Cycle Oregon 2007: Day 4 -- Hump Day

I slept like a corpse after the beautiful and exhausting Day 3 ride around Crater Lake which was capped with a Flintstone-size slab of end-cut prime rib for dinner... not to mention the x-number of beers I put into my face, and our harrowing brush with death at the hands of the gruesome Oregon Mountain Hag. However, the pitiless morning bell tolled early with the swarming sounds of tent zippers and folks conversing at full volume without regard for others who might not want to wake up at 5:FUCKING:30. My common sense won the battle of "Should I Stay or Should I Go?", and I hunkered into my sleeping bag and made an attempt at reading my book until a more sensible hour for arising came, which it did all too quickly. I did the 50-second drill of sliding into my kit as fast as I could and then packing all my stuff into my huge duffel. Day for was the billed as a "40 mile descent", which, at this altitude and temperature meant "40 miles of freezing your ass off", so I was triple layered with long gloves, outer shell, booties and full arms and legs.

I made my way over to the RV to meet up with the crew and noted that I was feeling pretty good -- my massage the day before had me feeling nice and limber, and not at all feeling like I had ascended over 6500' the day before. The RV inhabitants were stirring and I gratefully accepted a cup of hot coffee and a tasty muffin from the lovely Carol, as I shot the breeze with Frank and Lon (I was begining to feel almost guilty for as well as I was being treated, but not guilty enough to turn down any of the hospitality). The temp was in the 20s, but climbing, still, I was happy to be nice and bundled up; although I did get heckled for having so much kit on. We reminisced a bit about our encounter with the Mountain Hag the previous night, and Lon mentioned that their neighbors had stopped by and remarked, "Who the hell was that bitch last night?", they also said they had enjoyed the music. Sweet.

The crew assembled and we said our goodbyes to the recreational-vehicle-bound and hit the road. I was immediately happy that I wore so much as it was the true manifestation of "Butt Cold". A couple of small rollers out of Diamond Lake helped us warm up a bit, but once we hit the big downhill, it was all downhill for quite awhile, and I was again glad to have so much kit on. Lon, Matt and I jumped out in front of the main group and took turns out front as we rocketted down the road. Down, down, down we went at an average of 30MPH or so, just flat out flying, it was pretty awesome. Both Matt and Lon are ace descenders, so I was just hanging on for dear life, happy they were finding the good lines for me. After 15 miles or so, the route turned off onto a smaller road, and we waited 5 minutes or so for therest of the group to catch up, and then road a mile or so to the first ODS stop of the day.

At this point, it was warming up, and I shed some of my kit at the ODS gear drop (you leave your gear in a bag with your rider number on it, and you can pick it up at camp that night... pretty sweet). We filled our bottles, hit the blue rooms and got back on the road for another 20 miles or so of rolling descents. The road surface was pretty rough, which made it not quite as fast as the first 20 miles, but it was still pretty easy riding, and everyone was in good spirits when we rolled up on the lunch stop. The sun was shining, the temp was warm enough to get down to just a jersey and shorts, and lunch was a tasty chicken wrap with some pasta salad and the ever-present chips and grapes. I had taken to grabbing a few packets of salt and putting them on my lunch to help prevent cramps... which appeared to be working since I hadn't cramped since Day 2. I also tossed back a couple cans of V8 juice, which for some reason is particularly awesome in the middle of a big ride.

Full of a tasty lunch, we headed off under the agreement that we would be at a Sally-mandated "social pace". We took off in a double column of probably 10 people, and started into the big, parabolic climb of the day. The first couple miles were all 1-2%, and it was hard to even notice any elevation gain. We chatted and swapped positions, and enjoyed the company and the sunshine as we rose through the hills. There were lots of folks on the road and we passed through them, our eschelon of riders swelled, pretty soon, we were 20 strong and still managing our social pace up the steepening hill. As the grade increased, our group fractured and the conversation died. Before I knew it, I was all by myself working up the 7-8% last few miles to the top.

It was hot now, and there were folks stopping and resting and panting and wheezing as the hill continued its winding ascent into the sky. It was a long climb, but not really all that bad -- although you wouldn't know it from the carnage on the road. That said, the ODS stop at the top was a welcome site, as was the iced mocha compliments of Nossa Familia. We all re-grouped at the top and took a nice little rest as bottles were refilled and snacks were chomped.

Leaving the ODS stopped was a staggered affair as there was a hairy 9% descent with a not so lovely chip seal surface that takes a wilderness beating in the summertime. They let people leave 4 at a time with abotu 30 seconds between each group. Our group at this point was me, Matt, Amanda, Zed and Robbie -- the staged descent had split our big group up again. We waited in line for probably 15 minutes and were finally allowed to begin our descent. The warnings had done their job as folks were literally crawling down the mountain... the sound of squeaking brakes was like a flock of dying birds and at least 5 people were fixing flats on the shoulder because their brakes had heated their rims and popped the tube. By the end of the 9 mile descent, my forearms were burning and my hands were numb from braking so much -- I was very happy to be back on the flat.

Back on a flat road with a good surface, we were all ready to get into camp. By this time, the wind had picked up, and was right in our face, so we formed a paceline and put the hammer down. Matt had the strongest legs of the group, but we all put in our time at the front. We picked up a straggler or two along the way, but we managed to drop most of them fairly quickly. At this point, we were 75 miles into a 90-mile day and just about everyone was beginning to run out of gas. I had some Hammer Gel left, which I quaffed, and it helped me keep up with Matt and do my duty at the front pulling into the building wind. The pulls got shorter and shorter and the wind strengthened, but we had a great crew, and before we knew it, we were pulling into the park at Dorena Lake and being handed the ice-cold chocolate milk that punctuated each finish line.

We hit the RVs and had a beer as the whole crew trickled in. We heard the story of how they actually had to close the road from the top of the hill because there had been so many accidents on the way down that they ran out of ambulances (there were 4) -- they literally had to wait for them to come back from the hospital in Cottage Grove before they let people go again. We were happy to have been in front of that mess. At 7PM, people were still rolling into camp.

After a nice, hot shower and a Ben and Jerries smoothie, I skipped the camp dinner and had a couple slices of Hot Lips pizza instead. I made my way to the RV and hooked up with the Aussies for a couple more beers and some tunes in the RV. Zed mentioned hitting the Trek truck and seeing if he could get a demo bike for the next day, so I walked over there with him. For giggles, I asked if they had any 60cm Madones, and it just so happens that they did. I went back to my tent and got my bike and swapped it for a brand new 2008 Madone 5.2 to use for the next day. Sweet.

I hung out at the RVs for a little while, but the big climb and the strong run into camp got the best of me, and I hit the tent around 9:30 for a welcome snooze.