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rbent Forum
https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl General Category >> Ride Reports >> Hill Country 600K Race? https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl?num=1237129668 Message started by FlyingLaZBoy on Mar 15th, 2009, 10:07am |
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Title: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by FlyingLaZBoy on Mar 15th, 2009, 10:07am JS racing and winning [smiley=dbanana.gif] over everyone by an hour and a half (in 21 hours total), with RBENTers crewing for him, and we have NO RIDE REPORT YET???? [smiley=bounce.gif] [smiley=batting.gif] |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by catroad254 on Mar 16th, 2009, 8:17pm Here is the link to the official results: http://www.raceacrossoregon.com/hillcountry_results/ |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by catroad254 on Mar 16th, 2009, 8:28pm And here is the ride report from the the other recumbent rider. http://bacchettabikes.com/forum2/tm.asp?m=51751 |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by AustinSkater on Mar 17th, 2009, 5:56am There are a few shots of the 'bents in here (lots of shots of Sharon): http://thumb0.webshots.net/t/63/763/2/88/34/2941288340054477580zNdTvS_th.jpg (http://sports.webshots.com/album/570552075OrFAXn) Bryan |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by FlyingLaZBoy on Mar 17th, 2009, 8:46pm The other 'bent rider is Kent Polk -- anybody here know him? Sounds like a fairly experienced rider in those parts.... and who would tackle a 600K down there without being that? |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by Killer Bee on Mar 19th, 2009, 6:03pm We're all back in DFW [smiley=cry.gif] . We'll get a full 600k ride report soon. Intense,fun ,rewarding, amazing,thrilling...you get the picture. Congratulations to all the riders. LSR was well represented in the race(Sharon Stevens, Mark Metcalfe, Vicki Tyler ,& John Schlitter-plus the crews Bryan Mckenney, Shellene Foster,Peggy ,Ray, & myself). [smiley=vrolijk_26.gif] And do to this in 20+ hours for the riders was insane(359 miles ,with that much climbing. Climbs named the "elevator shaft" & "condors nest" are amazing to see-from a vehicle, not a bike, thank you very much). Anyone that participates in this event is a winner, 25,000-26,000 feet of climbing. [smiley=jawdrop.gif] Some finished in the rain. John S. rode the 600k faster than the group of us that completed the 400k in Cleburne a few weeks ago(and the racers has twice the climbing than we did on the 400K). [smiley=notworthy.gif] JS's crew did not screw things up. What an experience [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] Thanks John, Peggy & Ray. [smiley=vrolijk_26.gif] |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by goatstick on Mar 23rd, 2009, 1:50pm FlyingLaZBoy wrote:
That would be me. I normally ride about 7k miles/year including commute miles. I bought the Corsa from Mike at ESR in Austin a year ago March 9th and put 8300 miles including 38 centuries and a trip to Florida and back on it in that year which bumped me to just over 10k miles on all my rides during that time. My daughter and I are apparently planning a trip to Long Island in May, so more miles and stories. |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by bikerteam on Mar 23rd, 2009, 2:13pm Kent - welcome to the DFW area rbent forum. As you'll see, we're an active group. Do you have a similar forum in your area? Contratulations on an awesome race result! I was one of John's crew members along with Steve and Peggy Petty. We didn't officially meet, though I wish we did. I'm curious about your crew's strategy during the leap frog portion of the race. Even after 100-200k, and John being approx. 45 minutes in the lead, your crew would jump ahead of us. Since official racer positional updates were limited to time stations, we assumed your crew was on a "check on the competition" mode. Did you carry tubes, air, etc., in case of a mechanical? Let us know if you make it up here for any of the Lone Star Randonneur events. We'd love to ride with you. Also, consider coming up for The Texas Time Trials (http://www.tt24tt.com/) |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by aikigreg on Mar 23rd, 2009, 2:21pm Fantastic accomplishment sir. I don't think I could ever pull that kind of time and distance with that amount of climbing. My hats off to you! goatstick wrote:
That would be me. I normally ride about 7k miles/year including commute miles. I bought the Corsa from Mike at ESR in Austin a year ago March 9th and put 8300 miles including 38 centuries and a trip to Florida and back on it in that year which bumped me to just over 10k miles on all my rides during that time. My daughter and I are apparently planning a trip to Long Island in May, so more miles and stories.[/quote] |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by goatstick on Mar 23rd, 2009, 2:55pm [color=#6666ff][/color] bikerteam wrote:
No real local forum. Thanks. Yeah, I wanted to meet his crew but didn't see any of you Sun evening at Floores. I think the only time my crew was that far ahead was maybe at the very beginning. We were running Midland water-resistant radios so I was in contact with them the entire race which would put them likely at most 5 miles ahead of me. They weren't checking on competition, just going to the next arranged stop. Often they would just pass me to stop but the radios made it a little unnecessary to stay terribly close. I ran the entire race on one set of AA batteries in my radio - surprised me they would last that long transmitting on high with fairly constant chatter. I carried tube change equipment until Camp Wood iirc. The crew followed me after that as per the rules. This was the first race for me and my crew so we were pretty clueless but they did a fabulous job. The radios made a huge difference as I could tell them precisely what I needed and how to give it to me. Later in the race handoffs out the window just happened. No issues, no problems. I thought they'd be a lot harder, but excellent drivers, etc. probably made the difference. Flying down Old No9 from the bat cave was interesting in the dark with it raining. I called for my driver to get a close as possible for lighting. I was running a 700 lumen headlight and a led helmet light but under the conditions it wasn't enough. Kudos to all the drivers who had to deal with that situation as they had to follow really closely under very difficult conditions. As I related at the Bacchetta site, I trashed my legs with a sugar overdose. I didn't realize until after the race, reading emails, etc. that I never really related how much pain I was in to my crew. Probably a good thing though, as they would likely have pulled me out if they knew. I blew out blood vessels throughout my lower legs and trashed tendons, etc. I put a tennis elbow wrap on my right ankle around Leakey which pretty much saved it but didn't have another so my left ankle was pretty much blown out by the end of the race. I still have a wrap on it and it's still very swollen a week later. My right ankle is doing better and should be back to normal maybe later this week. I talked with a doctor who I'm fitting a new Giro20 to (from Helotes Bicycle - new Bacchetta dealer) about the problems and he said yes, what likely happened is that sugar overdose pushed water back into my stomach preventing it and the needed electrolytes from getting digested so the effect was the same as if I wasn't drinking enough water/electrolytes - severe cramping. I still think I would have finished in the 22-23 hours I had anticipated if I hadn't screwed up the diet. I issued a challenge to my crew and some of my riding buddies for a local rematch when I recover. I do it solo again and they can do it as a relay team. :^) If any of you dfw/rbent riders want to join in, you'd be welcome. I'm just a bike rider so it's a little hard to get up that far. I rode to Salado last summer and almost rode to Waco to visit my daughter in Feb. We'll be at the ESR Bent event next month if any of you make it down then. If we ride to Long Island in May we'll likely go through NE TX if any would be interested in trying to meet up. |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by goatstick on Mar 23rd, 2009, 3:13pm aikigreg wrote:
That would be me. I normally ride about 7k miles/year including commute miles. I bought the Corsa from Mike at ESR in Austin a year ago March 9th and put 8300 miles including 38 centuries and a trip to Florida and back on it in that year which bumped me to just over 10k miles on all my rides during that time. My daughter and I are apparently planning a trip to Long Island in May, so more miles and stories.[/quote] [/quote] Thanks for the kind words. I would never even have considered it until after the trip to Florida and back. Several ex-racers, including George who put on the hc600 told me I had the base miles to do it (several times before I started to think it was worth believing them :^). I'm normally pretty fast, especially on rollers, so I thought maybe it was time to jump in and see what I could do. With my legs trashed, the base miles from the trip and the techniques I learned to deal with overtraining there I'm pretty sure are what got me through. I didn't really even think about if I was going to finish or not until towards the end when I was getting a bit discouraged due to my low speeds. I think most of you would be really surprised at what you can do. That's what the trip and the race taught me. Now century rides on these hilly roads are just a matter of time. No more thought about if I can do them or not. Pretty liberating, and it wouldn't take a lot to go from where most of you are to there (if you aren't already there). I always thought I was just a slightly above-average rider, and whilst screwing up the diet during the race does a lot to keep my head from ballooning, I no longer think I have anything to apologize for, and that's a pretty good feeling. Let's go riding! (when my left ankle starts working again :^) |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by aikigreg on Mar 23rd, 2009, 3:52pm I know what you mean. I was pretty down on myself for a while after Sebring, because I hadn't done what I had said I would do, but I figure I'm still learning about this sport, and hopefully the problems I have today I won't have in the future. I started off cocky and after having had my butt handed to me left and right I'd like to think I'm more level headed now. In the end I'm just trying to please myself and stay in shape (round IS a shape!) Don't forget to keep coming back here, and I'd love a chance to come riding with you. I'm sure a couple of us could make a nice weekend out of it. Greg [quote author=goatstick link=1237129668/0#10 date=1237839194 I think most of you would be really surprised at what you can do. That's what the trip and the race taught me. Now century rides on these hilly roads are just a matter of time. No more thought about if I can do them or not. Pretty liberating, and it wouldn't take a lot to go from where most of you are to there (if you aren't already there). I always thought I was just a slightly above-average rider, and whilst screwing up the diet during the race does a lot to keep my head from ballooning, I no longer think I have anything to apologize for, and that's a pretty good feeling. Let's go riding! (when my left ankle starts working again :^) [/quote] |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by goatstick on Mar 23rd, 2009, 4:24pm aikigreg wrote:
I certainly think we need more ultra riders here in Texas. There's a lot of short races here in South TX but no long ones and almost no one does rides more than a century. I'd like to try to change that. I think the ultra races are where us older riders can have an edge. It takes a lot of planning and a pretty level-headed personality to do good at them. A good, fast recumbent certainly helps out also. Any time you want some good, fun, challenging rides down here, let me know. I'd love to show you around. We have a couple of spare bedrooms if you need but an 18% grade climb up the hill to the house and a bike door down at the gate open for anyone riding a bike! Grab some of the local riding buddies and make a long weekend of it. |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by Killer Bee on Mar 23rd, 2009, 4:36pm Kent, we briefly passed prior to the race(inside the tri shop) ,but at that everyone was pretty focused & it really wasn't time to "visit". As John said to us ,everyone that competed in this event was a winner. Just complete this course was a huge accomplishment. Congratulations to you & your crew. Sorry to hear about the medical issues. Heal quickly. And to think there were 2 other 'bents that didn't make the race that were originally planning to do so. Having 4 'bents in a field of 11-12 would have been really cool to see. And the next time I hear "recumbents can't climb" ,I will always remember the climbs & the success rate of both recumbents finishing the race(and both finishing with very respectful times). -Steve |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by goatstick on Mar 23rd, 2009, 5:13pm Killer Bee wrote:
Thanks again. There was supposed to be one more solo bent and then a 2-man team so would have been 5 of us. The hc600 wasn't advertised this year. George wanted to basically do a dry run to see how it went. Next year it gets advertised. That means several of you rbent riders will need to participate! Solo or team. I live here at bike central - a mile up the hill from the start line. We have all the hills you could ever want to train on and several that I won't even try riding my road bike up (20%+ long grade). So if you need some seriously hard and fun hill and roller training, I can be your guide and you won't need to point at others as you'll be flying up hills listening to people yell "That's not fair - recumbents aren't supposed to climb!" as you scream past them. But seriously, I wonder if I shouldn't hold a little speed-climbing seminar for high-racers... Maybe use a couple of you as guinea pigs to try to see if it's worth trying to put what I've learned into words and techniques. Let me know when you are ready! |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by AustinSkater on Mar 23rd, 2009, 8:21pm goatstick wrote:
But seriously, I wonder if I shouldn't hold a little speed-climbing seminar for high-racers... Maybe use a couple of you as guinea pigs to try to see if it's worth trying to put what I've learned into words and techniques. Let me know when you are ready! [/quote] If you do that, I will gladly head down that way, and I'm willing to suggest a target to train for: Tour das Hugel in Austin. 100+ miles with 14,000+ feet of climbing (give or take on both). The last time I did it I hit 30% on my Garmin (bad line on a curving climb), with lots of 20 - 25 % grades. It's held in November, and as far as I know (I've been at the last three of them) there has never been a 'bent to start it, let alone finish. Bryan |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by aikigreg on Mar 23rd, 2009, 8:32pm Sounds like fun [smiley=cry.gif] I think many of us would finish, but I'd be walking up some of those hills! At about 20 percent I start getting the feeling I'm going to go bass ackwards. |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by goatstick on Mar 24th, 2009, 5:03am AustinSkater wrote:
If you do that, I will gladly head down that way, and I'm willing to suggest a target to train for: Tour das Hugel in Austin. 100+ miles with 14,000+ feet of climbing (give or take on both). The last time I did it I hit 30% on my Garmin (bad line on a curving climb), with lots of 20 - 25 % grades. It's held in November, and as far as I know (I've been at the last three of them) there has never been a 'bent to start it, let alone finish. Bryan[/quote] *speed-climbing* :^) Starting out with 20% climbs likely isn't a good way to work on that. I hit 18% on the switchbacks up the road to my house and though I've become more stable in the year I've had the Corsa, I haven't gotten much faster (stable, as in keeping the front wheel mostly on the ground and not swerving off the road in the sharp turn when it does). On my carbon road bike the front wheel levitates slightly on almost every pedal stroke and I haven't gotten a whole lot faster in the 4 years of riding it up the hill either. OTOH, I've been lifting the front wheel on ~4%-6% short climbs at over 30mph the last month on the Corsa. And that's the strange part - I can often hit about 35-38mph on flat ground without a wind for short bursts but under the right circumstances I can go almost that fast (30-32mph) up moderate grades. It feels to me like the grade places a more usable load on my quads than flat ground so I can crank a *lot* more power through it. That's the power output/technique that makes the short, steep rollers around here really fast and really fun. You just run off and leave the roadies (me included if I'm on my road bike). I think the best way to get better at long, steep grades is mainly just get the base miles in. Like headwinds, you just get used to it and gain a couple mph without undue stress. Changing up pull/push muscle groups often so you don't tire one set out and working on pedal technique. That's what saved me on the steeper 337 climbs during the race when I had no power. I was only a few mph slower than normal on the steepest climbs. I lost *far* more ground not being able to crank the lighter grades and rollers. |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by FlyingLaZBoy on Mar 24th, 2009, 7:58am goatstick wrote:
Fun, isn't it!!!!????!!! Good reports, Kent, and again, welcome! Sorry you did such a number on your legs.... :( Good information about the sugar overload, though....!!! Paul |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by goatstick on Mar 24th, 2009, 4:28pm FlyingLaZBoy wrote:
Thanks. It's just great fun to ride such an insanely fast bike. Weird how such a small thing can completely change your life. |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by bikerteam on Mar 25th, 2009, 5:44am Steve - I've had PC problems at home. While I need the PC Dr. to come to our house, I have it working enough to check e-mails, etc. I'll post a crew race report tonight. I also have the short videos loaded on my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22734648@N07/sets/72157615865486458/ |
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Title: Re: Hill Country 600K Race? Post by Killer Bee on Mar 25th, 2009, 9:31am bikerteam wrote:
Ray, those videos bring back great memories. Thanks for sharing. So your ride report will be on Bacchetta's forum tonight? |
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