We did the first rider exchanges at check point 6. It is a relay race and two riders can be on the route for 30 seconds only. This sounds short but is plenty of time but allows no time for fooling around. Team Polar Bear has never done this before, no practice, no prior experience. A bit of the lack of experience came about because Ken had signed on to the team only a week before the start of the race. I knew that Team Polar Bear needed more personel about two weeks before the race.
A rider exchange looked like this:
There were plenty of teams waiting for exchanges in the same area:
I was rigged up to take notes in the car. I had a Radio Shack 140 watt inverter to keep my computer batteries charged up. The driving speed of the support cars generally allowed me to type as we drove along. Everything worked great until night fell about 100 miles into the ride. We started the first major climb and ride intervals shrank to 0.5 to 1.0 miles. This kept the support team busy. After enough time passed I got tired enough so that I stuck with the important race work and abandoned the typing on the computer. Below are the notes that got written on the ride.
Checkpoint 6: 8.00 miles; 93 tm mile.
Took 15 minutes to drive here. About 8 miles into the route.
Brian is doing the first 8 miles, Tony will do the next stretch.
Brian was having a tough time this morning. Dinner did not agree with him and the excitement of the race got to him. The 1:00 race start was a good thing. It provided time for Brian to get his stomach settled done. The first stretch will let him get settled down.
The first rider exchange went at about 1:22 pm. Tony had a bit of a struggle with his pedals. Giving better information to the starting rider might allow them more time to clip in as the outgoing rider approaches.
Trip meter on Spikes car read 85.0 at start.
Checkpoint 9: 17.85; 102.85 tm miles
Odometer on Spikes car at checkpoint 9 reads 75284.4 miles. Checkpoint 9 is 17.85 miles into the course.
A fire has been through the area, it is very dry, no brush, everything down to mineral earth.
The sky is overcast, temperature is maybe 82 degrees or so by the thermometer on the car. The wind is picking up with some tree and brush motion.
Brian switched off from Tony back somewhere between checkpoint 8 and 9 near Los Angeles power station 2. Maybe at 15 miles into the course.
Tony says 10 minute pulls on the hill are plenty. Twenty minutes is too long going at 95 % effort. Heart rate estimated average was 174.
Passed Brian on the way he was working hard.
Checkpoint 11: 23.10 miles: 108.10 miles
At the summit 25.90 miles into the course.
Brian will have done about 8 miles with this pull.
Keeping as many people as possible in the car appears to be a good thing. It keeps the risks of dealing with traffic, tangling with riders and the general number of people wandering around down to a minimum.
Tony is going to try to trade off with Brian and it worked.
Brian says very windy on the hill. Brian is taking in water and a cookies and cream cliff bar.
Doug is on the road charging hard with a pretty straight hard downhill.
Brian was riding at about 95 % with over 170 bpm over the whole effort. Passed a rider on the hill.
TEN MINUTE climb efforts. Five mile pulls is pretty much the order of the day.
Spike is up on the road next.
Checkpoint 15: 30.59 miles; 115.59 tm miles
Spike gets his first shot on the road. Perceived effort 100 %. At AT entire time. Over 161 bpm. A water and some toxic waste.
Checkpoint 16: 35.58 miles; 120.58 tm miles
Brian starts at 16. Switch from Spike to Brian took place at 3:02 pm.
Tony had some water at about 3:00 pm.
Checkpoint 18: 40.63 miles; 125.63 tm miles
Tony will take over from Brian. Tony turned left on 90 th st west and broke a chain.
We were right there so we stopped and put Spike back on the road. Because Spike is a trouper he rode hard and we kept moving along.
Leapfrogging at two mile intervals.
133 tm miles; Tony is on the road.
135 tm miles; Doug hits the road. 3:46 pm.
137 tm miles; Tony hits the road.
The road is starting to climb one of those long deceptive desert climbs.
Going to 0.5 mile intervals. May not be able to keep up with the typing !
Night is going to be tough !
There is one of those big windmill farms off of the right.
Arg ! Brian has a flat ! Got to work
185 tm miles ; 100 miles into the ride
Mike reset the trip meter miles to 0.0 this will make it easier to keep track of where we are at.
105.8 Ride miles.
6:30 pm. Brian had a second flat. We rigged for following riders as dusk came and night falls.
Spike was the first night rider that we followed. Doug is on the road now and is getting a 20 minute interval.
Checkpoint 30 was reached at 6:36 pm. We figure that 6 miles out will be about right ; might shorten it slightly because of an on coming rise in the road.
Sky is still overcast, we half a moon, wind is low; perfect conditions.