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Chico Wildflower 2014, or - Hell Didn’t Freeze Over, but Paradise Almost Did.

4/30/2014

 
 Another  adventure in the bag! We arrived at the Fairgrounds just after 2PM on Saturday.
I remember it being a madhouse last year, maybe because we were a bit later, and
we were trying to do a lot-  check
into a motel room, do some last-minute shopping, time everything to mesh with a
planned Latte picnic at Bidwell Park. This year we were earlier, the line was
almost nonexistent, and we were camping. We picked out a likely spot under a
tree. This was Bill’s idea, figuring that the last thing we’d want to face
Sunday afternoon after a long ride was a van that had baked in the sun. It was a
great theory.


Now,  at 3PM, we were left with essentially nothing to do but hang out. Not a problem!
I replaced my rear brake pads (yeah!). We hauled out the camp chair, read a bit,
and enjoyed the cool breeze. When it became a COLD breeze, we put on our jackets
and enjoyed that, too.


Eventually  we wandered down to the food court for dinner. We had some very good tamales,
and I decided to follow that up with some mac-n-cheesethat was really sensational. We ended up turning in at 6:30.  Really.


Somehow  the stars aligned and we both got really good sleep –except for the 5 minutes of
rain around 2AM. Up at 4:30, dress, make oatmeal and coffee, and head out to
 air up the bike tires. My rear  tire (changed yesterday – new tube/tire) was nearly flat. I was seriously
considering declaring it a slow leak, pumping it up, and soldiering on, but Bill
dove in and fixed it. (Thanks!!)


The  weather forecast was for a high approaching 70, and we knew it was going to be
just below 50 at the start, so we dressed a bit on the warm side – I had capris,
Bill had legwarmers, we both had our Team jackets. Bill had warm gloves, which
was a smart call, and he loaned me his spare armwarmers, which I initially
disdained but decided at the last minute to stuff into a side bag.



The early miles went just fine. There was a very stiff crosswind on the first big
descent (the warmup hill before heading out toward Paradise). A couple of DF
riders looked uncomfortable with it, but it wasn’t a problem for the Musashis.
Bill was kind enough to wait for me at the top of Honey Run, and we rolled into
Paradise together.


The bike path – check, then after Magalia the climb steepens to Stirling City.
Jennifer and her posse caught up to us, and challenged Bill to a bit of hill
climbing. He was kind enough to wait for me after that, too, and we rolled into
Stirling City together.


It was cold at Stirling City, so we didn’t stay long. Later
  someone said that their Garmin registered a temp of 39F. The rain started just
as we started down the slope. 



I  spent years riding in the Willamette Valley, so I know a thing or two about
riding in cold rain. And those two things are, in order of importance, if you’re
riding in 40 and rainy, (1) don’t dress for 60 and dry, and (2) don’t climb any
significant hills, because you’ll chill on the downhill. If you’ve read
carefully to this point, you’ll realize, as I did, that we were screwed on both
counts. True, we had jackets, which put us ahead of quite a few people, but –
they are,  at best, “45 and dry” jackets. Nevertheless, the hill won’t descend itself, so off we
  went. I pulled out every trick I know, including pedal-braking (pedaling with
  the brakes on) to generate a bit of body heat.


We almost made it. Actually, I think we  would’ve if I wouldn’t have gotten a second flat (front tire this time) a bit  more than halfway down. After fixing the flat, Bill was shivering visibly. When
he couldn’t control the bike, we stopped to re-evaluate. Fortunately we stopped
in front of a mini mart, and fortunately it was the sort of mini mart that sold
hot chocolate, and had free newspapers to stuff into his jersey, and had a
proprietor who figured out that it wasn’t smart to interfere with the grimy
alien creatures huddled under his heater.  For some reason, I was spared the worst
of it. I’d like to think that it was the pedal-braking.


After a bit of work on warming up, we were off to finish hurtling down the hill. We
decided to alter our ride strategy – we went straight to the lunch stop rather
than doing the loop out to Table Mountain, on the theory that one more cold
climb and descent would’ve done one or the other of us in.  As
it turned out, talking to other folks, the weather was fine at Table Mountain,
so we would’ve been okay, but – better safe than sorry. The last bit of descent
is marked at 10%+. We passed a couple of people who were so hypothermic by that
time that they were walking down the hills.


At the lunch stop, lots of people had had enough and were being sagged in. The ride
organizers had opened up the school and cranked the heat in one room so that
people could revive a bit. It was the quietest lunch stop EVER – everyone was
trying to muscle up the courage to keep going.  A bike mechanic at the rest stop spent
some time ogling my bike. The pink one always gets all the attention.



We knew we were going to keep going, but it was a question in our minds whether we
were up for the short route home, or the long route. 
Bill, who had been most affected by the cold, was thinking about bailing
out. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to.


The weather stayed pretty indifferent the rest of the way home – 60-ish and
overcast, but no real rain. And the further we went, the stronger we felt. After
a couple of dry, tailwind-assisted miles, we were rolling along at death-defying
speeds. Because we were low, and relatively quiet, and had a significant delta
on most of the other riders, we surprised a lot of folks as we zipped by. So it
wasn’t really surprising to me that when we got to the turnoff point to take the
shortcut home, Bill wanted to keep on riding, too. Woo-hoo!!!


We got back to the fairgrounds around 2, ate, showered, and headed for home. One of
my ulterior motives in leaving off Table Mountain was that 
we would have time to make a pit stop at Pumpkinland. And what can you
get at Pumpkinland? Well, let’s start with what you CAN’T get at Pumkinland. Any
guesses? That’s right, the one thing that you definitely can NOT get at
Pumpkinland  is – pumpkins. But
that’s okay - what we were there for was asparagus. They have very, very, very
good asparagus. Moist, fresh, green, not woody. They also have chocolates, ice
cream, and caramel corn. In addition to the asparagus, a bag of caramel corn got
stashed on board the Red Pearl for provisioning for the ride home.



Home  just before dark, unpacked the things that we knew we’d need on Monday, and back
to bed –so that we’d be up in time for spin class Monday morning. Whew.



I  am SO glad that I thought to put new brake pads on. I wouldn’t have had the
confidence to do so much braking if I was still working with the old, worn ones.
And in talking it over with another “survivor”, I was glad to have taken it
slowly on the descent. Jennifer did some windchill calculations – at a normal
descending speed the windchill would’ve been 30F. Her instinct had been to get
down the hill as fast as possible, to get it over with. I was tempted by the
same thought process  – that maybe I was screwing myself (and Bill, since he was staying with me) up by going too slowly, since we were exposed longer – but when we looked at the actual data,
  slow and steady is a better, safer bet if you’re underdressed.

The Big Interview With Red Pearl Racing

4/8/2014

 
Because you've asked....

Q) Why “Red Pearl”?

A) We decided that we really couldn't be Raven Lunatics any more. But one of the Raven Lunatic traditions we're keeping is the pirate flag, so we decided to stick with a pirate theme. The Black Pearl was Jack Sparrow's pirate ship – and when we got a red van, that was the deal-maker. 

Q) Why not RAAM?
A) C'mon, we're young and in love! A week of not, um, seeing each other is a very long time. It would be super-embarrassing to have to pull over for a conjugal visit in, say, Effingham. (Trending on Twitter: #raammeltdown #effingineffingham) When we sign up for RAAM, sometime 'waaaaay out there in the future, feel free to remind us of this. Seriously – the money and insanity commitment just wasn't there.

Q) Ummmm, young?
A) It's a state of mind. And all the old people we see are still older than us.

Q) Why RAW, then?
A) Because it's an optimal challenge for us. We're really looking forward to it, it doesn't break the bank, and we can race hard for (our super-secret goal time). We get almost all of the good scenery, and we've asked Dennis Johnson's team to send us a photo of a cornfield so we don't feel like we're missing out on the rest of it.

Q) Who's on the crew?
A) Our crew chief is Ian Hoffman. He's been through RAW, RAAM, and RAO. We've also got Phil Bradley (David's older son, also a RAAM crew vet), Jim Kern (crewing RAW and then RAAM for Dennis's team after Durango), Jennifer Johnson (Adventure's Edge), Willard Foote (retired and lovin' it), and Jan Werren (ditto). A good mix of experience and talent, with a definite Humboldt flair.

Q) Speaking of Humboldt - any sponsors besides Adventures' Edge that you'd like to mention?
A) Hey - stay out of my granola! Los Bagels generously stepped up to the plate.

Q) What have you been doing to train for RAW?

A) Besides “ride lots”, which generally works out well, we've added in some weight training, heat training in a sauna, and 24-hour interval training sessions where we take turns working hard. It was important to us to transition from riding “with” each other (which we do a lot of) to riding “for” each other.

Q) Why recumbents?
A) David made us. Seriously. Lots of good reasons to race recumbents: they're more comfortable, you can absorb the scenery better, they're safer in the unlikely event of a crash, the downhill and flat terrain can go by a little faster, you don't chap all the hide off of your sensitive parts - and you still have to worry about being sidelined by that lovin' feeling in Effingham.

Q) Why Musashis? Aren't they extinct?
A) No, they're not extinct, just out of production. The Musashi is an excellent – stellar, actually – paradigm for an ultraracing bike. It's the CAAD5 of the recumbent world: not the lightest or most exotic bike. But it's stiff, efficient, stable, and has awesome climbing geometry, which will be important for Bill.

Q) What was that, again?

A) I said, climbing geometry will be important for Bill. I suppose I'll get my share of the climbing in – but we're going to stick Bill with the epic parts. He's a fantastic climber.

Q) OK, now that we've exposed your strategy, what other secrets do you want to share?
A) We're going to pedal real fast - and play bagpipe music when we pass our main rabbits.

Q) Rabbits? Yikes! The RAW team field is stacked with talent this year! Your rabbits are...?
A) Not great fans of bagpipe music, I'll bet.

Q) One last question. Your tagline is “We're the luckiest people in the world”. Want to expand on that a bit?
A) Sure. We ARE incredibly lucky. We were lucky enough to get born to parents who were pretty fantastic at taking care of tiny, helpless people, in a country that has clean water and clean air. We were given education and opportunity to try sports from a young age. We have decent jobs that pay the bills and strong bodies that don't let us down. All that good luck got us to a point where we could become TRULY lucky: we found racing, and we found each other.

    Red Pearl Racing

    Recumbent Rockets Racing for the Rockies

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