Cycle Oregon 2007: Day 0 - The Prologue

My preparation for Cycle Oregon 2007 began for me around April of this year when I hit my fundraising goal of $3,000 for the Reach the Beach century, which was held on May 19th. The prize for raising $3,000 for RTB was a pass to the sold-out spectacle of Cycle Oregon. I initially was shooting for the $1,500 fundraising prize of a new mountain bike for my lovely better half, but the generosity of my friends soon proved that $3,000 would be easy to get to, and so it was (much to Mandy's chagrin). Right around this same time, I had eaten a monumental slice of Leneve-flavored Humble Pie, which was a painful taste of what riding Cycle Oregon with the Leneve-train would entail. Thus I knew is was time to get my ass in gear.

As far behind Lon and Sally as I was from a speed and climbing standpoint, I had not, however, been a slouch. I had still been averaging 150-200 miles a week on the bike, and getting stronger and faster by the day, I was simply not anywhere near their pace or ferocity in the saddle. From that ride on, I pledged to spend the majority of my time in the big chainring, and I began the quest for a high-quality road bike that would allow me a better shot at keeping pace with the breakneck Leneves.

Well, five months, 3,500 miles, a new road bike and negative 20 pounds later, I found myself in my living room on September 8th, nervously awaiting the arrival of Steve Williams, who had graciously agreed to let me ride with him to the Cycle Oregon starting point in Sisters, Oregon. I had checked and re-checked my gear against the collected list of necessary items, tuned my bike 4 times and shaved my head in preparation of my first Cycle Oregon. I was terrified of spending a week dragging my ass and lungs around behind the Leneves, but totally stoked to see Oregon like never before and to spend a solid 7 days in the saddle.

I had not met Steve when he pulled up in front of my house at around noon on Saturday. He had come down with a pretty serious respiratory infection a couple of weeks before and had missed the pre-CO kick off party at Lon and Sally's house the week before. However, he and I had exchanged emails and had talked on the phone a couple of times, and he was very helpful with suggestions of what to bring along to make the trip easier. We threw my gear into the back of his truck (which included my guitar as per a request from Lon and Sally), and put my bike on his rack and we hit the road. Steve and I rapped the whole way to Sisters about everything from work to cycling to music and before you know it we were pulling into a dusty field in Sisters which was already bustling with bike nerds, RVs and pick up trucks full of duffel bags. I went to toss my empty 1-liter bottle of Aquafina into the recycle bin, and Steve dropped his last bit of sage advice on me. He said, "Keep that bottle in your bag, so you don't have to walk to the blue room in the middle of the night. Believe me, you'll be glad you did." Which I was.

I was very happy to be there; it was hot, dry and packed with people hauling bikes and huge duffel bags every which way. High school kids on ATVs were zipping around and shouting orders at each other and lines of people waiting for something or another seemed to spring out of nowhere and everywhere. I was a bit overwhelmed by it all, but Steve again proved a worthy companion as he deftly maneuvered us through the masses and into the registration area where we got signed in and assigned our rider numbers. The line for the rider numbers was short, but we waited for about 30 minutes in a line for our tent and porter service. Tent and porter service is an extra charge for CO, but essentially makes it so that you don't have to worry about setting up your tent or lugging it to and from the baggage trucks each day -- well worth it. We finally made it through the tent and porter line and within minutes were were glad-handing Lon's mom and step dad, Carol and Frank at their RV in the section of the campground that was reserved for "rider guests". In a ritual that would be repeated countless times over the next seven days, I plopped my butt into folding chair and a cold beer was generously placed into my hand.

Lon and Sally were there with their boys, Tucker and Derek, and slowly, car by car, RV by RV, the week's posse of riders began to assemble. We drank beer and wine and at chips and crackers and talked about the week. I met lots of folks, but only remembered a couple of names -- I figured I could get by with the usual obfuscations. As if on cue, two RVs showed up with the bulk of the week's crew: one loaded with 2 Aussies (Rob and Scottie) and a skinny Oregon ex-pat name Paul (a.k.a. Zed) and another RV with four guys whom I had met at Lon's get together a week earlier: Roland, Chris (a.k.a. Lingy), Ed and Keith. The gang's all here. As the drinking and carrying on ensued, I slunk away around 8:30 to get a good night's sleep (and not drink too many beers) before the mayhem began the next morning.

Stay tuned for Cycle Oregon 2007 Day 1: The Quickening.