Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic - CycleTour

started out going through seattle with a huge pack of riders. It was a little nerve wracking being that close to each other with predawn light and various bike handling abilities. I dropped my chain about 5 miles into the ride and had to chase back up to my group. Two of my group would also drop their chains and we also had 2 flats. I just tried to keep together with the group of 4 riders I had trained with. A female rider joined up with us and now there were 5. The first 20-40 miles there were huge packs. We would just sit in and draft for miles at a time. We tied green surveyor ribbons to our helmets which made it easier to identify each other. One time i got on the front and started hammering at about 40km/hr with the jersey ripped open and in the drops. It was a great feeling, and hopefully the photographer got a good pic. People were very nice letting us back in with our group so we could stay together. The first hundred were pretty uneventfull. I did see a rider lying unconscious on the ground with some paramedics hovering over him. I hope that he is recovering/doing well. Later on I also saw a rider sitting up in the ditch. We all stopped in centralia and I got some fresh bottles, bars and gels that greg's wife brought out in a cooler. Thankyou! After centralia it started getting lumpy and the rollers took a toll on me. It was this time that my seat felt like a pincushion and was very uncomfortable for the rest of the ride. I remember that I pulled hard -35km/hr for about 5 minutes and pulled off just before a hill. I blew up going up that hill and was nursing the granny fear to get up it. We regrouped at the top and started down on the descent and I was able to recover. I was going through 1.5 bottles an hour at this point and eating a larabar and cliff block an hour. Our bottles would be warm about 10 minutes after we filled them because it was so hot. Going up over the first bridge was horrible. Everyone was single file and it was extremely hot. The speed was around 12km/hr and there were these flat metal squares that were scary going down the backside of the bridge. The last 80km were on a highway. Me and the female rider would trade pulls and A couple of mine were a little excited. When I would peek under my arm everyone would be 50yds back. Gregg started pulling us along at 35km/hr and stayed on the front for about 10 miles and then everyone started blowing up. We just caught and passed lone riders and little groups of 2-10 riders the whole rest of the way. I felt so bad for the lone riders out there who couldn't latch on and had to suffer the rest of the way to portland. Going through portland was actually nice. It seems very bike friendly with wide bike lanes and nice motorists. in fact, I didn't encounter a rude motorist all day! go figure. The finish was anticlimactic. We rolled slowly up to a red light and there were some spectators cheering on the right. We slowed and then just past the light on the right was the finish banner. I rolled through and maneuvered my biker to grab my stp patch and then lost momentum and fell over. A spectator was kind enough to reach over the barriers and give me a hand up. Nothing was hurt except my pride. Overall I was very happy. Didn't have a nutritional meltdown and still had some power left at the end. I was suprised how easy the effort on flat roads feels and the benefit of drafting plays on long rides. I'm very glad that I did in one day instead of two and feel like it was a great accomplishment. It made the 3 hour rides in the bitter cold and rain in january and february worth it.

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a tiny bit of streching, walked aounr and drank a lot of water.


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