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https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl General Category >> Ride Reports >> Hiil Country 600k race report https://rbentonline.org/YaBB.pl?num=1237751563 Message started by Killer Bee on Mar 22nd, 2009, 2:52pm |
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Title: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by Killer Bee on Mar 22nd, 2009, 2:52pm Sorry for the late post on the 600k race in the Hill Country. Life has been a little crazy the past weeks. Sorry for the long report. A lot happened during the race. 600K Hill Country Race As part of our Hellweek activities ,Ray Torrey ,Peggy & myself volunteered to crew for John Schlitter during the 600K race. None of us had crewed before, so to say this was going to be a learning experience was understatement. Friday 13th, the four of us(John in the Bacchetta van, Ray in his Lexus ,& Peggy & I in our Edge)headed down to the outskirts of San Antonio(to have the B-van & John's bike's inspected by RAAM officials)from the DFW area. We headed out about 9:00am in a steady ,cold rain. The persisted all the way to Helotes(start of the 600K race). It was truly a raw,ugly day. We arrived in Helotes at approx. 4:00pm. We attended a crew meeting with some of the other riders & crew which was presented by the race director George Thomas(also the race director for race across Oregon). The RAAM officials & George gave us a status update of the route, some "wash out" sections due to the previous days rain. A quick synopsis of the route ,broken down from time station#1 to the finish. We finished up the meeting and headed back to our B & B we reserved in Fredericksburg for hellweek(some 60 miles to the Northwest of the start). We had a quick snooze in the B & B & were up & headed back to the start the next morning by 6:00am. Race time was 8:00am. We arrived at the start & had somewhat relaxing time at a small "tri" shop in Helotes. Nothing was said,but the mode of all was different(race time). As race time approached ,John took a few a mintues to himself in the van ,the headed to the starting line ,with 10 other determined cyclsits(1 other Bacchetta rider-Kent Polk from Central Texas area). The first 4.5 miles was a neutral start. John took a tube & CO2 cartridge(just in case) as we drove to a pull-off at 15.2 miles to begin leapfrog support. We arrived at the pull-off & were quickly joined by all other support vehicles. We waited for approx. 20 minutes & then we saw John quickly pedaling up the first climb-in the lead. Ray & I were switching driving duties during the leapfrog stage of the race, Peggy was in charge of nutrition/hydration. As John approached ,we stood next to the road with water bottles in hand(held from the top of the bottle) & began to jog along at a moderate pace. The first hand off of hydration was to be water only(John was carrying 2 separate water bottles-1 plain water & 1 bottle of heed). As I handed off the bottle to John ,John asked if the bottle was plain water. Slight mistake ,I didn't ask & didn't know. I shrugged(not knowing) & handed it off. He tasted the bottle(which was mixed with Heed)& the bottle was tossed back to the crew(along with the spare tube & CO2 cartridge). That slight error would not happen again. We quickly gathered the objects & headed out in the man to continue our leapfrog support. We didn't see any riders behind John. He made his move. He hit the competition early & hard. We arrived at time station #1 in Medina ,some 42+ miles from the start(at 10:15am). I called the time in ,despite a RAAM official at the time station saying he documented John's name/number at 10:14am. I ain't taking any chances. I called the race director as prescribed at the time station for documentation. Now for the brutal section of the course-Medina to Leaky(pronounced "Lakey"). Climbs like the "condors nest" ,the "elevator shaft" ,etc... We continue to leap frog(Ray & I taking turns driving to keep fresh). As John would make the slow ,brutal climbs ,the three of us would jump out of the van & run/walk along side of him to offer drink/food support. At one point ,John called to me & said "smile" . He was right ,I just needed to relax & do our job. During the crew meeting the day before, the support vehicles were asked to pull off the road & have the drivers side tires 4-5' from the payment edge white line. It had significantly the day/night before ,there were some soft shoulders. Before the RAAM vehicle past us ,a RAAM official mentioned to us that weren't far enough off the road. You got to be kiddin' me. I had the van up against a rock ledge as it was(in the mud, I'm going to need a 4 wheel drive). I forgot to mention that this section had descents. I think John hit 54 mph during some the descents. It was fun to watch from the van. From now on ,we looked for gravel/loose rock pull offs & pull off into the pull offs by doing a 3 point turn(pulling completely off the road,& backing in the turn off). The RAAM officials seem to like this move. During the early hand offs of leapfrogging ,Peggy could not get the powered door to open/close. That left Ray & I to do must of the early hand offs. We finally figured out the van had to be in "park" for the powered door to open/close. Once we finally figured this out, Peggy was back to participating in hand offs again ,which prompted John to say to Peggy "I thought you were asleep in the van." During one of the early climbs ,John had asked for a bike swap. We leapfrog John ,& take the 2nd CA 2.0 off the carrier & John makes a bike change. <1 mile later,back to original CA 2.0(aka the mule). Onto time station #2-Leaky(mile 79.4). I forget the time John arrived. We continued our leap frog support. No issues(at least for the crew). We keep going onto Time station #3, Rock Springs(129.7 miles).I called John's time in as he passes the the time station(under the watchful eye of the RAAM officials). During the crew meeting,it was suggested that this would be a good place to re-fuel the vehicle,use the facilities ,& grab some caffeine,etc...I fuel the vehicle ,Peggy goes to get the Starbucks, & Ray would stay with the vehicle. I use the facilities & return to the vehicle. No Ray. The van is locked. Ray was caring the extra set of keys in a jacket which we see in the LOCKED van. Peggy & I frantically run into the Valero gas station & interrupt Ray in the bathroom..."Ray ,I hoped to God you have the spare keys with you!" Ray calmly turns,smiles & says "Yes." That's Ray in a nutshell. Crisis avoided. It's been 10 minutes & John's on the road without support. We catch up to John about 3/4 miles down the road,still flying along. Now onto time station #4-Junction(178.1 miles). After we called into the time stations, the race director would give up updates on the competition. After the 1st time station ,John's lead was 8 minutes,then it was 14 minutes ,then 24 minutes, then 42 minutes. We relayed the good news to John. Junction is the half way point for this race(not quit a full 600K, but John was calculating the full 600k distance ,not this abbreviated distance). As John made a quick bathroom break, I held his bike & said "we're halfway & you're smokin' everyone." He looked a me with a puzzled look and said with a quizzical expression and said "we're not halway.". Yes John, the route book(aka the bible) says "You are halfway." I don't thin he believed me. Off to Llano. Shortly after Junction ,we make a quick stop. John asks us to start the follow support now. Dusk is starting to set in. We turn on the van's flashers & we're required to have a second set of flasher's. John has a set of magnetic flasher mounted above the van's rear hatch door. Ray & I hop out & mount/turn on the flashers. No big deal. Wait, on the flasher lights does not stay lit. John wait a few minutes & says "I'm going to head down the road. Try & figure out the problem.". He heads down the road. We quickly determine the issue is a set of bad batteries. BUT, we are the extra batteries. We search the van ,we can't find them anywhere. I had taken a camera with me & a spare set of "AA" batteries(just in case). Enough of looking, we have a rider on the course with no support. We change the batteries and catch up to John. Now were following. No more leap frog support. All food/drink is handed off to John from the van by Ray. I have the easy job, I drive. Peggy is documenting the food, making the PB &J's, preparing the waters ,& Boost. We arrive in Llano, time station #5(mile 254.9). We drive thru the town square. By this point ,Ray is navigating & communicating to John via loud speaker(right turn ,keep straight ,left turn,etc....). It's full on dark now. We drive thru Llano & at some point,John points to the side of the road. Quick stop. In the process,an unknown SUV stops ahead of us. The driver comes back to us & the guy REEKS of BOOZE. Nice. We get ride of the guy & head down the road toward Fredericksburg. Time station #6(Frdericksburg). Same drill, we call in the time. John is still in the lead & looking good(easy for me to say). Frdericksburg to Boerne(pronounced "Bernie"). This part of the route was amazing. I'm not sure what time it was,but this section is strewn with rollers. John is flying through this section & I'm right on his wheel,30-40 mph. Now it gets fun. I have never seen so many deer(and jack rabbits) in my life. We're so rural ,I turn on my brights to help light up the road. The deer are darting back & forth across the road. Several come what seems arms length of John. No slowing him down. He's unfazed. The deer are constant. Usually hoping the fences along the road. The next time station in Boerne(#7),mile 340.3. It's tricky. There a series of quick right/left turns. The rider/crew are tired. Very easy to miss the turn for the finish. We almost miss our turn, but Ray catches the turn in frenzied moment of panic. Now,onto to Helotes. However,there are a series of 3 nasty climbs. Not horrible(easy for me to say),but brutal nonetheless(especially after the earlier climbs of the day). Keep going John. We're close now. We come into Helotes & the race director is waiting for us at the finish line & snaps a picture of John crossing the finish line. All three crew jump out of the van & congratulate John(relieved we didn't do anything to cost John the race). What a rush! John did it. 20 hours,59 minutes & 25,000 feet of climbing. 357.7 miles. AND as John is receiving congratulations ,we fill a few sprinkles. John gets his picture taken & we get the bike on the carrier. John climbs into the van ,onto his bunk. We all head back to the B & B in Fredericksburg, EXHAUSTED. In the process of driving back to Fredericksburg via I-10, I take a sharp turn & John practically flies off the bunk & mumbles "are we home yet?" We all say "no." Words like intense,exhilarating,thrilling,unbelievable,amazing,fun...you get the idea. Thanks John for being patient with your virgin crew. 1st place a course record. Not a bad day at the office. His closest competition finished some 2+ hours behind. I have some race photos I can share. http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1091.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1095.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1097.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1099.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1100.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1103.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1109.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1110.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1112.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1113.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1114.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1115.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1116.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1118.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1119.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1121.jpg http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/strada177/IMG_1122.jpg |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by bikerteam on Mar 22nd, 2009, 5:03pm Excellent report Steve. It was the thrill of my life, and I'm honored to have experienced it with you and Peggy. Once I find the time to learn how to post videos, I'll respond with my still pictures and videos My only comment is that you deserve a tremendous amount of praise and credit for driving in "follow mode", which was from dark till John finished a 4:59am. People... read carefully here... Steve was amazing... John, after riding 300 miles was flying around blind curves and hills at 20-30mph. The only time that John applied his breaks was at a sharp curve with a low water crossing. Steve was following, providing high beam for lights about 15' behind. At those speeds that's less than a half second separating Steve from hurting or possibly killing John. Steve drove amazing. And as Steve said, to watch John ride in those conditions with 300-500 deer in about a 10 mile span, never slowing down was amazing to watch. After the race even Mark Metcalf said he stopped a couple times because of the deer. One more comment. The only time, in 600k that John was off the bike was for nature breaks. We reacted like a Nascar crew. One of us would grab his bike, the others would fill up water bottles or give food. John would be back on the bike in about 1 minute waiting for us to fly into the van, as he couldn't leave until we were ready to follow. Amazing I tell ya, simply amazing. |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by Killer Bee on Mar 22nd, 2009, 5:12pm Ray is being modest. I had the easiest job of the three crew members. Ray navigated(and did hand offs from the van at 15-20 mph during the follow mode), & Peggy prepared the water,food,& nutrition. Ray was cool/calm on the loud speaker to John(while navigating). Peggy was dead-on with the food & water the entire race. I will agree it was a thrill,not to be soon forgotten. I can't imagine the stress of crewing for someone riding solo RAAM(or even team RAAM). The crew can easily cost a rider a race. |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by Bud_Bent on Mar 22nd, 2009, 6:14pm Great report. I had one question: Why the quick change of bikes? |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by aikigreg on Mar 22nd, 2009, 6:38pm couple questions: 1. I take it the 2 different CA2's were one geared for the flats and one for the steep stuff? Double and triple? 2. How did those dark handoffs work? You guy drive on the wrong side of the road? Awesome job. I'd be white-knuckled the whole time and botch it for sure. You guys rock! Oh, also, did John only take in liquid fuel? |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by Killer Bee on Mar 22nd, 2009, 6:51pm aikigreg wrote:
Question #1- Yes ,2 different CA 2.0's. I know his primary bike had a double/double only. He rode the Blue 2.0 for about 3/4 of a mile then went back to his "mule" as he called it. Question #2-Ray did the dark hand offs. He leaned out of the van & exchanged food/bottles with John. I was busy watching the road & maintaining a certain speed during this time. We stayed in the middle of the road. Question #3- His liquid fuel was a chocolate flavored drink called "Boost"(kinda like an Ensure of Slimfast). And Bud ,the quick change occurred during one of those brutal climbs. He just wanted to see if could climb any better with the Blue 2.0 than his primary bike. The answer was no ,it didn't matter. |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by bikerteam on Mar 23rd, 2009, 5:59am Killer Bee wrote:
Question #1- Yes ,2 different CA 2.0's. I know his primary bike had a double/double only. He rode the Blue 2.0 for about 3/4 of a mile then went back to his "mule" as he called it. Ray's comment: His primary bike has only a 39/53, but a 34 on the rear. It also is much lighter than the blue CA 2.0, which is why he rides it as his primary bike . Question #2-Ray did the dark hand offs. He leaned out of the van & exchanged food/bottles with John. I was busy watching the road & maintaining a certain speed during this time. We stayed in the middle of the road.Ray's comment: John would usually pull to the right edge of the road. Steve would approach from behind and I would lean out as far as possibly, hugging my knees against the door. At night John had double gloves and it was hard to perform hand off's. Question #3- His liquid fuel was a chocolate flavored drink called "Boost"(kinda like an Ensure of Slimfast). And Bud ,the quick change occurred during one of those brutal climbs. He just wanted to see if could climb any better with the Blue 2.0 than his primary bike. The answer was no ,it didn't matter. Ray's comment: As Steve said, after one brutal climb, I announced via the loud speaker that another long climb of approx 15% was upcoming. He wanted to switch bikes prior. At a kinda flat spot we raced ahead, and the three of us in perfect harmony had the blue CA 2.0 off the rack and ready for him to mount with 15-20 seconds. After the climb, we switched back to his main bike for the rest of the race. |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by aikigreg on Mar 23rd, 2009, 8:54am How was the primary bike so much lighter than the blue one? They use a heavy paint? ;D |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by Killer Bee on Mar 23rd, 2009, 11:34am aikigreg wrote:
No ,you nut job. The mule(black) was all tricked out ,the blue CA 2.0 is stock. Ray could give you more specifics than I could on the difference between the bikes. |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by AustinSkater on Mar 23rd, 2009, 12:09pm Good write-up, and a good job to y'all. You missed the post-race party, where John was telling everyone what a fantastic job y'all did. On a side note, it sounds like it's a lot more work to do a handoff to a 'bent than it is for a DF. We had no problems with Sharon riding right next to the Baja and taking bottles. Of course, the Baja is a little lower than John's van :-) |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by bikerteam on Mar 23rd, 2009, 12:35pm In a nutshell, you nut job, the tricked out bike has Zero Gravity brakes, Zipp 404 wheels, lighter carbon seat, lighter/better components, etc. |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by Killer Bee on Mar 23rd, 2009, 12:44pm AustinSkater wrote:
Bryan, wow that's really cool & glad we could be a part of the event. The thought of making a 3rd trip to Helotes from Fredericksburg in 2 days was a bit much. AND we had to remember why we there to begin with-ride Hellweek. Sorry we missed the party. We got in a 50+ mile ride late Sunday after getting back to the B & B at 6:30 am Sunday morning. If you think about it, not only did John win the 600k race ,but he had to train his crew at the same time he was on the bike. Not an easy thing to pull off. Ray handled the hand offs, he could tell how hard that effort was. |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by aikigreg on Mar 23rd, 2009, 1:05pm bikerteam wrote:
I figured. I know they usually weigh each seat and pick the lightest of the bunch when building their own bikes :) Nutjob? I'm starting to get my feelings hurt. :'( |
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Title: Re: Hiil Country 600k race report Post by Killer Bee on Mar 23rd, 2009, 5:09pm aikigreg wrote:
I figured. I know they usually weigh each seat and pick the lightest of the bunch when building their own bikes :) Nutjob? I'm starting to get my feelings hurt. :'([/quote] You're our favorite nut job. Just a few last comments about the 600k race from me. It was really cool to see the mutual respect that John had for all of the other 600k riders ,especially the respect John has for Mark Metcalfe(fellow race competitor). During Hellweek ,John would ride up to the start of the rides to say "hi" to Mark & Linda. I thought that showed class & was a nice touch. |
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