D2R2 2010

Dougie, me, Jonny, Sammy, and Kevin post-ride, pre-shower. Thanks to Buck for snapping this one.

My camera is back in business. Turns out it was my card reader gone bad. But, I repeated the mistake of charging up all my batteries and then installing a pair that doesn't hold a charge into the camera. So no on-the-road pics this year, my fourth time on the "long" or "real" D2R2. This year I drove out Friday and stayed at the Red Roof with about 300 other riders, because I just can't get enough slamming doors and noisy kids. Pike traffic held me up but I still made packet pickup and did a spin around Old Deerfield right at dusk to make sure my cue-sheet scrolling contraption was secure. Cable housing is supposed to be structural, right?



The new bike, laden down with extra tubes, spokes, cue holder and bottles weighed over 28 pounds fully dressed. Did not get a pic while it was still clean and new. Yes, that is white bar tape.

This bike was brand-new, with about an hour of test riding on it. And I had brand-new Bontrager RXL mountain bike shoes to go with my Time ATAC pedals, just in case I had to walk. Starting the longest ride of the year on a newly assembled bike and untested shoes makes perfect sense in my world, because I am a confident mofo and trust my mechanical abilities as well as my knowledge and methods for setting up my fit. So screw the skeptics, as I had zero issues with either, everything worked perfectly beginning to end. And in a move that would make Gewilli proud, I even stepped completely out of character and made my own food for Friday night and Saturday morning. That part went -- OK. B minus maybe. Actually my mozzerela ommelette over couscous with garlic was fine, but my salami and provolone english muffins for the ride did not go down as easily as I'd hoped. More on that later.



Chris had to be the only person in attendance who did both the Leadville 100 and D2R2 in the same week. How often can you do just two rides and get in 20 hours?

Ride arrangements came together last minute for this one, as in at the starting corral. My team mate Whitey had pre-regged, but then he went to the Leadville 100 last weekend, finished, got altitude poisoning, spend the night in the ER, and got sent home with an oxygen tank. As of Wednesday he was still a wreck, and hadn't cobbled a bike together. Then there was Jonny, who had broken his collarbone just two weeks ago, scrapping plans for the ride. Until Friday that is, when he decided he'd be OK. I'd talked with his mate Sammy about navigating for them, and we had all agreed to let the fast guys go ahead, and start at 6:30. Some plan.

Turns out everyone makes it, including Dougie and his recently healed broken ankle, all deciding 6:30 was the new fashionable start time. In the corral were all the Corner Cycle guys, John Mosher (Wheelworks), Chris Peck (Bikereg), John Funk (?), Jay Gump (Incline Training), Kevin Buckley (ECV), Timmy Groesbeck (CCB) and a host of other fast dudes. And us. Allegedly it will be civilized and we roll out...



Clearance was a little tight with the Michelin Jets, but unlike Whitey's bike, no rubbing.

Right away Whitey's bike, which sports only a 39x27 low gear, is rubbing the tire on his chainstay when he stands up to climb. I had a 34x30, primarily to save my legs on the early climbs. The first two hours of this is pretty much all uphill. But we just rolled. A stray cow made a bit of a stampede at us going up one hill, but I could not get a pic. I think Jonny did. There were goats. And sheep. And loose dogs. Typical D2R2 stuff. But the weather was perfect, though some of the roads were pretty loose from the lack of rain.



This year my cue scroller did not explode on the 50 mph downhill. I've got the route down in my head now, just in time for them to change it next year.

On the crazy East Road descent I played it safe. The Soma and it's long-reach Tektro sidepulls was awesome though; one finger braking was such a contrast to last year with sketchy cantilevers, which most guys still had. As usual, some riders got a little crazy and seemed to forget these were open roads and an F350 could be coming at you at 30 mph just around any bend. At least half the group dive-bombed East completely on the left side of the road. Not me. At the bottom we crossed route 2 and began the mutherfucka of a climb up to the food stop in Heath. I'd been chatting a lot and not eating and drinking much. Hmmm. Did great for a while but near the top I went to my easiest gear and everyone passed me. I was the last one in the group to the stop.

Me and Chris rolled out of there first so that we wouldn't have to eat pack dust on grizzly Royer Road, one of the roughest sectors. The group caught us rolling through Heath and Jay Gump took the front and led us on a fast zoom through town and down Taylor Brook. I surfed the front, forgetting how bad I felt on the last climb, still not eating or drinking much, planning to attack the 27% Achambo Road ahead right from the front to avoid walking. This group was too big for everyone to make it clean, I knew that. Jay and Timmy Groesbeck then me made the turn and they swung off, leaving me first. I'd better not F this up and knock everyone off. At the bottom I had some tire slips, as my Jets had 60 psi which was more than ideal for the sand and choppy stuff. No way I could use my easy gear, as that would torque-spin for sure. Jay came up next to me, sitting and spinning, with a road tire on his bike! Damn. I humped it over the most difficult section, then sat and sucked wind to recover. John Funk passed me and he wasn't even breathing hard. That guy is amazing, and nearly as old as me. That is what fitness looks like. Not what I look like.

Achambo did some damage. I had gone pretty deep. We were only a bit more than three hours into this thing. Then we quickly hit Hillman Road, which is a very difficult climb, over a mile long. Someone pushed the pace. The group stayed together though -- except me. My sit down legs were smoked. They rode away. Buck, who had got held up by the carnage on Achambo, came roaring past. Whitey waited for me. I was dead. The group was gone. At the top, I took inventory and realized I'd hardly been drinking, and hadn't touched my gel flask. I'd eaten a sandwich in the morning, and had a few fig newtons at the stops. I think it was a lack of water really. I pounded a half flask of gel and drank an entire bottle between the top of Hillman and the long descent of Christian Hill Road. That was my best chance to recover. Sure enough after bombing the no brakes downhill (one of my favorite parts of this ride), I really rallied on the Franklin Road climb to the state line. Chris was like "WTF dude, where did that come from?" Plain and simple, fuel back in the tank.

We rode with just the two of us and really ripped down Deer Creek. Chris is pretty fast on the difficult descents. The others were still at the lunch stop. I loaded up my pockets with Oreos. I'd eaten my other sandwich on the descent and it had given me a bit of a bad stomach, too many calories in too short a time. I had a coffee to settle it. Chris made some adjustments to his bike, and I made the rounds, greeting friends from all up and down the eastern seaboard. Somewhere along there the group left and we missed them. Might have been a good thing. We climbed out of the hole where lunch is at a fairly sedate pace, then started to motor down Sweet's Pond Road. We got attacked by the dog who attacks us every year up near Brattleboro Road in Leyden, and he nearly knocked me off the bike. Fat fuck can run. After overshooting my back wheel he turned and gave us another sprint. That helped us keep the pace up and we bombed the descent to Green River, made use of the extra water stop and then really turned it up on Green River Road. It seemed to me like we were going fast and I started expecting to beat last year's 9 hour total by a good 15-20 minutes.

We must have slowed down a little from Van Nuys Road all the way to Patten Hill. I thought we were doing OK but we gave up time somewhere. Patten Hill Road sucked, very loose and gravelly. Chris had to fight his gear as it was too big to sit. I had not touched my 30 cog since Heath, trying to use nothing less than the 25 in sympathy, but I went to the 27 on Patten. And of course I had a 34 up front. We got to the stop just in time to see Jonny and company rolling out. After only three minutes we took off, and promptly almost ate shit on Square Lot Road, as it too was a mess, maybe the worst road on the ride. On the ripping descent we passed Mosher, who had flatted (he was running skinnies on a cx bike) and he said he was all set. Must have been as he ran us down and rode through us a few miles later. I think we were fading. We plodded down Hawk's Road, rallied on the final pavement, and voila, we're done, 8:56 total by my watch. By the time we signed the sheet it was 9:00, but I know I beat last year by three minutes. My Polar ran out of memory forty minutes from the end, but it showed 4000 meters of climbing at that point.



The Cronoman and I went for LT/VO2 max testing on Tuesday. The entire ride at D2R2 I had people asking "where's Marro?," "how come Eric isn't here?," "you couldn't get the Cronoman to do this?" D2R2 is not for everybody I guess.

Tired and dirty, but I felt better than I ever have at the end of this. My bike setup must have been perfect as my upper body was totally fine, no aches, no problems, nothing. My legs were just tired. Chris, what can I say, guy is a fucking animal. I was worried about him having issues after what he'd been through the past week. He matched me mile for mile, fighting a rubbing tire and an overgeared bike the entire way. The ride took it's toll on others, as we learned at the finish that both Tyler Munroe and Jim Nash of CCB had broken collarbones. Not sure if it was one incident or two. Did the photos, got cleaned up, and hit the feed and beer, which was Berkshire Preservation Ale custom-brewed for this event. Met up with all kinds of people who'd done the 100k, and had too many beers.

OK, just another boring report. Not boring, routine. I may have been too well prepared for it. This year seemed, well, routine. Not the same sense of adventure I've had here in the past. I guess because I knew exactly what to expect, and prepared for it. Other than not drinking enough in the beginning (I was using plain water and in the morning maybe I don't have the thirst. Next year, something flavored to make me want to drink more), it all went according to plan. Did not walk a single step. If I have the same fitness next year, maybe I'll need to try to ride harder and travel lighter or something. Or maybe they'll change the route. Which is the rumor... Thanks for reading.