Race Report: Tour d’Organics (aka: Tour d’Rolling Hill Hell )
August 21, 2008
This past Sunday I attempted my first official century ride (official because it’s the first one I’ve ever paid to do… and when you pay for something it makes it official. Attempted because, well, you’ll see shortly).
The ride: the Tour d’Organics in Sebastopol.
Distance: ~97 miles
Elevation: ~7300 feet
So how’d it go? Well, you know how sometimes when things are like seriously traumatic, people can’t really talk about them? But if you give them a box of crayons they go to town? That’s pretty much how I’ve been for the last three days. The result (since I don’t have a box of crayons) is the picture to the right.
But now that the whole rocking-back-and-forth-in-the-fetal-position thing has gotten a little boring, I’m ready to share some words, pictures, and videos.
So, my friend from UCLA was up in the Bay Area this weekend for a wedding – which means, after quite a bit of bribing and begging, he agreed to come along. I knew some Googlers were going but I:
a) didn’t want to ride 100 miles alone
b) even if someone agreed to ride with me, I totally freak out at the thought of making some poor soul wait for me as I slowly chug my lifeless body up the mountains.
c) In case of crying, I can’t have Googlers there… bad for the image. You understand.
So Eric is was!
At 6:20AM we arrived at the start area, signed in, and got a big map. The map getting business was the first surprise. We both thought there’d be giant signs all over the place telling us where to go… but the big map with lots and lots of directions suggested we were mistaken.
After the second surprise (that there was no “Start” line), we sort of just rolled out of the parking lot and got started. At about mile 2 I had my first (and only) near-accident. The roads were super wet and I decided to brake right on the “T” in “Stop”. My back tire did the whole sliding thing as my mouth hung open in horror. But, luckily, I didn’t crash. Peed myself, but didn’t crash.
Fast forward a bit and we had our first serious issue (as explained in the video):
So it turns out we biked the first 8-10ish miles twice. And since we’re talking about 8ish miles with hills, I was a little upset.
But the good news is I got to see the most adorable baby donkey twice! And the second time around I decided I just couldn’t go on living if I rode by without petting him.
Finally we made our way to the first rest stop and bumped into Josh and Mark from Google. I didn’t recognize them but somehow they knew who I was. This was fortunate because they let me know they rode the first loop twice, too. And what can I say, misery loves company 
The rest stop people were super friendly and had loads of fruit, bread, peanut butter, and these little bottled juices. Those were delicious. And not only did they have good food, but they let us know all about how many gophers they’ve caught so far this year. And I’m telling you right now… this isn’t a catch and release situation.
So with that, we were back on the road.
Fast forward: I (and not Eric) got lost. Long story short we were finally on a nice descent when this blond chick sort of cut me off at the bottom and then zoomed off. And I, seeing some gradual hills coming up, decided I’d hop on her wheel and push it a bit. Now, thanks to gravity, I tend to go a bit faster on the downhills than Eric. And so, it was no great surprise that I didn’t see him for a while. This chick was hauling! But after a while of looking back and not seeing Eric I thought something seemed a bit off. So I went up a hill with her and decided to wait at the top. Minutes pass and there’s no Eric. I decide he’s probably been hit by a car (this has happened before), so I zoom on back. Turns out this chick led us the wrong way. She missed a turn. So poor Eric had been sitting waiting for me for something like 30 minutes… wondering if it was I who was squished by a car. hehe…oops!
Let’s just say I could see the satan flames in his eyes way before I pulled up next to him with an angelic smile upon my face. He was pissed!
After that he basically wanted to turn around and make the ride into something like 40 miles. I begged and begged and we finally agreed to go to this other shortcut – which, if we didn’t get lost and do the same loop twice, would make the ride about 70-75ish miles. But, with the first loop twice and my 30 minute extra jaunt, I would end up doing about 90 miles. And that was fine by me.
The rest of the ride consisted of trying to see ridiculously obscure green markers on the road, trying to make it to rest stops before they closed, and laughing at ourselves for pretty much failing.
The good news is that after we cut across the shortcut we actually were back among lots of bikers – which made the ride feel more like an official big thing.
Here we are at one of the final rest stops
I was pretty dead at that point. I think the lovely graph to the right explains why.
I distinctly remember going up one nameless, random, and what I like to call “rolling uphill of hell” when Eric pointed out a guy and gal going up on single speeds! And they were doing the century!!
At that point I went into fantasy mode. I thought… maybe this isn’t really a ride like I think. Maybe I’ve already died and this ride is supposed to absolve me of my sins. And maybe those two on the single speeds were just worse people than I was… and so it’s only fair that they suffer a lot more.
But then I gasped! Maybe this isn’t about absolution. What if I, like Sisyphus, was being punished…forever! But instead of having to haul a giant boulder up a mountain, I had to haul myself up. And whereas his boulder would fall back down at the last minute, they devised a new torture for me: I would make it over every hill only to be confronted with another one. And so it would go. Forever.
Luckily a few miles later it started to appear that the gods were done with their games, as a flat/slight descent seemed to be wrapping up the ride. And so, like Ebenezer Scrooge awaking on Christmas morning to find himself with another chance at a good life, I too shed all negativity and had a fun time pushing it for the last few miles.
And so we finished… sort of. In the car on the way back to SF, we decided to capture the lessons we learned from this ride.
Overall it was a challenging ride that would have gone a lot better if we didn’t do the first loop twice… and if I wouldn’t have gone the wrong way for 30 minutes.
Oh well! There’s always next time!
And for all the pictures go here.
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2 Responses to “Race Report: Tour d’Organics (aka: Tour d’Rolling Hill Hell )”
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I’ve decided that I whine too much. This ride was awesome even with the whole getting lost thing!
My fav quote is when you say about Eric: “Unless he got hit by a car, something terribly bad has happened.”
As if him getting hit by a car wouldn’t be terribly bad.