Davis 12/14 Hour Race, April 10-11 2004
My second ultra-distance race. This time as a stoker (rider on the back) on a tandem with captain Mark Patten. Being early in the season and having done nothing longer than 130 miles the last 10 months or so, this was an interesting challenge. Mark and I had trained together in Texas on his tandem in March.
The Davis 12/24 is, as the name implies, a 12 or 24 hour race organized by Davis Bicycling Club. The race actually starts in the neighbour town, Winters, and loops up into the mountains east of into the beautiful Napa county (no we did not stop for wine-tasting). The race consisted of a day-loop of 160 miles and therafter a `night-loop' of 18.5 miles. The goal is to ride as many miles possible within 12 or 24 hours. It was a non-drafting event
(ie you are not allowed to ride close to any other rider to wind-draft of them) where riders are allowed to have individual car support (SAG). Mark and I had Cheryl (my friend) and Sarah (his friend) being our enthusiastic and wonderful support team. Sarah had crewed many times for Mark on RAAM (Race Across America) and other ultra-events, and she knew exactly what to do, and initiated Cheryl into the world of ultra-cycling crewing.
Cheryl and I drove up to Mark in San Jose on Friday afternoon to prepare for the race. Get the car loaded and ordered for the SAG (support and gear) and get everything together for an early morning ride up to Winters. We left early in the morning from San Jose to arrive in Winters by 5:15. It was barely dark as the bikes were started with 15 second intervals at 6 am. There were quiet a lot of strong tandem teams there. Mark &
I(Cat) were racing in Clifbar colors. Most tandem teams were, however, doing the 12 hour race. Doug & Carol, a California state champion couple, Paul (my other tandem racing captain) & Ray (another Clifbar team) and Mike & Emmy (the record holders for Davis 24 hours with 418 miles) were our strongest competitors.
As we started Mark&Cat quickly passed Mike&Emmy tandem. Doug&Carol tandem blew by us after a couple of miles with a speed that reminded my of a 12 mile time trial instead of a 12 hour race. We expected Paul&Ray to come by us as we paced ourselves up the first climb around Lake
Beryessa. Paul&Ray finally came by and we thereafter spent the rest of the day changing positions with them. It was kind of fun to race as two Clifbar teams and they helped us keep momentum. Mark&Cat rode comfortably and stayed in second of third position throughout the day-loop. Doug&Carol were a couple of miles ahead and we were surprised that Paul&Ray did not catch them, since they are usually way stronger riders (but they did not have a good race day). Mike&Emmy maintained a steady pace a couple of miles behind us. The weather conditions were optimal for riding. The sun was not too California hot during the day and the night was not too chilly.
Cheryl and Sarah were kept more than busy supplying us with energy drinks, supplements, cloths etc. Janet (Paul's wife) was SAG for Paul&Ray and she serviced us with lots of smiles, happy waves and photos. During the day-loop they followed us in the car and helped us with directions. The girls had to try several times to hand me a bottle as I managed to flip it into the air as the tandem passed at high speed past them. I realized that my small hands and clumsy gloves did not help the situation and after a few attempts we made most hand-offs in the hills where the tandem went slower. Sarah managed to run with the water bottle once, and as I grabbed it with both hands, she barely let go and I nearly pulled her with me (body-builder girl on top of that). In revenge I managed to bombard her with empty bottles during the next hand-off.
As we finish of the last major climb, my captain starts mentioning that his stomach is not happy (stomachs are not always happy with all the energy and drinks that we need to consume to keep our engines purring happily). Mark keeps the tandem going despite that the rest of the day he was nautious and had trouble taking in fluids and energy. (The good thing racing with a 6-times RAAM veteran is to know that little hardships like that is not going to stop them.) We finish the day-loop in 8 hours and then start doing the night-loop course. My arms are hurting and throbbing and I know that we have not found the ultimate handlebars for the stoker yet.
During the night-loop, Cheryl and Sarah were at the start/finish in Winters servicing us with drinks, lights and cloths as we came through the start/finish to register another loop. Both Mark and I are in race mood, and our interaction with our crew consists of simple one syllable instructions such as `Jacket',
`Clifbar', `night glasses' etc. The first few night-loops take us an hour each. We keep the pace nice and steady. As we hit the second night-loop I reach my emotional-low as I realize that we have been riding since sunrise and we are only 40% done with the ride. Mark mentions that he is tired, and I am wondering to myself how we will be able to keep our good pace going all night (which is required in order to break the course record). Thoughts ; `Why am I doing this? Can we keep the pace up? Maybe I should start some new sport-like fly-fishing.' cross my mind.
But we manage to beat Paul&Ray in on the fourth loop as they finish their 12 hour race, and then our night race starts.
As we start on our first loop of the second half of the race, I find myself full of anticipation of going into the night and the previous doubts are all blown away. I have brought CD player with lots of music to keep me from getting bored, but I never needed to use it. I find myself just enjoying the night riding with the frogs croaking, the stars, the lights from the houses and the swaying lights from other bikers. At nine o'clock at night as we loop into Winters the smells of food from restaurants and the laughter from locals pubs float towards us, and I must say that by then I am kind of tired of
Clifbars/Clifshots and Sustained Energy. After a few loops we start to get a really good feel about the roads and we settle into a rhythm. My hands are by then really swollen and hurting. Cheryl gives me a
`Vioxx' , and the pain amazingly wains (good stuff). Mark keeps an excellent tactic going, switching between standing and sitting to preventing our pace from slowing. We keep biking our loops on the hour! I am amazed at our ability to do so hour after hour, considering none of our previous training and we are now logging more than 300 miles. Mark stops suddenly and throws up all energy drinks that has been swoshing around in his stomach. I am not worried, because I know that he is a ultracycling veteran, and he will just keep going.
As the stars come up and the moon finally wakes up and takes her night ride across the sky, I sit on the back and just look at them. I find that whenever I look down on my legs or on the road, everything starts hurting, so I keep looking at the stars. I see a shooting star and make a wish `454 miles'. Cheryl and Sarah are ready for quick waterbottle exchange and light change as we loop through the start/finish. At about 2 am, we find that the chain ring derailleur prevents us from using the big chain ring. The middle chain ring, still seemed to be able to keep us going.
I find myself counting and counting, miles and loops. `Only 5 loops to go'. I become so synchronized with Mark during the ride that I know exactly when he is going to stand or sit, I can feel it in my own muscles. Mark and I don't talk much, (we never do when we ride), but when we do say something we are thinking about the same thing. A strange kind of unity takes place in mind and body, even the exact finishing mileage turns up in both our minds. As the clock turns 3 am and we have only 3 laps to go I see some shadows resembling deer or sheep coming towards us. I scream to Mark `Watch out, I think deer are going to cross the road'. Mark does not seem to see them as they run towards the bike. `Calm down Catharina! There is nothing there'. Did I hallucinate? I did not feel tired at that point.
As we start on the last stretch of lap 11, sleepiness starts to attack me. I find myself struggling against closing my eyes and responding poorly to Mark.
`I'm sleepy, I'm sorry'-says stoker
`Wake up Girl! Soon going on finishing lap' says captain as he wakes me up by standing and sitting a few times (maybe helped by the caffeine in Clifshot
mocca).
`When I am finished I want the left-over tuna fish pasta for breakfast' I start salivating at the thought and this is strange for a European to ever consider left-over dinners for breakfast.
As we start on the finshing lap I find myself picking up the pace, so that we can finish the whole lap before time is up! The first rays of lights starts to appear in the eastern horizon, but I am barely aware of it now as I only see the finish line! We get there at 6 am and we have logged 455 miles breaking the course record for tandems with 37 miles and averaging 19 mph. Mark and I stumble of the bike, give each other and our team Sarah and Cheryl a victorious happy hug.
This was an epic event for me. My second ultra-race. I learnt a lot riding with my experienced Captain and our fantastic crew. Although, we could have done better with more training and if Mark had not been sick, we feel that we have created a record that tandems will need to work for in order to break. Maybe next year we can make it even better!
Mark's write up:
While most Team San Jose members were sleeping off their Cooperopolis
legs or looking for Easter eggs, I was finishing a 12/24 hour TT race in
Winters,Ca. Not being a family man, not having much of a life at all
really, I thought doing a little 24 hour race would be fun. Add to the
mix a little Swedish power house, a tandem bike and you have all the
right ingredients? God I didn't know that fun could hurt so much, the sad
truth is I do know, but haven't learned my lesson.
Davis Bike Club puts on many events and as with all of them, this one was
well run and takes place near Davis, CA. The start was in Winters doing
most of the Davis Double course without the flat start and finish miles
into Davis for 160 mile day loop and a flat 18.5 mile night loop in and
out of the town of Winters. There are "aid stations" about every 30 miles
for those self supported racers( I've done it this way before) with
plenty of good stuff or you can do drop bags. This is a TT so no
drafting, etc. You just try to go as far as you can in 24 hours. Sounds
like fun, doesn't it Frank? "Damn you Frank"!
We started on Saturday morning at 6AM. We were the only mixed tandem
doing the 24 hours, one male tandem was doing the 24, along with a good
size group of tandems doing the 12 hour. I haven't seen that many tandems
at a 24 hour race ever. Davis is just tandem land, I did my first double
on a tandem at Davis in '93, to start all this fun Ultra stuff. Around
30+ solo racers were doing the 24 hours with us. One guy was doing the 24
on a fix-gear!
We set a nice pace to start off the day and were keeping all the 12 hour
racers in sight. The climbs were not steep enough for us to lose too much
time on the solo racers and we were one of the stronger climbing tandems.
That's where the Swedish power house comes into the picture. Her name is
Catharina Berge, a cat 3 racer from Visalia. She has won the Mt Everest
Challenge woman overall a couple of times, has some tandem course records
on some doubles (with other captains) and solo records. She set a rookie
course record for the 508 and came in 2nd overall two years ago. She can
climb, we saw the other weekend how I climb, like a lead weight.
Do I know how to pick them or what? She did a great job getting my sorry
ass up and over the hills. We avg 19.5 MPH for the first 12 hours doing
234 miles with about 7,000' of climbing, all of that on the first 160
miles. I was hoping to average around 20 MPH for the first 160 miles then
move up a little on the night loop. I ended up getting an upset stomach
on the way into Winters at the end of the day loop. The other tandems got
a little gap on us and I was starting to think bad thoughts. Knowing you
have 16 more hours on the bike and not feeling your best is hard, but
knowing I did not want to disappoint Frank. “Damn you Frank!” I kept
going.
A few times around the night loop and I was ready to hurl! This is where
the "fun times" come into play on Ultra events. After stopping on the
side of the road and emptying all things in my stomach, it only took 3
blast out of my mouth, it was time to get to work. I slowly got back into
the game with Catharina doing the major part of the work. Our times for
the night loop where all around 1 hour, we did 16 night loops. Our lap
times were all within 3 mins. of each other. That includes bathroom,
barfing, changing winds and temperatures, putting lights on the bike and
dealing with liquid food that wasn't working this time.
455.5 miles after 24 hours. A new course record for tandems, the old mark
was 418 miles. Rumor has it that it may be a UMCA 24 hour record for a
mixed tandem. I'll have to confirm that someday. Right now I am thinking
"damn you Frank" I am glad I didn't give up and neither did Catharina. I
can live with the short time of pain, knowing we reached our goal of 450
miles!
Mark Patten
P.S. Howie, sometimes tandems can keep up with solo riders
