Hello, all. Connie and I got in from our California adventure Saturday evening. I may never catch up on all the e-mail traffic I missed, but I did read Ian's great account of the ride. I'll add a few words, but I'll try not to duplicate too much. Ian and I were never that far apart on the course.
I could have been in better shape for the ride. I didn't do any serious riding after the 600, and my love of cold, frothy beverages and salty, crispy foods left me with a few extra kilos, but, hey, this was advertised as a "beginner's" 1,200, right? Initially, I had hoped to tag along with one of the lead groups for the first flat 100 miles. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared to run with the big dogs and expended a lot of energy up front trying to do so. Finally, I settled down and rode a conservative pace through the flat irrigated fields, including 20 miles on a river levy, to Oroville(mile 101). I didn't waste much time at that control, and was soon climbing - something you do a lot on this ride. I did see the marriage proposal by Ian's skinney-dipping friend to Marty Holoway. (I rode with Marty some. The woman's proposal was a low risk thing - he had proposed to her twice and she wasn't ready, so when she made her very public proposal, she had some idea of how he felt. Ian knows much more about her attributes than I. I saw her, but I didn't SEE her.)
After the Tobin control (mile 143) the road climbed up the Feather River gorge and into morning. I raced and beat a rain shower happening just over my shoulder and got to Greenville (mile 181) for breakfast. Leaving Greenville, there is some rambling and then harder climbing up to a water stop at Antelope Lake and on to the "Top of the GRR". I don't quite understand that name, as there seemed to be a lot of climbing left after the "top", but maybe it was just rolling. By now I was getting tired - much too soon for a ride this long!
There was a fast descent on the Janesville grade Ian wrote about and then into Susanville (mile 248), where I missed a turn and did my only bonus miles - just one or two - until a mail carrier set me right. Continuing north, we encountered valleys surrounded by mountains, like riding in a bowl. There was a good climb and descent into the next valley, then another wall to climb and down to Eagle Lake, where there was a water stop consisting of a rented truck on the side of the road. I was in a cold rain shower on the desent, and the wind was up at the lake, so by the time I got to the water stop, I was pretty cold. I sat in the truck under a blanket shivering for a while. The control worker made me a vest out of a trash bag and I was on my way again. The next leg was through a national forest (named after an Indian tribe - Mowoc or something). It's fire season up there, and they're serious about it. Lots of fire service trucks up and down the road. This was a pretty ride that ended in Adin (mile 316), a tiny community in the desert. I think everyone in town was involved in the ride - reminded me of PBP. The story is the control ran out of eggs in the middle of one night, and the town people went home and brought all of their own eggs for the riders! At Adin I ate a good meal and slept for an hour. I left Adin around 9:45 and rode into a fierce head wind. There's one good climb on that stretch, and I rode with three guys over that cliomb and into Alturas (mile 359), where I slept another 1 1/2 hours. Then off to the turn-around at Davis Creek and back. On the climb back into Adin, I hit a low spot and got off the bike to rest. Then I figured I could rest and keep moving forward by swollowing my pride and pushing, so I did that a bit.
Back at Adin (mile 444) I just beat a rain shower in. I slept an hour to let the rain finish, then took off. I had planned to shower and change shorts there, but rain was threatening and I wanted to save the clean shorts, so I soldiered on. Back at Susanville (mile 512) I showered. The GRR had booked a lot of rooms for the riders, and they gave me a key to a room to shower in. It was hard to turn down a free room, but duty called so I didn't sleep. My brand new light bracket had broken from the rough roads, and I was taping the head light to my head tube when Ian came in. We chatted for a while and I set off to tackle the Janesville grade in the dark. Time for a little more pushing over selected portions of that grade! I think those hard climbs are harder in the dark, when all you can see is a patch of road ahead. Over the top, I caught a tandem team and we rode to the the Antelope lake water stop. It was cold by now, and I was wearing the wool undershirt I had uncharacteristicly had the foresight to bring, but with no leg warmers or gloves, I was cold. The tandem team had (and really needed) the only blankets, so rather than stand around in the cold I left with a couple of guys for an interesting descent in the dark. There were a lot of rocks in the road, but fortunately they showed up well in the lights. Took a bit of dodging, though. At Greenville (mile 580), I was pretty well chilled. GRR had rooms there, too, so I slept 1 1/2 hours, ate breakfast, ane left.
It's down hill from Greenville to Tobin, but a head wind was picking up. Still, a nice change. I'm disappointed that I wasn't invited to skinney dip with any female control workers at Tobin, but maybe it was for the best. There are a few tunnels along this road, and traffic. Cars and trucks passed me a good speed inside the tunnels, which was - uh - interesting. After Tobin there's just one climb, then a good descent to Oroville (mile 662).
The 88 miles from Oroville to the finish were hard for me. For some miles now, I hurt where I met the saddle. It wasn't a traditional saddle sore, but rather a severe chaffing that removed the skin and left me raw. It would take a week to heal after the ride. The ride came down to pedaling as long as I could stand it, then standing up to relieve the pain. Not an efficient way to ride! Also, although I think I slept a lot on this ride, it was getting harder to stay in focus. I stopped twice in the last 15 miles to buy Mello Yellos. Finally, at 9:43, I finished with a so-so time of 75:43, but very happy to be done. I pushed the bike the 3 blocks to the motel!
Because of the late delivery of my new frame, I hadn't done a long ride on it before this. I think now the stem is too long for me for randonneuring. It feels good on shorter rides, but my arms got really tired and my lower back hurt, and there was that chaffing. I did raise the stem during the ride, but I think I'll get a shorter one before next season. Speaking of the bike, I UPS'd it home to avoid hauling it around on my vacation, and it isn't here yet. A bit nervous about that, but I have a tracking number and will check on it soon. This was a hard ride for bikes, as there were several patches of very rough pavement. My light bracket broke off from the vibration, and I trashed a front rim. I made it in on the rim, but it'll have to be replaced.
In sum, I think the GRR was a great ride. Support was without equal. The ride was beautiful and varied. It isn't, however, an "easy" 1,200 km by any means. It isn't brutally difficult, but it was harder than I thought it was going to be. I'm glad I did it.