries?

Wild times

Monday, 21 July

Yesterday was one of those beautiful, leisurely summer rides that you store away in your memory for when the weather isn't as beautiful or the riding as leisurely (it might be harder in the winter but it's probably slower too). I was with just a couple of teammates, and we remarked more than once how much different the same old roads seemed (1) on a race bike instead of a rain bike, (2) in the sunshine, and (3) without being bundled up and cold.

The contrast to our nice, mellow 4-hour ride was the wild goings-on in sleepy Snohomish. I had a bad feeling when we crossed the bridge and turned along the main street and it was filled with classic cars and hordes of people. But it takes more than a thousand people and shiny cars to come between me and a much-anticipated coffee stop, and I was able to forge a path on my bike through the humanity without anyone cursing me. As we were leaving town, we were bombarded with the sounds and smells of a Civil War reenactment (and people think 12-hour time trials are fundamentally strange?) at one end Harvey Airfield. At the other end, a small carnival was set up.

The sign at Stocker Farms reminded me that this was Kla-Ha-Ya Days. 'Member when a bike race used to be part of this craziness too?

GIGANTIC PROPS go to teammate and friend Brian Ecker for his run at a course record at Race Across Oregon this weekend. First (you know, for, like, 250 miles) he was in a dead heat with last year's winner. Overnight (it's a 535-mile, nonstop bike race) he gained nearly an hour over his closest competitor. But after something like 30 hours on the bike, and within reach-out-and-touch distance of Mt. Hood where the race finishes at Timberline Lodge, his body was no longer willing. I can't say enough how much I admire him for taking on this challenge (and his support crew for going along for the ride) and for listening to his body and deciding to stop while it was still a decision. Wishing you a speedy recovery, Brian!

Frozen oatmeal, part 2

Friday, 18 July

Several weeks? months? ago I noted here that Trader Joe's is now selling frozen Irish oatmeal so you don't have to be bothered with actually cooking something on your own stove for 30-40 minutes. I finally had a chance to try this at home; I made a big batch the week before I left for central Oregon. Most of it I portioned out among jars that I stored in the refrigerator and ate each morning during the week, but one portion went into the freezer. I had it for breakfast on Tuesday. Not a stunning success. The big round bits of the grains were fine and still had lots of good texture and toothiness, but the stuff in between was mush, sort of what you think gruel might be like. Absolutely none of that nice body that oatmeal has. It seemed to lose its glutinous qualities (no, I didn't mean gluttonous!). (Aren't you glad there're no pictures with this post?)

The good news is that the stuff out of the fridge was great--as good as straight off the stovetop. I had to add a little water and mush it up (that's fancy culinary language, eh?!) with a spoon before reheating, but it was quick and delicious. So when (if?) my weekend schedule allows me time to cook up the real thing, I'll make a big batch and have it as my mid-morning snack at work. No salt, sugar, dairy. I can even add flax seeds for a nice dose of omega 3. Or raisins. Or fresh strawberries. Or nuts. I think I'm getting hungry....

More pictures

Tuesday, 15 July

I'm no Heidi, but here are a few images from my week in central Oregon.


Terwilliger Falls...nowhere near the Terwilliger curves. Nowhere near very much of anything, for that matter.














See, I really did make it to the top of Willamette Pass.











Mr. Motor Ref Duke.










The first day at Cascade staged in the parking lot of the county fairgrounds, a.k.a. dozens of acres of asphalt. And no shade. TGH managed to find just a tiny sliver within watching distance of the start line as they waited for the men to roll out so the women could stage.










Of the hundreds of racers who lined up for the Skyliner TT (7 miles up, turn, 7 miles down), Robin was probably the only one who did it with a grin.

The old boys (Kirk and Mick) waiting to start their crit.

He's Mr. Calm behind those cool shades.

And these are the 4 hats I made during the week. Yes, mt, the black and grey one is yours.

Quick update

Sunday, 6 July: Tandem TT championship, Peoria: Really windy. Gold medal (I think we were racing mixed open). Got a ride to Springfield, then rode out past Blue River. Not nearly as much traffic as I expected on the McKenzie Highway at the end of the holiday weekend. 94 miles for the day, racing tandem and touring on my single bike.

Monday, 7 July: I started with the Aufderheide Scenic Byway from Blue River to Oakridge. It is truly scenic and there are hardly any cars. The climbing was steep at first (I was fearing 30 miles of it), but not so bad after Cougar Reservoir. The rhododendrons at the top (is it a pass?) were in full bloom. Great descent. Lunch in Oakridge at mile 66 for the day. Then over Willamette Pass: 28 miles of climbing, 4000? feet of elevation. I don’t need to climb on a highway again for a long time. After the disappointing 2-mile descent, I got more water at a campground at Odell Lake and coke at the Crescent Lake Junction. At mile 108, I turned onto the Cascade Lakes Highway, which goes to Bend. 40 miles later (yeah, mile 148) I was still 30 miles from Bend and it was 7:15 and I was getting tired and had all the climbing over Mt. Bachelor left. I hitchhiked, another (scary) first for me. Luckily, the only real excitement was coming within 20 feet of getting nailed by falling rocks near the top of Willamette Pass. 152 miles for the day. With my backpack. Note to self: do a lot more research before embarking on cross-state bicycle travel.

Tuesday, 8 July. For a couple of hours in the morning, I had a non-cycling vacation. I went to the library in Bend to weed the spam and chat out of my email inbox (maybe that’s not really “vacation”) and found a yarn shop (both locations thankfully air conditioned). And then it was off to report for my duties for the Cascade Cycling Classic with the Veloforma women’s team.

Wednesday through Sunday are a blur. It was a fantastic experience to support 7 strong, positive women and to see almost all of them finish really, really well at an epic, arduous race. I did not have time to miss email access (although I did manage to make 3 hats!). I found a café with fantastic scones and indulged there or elsewhere every morning for 10 minutes of quiet. I rode my bike just a few times (twice on the TT course, twice on parts of the circuit race course). There were lots of friends in Bend that I did not get to see this time, but I made new ones.

Happy Bastille Day!

A first

Saturday, July 5

For the first time ever, I raced two crits in a single day. For those of you who know me well (those of you who just fell off your chairs), let me refine that statement: I started and finished two crits today. I was next to last in the first and next to first in the last.

The Firecracker Criterium in Eugene had a tandem crit at the end of the day's schedule, so I raced the women 1-2-3 crit in the early afternoon, sat around and ate cookies, and then raced the tandem crit. I was saved in the women's race by a stiff headwind on the finishing straight, which usually meant that many attacks kind of died when we rounded the last corner. I did have to close a few gaps when there were some serious, sustained attacks that strung things out.

Our tandem crit was shortened to 15 laps, and it took my captain about 5 laps to figure out the corners. We hung at the back for a while, then moved around, then followed the front bike in the prime sprint, and it was pretty animated after that. A father-son pair attacked with a little over half a lap to go; we weren't exactly "on" their wheel but we were the second bike through the last corner. On the final straight, we didn't do much to close the gap on the lead bike, and another male-male bike was moving up on our inside as I was yelling "go" to my captain, and then all of a sudden we stopped pedaling. Oops! Stokers can't see the finish line!

I have to admit that it was a pretty fun afternoon. :)

Tomorrow is the Firecracker Time Trial, which happens to be the OBRA tandem TT championship. Just one race for me tomorrow because from there I leave for Bend and the Cascade Cycling Classic. On my bike. I'm taking a different route this year and have not too much idea of my total mileage. I think Sunday's will be about 70 and Monday's could be anywhere from 110 to 150. And I don't know where my next internet access will be, but I'll try to post so you don't worry too much that I got lost in central Oregon.

See you in Bend!

This is it !

Monday, 30 June

This is what I dream about all winter (and spring) long! It was 19 degrees centrigrade this morning when I left the house at 6:15. How easy it is to ride when all you have to put on is shorts and a short-sleeved jersey. Commute time is at least 10 minutes shorter without bundling up in gloves and booties and hat. I revel in every minute of riding in this weather and store it away in the memory files to recall on bleak midwinter rides.

Enjoy !

Be, look, feel

Saturday, 28 June

A couple of weeks ago, Candi told me, "if you can't BE good, you've gotta LOOK good." Well, that's about others' perceptions (how you stack up against them, or how you look to them). Today was all about me. I FELT good. I did a favorite 4-hour ride that I do most frequently when it's 40 degrees colder, probably wet, on my heavy rain bike, and all bundled up in layers and layers of clothes. Today was jersey and shorts and race bike weather, with a tailwind for about 75% of the ride somehow. I was riding solo, so there was nobody to make me feel old and slow. I probably didn't LOOK good (my pink summer jersey doesn't quite match my team shorts) but I FELT great.

How different things look at the end of June than they do all winter! I didn't realize how many of the trees and shrubs along the route are deciduous; there was lush greenery everywhere. The flower farms in the Snoqualmie Valley are in full bloom, and one of the raspberry farms had boxes and boxes of bees stacked at the ends of rows for pollination. The corn isn't going to be knee high by the 4th of July but it's on its way.

Just before I turned off the West Snoqualmie Valley Road for Tualco Valley, I was waved to the shoulder by a motorcycle WSP cop going the opposite direction, lights flashing. OK, I stopped. Another moto went by. Then nothing, so I kept riding. Pretty soon 2 more cops come along, so I stop and get off the bike. Still nothing. Then a WSP car, followed by 60 recreational (?) motorcycles. Some were ridden by the stereotypical big guy on his Harley, but some were ridden by petite women and a whole diverse variety of other folks. A lot of them waved at me. In total, this group, with its own rolling enclosure, had 10 or 11 WSP motos plus the car. But we can't get rolling enclosures to race our bikes....

Crops

Wednesday, 25 June

The crops are doing well. First off is a batch of hats I made for a pair of favorite race promoters. They'll be prizes (maybe condolence gifts?) at a race later this season, but I won't tell you which one so you can't skip it and try to avoid winning one of these. [In all my Baker City blather, I forgot to mention that the local "fiber arts" shop has a new location; this was the first year I'd found it, and it was fun to compare selection and prices. Lots of stuff for spinners and felters and weavers, too.]

The crops from the garden are doing well. I'm getting about twice this many peas every two days now. Soon it will be time to start freezing them for stir fries next winter. I think the beans in the garden would be doing better if I'd bought new seeds instead of using leftovers from the last 5 years; the germination rate was not too high. It's June apple drop time, so we have quite a few little green ping-pong balls scattered across the garden.

And soon it will be berry season. The blueberries aren't quite, um, blue yet. But I hear that the Skagit Valley strawberries have started their run, so jam making can't be far behind. I will watch for my friends from Schuh Farms at the Lake City Farmers Market tomorrow. Most of the raspberries in my garden have set, although the bees are still there searching for more blossoms.

Questions and comments

Tuesday, 24 June

If you've never been to Elkhorn or Baker City, I'm sure you're sick of the thread of my recent posts, so I'll try to get it all out of my system with this one.

Walking into the showers at the high school gym after Sunday's epic road stage, a woman I've raced with for years asked what motivates me to keep coming back--to Elkhorn and to racing in general. She confessed that if she can't be top 10, she doesn't want to pay her money to race, and she wondered what I get out of a race if there's no ego boost. I was--believe it or not--at a loss for articulate words, but I said something about setting different goals and expectations, and just being there, and I surely wouldn't work as hard to get as much out of it if I hadn't paid my entry fee, and I reminded her that without me down there as pack fill, she wouldn't have anyone to beat. [You're thinking she's a horribly competitive, egotistical person, and she's not. She's great to race with, and I'm always happy when she's at a race.] Since then, I've thought of more coherent reasons--or rationalizations, if you prefer--why I continue to race my bike even during a season with scarce results.

Aging men typically get their own race categories at stage races, but not so for the ladies. The top of GC in my race at Elkhorn was filled with women 20 years younger than me. Maybe I'm not supposed to use age as an excuse, but there's no denying that it's a factor. Nobody older than me (and there were some in the other women's categories) beat me. I was 4th of 11 women aged 40+ in the race and 2nd of 7 45+ women. Maybe that doesn't sound better than being 25th of 28 in the cat 1-2s, but at least it's a little more competitive. I think only one 40+ woman beat me in the time trial.

There's also the "humans are social creatures" aspect and the "I like to see my husband on weekends" element. There are some wonderful people associated with bike racing, and I truly cherish the time I get to spend among them. Have you ever noticed that there's seldom cocktail party sort of chit-chat among bike racers, that we cut to what's important to us pretty quickly? Because we're often under physical or emotional stress when we see our cycling peers, I think we reveal more of our inner selves more quickly. Sometimes you don't see members of this community for years, and then you're at the same race and the time gap drops away.

Another reason is the reward I feel--especially at events like Elkhorn (is anything "like Elkhorn"?)--watching and helping developing riders surprise themselves with what they really can do. Last year in stage 1 and stage 4, I rode with and, I hope, encouraged two new racers who thought they were way out of their league. One of them, I think, only owned one jersey. I'm happy to report that both of them beat me this year. They are the future of the sport, and if I can help grow that--help them make a sufferfest into a positive experience and make them want to race more--then it's worth my while to be out there. When I get so slow that I'm coming in an hour after the last rider, when there's just one official left sitting in her car at the finish line with her stop watch, I guess that will be the time to ask whether I ought to keep coming back.

OK, if that's too warm and fuzzy and sappy for you, one other thing surprised me in Baker City. Keeneye (whom I'd never heard of) posted a comment on my blog entry Getting to Baker City. So I looked up Keeneye's blog, which said she had just opened a new pizza joint in Baker City, but somehow the blog failed to name the establishment (it does now). Later I was part of a conversation when a Baker native happened to mention a new pizza place and gave a wave in its general direction. So during my crit warmup (which was longer than my crit), I went around blocks until I found a pizza place that looked newish. O.A.D. and I went there for (our anniversary!) dinner after the dust settled from the crit stage. It seemed to be all locals--until the Bend part of the peloton descended. Service was good (if initially confused), pizza was tasty, and the 3 big-screen TVs were pleasing to my partner.

The question is, does Keeneye regularly read my blog (why?) or did she do a massive search and post comments on the blogs of everyone who happened to mention Baker City or the Elkhorn race? She could've done herself a favor if the blog had been a little more explicit about the name and location of her business. But I'm happy. Baker City now has a GREAT deli (Bella's), coffee shop (Mad Matilda's--which opened at 5:30 a.m. during the race so that we could all have our prerace gourmet coffee fix), an award-winning microbrewery (Barley Brown's), super ice cream (Charlie's), and now pizza (Paizano's). If there's a gap in your race schedule next April or early May, this is THE place to go for training camp!

Next up: hats and the farm report. I promise.

Elkhorn props (and one boo-hiss)

more on Monday, 23 June

Where do you start when you want to list the great things and great people about the Elkhorn classic stage race? For me, it's Nathan Hobson, whose brainchild this race is. For the entire women's peloton, it's also Nathan. He stood firm and kept a women's race here during some really thin years when he could've met more of his costs by scratching the women's race and adding another men's category. Nathan is now "just" a racer at Elkhorn, and thanks must go too to new promoter Ernie Conway, who looked mighty frazzled most of this weekend.

Working behind the scenes for the women's race for the entire 7 years of its existence has been Beverly Calder. Her undaunted support of women's racing is bound up in so many ways with this race. What an amazing tribute to her that 66 women started Elkhorn this year.

So many other businesses in Baker City have also supported this race throughout its existence, and the high school principal has opened the school doors to us each year. The OBRA officials patiently put up with rants from oxygen-deprived, heat-prostrated cyclists; they deserve raves all around.

I've got three specific highlights and one definite lowlight from this year's event.

Water and bikes. During stage 1, we passed through the path of a big irrigation sprinkler. The road was wet, and there was a little spray in the air. Apparently these are conditions unsuitable for bicycling in the experience of some of the women in the peloton: there was chaos at the front of the pack as riders crossed the yellow line to avoid wet pavement and to dodge a few drops of water falling out of the sky (it was 80+ degrees, and we'd been riding for 20 miles, so the risk of hypothermia was pretty minimal). They might think events at the crit proved their point, but those of us from soggy climes know that generally a bike traveling in a straight line can safely pass across a short patch of damp pavement, even if the rider is struck by water droplets flying through the air at the same time. This unwillingness to accept wet pavement as a fact of cyling life was further shown in the opening miles of stage 4. A rider from an arid climate was riding just in front of me and pointed with her left hand like she wanted to move over in front of me. As I slid back, we passed by a small puddle (pancake-sized) and I realized that she was simply pointing out this "road hazard."

Dirty jokes. The group of 10 riders I was with for about half of stage 4 was pretty interested in finishing but not at a blistering pace (no one got dropped). So, to while away the time on the interminable climbs, quite a few jokes were told and one dirty ditty sung. Yes, it did help pass the time and block out the pain, and yes, there were some long pauses as the teller/singer caught her breath before the next line.

The Oregon stage race fairy. Either last year or the year before, a woman showed up at Elkhorn dressed in a pink tutu, fairy wings, and a tiara. She has pale blond hair and pale skin, so the fairy image is not a stretch. I think she did it originally so that her team could find her in the feed zone. She has become a fixture at Oregon stage races, although the tutu is getting less showtime these days. She's sort of like the devil who always shows up at the Tour de France. I did not spot her in the feed zones during stage 4, but after pedaling up 7.9 miles on the finishing climb and thinking about not much besides what hurt (everything) and how the climb manages to get longer every year, there she was, standing by the side of the road. A huge grin spread across my face because she was such a great distraction. It was a completely involuntary reaction and shows how much seeing something out of context or unexpected can distract you from whatever seems so overwhelming.

Finally, the lowlight. After a concerted campaign by OBRA and race officials to reduce littering, we were dismayed when one of the riders in our group chucked an empty bottle to the side of the road. She had two bottle cages and just two bottles, so she had not even the flimsiest excuse for her flagrant violation of littering laws in a national forest. When a couple of us challenged her, she said "oh, sorry" in a very sarcastic tone. I don't know Team Ironclad well enough to know how their other riders behave, but clearly some peer pressure is on order from other teams and from Ironclad team leaders to explain to this particular rider all the reasons why littering is bad. Let's start with: your thoughtless behavior could keep the Elkhorn race from getting a permit to use that road next year. When you see other bottles tossed onto the shoulder, it's not a reason for you to add to the debris; it's a call for you to help educate your peers.

Quick Elkhorn summary

Monday, 23 June

This will be quick because my brain is still pretty fried. I spent longer in the car yesterday than I did on the bike--and there were 6 hours on the bike.

As reported, Ekhorn stage 1 was hot but not roasting, windy but not heinous. Huge women's field made for some challenging bike riding, but there was very little sketchy bike handling.

Stage 2 was a TT. Rolling downhill out, uphill headwind on the return. I really wished it had been the other way around because it would've felt so good to finish with the incredible power you feel with a tailwind on a slight downhill. I was mid-pack but okay with my time; I knew the woman 30 seconds in front of me would take a big chunk of time out of me on the way out, but I ended up taking more out of her on the return.

Stage 3 was a crit. Or parts of crits. Understand that it doesn't rain much in Baker City, so the streets aren't made like ours here on the west side. It started to rain as the cat 4-5s were warming up, and there were crashes in the warm up. Once the race started, there was about a crash a lap for the first 5-10 laps, all in turn 1. But the rain stopped, and between the warm temps and the wind, the road was dry by the time they finished. The masters got the only dry, uneventful crit of the day. About 5 minutes into the women's race, it started to rain again, and just at that moment when the road surface turns slick before it is really wet, there was a massive wreck in turn 1. Two riders went to the hospital, one (we learned later) with a broken pelvis. The race was stopped. I think the cat 3s rode part of their race and were also stopped and the 1-2 race never even started. The chief ref took a lot of flack from people who know that crits are possible in the rain, but those people didn't account for the different material used for road construction or the oil that had accumulated on the streets (5,000 motorcycles had visited Baker City in the previous week, on top of the accumulation from normal traffic). It was the right call.

Stage 4 is the queen stage and crown jewel at Elkhorn, the 102-mile road race with an 8-mile climb to the finish on top of Dooley Mountain. The day dawned clear and not even too cold by the women's race start at 8:00. (Women start first and get passed by most of the men's fields; they used to start last, but then they finished about 3 hours after the 1-2 men. So now we get neutralized a few times--not on a climb this year :(--but finish at a reasonable hour. The weather was absolutely perfect all day, never too hot at all. I got popped close to the top of the "first" climb (there's a steep half-mile climb earlier that doesn't even show up in the course profile but usually splits the field), was chasing like mad on the descent, and then got caught behind a tanker truck with an enormous trailer. Two women in front of me crossed the double-yellow centerline to pass him, but the corners were absolutely blind and I wasn't willing to do that. So I never got back on. About 25? miles later, a group caught me and that was it to the bottom of the final climb. Then it's every rider for herself. Huge party with great food, beer, results, prizes, and podium presentations at the finish line.

There are so many great things about this race that I'll bore you with more reports, but that's the race summary part.

Elkhorn stage 1

Friday, 20 June

(is it still Friday?)

Elkhorn stage one is a 72-mile ride that starts out flat and beautiful; has a little climb, a nice descent, false flat along a stream (that was nearly up to the road today), and then a climb that somehow got longer in the 2 years since we've raced up it; and then a 25-mile section described as killer rollers. I just kept telling myself it was better than last year's stage one: it wasn't as hot and there has to be at least a little downhill among those killer rollers. But it is just one tough stage. It was hot today--probably 85--but not roasting. I drank as much in 70 miles as I did in 140 at LaCultra. And my food consumption was a whopping 2 fig bars.

Kenji was a little subdued before the start. I'll assume it was his new cat 2 race face and not prerace anxiety.

TT is early tomorrow. Must go to bed now. Should've gone to bed an hour ago.... Massage on the agenda tomorrow. :)

Getting to Baker City

Friday, 20 June
Summer solstice!

There was a funny post on the WSBA email list yesterday, wishing that we could all abandon our TT bikes for stage races so that we could make 4-person carpools instead of 2-person carpools for faraway events like Elkhorn. Well, Bryce, I would argue it's about the vehicle you drive and not the bike(s) you want to ride.

Take those 4 people in your optimal carpool. Add one bike per person. Now add the second pair of wheels per person that each may be compelled to put into neutral service via the "wheel lottery." Now add the fancy crit wheels that at least one crit rider in your carpool is sure to want to take. Toolbox. Helmets. Trainers. Then 4 of the giant bags that bike racers take to every event. A cooler. Food. I think you're going to need a Hummer to drive all that stuff to Baker City. Say you get it into something that gets 20 miles/gallon (highly unlikely). It's 380 miles, so that means you use 19 gallons of gas. That's 4.75 gallons per person.

My husband and I loaded our VW with our TIME TRIAL bikes, road bikes, TT wheels, extra road wheels, cooler, bags, food, stuff we're bringing to deliver to other riders who'll be at this race, a laptop, supplies for my time-killing hat hobby, food, toolbox, etc. The two of us in our car get better than 40 mpg, but let's call it 40 for ease of computation. That comes to 9.5 gallons of fuel, or...drum roll, please...4.75 gallons per person.

Since the 4 of you will be in a vehicle probably getting more like 12-15 mpg and we'll probably be getting more like 42 mpg, in the end, at least in terms of fuel consumption, our 2-person carpool comes out being more fuel efficient than your 4-person "economizing" carpool. AND I get to race on my TT bike. AND my car runs on biodiesel, which further reduces my carbon footprint.

When you find a 45-mpg diesel van, let me know. Until then, please don't argue for banning TT bikes at stage races! And don't think that those of us on real TT bikes are necessarily leaving bigger carbon footprints than you.