Is this a first gen, or later roadini? Curious: on what tires did you ride this event? Any pictures?
John Portland, OR On Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 10:01:38 AM UTC-7 Brady Smith wrote: > I'd been looking forward to this ride for a long time. > > I turned 40 in the fall, not long after my dad was diagnosed with > leukemia. He knew he was sick when he started the first day of RAGBRAI last > summer and found the first 40 hot and hilly miles of an 80 mile day > unbearably, miserably difficult. > > He's fine now, at least for now, having made amazingly quick and > complication free work of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant, > facilitated by the extraordinary generosity of a college student whom I owe > a case of beer and then some when we're allowed to know who he is, and the > skill of the oncologists and transplant team at the University of Colorado. > > Needless to say, this illness provoked a fair amount of reflection and no > small amount of urgency when it comes to cycling, especially since cycling > has been so central to our relationship, and since the appearance of the > leukemia on a week-long cycling event made it abundantly clear just how > quickly one can go from able to not-so-able. > > I've been a randonneur for a while, having gotten into it during my days > commuting from Fort Lee, NJ into NYC. Until last year, I'd only ever > managed 200ks, largely due to family and work obligations. I've always > loved the sport, and wanted to do more, but it was also incredibly easy for > things to get in the way, especially given how limited our brevet calendar > is where I live now in Utah, and how busy one gets as an educator in the > spring. > > This fall, though, I put my name in the lottery for > London-Edinburgh-London 2025, and I got in. I've never been a slow rider, > but I've never been particularly fast either. My 300k last year was 15 > hours; I managed 400k in 21 hours, and that with a few flats and a sidewall > cut and some patching of tubes at a Wendy's while eating a cheeseburger in > the hopes of not having to do it again in the mountains in the dark. > > I could probably manage LEL after a summer of randonneuring, but at 300k a > day for five days is imposing no matter what one has done before. I set a > goal to get faster--to lose some weight and finally be able to ride with > the PBP finishers who always blasted off at the start of our brevets, never > to be seen again. I doubled down on weekend nordic skiing this winter and > bought a Zwift hub, upon which I mount my Roadini, which is transformed, > somewhat irritatinglly, into an S-Works Tarmac in the app. Tired of running > alone in the dark and the cold before work, I started riding most mornings, > sometimes doing group rides, sometimes racing, sometimes just plugging > along next to a pacer bot. > > It's boring but effective. I could tell on my first mountain bike rides > this spring that I was stronger. I was climbing hills in higher gears than > I ever had before. I set a new personal best up Emigration Canyon a few > weeks ago. But a 200k is not a short weekend ride, and my one opportunity > to go long ahead of this event was a mixed bag, though in hindsight that > was probably entirely due to having spent a few days prior couch surfing in > a friends' apartment in NYC. > > When we pulled out of the Centerville Walmart and headed north along a > mostly flat course to the tiny town of Corinne, Utah and back again, my > plan was "Hold on as long as you can, but no longer." > > It was a beautiful day, with a high of around 70 degrees, and a slight > headwind as we moved north, which meant that we would largely have the wind > at our backs as we came home. I stayed with the lead group, mostly much > more seasoned riders than me, up through the first control, thinking that > I'd drop back after we headed out to make sure I didn't blow up later in > the ride. > > When push came to shove, though, I kept on going. The second quarter of > the ride was hilly and windy, and I started to feel a bit queasy as I > worked through a big section of rollers that led up to lunch. > > At lunch, I mentally resolved to drop back and save myself the misery that > I figured was out ahead, but after eating and getting back on the road, I > couldn't bring myself to do it. I spent fifteen miles yo-yoing off the back > of the group, watching my heart rate spike, thinking that I was about to > lose them for good, until the pizza/soda/bratwurst/energy bar combo I ate > in Corinne kicked in, and I realized I was going to stay with the pack > through to the end. > > The last 40 miles or so were pure cycling bliss, a pack of riders on a mix > of steel and carbon riding swiftly along the shorelands of the Great Salt > Lake. I've always cruised alone around 15 miles an hour, perhaps having the > energy to go faster but never really willing to push it; watching the group > pass 20 miles an hour as we pushed towards the end was a new experience, to > say the least. > > With a few miles to go, one rider broke off and set out alone. I tried to > catch him, hoping that the stretch of rolling hills between mile 121 and > 124 would slow him down, but the hills got me instead. He finished at 7:34. > A bunch of us finished at 7:36, including the new woman's course record > holder. > > My previous time on this route was 9:41. It was a fabulous group effort. > > There's a lot of riding between now and the end of the season, to say > nothing of LEL. But this was a huge confidence builder. I rode with the > fast people. I can probably handle LEL. I may even get some sleep. > > Thanks for reading, > > Brady in SLC > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/bc23624e-d3c8-414f-8240-c457769f0ff5n%40googlegroups.com.
