On May the 14th, we held the second in a series of two brevets for the new Randonneurs USA region in the Salt Lake area. This route was a brand new design and not merely a modification of an existing “Permanent” route (click for info on what a Permanent is). I wanted to incorporate a wide variety of terrain and so I included in this route an old mining town (Eureka), one continuous 2,000-foot climb, the Utah west desert, which contains the “Little Sahara” sand dunes, my stomping grounds in the hanging valley of Sanpete County near Mount Nebo.
The day before the brevet I got an e-mail from Jim Halay that he was down and out with a cold and sinus infection. That was bad news as I knew he needed this ride as a qualifier for the Colorado 1200K in July.
The morning of the ride started with me picking up my local cycling friend, JB Harward, at 4:15 a.m. He was going to drive the first half of the route and provide support at a few key checkpoints along the way. This would allow me ride the course with everyone else. Because of this, I was a little apprehensive, as this didn’t give me a chance to “pre-ride” the route, but since most of the route was the area where I train, I felt this would be safe bet. Scott was the first to arrive at the Maverik convenience store in Santaquin. He has done a number of tough rides including RANATAD, the Nevada Death Ride and LOTOJA, but this was his first brevet. I provided him his brevet card and explained how the system works. Later Don and Mary Margaret Williams arrived with their tandem — they are both officers in BCC, our sponsoring club. At a 6:03, with an ambient temperature of about 51F, everyone was just departing as Joseph arrived. He indicated he was not feeling well, but would gave it shot anyway. We went ahead and left without him and JB stayed back to help get ready him for the day. As a younger rider, I was expecting that he would catch us on the 2000-foot climb to the town of Eureka, which started only 10 miles into the day.
Scott and I started off together without lights as it was just light enough to safely bike without a headlight. I did turn on my rear blinkie, just to be on the safe side. The sky was full of clouds but the forecast was for only a 20% chance of showers. That usually that means clear skies in the morning and clouds accumulating later in the day. Despite the cloud cover, I still left my rain gear in my drop bag and wore only a wind jacket. The Williams did the same. Scott and I made that initial climb in good time and went over the top without stopping, anticipating the long, but gradual descent toward the first checkpoint (well, actually our 2nd checkpoint, as the start is considered #1), which was at a highway rest stop at mile 32 of the brevet. JB was there with fluids and snacks. We never did see the others as I had expected. We later learned that Joseph, upon arriving at the highway checkpoint, was still feeling lousy, and had decided to call it quits. He called his wife for a ride back. This was only his second brevet and I was hoping he would have been able to complete this distance.
We continued on our route, battling the wind out in the open desert. We alternating drafting each other along this section of the ride. We finally stopped in Nephi at the c-store checkpoint at mile 62 to replace lost fluids and nutrition. The temperature was a nice 70F. We both shed a few layers and then headed up Salt Creek Canyon along the shoulder of 11,800-foot Mt. Nebo. Scott, despite not having done any long rides yet this season, was a better climber than I, and politely backed off his pace a little so we could work together as we had a slight breeze coming down the canyon. Upon arriving at the top of this climb the temperature was much cooler, but we proceeded without adding layers. We had a stiff head wind during the next 12-15 miles of the route as we headed south along the western edge of Sanpete County. Across the valley, we could see some very unstable weather as it was raining on the east side. That same storm moved across to the western side of the valley and engulfed the Williams, who only had their wind jackets as their rain gear was in their drop bag, not too far away.
We arrived at the Spring City checkpoint (mile 95) at 12:43 and JB was there to greet us with lunch and gave us a report on how the others were doing. I swapped out my wind jacket for a rain jacket, grabbed some additional food items and we headed south towards Gunnison, our next checkpoint. That would be the last outside support we would receive on the brevet.
With a tail wind, we made good time, alternating drafting each other and riding single file down Highway 89. At one point, we hit 42 MPH on a not-so-steep incline. It felt good as were finally making good time. My thought this whole time was, if we have a tail wind now, that only means a head wind on the long and straight route back to the start. As it turned out, after making a U-turn in Gunnison we still had a tailwind. How could we be so lucky? But that tail wind was just the front edge of a nasty thunderstorm that hit us about half way between Gunnison and Levan. This is an area of the ride there are no services and very few houses or structures. I paused and put on my rain jacket and helmet cover as the wind shifted to a cross wind and was blowing rain and hail horizontally. Scott only had a wind jacket and I was worried that if the rain continued that it would soak through. Both of us had only short-fingered gloves and neither of us had toe warmers. The temperature was 49F, or much less, if you factor in the wind chill. I did not have on my knee warmers, but didn’t want to hassle sitting down and putting them on. We continued on our way, traveling somewhat apart from each other during this wet part of the day (drafting doesn’t work with fenderless bikes and cross winds). Fortunately there was a decent shoulder on the highway, so we were able to ride on the outside of the rumble strips. I worry about the impaired visibility of motorists during such weather. At 5 p.m. we finally arrived in Levan (mile 158) and Scott, who was riding ahead of me, stopped at a convenience store. He was very cold and wet and indicated he was ready to throw in the towel. He mentioned that as a post-cancer survivor, the nerves in his hands and toes were now less effective, which made them very sensitive to the cold. Despite being inside a building and out of the wind, his whole upper body was shivering. I could see he was not kidding about getting cold easily. As it turns out, he had family in Nephi, which was only 9 miles away, and he called for ride. After his ride arrived, I continued on my way. At that point, the storm had passed and there was some blue sky to the southeast.
Meanwhile, the Williams had just left Manti, at mile 113, and saw the storm coming. They backtracked and retreated into a pizza parlor enjoying hot food, while watching the storm come and go. They spent nearly an hour there.
I finished the route alone at 7:27 p.m. with plenty of daylight left (that is usually my goal and reason for hurrying on 300Ks — to make the ride an “all in daylight” event). The Williams arrived later in the evening, with reflective clothing and lights and a pleasant ambient temperatures of 53F. My camera battery died, otherwise I would have a few shots of them at the finish.
Many thanks to JB for providing support on this brevet. I look forward to many more brevets in the future along the Wasatch front. The support of the Mary Margaret and Don in sponsoring these brevets is also appreciated.
My personal stats from this ride: distance according to my computer: 189.2 miles, cycling time: 11:19, total time was 13:27, average speed: 16.7 MPH, max. speed 45 MPH, average cadence: 82.
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