tues 9 march 2010 TTTTTT MRLB RRR 06:30 DT4 - 22.0mph avg - bayway record attempt

nice. excellent work, all. that was "hella" fun. marvelous riding by everyone. a couple of teachable moments but overall quite safe. needless to say, the rest of my ride to apple was significantly slower.

~xton

sweet baby jesus, thank god that's over. stats in brief:

• dist: 42.43 miles (full bayway, including feral cats, plus the Lebariation bypass of the bridge-to-nowhere)
• time: 1:54:24 (-2:27 vs. previous record)
• avg: 22.3 mph
• avg hr: 169
• kcal: 1700
• riders (12): faye, space, xton, ted, trinh, hobe, ben, josh, michael, murph, nils, yours truly

detailed account, from my hazy twilight memory:

I must say it was with some trepidation that I witnessed the TTTTTT gladiators stride majestically into Ritual this morning, all grim-faced, steely-eyed, and girded for battle. would it be I to be first dropped? could the tandem live up to its billing as a man-mauler? or would it be trampled under the wheels of its erstwhile brethren? only Fate knew.

fearing cortland, it was suggested that we form a no-drop zone until Tunnel Rd., which to my relief was agreed upon. lucky too, as lugging the beast up the Hurl with skipping chain did not go well, and only by the gracious soft-pedaling of the host of riders were we able to reconnect with the pack.

making the right onto Tunnel, it appeared all was together, but then the hard men of the bayway let it be known that the time for jesting and mirth had passed, proceeding to put us all in the hurt locker, and shedding some riders as the pace ratcheted up.

it was then that my stoker, the powerful Faye, announced her presence by cutting in the afterburners and keeping us in contention with stroke after piledriving stroke.

approaching the hotelland ramp, I was privately concerned that all would make it thru safely due to unseasonably high speeds and the narrow, muddy, downright silly maneuvering required, and sure enough, a loud CRACK announced the demise of Nils' Zipp 404 (ouch), which introduced itself to the curb violently, yet soldiered on until terminally sidelined by a flat in feral cat land.

solid pacelining continued for miles without incident, until Ted's tire also gave up, and he was forced to abandon the lead group while putting in a career performance. it should be noted that he still recorded a blistering 1:59, despite the flat.

arriving at Sun, it was clear that the record was within reach, but xton was in no mood for celebrating. seeing fit to push the pace to a relentless 27+ mph, the remaining riders were made to pay for the privilege with currency they could ill-afford to spend, as the city limit sign of Lactate Land came into view.

exiting EPA, space suffered the third and final flat of the ride, and was forced to limp in only a few minutes back.

entering the bayshore super sprint, xton smelled blood and powered on with teutonic, terminator-esque efficiency, doing the lion's share of work while refusing to break a sweat or even breathe thru his mouth. as the group had been whittled to just 4 machines at this point, only the rules of engagement kept him from dropping his companions and basking in righteous solo victory.

at last it ended at charleston & amphitheatre, and then like keyser soze, poof! he was gone.

the rest of us bedraggled sweat-caked survivors -- michael, murph, faye & yours truly -- rolled into no-name, and tried to eat. I for one had no appetite.

thank you to everyone who showed up today. I think we can all agree that was the longest, most bad-ass TTT that has ever happened. it was historic*. once Nils determines the crash replacement cost of the 404, i suggest we take up a collection to buy him a new one. suffice to say, losing his power for the last 20 miles was a detriment to the effort.

*apologies to bikehugger

http://www.strava.com/rides/79785 (note the stats on strava are slightly different/slower than my garmin... I think the "stop timer" didn't register for some reason.

Agreed, Xton is AMAZING.

(And thank you for the vest)

-faye

I'm pretty sure xton on his own could have come close to this. He did the vast majority of the work. xton, you are an animal--very impressive stuff, sir.

-michael

Personally I got a flat with 8 miles to go after somehow sticking with the lead group until then in order to have a chance to hang with Hobe and Ben for a while. Ended up coming in at 1:59 and change.

Here's my track: http://www.strava.com/rides/79787

afterwards, got to do this: http://www.strava.com/rides/79786 -Ted

I really wanted a strava KOM so I let a truck flick me before Coyote Point so I'd have an excuse to get the KOM of the "Lebariation"

http://www.strava.com/rides/79788/segment_efforts/710224

-murph

Meh, it's OK. I'll get a replacement wheel tomorrow and pay crash replacement for it. I'm more frustrated by the fact that I didn't get to help out to my fullest potential... I was really looking forward to the long stretches of road towards the end.

-Nils

Sorry about the flat Nils, but it was a great excuse for me to drop off that slave driver of a pace. Wow. Here is my strava from SF, to Hillsdale. Had to cut off to go to my office in Belmont. That climb up Raulston was a beast after 30mph pacelining: http://www.strava.com/rides/79781

Good job to those who kept going to Google to set a new time!

For glory. For Sparta!! Stupid Bayway.

-Nils

A new record: 1:54 and change. I was there on the patio to watch them come in. -Brett L.

tuesday's forecast calls for moderate temps, strong tailwinds from the northwest (up to 37mph gusts), and it's time for some pain.

are you ready? then join us for the much-dreaded Terrible Tuesday Tandem Team Time Trial featuring the "Drop To 4" Most Riders Left Behind format.

myself and Faye will be piloting the cannondale tandem, and if anyone else has a tandem, bring it!

rules, should you elect to join this infernal pact:

• smooth pacelines, no attacks, sprints, or sudden accelerations
• no pulls of greater than 2 minutes
• no "pull" if you are going to slow down the group... just peel off, there is no shame in it
• no waiting, no regrouping (except to DT4 specs), one possible restroom break if necessary
• 98% effort until all but 4 are dropped, then weakest rider's 100% effort will dictate speed; goal is to arrive at finish with 4 riders
• full bayway including feral cats... BTN, maybe, depends on mud
• safety is more important than records, so no putting others in danger by running red lights w/ opposing traffic
• goal is >22.0mph average, and the average is a cruel mistress, which means in practical terms riding at between 24-28mph nonstop for just under 2 hours
• if we're lucky, we'll defeat the current record, 1:56:51, and maybe take down a few strava segments while we're at it. if we can beat 22mph, we should get there in ~1:54.

anyone interested?

-sc

ps - it will be hard to get the tandem over the hills at the beginning and we may well be dropped. c'est la vie.

SF2G is awesome!

Even tho we mostly all kind of suck for hiding from the "rains" today, we do have some redeeming virtues.

1) there were no less than 5 rides called for yesterday, and I think they actually all happened (2 skylines, 2 bayways, 1 hmbayway(!)) It was awesome to have a 15-person paceline for parts of skyline after the 2 groups converged. riders coming the other way were fairly flabbergasted.

I think this means we have reached critical self-sustaining mass, and that this organism will live on despite anyone's departure from god's green peninsula.

2) we are fabulous and popular: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Google-workers-saddle-up-for-daily-commute-84306917.html

3) we are in the SFBC's calendar: http://www.sfbike.org/?chain (scroll down to SF2G FFFF)

so this means we should have a big group for March 5th's FFFF. let's all try and make it for that one, I'll need some help with sweeping. Who's in for that?

4) our Strava club is pretty impressive. check out these mean stats! just imagine if Luddites like Eric actually got Garmins...

we have ridden 69,000 miles as a club, damn! and 2.5 million vertical feet!

http://www.strava.com/clubs/sf2g?page=1

Total Number of Rides 1,973

Total Distance 68,699 mi

Total Elevation Gain 2,499,109 ft

Total Commute Distance 24,281 mi

Total Number of Categorized Climbs 3996

I think we're the #2 club by miles, after Mission Cycling, which has 20 more members. So all ye who have garmins, sign up for the club on strava.

good stuff maynard!

Ride Report: Middle East Way - West Oakland & Coyote Hills Explorations & Some Setbacks

Map and photos from Ammon (truncated showing just the route to Google (46 miles).

I met up with Ammon in car 2 of BART train that departed 16th Street Mission station at 6:12am. We were on the train for a mere 14 minutes and got rolling at 6:30 in West Oakland, which is pretty tranquil at this time of day. We pedaled down 7th Avenue in hopes of taking the tunnel over to Alameda island. Oops!: no bikes allowed (setback #1). Note to selves: we're gonna look into taking the ferry over, because the west and south ends of Alameda look awesome for riding. So we continued down 7th Street, which is probably crazy busy during the day but was chill for us. To get to Alameda via a bridge, we had to head down some unintuitive roads that made it look like we were gonna get on 880 but worked out fine. I'm gonna research the best way from West Oakland to Alameda, because while not too bad, I'm pretty sure what we took wasn't ideal.

Once in Alameda via a cute old bridge, we decided to cut across the island and get on the Bay Trail. Again, I'm not sure we took the most direct route, as we ran into a lot of lights. Once we reached the opposite shore, we were greeted with trail closure signs from the recent oil spill (setback #2). We took our chances and got our first taste of dirt. Ammon squirted ahead with his cross bike. Next up was crossing from Alameda back to mainland via a bicycle drawbridge. How cool is that? This section by the Oakland Airport was surprising very low in traffic. Right past the airport is the easy-to-miss sign for the Bay Trail, which we then hopped on.

A little ways down the trail, we encountered another trail closed sign (setback #3). Apparently they're building a bridge across the creek here. which meant that we had to detour inland and ended up in the wastewater treatment plant with a high fence between us and Davis Road. Huh (setback #4). We looked into hopping the fence but before too long, a vehicle drove out of the facility, opening the gate for us, too. (Sorry, no pictures here.)

After riding through Oyster Bay park, we were finally back on the "familiar" part of Middle East Way and figured we were safe...

Not so! It seems all this Federal stimulus money is going to bicycle infrastructure, so we again encountered trail construction (setback #5). We pleaded with the workers and they kindly let us pass. We did get to hop a fence this time, though.

The rest of the ride was pretty chill. Instead of riding way out of the levees, Ammon rode the ridge of the Coyote Hills as far as he could (setback #6)) and I rode the Bay View trail [video] along the base, where Ammon later joined me. This dumps out right by a scary/cool old mine and at the Dumbarton Bridge Toll Plaza. Bay View trail is a totally valid alternative, with less dirt and slightly more climbing (if you don't ride the ridge). Once past the toll plaza, you ride along 84 on a frontage road with cool foam on the road [video] and and cross the bridge and rejoin Bayway by Sun.

The last treat of the ride was learning about the amphibious (they float!) backhoes that are being used to restore the salt water ponds by East PA.

Many thanks to Ammon for the GPS track and excellent photo documentation, and for being as into finding new routes as I am.

Assessment:

- More riding + less BARTing = good

- Viable as a full-fledged route once they finish the bridge construction (the other construction project is short-term)

- Research a better way to and through Alameda

Your route finder,

Brett Lider

P.S. A couple more videos I took:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwlU9JxCZfA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5aGrvBB7oE

5D5W: 9/17 Skyline 6:30 Peet's

ride report:

it's really someone else's turn to write this, but you are all just as shelled as me it seems, so here you go, a 19% effort to go with my 19% legs.

12 sorry saps staggered into peet's about 06:20, devoured space's latest baking extravaganza (homemade strawberry pop-tarts, of sorts, see attached), and rolled into the mire of golden gate park, where the sinister Trinh awaited.

upon reaching the first hills of skyline, it became abundantly clear that my legs' "muscles" were more akin to waterlogged 50-lb. gunny-sacks of portland cement, mixed with lead shot and ingots of plutonium-238, and attached by heavy iron shackles to the Queen Mary's dual anchors, which weigh over 30 metric tonnes each.

ThEPO, on the other hand, had without question applied not one but two testosterone patches to appropriate places and beer-bonged a 12-pack of CERA and HGH, garnished with ice cubes of his own blood, which had been harvested and concentrated by centrifuge after 30 days of continuous mount everest hill repeats.

other noteworthy events included a surly police officer hurling a torrent of insults at mild-mannered xton, who graciously stopped and chatted while the rest of us escaped to Cañada.

for breakfast, I enjoyed two abandoned and partially burned bagel halves (both bottoms) topped with dessicated lentil paste.  best example of that dish i ever had.

-sc

5D5W: 9/14 Joe Gross 6:30 RRR

Editor's note: Yours truly was remiss in not posting Faye's hilarious & compelling account of Day 1, which is herein presented.

Ride report

Bueno Serra.  Not sure about anyone else, but I didn't sleep a wink
due to excessive consumption of chocolate cake while watching Breaking
Away and, of course, anticipation of the first day of 5 days 5 ways.
I made it to ritual in good time to caffeinate before rolling, and
acted on some strange impulse to get a tea instead of a proper
machiato- inausipicious decision that no doubt contributed to my flats
later on.  Trinh was already present and Brian Kemler and Brett Lider
showed up shortly followed by Ted and maybe Eric.  Everyone else
straggled in later... even later than usual.  Our fearless leader
looked particularly dead with his eyes rolling back in his head as he
consumer his small coffee.  A complicated flat repair was taking place
outside... Mike G. was riding his Felt and went through a good 3 inner
tubes outside of ritual.  I went out to ask if he wanted a coffee, and
encountered Shoumen on his folding bike in sneakers and running
shorts!  This did not stop him from motoring up the grades on Mission
at break neck speed, however.  Space arrived with amazing blondies and
beautifully and individually wrapped protein bars (that I did not
sample due to their healthy sound).  Who would have thought he could
top that salted chocolate layer cake, but the blondies were just
amazing.  Anyway, we started off with 15 riders, I think, including
Scott, Brian, Trinh, Theo, Space, Jim (on fixie), Xton (on fixie),
Eric (on fixie), Brett, Yoyo, Shoumen (on folding bike), Ted, Mike,
Mark, and me (on Creamy, my beautiful creamsicle bike).  I think we
hit about every possible light as we slowly made out way up Mission
and somehow to El Camino.  On the stretch of road before Colma, land
of the dead,  Scott authorized me to "attack" or as I prefer to think
of it,  try to take the pace up a notch.  Just as I thought we were
rolling at a decent clip, I had my first flat.  For anyone who was not
there, on Friday, I got a flat just before the steepest part of
tunitas, so I thought I did my time!  Grr.  Anyway, the flat was
annoying, BUT the scene around it was definitely the highlight of the
ride for me, and I sure wish someone got some photos... as I yelled
out that I had a flat, there was this mass frenzy as no less than
Mark, Ted, Xton, Theo, and Space with encouragement from a few others
rushed to fix it.  It was an impressive scenewith tire levers, pumps
and tubes flying everywhere and I felt like a Very Important Person
with a harem of flat fixers.  I was informed that my tires are crap
and told to get new ones pronto.

Anyway, we continued down El Camino stopping and starting about every
75 meters and with a few stares of wonder and comments of
encouragement or alternatively explicatives from drivers on their way
to work.  Soon after we hit the side streets that Parallel El Camino,
my tire went flat again.  Everyone very dutifully and politefully
waited and I was very grateful.  Xton and Space again fixed the flat,
with Xton transferring a metal splinter from the tire to his finger.
After that I was really paranoid that my tire was flat and kept
touching it to check at every stop sign.  I thought for sure I would
be relegated to the caltrain and 5 days 5 ways would be over before it
began.

The ride continued in the same vein... stopping and starting and
stopping and starting with us hitting about every possible red light.
We rode through the old race track- a wider space with no cars where
the fixies decided to race each other.  Not surprisngly, Xton won that
little sprint.  When the construction noise did not drown it out, I
noticed the impressive noises Mike's bike was making.  The sun was
shining and it was pretty warm, and despite our very late rollout and
my 2 flats, breakfast at No Name remained within reach.

After turning off of Middlefield in PA, we re-grouped to wait for the
folding bike and Yoyo, and debated invoking the 4-k rule on Bayway.
The invocation was overruled and we continued on at a civil pace.
Brett Lider was particularly dilligent in calling out all of the turns
and the moment at which we needed to down shift to make it up the
pedestrian bridge on 101.  The bridge was slippery as hell and I
almost bit it, but I made sure to be  behind everyone so that I could
hide any evidence.  With breakfast in sight and miracle of miracles, no
lights, we cruised at 23ish mph down bayshore, with Shoumen spinning
so fast on the folding bike that he looked like a wind-up toy, but
managing to mostly hang on to Scott/Mike's wheels,  and were rewarded
with victuals and sun at Google.

Having been told repeatedly what crap my tires were, I plotted my
immanent trip to SB to get new ones (done!).  Aside from a couple of
tubes, no casualties that I know of on this ride, and an entertaining
and light hearted start to 5 days 5 ways.

-FF