The Last Chapter, Part 2

Day Two, Sunday, June 20, 2010

Sunday morning - cold, grey and misty, people walking stiffly from tents to portapotties to the long line for breakfast. Not a great breakfast, but everybody eats anyway, because we have another 120 km to go before the day is over.

I’m pretty tired, not much sleep last night - my days of sleeping on a thin foamy are over, and my earplugs didn’t quite cut the racket from the various snorers in the neighbourhood. My legs are stiff and sore, stretching helps somewhat, but I still feel pretty wrecked. There’s only one thing to do, and that’s to get back on my bike and head south.



Yesterday was a piece of cake compared to today. It’s cold, and midway through the morning the drizzle turns to rain. My brain is tired, and I have to keep telling myself to pay attention, stay alert, stay focussed. My shoes are full of water, my bike is covered in mud, my glasses are splattered with rain and grit. The enthusiasm of yesterday has been replaced with grim determination - got to keep going, got to get to the finish, can’t let anybody (especially myself) down.

I stop pedaling and let myself coast for a bit, but soon realize that it’s better to keep spinning - I’ll get there sooner, and then this will be all over. My hamstrings are still pretty sore, but they aren’t getting worse. Last night I was worried that they might seize up, or maybe just disintegrate completely, but like a lot of things I worry about in the middle of the night, it’s not happening.

Pit stops are brief - a quick pee, top up my water bottles, inhale a banana and a granola bar and get back on the road. The Talbot is working wonderfully - thank you again, Eli! No flats, no nasty noises - it’s all good. I don’t know where the rest of Team Napier is - ahead? behind? There’s no way of finding out. I keep riding, head down, grinding up the hills, braking down the backside, riding very carefully, because I’m almost there.

And then I’m there - the last turn, through the gates on to a muddy field full of hundreds of cheering, clapping people.

It's completely overwhelming. Some lucky riders are all wrapped up in shiny space blankets, trying to keep warm. Kids in strollers, kids running around, knots of huggers, dazed riders, lineups for hot food and drinks, piles of wet luggage, more cheers as more riders arrive.

I'm standing in the middle of all this, cold, wet, muddy, dazed, and very, very happy.

The Last Chapter, Part 1

Well. This has taken far too long. I will finally finish (in instalments) the last chapter in this saga, because I have to start the first chapter in the next saga - The Ride to Conquer Cancer 2011!

Yes, Virginia, there is a sequel. But first...

Day One: Saturday, June 19, 2010

Saturday morning, very promising - scattered clouds, lots of blue sky. Guilford Mall is a sea of bikes and riders, some all ready to go, some not so ready. Lineups for the PortaPotties, the food tent. Cleats clacking on the pavement, music thumping from the PA system, speeches and cheers from the main stage.

We mill around for what seems like a long time, full of jitters, and then finally, there’s a slow surge towards the main gate and the road ahead. We all squeeze out the gate, 2,250 riders being cheered on by hundreds of supporters - bells, whistles, horns, applause, the snap of hundreds of cleats into pedals. Glorious!

Half a block down, someone is fixing a flat. Oh oh.

We snake through the streets of Surrey, a column of riders as far as you can see. Traffic control is out in force, stopping all vehicles to let our two-wheeled army pass. Some drivers are patient and cheer us on, some not so much.

Overheard (Traffic Cop to frustrated motorist): “I’m sorry ma’am, but you’re just like everyone else here…”

We finally reach the first pit stop, at the Pacific Highway Truck Crossing. The parking lot is jammed with riders, and we wonder what sort of madness awaits us at the border - we all have visions of hours of waiting but it turns out that there is a system after all, and in just under an hour we wheel up to a line of US border guards with our passports at the ready, stop for a quick check, and we’re off again.




The column of riders stretches out, and there are big gaps between groups of riders. We’re on secondary roads to the west of I-5, and the traffic control consists of the local sheriffs giving out tickets to cyclists running stop signs.

Obey All Local Traffic Signs!

After about 85 km we roll into the lunch stop in a park on Lake Padden. Bikes are everywhere. Lunch is good - pasta salad with dried tomatoes, cold grilled chicken, green salad - and gets inhaled without ceremony. A quick pee, fill up water bottles, load up pockets with munchies, on the bikes and on the road again.



We ride and ride, and then ride some more. Long stretches of rough road and headwinds take their toll - it’s starting to feel like a real slog. My back and arms are stiff, my legs are holding up except for my hamstrings which are complaining with each pedal stroke. Can’t imagine why…

And then finally, after 130 km, camp!


Camp: Edgewater Park, Mount Vernon

A sea of blue tents, rows and rows of portable toilets, a fenced-in area for the bikes, big white tents for food, medical, 2011 registration, massages, a shop, repairs, entertainment.


And line-ups - for the toilets, the showers (worth the wait!), dinner (not worth the wait), the free beer, but strangely, not for the massage tent. It turns out that they’re all booked up, so there’s no point. (Note to self - next time, upon arriving at camp, go directly to the massage tent & book a time.)

Team Napier regroups, free beers in hand, a couple of bags of ice for my knees. We’ve found our gear and tents and we settle in for a rehash of the day. It’s very festive, people sprawled out on the grass, happy that the day is over. There’s a pretty good band playing in the main tent, but nobody’s paying much attention - it’s just too nice out. The free beer runs out so Ben & Tucker head into town and come back with 3 growlers of a pretty good pale ale from Skagit River Brewery. More celebration ensues.

Dinner:

The Day Before

Friday, June 18, 2010

Yes, no - this is it.

Tomorrow is the start of The Big Ride, and I readily admit to a case of the flutters.



Questions abound.

Did I train enough? I hope so.
Did I train too much? Probably not.
Is it going to rain? Who the hell knows.
Is my bike ready? Thanks to Eli, yes.
Will I have any flats? I hope not, but I’m ready if I do.
Will there be any crashes? Oh yeah.
Am I forgetting anything? Probably.
Will I feel like this at the end of it all? Good chance!

Once again, huge thanks to everybody who has supported me this past few months, (especially my dear sweet Penny - I couldn’t have done it without you). Your financial contributions exceeded my personal goal by almost 50%, and pushed our Team Napier goal way over the top. Congratulations to all of you!

As important as the money is, what has meant more to me is the personal support from all of you. It has been truly inspiring. I will transform that support into pedal power and carry you all in my heart to the finish line.

Well, that’s it for now. I have to clean and prep the bike, finish packing, check my checklists again (and again), and get ready for some serious carbo loading with the rest of the Team.

I’ll be back next week with a full report.

Bike Trouble, revisited

Monday, June 14, 2010

Turns out that it wasn’t the bottom bracket after all, but the bloody freewheel. We didn’t have time to look into it on Thursday, so I spent most of Thursday evening fretting about my options while Penny did a thorough search of the interwebs looking for something that might fit.

She came up with several possibilities, all of which we put on hold until we could determine a course of action - repair or replace.

I met up with Eli at Dizzy Friday morning at 10:00, and after some grunting and penetrating oil, managed to get the freewheel off.

(A confession - all along I thought that I had a complete Campagnolo gruppo; it turns out that the freewheel is, in fact, a SunTour. How embarrassing. But as Eli pointed out, it is an older model, so it’s probably a really good one. Thanks, Eli!)

This is what a Campy freewheel would have looked like:



We pulled it apart, and to our delight, nothing was broken - full of road grit, but the bearing races were all good, and the pawls and springs were intact. A good cleaning, new ball bearings, fresh grease & oil, and I was back in business.

A big thanks to all the guys at Dizzy for their advice and good humour while we (mostly Eli) worked to get my old bike back on the road.

And huge thanks to Eli for giving so freely of his time and skill to get things sorted - I owe big.

Bike Trouble

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Ten days to go until the Big Ride, and I’ve got bike trouble. On Sunday I went out with my regular group for a long ride out to Maple Ridge, and halfway through the ride I started hearing a clicking noise coming from some part of the drive train. At first I thought it was just the chain not sitting cleanly on the rear gears, but no. Fiddling with the derailleur did nothing, so attention focussed on more serious things - rear hub, freewheel, bottom bracket.

Fingers were finally pointed at the bottom bracket - when I stopped pedaling, the noise stopped. Elementary, my dear Watson.

So there I was, out in the middle of what is charitably known as The Shitsticks, with a potentially ride-stopping mechanical problem, 70 km from home. The only thing to do was to keep riding, so I did.

By the time I made it back home, the clicking had gotten louder, plus there was now a chirping noise that sounded like a small flock of sparrows. Not good.

But there is a good part - Eli, Penny’s godson and Ace Bike Mechanic (he’ll be one of the mechanics on The Ride), came by and said, no problem, bring it to the shop and we’ll take care of it, and give the bike a thorough tune-up for The Ride. So tomorrow we’re going to tear that bottom bracket apart and fix it, because that is what we have to do.



Training Report #6

I’m tweaking things a bit with this report and adding last Sunday’s ride to last week’s stats. This week is going to be a bit sparse on data until the Talbot is back on the road, and even then I won’t be putting in any long distances. All part of tapering down and saving myself for the main event.



Eli’s Tip #29

Fresh out of hand cleaner? Hands all covered with bike grease? Don’t know what to do?

Get a little squirt of dish soap, add half a spoonful of sugar, scrub, rinse, and viola! - cleaner than clean.

Three weeks to go

Training Report 4 & 5

Where the hell is Spring? I had a good long ride today, but man, it was miserable - cold and wet all the way. Two high points of the ride - a hot creamy latte in Steveston, and a long hot shower when I got home. I still have to clean my bike - wash all the road grit off the important parts, and I’m hoping that the rain will stop long enough for me to do that.

Anyway, here’s the latest Training Report, which includes last week and this week, because I just didn’t get around to posting anything last week. I’m pretty pleased with the way things are going. The rides are getting longer, and I’m getting better at them.



Riding 130 km in one day, and then riding another 130 km the next day, seemed like a pretty daunting task, but it now seems actually doable, which is a good thing, because in three short weeks I have to actually do it.

Why The Ride

Our good friend Maureen contributed this personal story to the blog:

My best friend died of leukaemia just after her 16th birthday. We were in Grade 10. Her death was one of the profound events in my life and every April 14 for the past 52 years I think of her and our friendship. Both her father and grandfather were physicians yet they were unable to help her. If she had that type of cancer today, she would have been cured.

I'll be attending my 50th high school grad reunion on June 25 and some of us will be remembering our friend Anne who was so bright, witty, funny, smart, athletic and probably would have been voted most likely to succeed. Instead, she got cancer in the summer of her 15th year.

This is why we're riding.

Wipe Out

Since I started riding again last year, I’ve put about 1,800 km on my bike. I think I’m a pretty careful rider - I ride with the traffic, I don’t blow through stop signs, I don’t take (too many) stupid chances. It seems like the smart thing to do, especially at my, ahem, age. I just don’t bounce back the way I used to.

But I did something stupid yesterday, and I’m paying for it today (and probably tomorrow as well). I was invited by a friend through work (thanks, Colin) to go with a group of experienced riders on a long loop around Pitt Meadows and Fort Langley. It was a long hard ride - these guys were fast - and as we came up to the South end of the Golden Ears Bridge, my attention wandered and my front wheel crossed the rear wheel of the rider in front just as he was turning right with the rest of the pack.

Down I went.

I landed on my left side, from hip to shoulder, with a little thunk of my helmet on the pavement as punctuation. We weren’t going all that fast at that point, so there was no serious damage (except, of course, to my self-esteem), and everybody was very impressed with how well I rolled. Apparently I rolled really well. I guess that’s a good thing.

Anyway, once we figured out that nothing on me or my bike was broken, we headed off over the bridge and back to where we started. A hell of a workout, and a lesson learned - pay attention! All the time!

I'm a little stiff and sore today, but I went for a ride this morning and everything seems to be working properly, so I think I'm a pretty lucky guy.

Many thanks to Jim, Stephen, Hugh, Peter and Colin for letting this novice in on your ride.