Le Tour Grand

Since my boss asked me this morning why I would subject my body to the torture of riding for 22 hours straight, I will attempt an answer. Yes, this will be something short and sweet like George Mallory's response to the question about why he wanted to climb Mount Everest ("Because it's there.")...

What good is life if you can't discover what your seemingly frail body is capable of?

Well, there you have it... Now, on to the biggest ride of my life so far. The 50th LAW Grand Tour. This is the grand-daddy of the ultra cycling events at least in America. This was staged as the first double century way back in 1959. Since then, the double has sprouted a couple of evil siblings; a triple and a quadruple century.

If there wasn't a time limit, the quad might be a worth goal. But riding 400 miles in less than 24 hours is a pretty hefty accomplishment. I haven't even yet done a double at that pace!

The night before the ride, Joan and I got a pizza from a most outstanding restaurant in Canoga Park. The "Brooklyn Pie" from Red Balls Pizza is quite possibly the best pizza I have ever had. We each had a slice for dinner before attempting to go to sleep rather early. Waking up at 3:00, we quickly got ready and headed off to Malibu for the start. At 4:30, we started into the Highland Triple course. Never having done a triple, my goal was just to finish in a reasonable time.

For the first 25 miles or so, the route follows the Pacific Coast Highway in a beautiful place. The problem is that we were riding in the dark and could not see much of the scenery around us. The most common sound was the waves crashing on the shore. Coming into Oxnard, we had one of the highlights of the ride: riding between strawberry fields replete with ripe berries. I find it hard to imagine a smell better than fresh strawberries on a long ride (though riding past a hamburger stand about 200 miles later was pretty close!).

The big climb of the day came around not too much later. The climb up Portrero is quite nasty despite being less than three miles. The brunt of the climbing comes up towards the top, where the grade gets up to 25% at one spot! That can be brutal even in a car... But we managed to make it over the climb without too many problems, though my glasses did fog up enough that I had to stop at the top to clear them up.

Between that climb and the hill before Ojai, the route travels mostly through residential areas. Not bad, but it makes you appreciate how crowded southern California can be. At mile 70, we even rode past the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Riding past places like In-n-Out and Tommy's just made the hunger pangs grow in anticipation of the next rest stop...

After Santa Paula, the climb over the ridge to Ojai begins. The climbing is not that bad, but the temperature had gotten a bit on the warm side. So I suffered anyway. Coming down into the valley, we made our way into town and to the park where the lunch stop was at. Never has a simple bean and cheese burrito tasted so good. And of course everything else I ate tasted good as well. I figure that I ate somewhere around 1000 calories at that rest stop and washed it down with 150 calories worth of Dr. Pepper. Just one of the joys of ultracycling...

After leaving town, the course loops around Lake Casitas and over a couple more relatively minor climbs. This was a nice place to ride, though a bit smoggy. After the second of those climbs, the major climbs are over for the ride. Only a bunch of rolling hills remain. At Carpenteria, we turned north whilst the double riders turned south and back towards the finish. We still had an extra 97 mile out-and-back-course to ride before making that same trek back to the finish. So we turned north and through Santa Barbara and then onto Highway 101 for the stretch into Gaviota. Fortunately, the freeway has a very wide shoulder so it never felt unsafe to be there. But of course, cars whizzing past at 75 is a bit unnerving even if they are 20 or more feet away... Of course, the headwind we were facing didn't do much to encourage us.

After the turnaround, we headed back somewhat with the wind (unfortunately, the wind was dying down at the end of the day) fueled by cookies and fresh water. Then, not too far before the rest stop in Goleta, I got a flat tire on the front. So we had to stop on the side of the road to fix that. I used one of my air cartridges just so it wouldn't take too long to get moving again. I was getting to the point where stopping for longer than 10 minutes is a bad idea.

In Goleta, we refueled on cup-o-soup and fresh fruit and then started into the drudgery of riding into the darkness again (with somewhere around 80 miles still to ride...). Despite the sometimes confusing course (thanks to hard to read street signs), we made decent time back to Carpenteria. There we got more fuel and encouragement from the volunteers working the stop. And from here on to the finish, we rode with a guy named Phil who seemed to be suffering just as bad as I was.

Riding through Ventura had to be the hardest part. And it wasn't the difficulty of the riding. The route is hard to follow in places and the part along a bike path is difficult to ride fast due to the dips in the trail. But we still made it through and back to the last rest stop in Port Hueneme. There we had some delicious hot soup and plenty of other high-calorie goodies to keep us going for the last 35 miles.

From there, the route turned into a slog for me. That was probably the most tired I've been. And the fact that my legs were feeling like they might start cramping at any moment. But as long as I kept pedaling, they kept working; so who am I to complain?

All those miles from the morning along the PCH were repeated in the opposite direction. And I still couldn't see the scenery. But knowing that the finish was getting close kept me going. Well that, and the fact that I was riding with Joan.

With about 20 miles to go, we were passed by the first of the quad riders (he ended up with a time of 21:40! That's four consecutive 5:25 centuries... Crazy!). He was absolutely flying. The rolling hills kept coming, and at every one I would think that this had to be the last one. But it wasn't until I saw the do not enter sign on a side road that I knew we were almost there. And then came the entrance to Pepperdine University on the left. And there it was at last our exit from the highway. And then the very last hill; the one up into the parking lot of Malibu City Hall where the start/finish for the ride is.

After resting a bit at the finish (and having some excellent cake to help celebrate the 50th Grand Tour) we headed back to Canoga Park and the Motel 6. Once there we of course took much needed showers and settled in for two more slices of pizza each. and then off to sleep. Of course, that only lasted for 4.5 hours, and then we ate the rest of the pizza and went off on our way home.

During the ride we stopped for brunch (chili burger and milkshakes at Tommy's in Valencia) and did much snacking (chips, soda, brownie, etc...). Good stuff! Then once we got back into the Santa Clara Valley, we went over to La Bamba for a burrito and then off to the Stanford Theatre to watch Breakfast At Tiffany's. Altogether an outstanding weekend. I was incredibly sore and tired the next day; but it was worth every moment. Our total time was 22 hours give or take a minute or two. And I think the ride time was in the 19:30 range.

Here's the route map... And below that will be a map showing what 300 miles looks like on a relatively straight highway (Red Bluff to Fresno in this case)...