as noted all over the forum for the past 6 months, WR and i participated together in this year’s AIDS/lifeCycle, and we did so on track bikes. he was on a cinelli x MASH build, and i rolled the tumbler — my murdered-out leader 725TR build. the ride is listed at 545 miles, but i did the math and it’s actually closer to 570. out of +/- 2000 cyclists, there were only 7 of us who attempted the ride on fixed-gears. and out of those 7, there were only 4 of us who rode every single mile. no walking, no rides in sweep vehicles — EVERY. SINGLE. MILE.

in an attempt to limit the size of this ride report, i refer you back to my ALC7 ride report for logistical details, and to my FLICKR SET for lots of photos. the flickr set in particular will have LOTS of the little details, in the photo captions.

you can also get a first-time rider’s perspective from WR’s RIDE REPORT, and a whole other slew of photos from his FLICKR SET.

that stated, here are the days’ ride charts…

as our friends over at team hype say, this ride is NOT FOR BABIES. note that the shortest day was 61 miles and that there were TWO 100-mile days, just a day apart.

i will say that riding fixed for that distance and amount of time equates to one terrible reality — your ass takes a BEATING. because you can’t coast, you’re pedaling the entire way. and when you’re whipping down a 7% grade at 33mph, your legs are spinning at 155rpm and there’s serious friction. and bouncing. by day 3, i was wearing TWO padded cycling shorts, and on day 4, i had stuffed an arm warmer in there, too. it was brutal. my ass hadn’t been whupped like that since i was 10 years old and dad found out i stole that magazine from the corna stoe. i don’t know how much of that could have been remedied by riding a steel frame (my leader is aluminum, and thus doesn’t flex), but i have to imagine that it’d have eased the load a little bit.

in addition to the battering that my undercarriage took, i also seem to have done some nerve damage to my left hand. i can’t feel my left ring finger or pinkie finger. many people on the ride were complaining about numbness in their pinkies, but mine is two fingers and hasn’t yet gone away. there was another time in my life when i pinched a nerve in my left thumb and it was numb for almost 6 months. as such, i’m just gonna ride this out and see if the sensation comes back before i go searching out some kind of nerve operation.

but other than that, i’m pleased to say that my hips, legs, knees, and ankles are all perfectly fine. i had a moment of the fears on day one when i started getting groin cramps at mile 45, though. 45 miles into an almost 600-mile ride is not a good sign. but i was able to shift my riding style to use all the other muscles around it, and i just started stretching more. as such, i was able to ride through the cramps. the next morning, i got a slight cramp in my right hip flexor before leaving for the day, and i started to get scared enough to get pissed off, but i rode through it, and that was the last of my cramps for the week.

MOST CHALLENGING ASPECTS…
+ "quadbuster." this is a 2-mile climb on day 3 that increases in grade from 8% to 12%. i’m proud to say that i climbed it without stopping. it was slow going, it wreaked havoc on my IT bands, and when i hit the top i was literally pouring rivulets of sweat off my face — so much so that it was pouring onto my tyre, which was in turn leaving a wet track on the concrete. insane. oh, did i mention that this climb occurs after 10 miles of steady 2% uphill grade? yeah. so you’re basically going up a hill that increases in difficulty by a factor of almost six-fold, FOR AN HOUR.
+ the descent after the halfway point, day 4. this is several miles of consistent 7% grade. on a road bike, it’s awesome — you can get yourself up near 50mph if you lay on the big ring. but on a fixed-gear, it’s a different story. you’re fighting your drivetrain for 30 minutes to keep yourself at a manageable speed.
+ the descent on day 6. BRUTAL. steeper than the halfway point descent, and worse yet — it’s alongside freeway traffic and there’s RUMBLE STRIPS. you hit a rumble strip on a bike at anything over 3mph and you’re taking some serious chances with your level of control AND with your bike’s structural integrity.
+ riding on the side of the 101. you’re riding a bicycle on a freeway. i shouldn’t have to explain much more than that.
+ duration. this is something that affects you no matter what kind of bike you’re on. for 7 days, you’re workin it for 5-9 hours a day. luckily, everything’s so beat up after the first three days that you don’t know what hurts and what doesn’t. cause it ALL hurts. hahaha!!!

DANGERS AND TERRORS…
+ on day 4, i almost suffered heat exhaustion. it was 90-something degrees, there was no shade, i’d been in the saddle for 6 hours, and my bike and all my clothes are black. so i was really soaking up the heat. i managed to candy-ass myself to the next rest stop, where i put some ice into my bandana and wrapped it around my neck. then i sat in the shade and had about 4 bottles full of ice water. after 45 minutes or so, i was back at it.
+ also on day 4, i was almost crashed by another cyclist. first of all, he passed me as a semi passed both of us. the shoulder was nice and wide, but semis in particular fling off lots of detritus when they pass and they have a vortex of wind around them. so anything you do, even riding in a straight line on perfect pavement, is affected by them passing. but that wasn’t the half of it. his pass forced me wide right — right into a HUGE patch of loose, deep gravel. if i were not an experienced cyclist and if i were not riding a fixed-gear (giving me infinitely more control over my bike), i would have certainly gone down. but even THAT i could have gotten over. it was his "watch out for the gravel!" that sent me through the fucking stratosphere. run me off the road and then tell me to watch it? i. will. fucking. KILL. you. this is what turned it into a really bad situation. i fucking went OFF on him when i caught him back at camp. i was up in his fucking grille asking him who the fuck he thought he was, playing with my life just because he had a tailwind. told him that in addition to running me into the gravel and then having the audacity to tell me to watch out for it, he did all this while we were both being passed by the semi. told him that if he ever fucking did some sloppy shit like that again, he better be goddamn sure i don’t catch him. as it turned out, he knew exactly what he did and was very apologetic and up-front about it, which went a LONG way towards cooling me down. so much so that i actually found him again later and apologized for yelling at him.

TECHNICAL ISSUES…
+ i had to tighten my crank bolts once.
+ my bottom bracket is creaking something awful. now, that’s more to do with maintenance than anything. that bb hasn’t been serviced in over 800 miles now, and before that, it already had several hundred other miles on it. so it’s due to be replaced ANYWAY. and the creaking is just coming from the grease all wearing away, so when i finally get around to my post-ride tune-up, it should be fine.

WONDERFUL MOMENTS…
+ riding along next to strawberry fields that go for a mile and then terminate at the ocean is something really special. it’s not just that it looks gorgeous (though it does), but it’s the SMELL. ocean and strawberries. it’s really amazing.
+ there was a cloud which had a rainbow ON it. the rainbow was nowhere else in the sky, just on the cloud. if you go to my flickr set (link above), you’ll see it. it’s called "gay cloud."
+ lycra-clad chicks with cycling legs. nuff said.
+ the community. this event is predominantly made up of gay men. lots of lesbians, sure, and a good bunch of us ole breeders, too, but for the most part, this is a gay male crew. and not ONCE did i feel awkward or out of place or ostracized or harrassed or ANYTHING. it’s so inclusive and so wonderfully free of cliques and confines that it gives you hope for a world in which it’s ALWAYS that way. at least that’s my hope.
+ 2 miles to go. all sorts of neighborhoodies are out along the roadside with tables full of cookies, lemonade, cupcakes … and then there was the margarita man. WR and i were rolling by at maybe 18mph and dude goes "margaritas?" i locked my rear wheel into a 30-foot powerSkid. "SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" dude was fucking cracking up, said it was the best reaction he’d gotten all day. he filled one of my water bottles with top-shelf HEAVY-pour margarita.

in closing, i want to share something that was new to me on this ride. i mean, i felt it when i last did the ride, but i didn’t consider it’s importance or maybe i didn’t know how to verbalize it. but i’m clear on it this time. see, there are only four things that mammals (and actually most forms of life) need to survive — oxygen, food, rest, and exercise. and for 7 days on the AIDS/lifeCycle, that’s all we did. in addition to meeting the challenge of doing the ride on a track bike, in addition to helping to build the amazing community that is formed during the week, in addition to being a part of raising $10.5M for this imperative cause, that simple fact is responsible for most of the incredible sensation that i got from doing it. 7 days of base physical necessity goes a long way towards rebooting your body and mind, and when i was done, i felt amazing…

we’ve got big time braggin rights on this one, people. 570 miles on track bikes is straight BALLER, and i’m not afraid to say it.

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