Post Tour de Palm Springs

Well, here is the post ride review.  Glad it's over!! 

Okay serious, it was a long day.  Friday night was spent getting things packed and gear ready.  This is the first event where I didn't prep my bike, clean it, go through and adjust everything because I swear every time I do something at the last minute it doesn't work right or I don't get the right adjustment and I spend way to much time fixing it when it wasn't that big of a deal to start with.  So this time I knew my cleats on my shoes were pretty worn out but figured I didn't want to mess with the alignment and have issues all day as I road so I left them alone.  That was my first bike mistake.  I should have replaced them.  After walking around the first SAG stop, I wore down the remaining edge of the cleat on my right foot and had a heck of a time clipping in once we started riding again.  It must have popped out a good 50 times during the rest of the ride.

Instead of replacing my cleats which would have taken 5 minutes and saved me a lot anxiety, I installed our new vinyl plotter and spent most of the night playing with it.  I thought that it would be cool to have our website on the back window of the car so that's why I was up so late.  There is definitely a learning curve with the software and applying the stickers of that size.  So around midnight I finally got done putting the sticker on and packing my stuff.  At 4am my alarm went off and I was in a hurry to get Spencer in time.   I wanted to eat a heavy/hearty breakfast, but because I was running late, I went for a bowl of cereal.  It sure didn't last long.  I bonked (run out of energy) early in the ride and paid for it the rest of the day.  I had a case of gels and figured that would make it okay.  Plus they would have SAG stops along the way with stuff to eat.  I decided to skip the first 3 to shave off some time, but now in hind sight I should have at least stopped at #3.

Then the day got even more challenging.  Besides the 20-30 flat tires we saw and a hand full of crashes, as I was riding around mile 48-49 just before SAG #3 the road was worse than anything I could imagine riding on.  The road was worse than cobblestone.  I eventually groaned and bounced through it but towards the end of it I got over to the oncoming traffic side where it was a little smoother, but I think it was too late.  Being a self proclaimed tough guy, I decided to skip SAG #3 at mile 50 or so and kept going.  I should have stopped and got something to eat at which time I would have noticed that I had a broken spoke.  Instead, I charged past it and about a half mile later I realized that something was clanking each time my back tire went around.  I stopped and saw that I had some serious tire wobble and felt my tire rubbing on my brake pads. I considered going back to the SAG stop to have a mechanic tighten my spokes, but as I stopped over I save a spoke sticking off to the side a good 8 inches or so.  So I decided to break off the remaining portion of the spoke and see how long it would last.  The nipple dropped into the wheel and rolled around as I rode with a nice rattling noise that everyone could hear.  I then loosened my rear brake pads assuming that it would be enough distance to no longer rub. 

So I am now riding with a busted up wheel, jacked up cleat that I am afraid will only last so long and am afraid to unclip in fear of not being able to get it back in.  So I rode on.  I finally stopped at the SAG #4 and got something to drink and eat.  I continued on.  I finally made it to the last SAG stop around mile 90 and threw ice in my jersey to cool off.  The heat was starting to get to me.  My legs were cramping from mile 80 on.  You stretch your calves and your quads cramp up, you stretch your quads and your calves cramp up.  They were playing tag it seemed.  At the last stop I noticed that my wheel was still rubbing on the brake pads after it had been opened up completely.  So I decided to take off the pads to give me more clearance.  It made a huge difference.  I suspect that they had been rubbing from mile 50 but I had my head phones on so I probably didn't hear it. 

I finally made my way back into town.  It was nice to finally come in and be done.  My computer said 102.66 miles.  I made my way over to the car and couldn't decide whether to eat now and puke later or puke now and eat later.  We loaded up and got out of there and I relaxed in the bed the rest of the evening.  I am sure that if I had sleep more things would have gone a lot better.  If I would have eaten more in the morning and throughout the ride things would have gone better.  If I would have had a function cleat and wheel my focus and performance would have been more effective.  All in all I am glad I did it.  How many people can say that they road 102 miles on a Saturday?  I am not in a hurry to sign up for another one right away.  Time to transition in running and again and get ready for the triathlon season.  I am sure that people were shocked to see a tall fat guy blowing past them especially on the down hill portions.  Sorry, I almost forgot to share how slow I was.  It took 6 hours and 40 minutes.  That's counting our getting out of town part too.  It dropped my average speed down to 15.2 mph.  


The best part was hooking onto group charging past.  There were flat sections that we were crusing at 30+ mph.  Some of these people were hard core for sure. 

If I were to suggest some changes for the ride, it would be to let only the 100 milers leave at 7am not all 100 and 55 milers.  The congestion getting out of the start area delayed us almost 20 minutes and then we had to coast through town until we got through the lights which cost us a good 10-15 minutes. 

Our next event with be the Rose Bowl Triathlon on March 19th.  Come check us out.  We will be handing out flyer's again and hopefully putting up some better results.