soon to be racing across Oregon

It's been a busy busy week. I've advised my riding partner as well as our crew to be sure to get plenty of rest during this last week as we prepare to race 536 miles....with 40,000 ft of climbing. Too bad I've been unable to listen to my own advise.

I've been working on the myriad of details that are required to participate in an event of this scale. Our crew chief has been helping out too. We are not ready yet, but we are getting closer. I've taken Friday off from work so if all else fails I should be able to get a good 6 or 7 hours of prep time before we leave for Hood River.

Two maddening things happened today.
1) Found that the brand new tubular tire that I had mounted on my Zipp wheels is flawed.....as in has flat spots. The bike shop has agreed to swap it out for a more round tire, but alas that means I don't have my #1 bike tonight, and won't have it until tomorrow night. That's cutting it sort of close.

2) We are planning on using a GPS enabled laptop with a mapping program to give us a souped up vehicle GPS. Not only navigation, but route notes to be displayed as we approach. Unfortunately, after annotating the entire map I find that there is some sort of issue with the GPS device/com port/driver. I am running short on patience and short on time to figure it all out.

We may just have to run with a TomTom on the windshield and a route book on the lap.

I did get 1 lousy mile on the bike.......flat pedals, tennis shoes, blue jeans... to meet my partner at the rental facility to pick up our support van tonight.

I am so not ready.

We begin racing Saturday morning at 7AM.
You can follow the race progress on the RAO Blog


............BIKE............LIFECYCLE.....ROLLERS....TOTAL
Today.........1................0...............0............1
Jan........618...............0................0..........618
Feb........692...............0................0..........692
March......940...............0................5..........940
April......934...............0................0..........934
May........905...............0................0..........905
June......1152...............0................0.........1152
July.......602...............0................0..........602
_________________________________________
TOTAL.....5858...............0..............5.........5863