RaphaTasmania bike trip/Van Diemen's land

Courtesy of my favorite bike blog, Cycling Tips, I found good reading and pictures of a Rapha trip last December to Tasmania.  The 20K climb up Jacob's Ladder in Ben Lomond national Park looks crazy - on gravel!

Switchbacks of Jacob's Ladder.  Picture from Cycling Tips blog

Rapha has a new video of the trip on their site which is pretty cool.  Watch it if only to enjoy listening to the traditional English folk song, Van Diemen's Land.


Rainy here this week, just got my Orca back today, so have been running in the Portland Arboretum.  The trillium's are out!

Spring Classics 2012

Ghent-Wevelgem was March 25.  Tom Boonen of Belgium won with a time of 5:32:44.  Watch the little mishap at about 1:06.  From what I read the opinion is the crash was caused by JJ Rojas of Movistar:

The Tour of Flanders is next Sunday, April 1, followed by Paris-Roubaix on the 8th.  A complete schedule can be found at Cycling Weekly.

Portland's own crazy Ronde PDX will be held on Sunday April 22 to "celebrate the conclusion of the Belgian classics month", the day of the 2012 Liège - Bastogne - Liège. 10:00 am start. 

Start is on Industrial at NW 31st.  A ride map is on the Ronde PDX site.

Home from AZ

Lon and Susan

Home Saturday night so I'm doing some editing and adding pictures.  By the way, a lot of the pictures I put on my postings are downloaded from the PAC Tour 2012 album.

I'm still processing the Arizona trip.  I made new friends, got to know some PV members better, and I'm now looking forward to more trips with PAC Tours.

Lon fixing shoes; support on this tour was phenomenal!

Susan, Lon and all the staff of PAC Tours do an incredible job of organizing a 6 day bike tour for a large group of more than 60 people.  I'm always amazed when we come back without any injuries or serious mishaps. Considering the weather we started out in, we were pretty lucky!  I highly recommend PAC Tours!

Susan loading bikes up the last day

Day 6, Sierra Vista back to Tucson

Saddleback Mountain without the clouds

Done.  Pretty easy ride compared to the previous days.  81 miles, time 4:19, average 18 mph.  A fast pace as we had a tailwind from the top of the pass to the city limits of Tucson.  Art1 had a flat 1/2 way down the pass; not just any old flat, but the side wall was split.  We tried to fix it with a dollar bill, but when we inflated the tire, the bill AND the tube started to pop through.  Joe thought he could descend the 6 miles to the next stop if he went slowly.  (Art doesn't know slow on a descent).  It became obvious he couldn't ride when the tire split open even more.  We had to tell some riders coming by to find a sag car to pick him up.  I ended up descending down Old Sonoita road by myself, an option to get off the main highway. 

We sure had a lot of flats in our group.  The roads of AZ need some help.  Art had three flats, Joe took out a dry wall screw that went clear through his tube/tire and wheel on day one.  He patched the wheel with a piece of plastic from our route map cards and rode the rest of the week on it.  We sure had a lot of laughs about that!

Another thing they do in AZ is transport big, heavy, wide loads which are led out by police cars.  Cars AND bikes have to pull over to avoid being hit!

I've never seen so many border patrol cars in a state either.  And I WAS in Southern California and Tecate, Mexico 8 weeks ago; one border stop, very few patrol cars.  Ahhh....good ol' AZ - carry a couple of guns and make sure your pickup is in alignment; off you go!  Oh yeah, and make sure you don't pay any extra taxes for anything OR god forbid, get health insurance.

In addition there are SO many heat cracks in the roads, our buttache problems were made worse.  I digress....

Our Team

Art1

Art2, honorary PV member

Gary, PV member

David and Cindy, PV members

Susie, PV member

Jay, Bike Tires Direct and PV member

Joe, from Wisconsin, honorary PV member

Plus DK and KRhea who left early due to illness.

me at the last lunch stop.  

Back to Portland tomorrow.

Dinner  in Tucson
Joe, Art, me, Art2, David, Cindy, Susie, Jay, Jim and Gary

Day 5, Bisbee-McNeal-Tombstone

Bisbee copper mine

Great ride again today with Art, Art2, Joe, Cindy and David (Velo members).  We started with a ride up Mule Pass, down the washed out road to Bisbee, stopping again for a coffee.

Coming into Bisbee

Riding out to McNeal via Davis Road is pretty cool; we had a fast descent going about 30-33 mph in a tight paceline.  The weather sure has warmed up.  By the time we climbed back up to Tombstone, it was about 79 degrees.

Art and Art2 make me laugh so much. Today going down the old, washed out road to Bisbee, Art 'cyclecrossed' through some of the gravel sections.  I followed with only one small mishap on the second section and rode with some gravel in my glove for a while, thinking I must be getting a blister.  Art2 bunny hopped the dirt, but....oops, wrong side - he rode over on the left side which is the side where the road is washed out.  There is a steep drop off over a cutout in the road over there!  He didn't realize it until we all commented about what he just rode over.

Stats:  94.2 miles, 16.4 average pace, time 5:43, my max speed erroneously said 74.7 miles.

Lunch again was very good; tacos, lots of guacamole, cherry pie and chocolate cake.  Again, lots of supplements, ice cold coke, sunscreen, and chamois cream....we all needed it today!  Buttache problems.

Tomorrow we ride back about 80 miles to Tucson.

Day 4, Through the Fort to Patagonia

Our group before descending down to Patagonia

What a change in weather!  40 degree start at 7:30 am, by 1 pm in the 60's.  Today's ride took us through Fort Huachuca to Sonoita, then over to Patagonia and back.  This was the best ride so far.  The scenery was incredible, the road to Sonoita rolling hills.   Fort Huachuca reminds me of a really nice college campus, but my thought was, the semester abroad is terrible.

Art1, Art2, Joe and I pretty much stuck together.  These guys are so nice.  Art1 always makes sure I'm behind them, and, if not, he slows for me to catch up.  Art2 is a 39 year old from Pennsylvania.  Pretty agile on the bike, he bunny hopped the cattle grates with about 4 inches to spare.  I could predict what Art1's brain was thinking the first time he saw Art2 bunny hop over the grate.  Sure enough, he was doing it, almost clearing them.

'Art' parking

Me, Art2, Bob Stapleton (HTC Highroad team owner) and Art

The road to Patagonia and is an out and back, starting with a fun 12 mile descent.  We had coffee at a charming little cafe, complete with some guys who had just ridden in on their motorcycles.  For some reason I started talking to them about the fact that it's legal in AZ to carry a gun.  Sure enough, all of them said they had a gun, one guy even had two, one strapped to his leg!  This guy took one gun out to show me.  Actually they were pretty nice guys, of course Republicans, and we discussed just a little politics.  Romney is their favorite.  When they started talking about Obama and how we will have to "pay for everyone and everything" I decided I better shut up.  We said goodbye and agreed that "Republicans can be nice" and "all is not lost" according to one wearing a USS Reagan cap.

Gun buds

Art, Patagonia local & Art2

Going back up the hill from Patagonia with a 6% grade was kind of hard.  Luckily some riders came by us and we hooked on.  They pulled us up the hill at about 16 mph.  Lunch again was amazing; hot off the grill, grilled cheese sandwiches, and these are not your usual grilled cheese - they are made with pumpernickel bread or round whole wheat bread slices with tomato.  Potato salad and apple pie.  As usual, ice cold drinks, Gatorade, water, and supplements. Cool seating with planks on overturned buckets.  Oh yeah, they always have racks for your bikes.  The staff of PAC Tours work very hard!   A class act for sure.

Lunch stop.  Staff; Gladys (75 y/o from Argentina) and Barb (who gave great massages after rides!)

Jim, Art2, me and Art 1, last rest stop  

Stats:  100.2 miles, 16.0 average speed, 4855 feet of gain, max speed 39.7, time 6:15.

Tomorrow we go back to Bisbee via the climb up Mule Pass.  About 95 miles.

Day 3, Bisbee/Mule Pass

Day, 3, view from my room

Art. me and KRhea

A much better day today starting with a 6 mile hill climb up in Coronado National Memorial, complete with some left over snow from yesterday, back down and then over to Bisbee.

Art, top of Coronado

The weather started out cold, but somehow didn't seem too bad, even though the temp was said to be about 27 degrees.  We had some wind again today, but only about 14 mph with a few gusts.

Entering Bisbee is like coming into a small European village.  In Bisbee, we had our first 'real' PAC Tours lunch - spaghetti with meatballs, spinach salad, and really good apple pie, all in a big parking lot.  (I am quite particular about the latter as my Mom used to make the best apple pies).  Susan said someone, a non-rider, came up to her and asked if they were having a bake sale.  After lunch, Art, Art2 (who we met on this trip) and I went to a coffee shop to load up on some caffeine.

Warming up after coffee in Bisbee

Anyway, I do think this is the best lunch I have ever had on an organized bike ride.  Here's a nice touch - hot water to wash hands with "before you touch anything", Lon says.  Even at the rest stops!  They also have ample Hammer products; gu, Endurolytes, drink mixes and lots of made up COLD Gatorade.  And....dates, my favorite ride snack.  Oh yeah, and Payday candy bars. 

Marcy from Sante Fe, me, Art and Art2

The climb out of Bisbee to Mule Pass is pretty neat.  One almost doesn't feel the climb as you wind your way up, through Bisbee, to a washed out road (bikes can make it) that bypasses the highway.  This is followed by a blasted fun descent to Tombstone.  Our group opted out of the extra miles to get in a century.  Our legs are tired and I for one am feeling the altitude (4500' in SV, 6000' out of Bisbee at the pass).  We took a 15.5 mile cutoff road over to SV and our group had a pretty good paceline going.

Stats:  73 miles, time 4:31, average speed 15.2, max speed 38 mph. 

I have to add this;  last night 12 of us went to a Mexican restaurant.  PV folks, Lon, plus two women I met that are here on scholarship to train.  Of course KRhea told everyone it was my birthday (my 59th).  And, at the post ride meeting, DK got up and made a little speech about someone who is a first time PAC Tour rider, someone he knows, "this person is likable or wants to be likable" (huh?) etc, etc, and it became clear what he was doing.  KRhea came out with a birthday cake with 5 candles on one side, 9 on the other.  Pretty darn nice, although somewhat embarrassing.