So far, fundraising is going well - I'm a little over half way to my goal of $9000. My long time sponsor and virtual-PMC-veteran riding buddy Steve is also a virtual rider himself this year. If you would like to donate, you can sponsor me or Steve by following either of those links. Meanwhile.... on with the show!
I was aiming for about 100 feet of climbing per mile in comparison to the 74 feet from last year's ride. The route selected has 8 climbs - Skyline, Big Basin 1 and 2, Jamison Creek, Ice Cream Grade, Glen Canyon and Bean Creek, Mountain Charlie, and Summit/Skyline. If you were categorizing these like the pros do for the Tour de France, Jamison is category 1, Mountain Charlie is a 2, the rest are 3 - 5. It's a lot of climbing, no matter how you categorize. Remember all of those long flat sections from last year's ride? Gone. There's a reason for that. I wanted this to be a very hard ride. We'll come back to that.
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Run-up to the rideIn the 8 weeks prior to the ride, I trained specifically to do two big climbs, riding many of the roads I have used in previous v-PMC's: Page Mill (2010), Alpine (2009), Tunitas Creek (2006), Zayante (2007). I also rode each of the two big climbs from this ride once. Steve joined me for many of these rides, and he also spent the week before the ride in the Sierra - training at altitude helps. I spent the weekend before the ride on my back - important tip for all you riders out there: don't move 20 sacks concrete within a week of a big ride!Ride DayThe weather on Saturday 8/13 was comfortable. We got a late start, and it was warmer than forecast - much less fog than last year. We began at my fire station around 10 - ah, nice to sleep in. As you can see from the profile, we start climbing almost immediately, proceeding north on Skyline. Descending highway 9 in Santa Cruz County is a lot of fun - it's a very non-technical descent. At the only stop sign between the summit and Boulder Creek, we continued on highway 236 - the Big Basin loop. I do this ride a lot, but almost always clockwise. The counter clockwise direction feels very different! Anyway, there's one climb before the park HQ and one after. At the park, we dawdled for a bit, taking pictures. Anyone visiting the area should really make a trip to Big Basin. It is a beautiful redwood forest sanctuary. We climbed out of Big Basin State Park and continued to within a mile or so of Jamison Creek, where Steve lost a contact lens. D'oh! We carry spare tubes, food, air, but no contacts. At least he had one left... |
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Jamison CreekOur first big climb was Jamison Creek. This is a VERY hard climb. The book Roads to Ride describes Jamison Creek as the second toughest short climb in all of Santa Cruz County, second only to Alba Road. Initially, I had planned to climb Alba Road, since I've never climbed it. A few weeks before the ride, Steve and I were on a training ride, discussing routes - and he had just driven Alba on the way to the coast. "Anything but Alba!" Ok, well, he said anything. Jamison Creek is 3 miles long, with an 8.8% average grade. But the climb doesn't really start until more than a mile in, so the majority of the climb is about 13% average, which is what makes it a category 1 climb. Alba climbs the same mountain, and at 4.2 miles, climbs 600 feet more and is even harder. Some other time...
I haven't climbed Jamison in about 10 years. I did sneak it in two weeks prior to our ride, so I had a good mental image of the profile. Steve and I were side by side in the early shallow part of the climb. I gave him hints about what was coming around the bend - there's one very steep "tasting climb" of about 100 yards, then it shallows out. This happens a few times. When you see the milepost 1.66 sign, you have that far to go, and the road turns up to 12% or more until you reach the last 1/4 mile where it's about 15% average. It's a tricky thing to find a balanced effort level on a climb like this. Steve hit his limit after going around 110% for a few minutes, and had to back off for a time. I continued at my pace, which is about enough to keep the bike from falling over. I got to the top, and only a few minutes later, Steve crosses the line (see below). It's a tough, tough climb. |
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To the Coast!We rode south on Empire Grade, continuing to climb for another mile, though at a much more reasonable 5% grade. About 9 miles later, we stopped in at the Fall Creek Cal Fire station, where some of my colleagues were working, and we refilled water bottles. Fall Creek is at a crossroads of Empire Grade, Felton Empire Road (which leads to Felton), and Ice Cream Grade (which doesn't lead to ice cream). The origin of that name is a mystery to me. Instead, Ice Cream Grade is a short connector from Empire Grade to Bonny Doon Road. It's bowl shaped; a quick descent, followed by a nasty 0.15 mile climb at about 16%. Short and steep and painful - the theme of the day. From there, we turned onto Martin Road, site of a wildland fire a few years back; it is still pretty devestated. Martin ends at Bonny Doon Road - this is what we climbed in last year's ride. Descending Bonny Doon at 45mph made this the coldest part of the ride. The fog was hanging off the coast, so it was clear from Davenport to Santa Cruz along Highway 1. We moved briskly along the only mostly flat part of the ride, sometimes at close to 30mph. I remarked "We might regret this later!", but it felt good to be moving fast in the flats. We stopped in Santa Cruz for a quick lunch. Checking the trip computer, it was becoming clear I had missed something in the route profile, because it was looking more like 80+ miles than 77. We had planned to meet my friend Dave, a lunchtime ride partner for a few years now. We weren't quite sure where we would meet, and as we were about an hour behind... Steve and I meandered through Santa Cruz, and started up Glen Canyon towards Scotts Valley which is where Dave found us. Bean Creek was next. This is a really nice little road, very quiet, and once again, quite steep near the end. Just about a mile on Glenwood took us to the last climb, Mountain Charlie Road.
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Mountain Charlie and the Last Sector
This road is named for Mountain Charlie McKiernan, whom you can read about
here.
The road parallels Highway 17 from Scotts Valley to the Summit. Mountain Charlie is a series of steps. Generally short, sharp climbs, with breaks in between. Everyone was working hard on this road, as the steepness of the day was starting to catch up. Dave lives in the vicinity and had parked short distance past the the crest of the nastiest of Mountain Charlie's short climbs -- about 200 yards, 13% to 15% except for the last little bit which is 19%. He had a stash of water and bananas, a nice impromptu rest stop. (Some pictures below, taken with sweaty mobile phones. ) Of course, as soon as we got back on Mountain Charlie, we were climbing again. Although it levels off for the last mile, the summit was not the end of the climbing this day - we still needed to go 9 miles and about 1250 feet to complete the ride.
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We set a reasonable pace back along Summit and Skyline, turning onto Las Cumbres Road, a last
"bowl" - there are some pictures of this final hill from my 2007 ride story. The climb is short but
very steep. Steve passed me on the initial downhill section before the climb; I thought he was sprinting for the finish. So I jumped up and sprinted the last 100 yards of the climb, then slumped over the bars and coasted to the fire station.
Steve got there about a minute later, having "cracked" (that is, hit the limit) right after I passed him. He claimed the initial pass was just momentum. I claimed that my
sprint was just instinct.
But it was good fun, and a good way to end
the day. The total distance for the day was about 80 miles,
with about 7500 feet of elevation, nearly 100 feet per mile.
A very difficult, very rewarding ride.
Why So Difficult?
"It was an epic ride" is a phrase often used for rides like this. It was likely the most difficult virtual PMC we've done yet. Everyone worked hard and everyone survived. But why such a difficult ride? My mother (now 30 years cancer-free, go Ma!) asked me this question a few weeks ago. I tried to explain why it's important to me to work very hard and feel some pain during this ride. This year, I had too many reasons -- friends, colleagues, and family of friends and colleagues are dealing with this disease. A few:- Just after I sent out my pre-ride announcement, I found out that a close high school friend had been battling breast cancer for months.
- A colleague in the fire department was diagnosed with liver cancer in May. The day after this ride, I helped out with a benefit for him. It was a lot of work, a lot of standing the day after a long ride, but I was honored to help, and I could not think of anywhere else I should be but there.
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Three days before the ride, the brother of our good friend succumbed to
pancreatic cancer. Of her brother, our friend said:
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It was a terrific battle with this cancer, and he fought it with an
astounding grace, dignity, and courage. He's been in pain for months,
and suffering terribly from the effects of the disease.
There is no way I can feel what these folks have felt, so the only thing I can do is generate a different kind of pain for this cause so we can kill this thing. Perhaps my good friend John K, who rode his 26th PMC this year explains it best. Prior to the ride, he said that we will " ... dress in ridiculous spandex outfits, put Styrofoam coolers on our heads and mount obscenely expensive bicycles to devour hundreds of pounds of bananas and thousands of gallons of water ... in a quest to not feel helpless in the face of cancer."
I could not have said it any better.