That was fun.

We had a really great weekend out at the coast. Our friend C had booked a house in Pacific City near the Reach the Beach finish line for a group of us to stay at, so we went out there on Friday night. Three of us were doing the 55 mile route, and Jen (who was not riding) drove us to Amity on Saturday morning to get our numbers and set off at a reasonable time. As she observed, it would actually have been as easy for us to drive from Portland since Amity is halfway between the two, but...

The weather was perfect. There were some showers on the coast when we left Pacific City, but it was dry and warm by the time we got to Amity. The route was shaded and there was the occasional gentle breeze to cool the fevered brow. Ideal conditions.

I was riding the first half of the route with T and J. T had a literal run in with a cyclist on the Eastside Esplanade a few weeks ago and so was recovering from a concussion but still decided to do the 55 mile route, while J is an experienced cyclist. My riding with them lasted about six miles... I was urged to make my own pace by both T and J since I was quicker than they were, so I speeded up a bit. Overall average was 16mph, I was maintaining 19-20mph for a goodly chunk of the ride. Maybe I'll get my 17mph average speed back sooner than I thought.

RTB is a well organised event, and there are rest stops along the route at about one hour intervals. I hooked up with my companions at each of these stops and had a natter and a snack so although I had a road time of about 3h30m my overall ride time was closer to five hours.

At the second rest stop at Grand Ronde we met up with S (T's wife) and V, a friend of C's. We also had lunch there, as laid on by the RTB organisation. I was wondering how I was going to cycle properly with a huge baked potato in my tummy, but in fact there was no gastric distress at all.

The third and final rest stop was just after the one really nasty hilll on the road route. There were some inclines at many points on the ride but the last steep hill is almost as bad as the Vermont Hill just below our house that I need to ride up to get home. After that hill it's mostly downhill all the way to the beech, and the last rest stop is just near the top of this long drop to the coast. I got there first, then J, S and T. V went straight past it.

After many hours I reached the beach proper. V was there already of course having missed the last rest stop, but everyone else arrived over the next few minutes and then we got down to the serious business of enjoying the beach, eating the laid on food and partaking (albeit very sparsely in my case) of the fine ales available ad the Pelican Brew Pub.

In fact at the end of the ride I felt very much like I could have carried on a lot further, shich makes me think I should do the century next year that goes from Portland. What really killed me was sitting on the beach for three hours with no sunscreen on.

The last thing we did on the Saturday, after everyone had lain around the house groaning from over-exercise and over-indulgence, was to go down to the beach for a bonfire. Having completely forgotten to pick up my camera as we left the house, I only have pictures from the bonfire and most of those are ridiculously blurry. So, this one picture is using the blur to advantage.

The next day I felt hung over from the sun, but very pleased to have done the ride. I feel more enthusiastic about cycling than I have in years.

Finally, thank you to my sponsors for making sure I did the ride.

Posted by Dunx at May 16, 2005 11:20 AM