Today was the Monster Cookie Ride in Salem that's put on by the Salem Bicycle Club. This is the second time I've ridden this, though the first time was several years ago. The Ride starts at the Capitol building, goes through Salem out on country roads to Champoeg State Park and back. The total ride is approximately 62 miles (a metric century) and for most is a nice casual ride with friends...or for some a huge challenge/hurdle as they have never ridden that far before in their life.
Today many of the club members were there to ride as well as approximately 15 members of the race team. Two years ago it was dubbed "The Monster Cookie Beat Down" as many team members rode it "Hard" for most, if not all of the ride...it was a beat down and considered one of the hardest rides many had ever done.
This year we really didn't have an idea of how we were going to ride it...though I think many were ready for it to be "Beat Down #2". The ride started out fairly easy as we made our way through Salem together as a team keeping the pace sane. As we started making our way out of town the pace started to pick up. We had a nice pace line going with rotations taking place in the 24 mph - 26 mph range.
We decided to stop at the first stop for those that didn't get to make a "Pit Stop" before starting...but only one really had to go, so we decided he could hold it until the mid way point. So off we went again...unknowingly leaving behind a teammate who had turned his back for about 10 seconds to talk to his parents who were at the rest stop already....Opps. He saw us leaving but had to lay chase and I guess never really caught the group until the midway point. I say "I guess" because about a mile out of the rest stop there was a log jam on the road and I made my way around it with another teammate...two others bridged up and it was "Game On!".
For the next 35-40 minutes we were a 4 man rotating pace line taking pulls at 26 mph - 28 mph flying along the road. This was great for me because it was a pre-cursor of things to come for the Team Time Trial next month. We were taking 30 second to 1 minute pulls up front keeping a very fast pace until we hit the midway point of the ride. At this point we pulled in, ate some cookies and waited for the rest of the team to pull up, fuel up, relieve themselves and get moving again...it was a bit cold and once we stopped with the hard efforts we cooled off quickly.
Back on the road we were moving as a team again, but the first several miles were very rough roads. We came across a particularly bad pothole and I tried to lead the team around it, but I think they were in an eschelon due to the cross winds and one member rode right through the middle of it getting a flat tire. After a very quick change tube change we were off again.
We worked together as a team until the only hill...I call it a hill, but it was more of a short incline (60-70 foot climb)...on the course. Several members on the team knew there was going to be some separation here...including myself. Two of my teammates from the first high speed breakaway took off up the climb as did I. When I crested the hill, I looked back and we had a 50-60 foot gap on the rest of the team...one of my teammates smelled blood and it was "Game On" again :) The three of us went into full on TTT mode and started to pull away.
Three teammates gave chase, two oh so close to latching on...but just couldn't do it before the "Popped" and off they went...but one did make it and he held on for about 10 minutes or so. We kept the pace high and eventually put 4-5 minutes on the group (over approximately 25-30 minute of hard riding). The 4th caught us again once we got back into town. From there we rode back for our final Cookie of the day waiting for teammates and talking about a GREAT ride :)
This was definitely a "Beat Down" of a ride today...Actually I guess it was survival of the fittest :) My legs are toast...though I'm feeling better now that I've re-fueled and have been sitting for a while.
This week finishes the most time and miles I've logged on a bike ever in a week...16 hours 43 minutes on the bike...320 miles ridden...Total TSS Score 930...and 13072 kj of energy burned (approximately 13840 calories burned).
Tomorrow a nice easy recovery ride...then a couple of hard days and a taper to see what I can do at Estacada #3 on Sunday. I really want to break 46 minutes on the 20 mile course, so hopefully I'll have fresh legs and be able to put in a really hard effort.
Off for some rest and maybe more food :)
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