Tahoe Century Ride

I'm a bit late in reporting the details but on June 1st I completed my very first century ride, "America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride" in Lake Tahoe. I trained for and completed the event to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as part of their Team in Training (TnT) program.

I had been sweating the weather in the week beforehand, as Tahoe had been frigidly cold and there had been non-stop thunderstorms in the week before the ride. The heavens smiled on us and we had A-mazing weather for the ride. Lows were in the mid-50's in the morning and the highs were in the mid 70's during the hottest part of the day. Perfect.

Here is a map of the route.




















The ride is advertised as 3,500 feet of climbing but I suspect it is closer to 4,500. Every bike computer our team has showed more than 3,500 feet of climbing. Here is a graphic showing the elevation gains and falls of the route.

The ride is called America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride for a reason. It is a spectacular loop around Lake Tahoe and a very well organized event. There were astounding views around every bend and at the crest of every hill. I found the course to be very doable. The ride was the culmination of 18-weeks of intense training and so the order of the day was to enjoy ourselves.

My team was very well trained and everyone was able to complete the event. My immediate group, the B3's, was very strong and we were constantly passing up other riders with our pace line. We averaged a little over a 14 MPH pace for the day. It was all about enjoying the ride as we weren't going for time. I found it strange that our team was one of the few that rode in pace lines. Only two of the sixty or so TnT groups we saw rode in a pace line. Weird.

Each of the TnT groups wore essentially the same uniform of black bike shorts and the Team colors jersey. With so many riders, it is difficult to easily tell who is in your group especially at the start when we were all bunched up. To alleviate this, each of the groups had a unique "helmet topper". Being from San Diego, our team had a pair of sunglasses fixed to the tops of our helmets. The Sacramento Team had a tomato, DC had a model of the Capital building, New York had and apple, Georgia had a Peach, etc. Every rider I encountered was very positive and courteous.

There were two major climbs along the course, Emerald Bay and Spooner Summit. Emerald Bay is short but very steep but was on Mile 11 when we were all still strong. There were lots of wheezing people on the way up but our Team was able to make it up with little problem. One of my teammates, Mark, joked that he wanted his money back as he was promised a challenging climb.

I think this one was taken at the top of Emerald Bay.






























Team Photo at top of Emerald Bay

We also took time to stop and take group photos in a couple of other locations including at the Olympic Torch in Squaw Valley where the 1960 Winter Olympics were held.
















The following Team Photo was taken after luxurious long lunch at King's Beach.















The Mighty B3's

Spooner Summit was a constant 9-mile grind uphill around mile 80 which seemed a little cruel. I did a quick self assessment and felt that I had plenty of gas left so.... Attack, attack, attack. I kicked that hill's butt. It was a pretty tough climb but I just powered up the hill passing people left and right. All those standing climb exercises in spin classes paid off. Oh, I spoke to Mark at the top of the summit and he no longer wanted his money back.















Exuberant at Spooner Summit

The reward of a steep climb is the screaming downhill afterwards. I had hooked up with Thomas, who is a very strong rider on the ACE Team, and we both had fun pushing hard, sprinting down the mountain. I got my speed up to 42 MPH on the way down. It felt great to really turn it loose.















On the road somewhere on the Lake




















Official Ride photo = $30. What a racket.

One guy in another group of my Team, broke his front derailer at mile 14 and did the rest of the event on his small front ring. He had full control of the back derailers but was stuck in his climbing ring on the front! He was OK on the climbs but had to do some crazy spinning on the flats to keep up. He had to spend most of the day drafting behind the rest of his teammates to not get left behind.

All the San Diego riders gathered about 3-miles before the finish line and rode in 60-riders strong in a double pace-line and crossed the finish line together. It was a very special moment. Somehow, possibly due to fatigue, I managed to not take a single photo of myself with my medal or at the finish line. You'll just have to trust me.

I rode the 1/2-mile or so back to the hotel and after a short rest and a quick shower, it was off to the Victory Party to load up on the food. Amazingly, we got a big group out on the dance floor whooping it up to the likes of Kool and the Gang, KC and the Sunshine Band and other disco favorites. I had my first beer (ok, several beers) in a month and generally had a great time. As typical, they had to kick San Diego off the dance floor at the end of the party so a bunch of us continued on to Cabo Wabo, a local casino dance club and kept going for another couple of hours. Really fun.

TnT comprised ~1,800 of the ~3,400 total riders and raised over 8.5 Million dollars for the event. They also raised 12.5 Million at the Rock 'n Roll Marathon in San Diego the same day, so 21 Million total. Not a bad day's work.

Special thanks to my baby, Christine who went above and beyond the call of duty. She got up at the crack of dawn to ride out to Emerald Bay at mile 11, before the roads were shut down, to take beautiful photos of us and carry our sweaty cycle clothes once it warmed up. She spent the entire day on the course supporting our Team including at mile 80 on Spooner.