CBBT ride, 10/2/04
Just back from my first 'group ride', a short out-and-back on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. www.cbbt.com/cbbtevent.html
This was an 8.5 mile ride on one arm of the bridge, with traffic shunted to the other arm for the majority of the ride. We were to ride out to the turn-around on the north island and return for a total of 18.3 miles by my odometer.
My brother and I first decided to do the ride back in April 2004, not so much as a challenge, but as a fun thing to do together, though it would be a good way to practice the preparation for a more substantial ride, and give some experience riding in a group. As it turned out it was an exercise in 'group avoidance' - but in general the bikers stayed to their right more often than not. This is another reason to get out there as early as possible. Those who waited until noon to start were out of luck, as they were turned back after a long wait. Weather concerns were cited by the officials. We had hazy sunshine, but the rain and thunder rolled in later.
I had heard it was good to get there early and that even though the event officially started at 8 am, we got there at 7:20 am and saw several riders already out on the course.
The previous night we suspended the bikes via a complex bungee system attached to the scaffolding of my brother's pickup truck.
Since I had a lot of things to do, including shower, put in contact lenses, and stagger around in circles losing my coffee and keys, I was up at 5:20 am. We left at about 6:45 am for the 40 mile drive to the far end of the CBBT - I had neglected to consider that after reaching the southern end of the bridge, it was almost 20 more miles to the north end parking lot - haha!
When we got to the rest station, with adequate signage, and organizers directing traffic to a parking spot, we saw there was still plenty of room, and we got a nice corner spot.
Since it was a short ride (only 18 miles), I didn't bring water or food - I figured it would essentially be a battle into the wind, but didn't know which leg.
At this point we still had to cross north and south-bound traffic to get to the beginning, which was delineated by lots and lots of orange safety cones and barrels - bikers were all squeezed into one lane and directed through one turnstile. After about 400 yds the road opened up to two lanes and we were alone on the bridge except for a few other bikers. It was nice seeing off into the distance and viewing the ocean and the bridge structures.
The wind felt strong, though probably mild for an exposed structure like a bridge, and though we normally ride 18 mph on the flats, the wind immediately slowed us down to 12-14 mph, and at times slower. It was hitting us as a crosswind at times, but at a sharp angle, making drafting off each other more problematic. We did attempt to pass a camera back and forth in the strong breeze, reaching and swerving and joking about adding a mandatory baton pass on future rides, I was trying to keep my visor and thumb out of the shots when taking pictures on the fly.
Right at the start, my brother asked me what we would do if separated. I replied I would wait for him - but that turned out to be a bit of a mistake as I'll note later.
Although the weather kept threatening rain, we arrived to a beautiful red sun rising over the water of the Bay. The sky remained hazy but mostly clear for the next hour and a half.
We knew the course had at least one hill, reportedly between 5% and 8% grade, rising about 80 feet in 1000 feet over the trestle possibly with an inclined run-up. Turned out there were two trestle bridges on the route, both steep looking and at least one long run-up. I elected to shift down to 38x20 which is an easier gear than I'm used to using since I couldn't judge the length of the hill, better safe than sorry. About 200 feet from the top I had the choice of standing to pedal, or gear down, so I went to 38x26. Speed dropped to about 10mph thanks to the wind.
Coming down the hill, I expected to see 20-25 mph, but we were held back, going into the wind to 15 mph, coasting, with the feeling that pedaling wasn't going to increase that speed very much. We were both amazed momentarily and exchanged looks and big grins.
Since my brother was lagging behind, I didn't accelerate, but kept watch for him in my mirror. Because I had to accelerate before each of the two hills to the trestles, I eventually lost sight of him.
Only one person passed me, a hearty fellow, wearing cycling shoes and clipless pedals, and I could have kept up with him if I'd been paying attention. He ended up about 200 yds in front of me and stayed there. It's fun to wait for someone to go by and then try to catch them, but with the wind and watching for my brother, I got caught asleep at the switch. Later he said he was wondering if I was going to try and tuck in behind the guy in the yellow jersey and clipless. It definitely would have taken some skill and timing to have gotten up to speed as I was passed and be ready to tuck in and wheel suck. It's a lot different in 'ride conditions' to try and do this when you're distracted than in a training ride with a partner.
We passed a number of riders, on many different types of bikes from fixies to trikes to one four-wheeler. The Va Beach police were even seen riding their bikes, patrolling. They may have been staying in the middle section, because I saw the same officers both going out and coming back.
The turnaround came way too soon and I felt as though I could go on forever.
I would have loved to ride it twice, but wasn't sure if it was allowed - we later realized the best thing to do would have been to turn around at the top of the first bridge and ride the far end twice. That way there'd only be a minimal dose of the wind, and we could easily have added 6-8 miles to the trip. (There were quite a few riders who did the route again we found when comparing notes.)
Now, with the wind at our backs, we easily cranked it up to 19mph, and went up the hill in my 38x15 gear quite easily, although at the crest of the largest trestle, I had to drop down to 38x26 for 100 yards.
At the final hill, my brother blew by me, dancing on the pedals, having overcome some aches and pains to ride (he works a construction type job, unlike his retired brother and hasn't as much time to train). That was thrilling to watch. He had said he felt a little queasy after the first climb of the main trestle (the larger and longer of the two) into the wind, when we were first going out, but he felt much improved later.
Although I rode in bike shorts and jersey, he had on regular loose cotton shorts and a cotton T-shirt, and no helmet, representing the beach rider contingent, I suppose, lol.
We did the 18.3 miles in under 80 minutes, an average of ~14 mph. Had we pushed it, I feel sure we could have knocked off 10 minutes.
I'm already thinking about next year.
The only 'mistake' was that we neglected to realize the great views we'd have of the riders and the bridges on the truck ride back to Va Beach. I rolled down the window to see better and really enjoyed the parade of riders going up the hill with the distinctive background of the other bridge's main trestle. We had planned to take the cam-corder, and this would have been amazing to capture digitally. I captured an indelible image in my mind which will stay with me.
Organization of the race was very good, although I thought it was a little dicey trying to cross normal bridge traffic on the way out, and cross traffic from bikers riding from another parking lot. There were some complaints from the regular CBBT users, lamenting the delay, and lack of pre-notification, but the notice was on the site for many months. Anyone using the tunnel could have done a little research, just as I do when using the Hampton Roads tunnel.
Next year we've decided to leave the house about 30-40 minutes earlier. Still, it was nice seeing the sun come up over the bay, and it's an experience that I will always remember with great fondness.
Oh, here's a couple pictures of me training on one of the hills in my neighborhood. It's hard to get a sense of the steepness, though. Based on the bridge ride, which was supposed to be 3-4% at the trestle, I'm guessing this hill to be 4-5%.
This was an 8.5 mile ride on one arm of the bridge, with traffic shunted to the other arm for the majority of the ride. We were to ride out to the turn-around on the north island and return for a total of 18.3 miles by my odometer.
My brother and I first decided to do the ride back in April 2004, not so much as a challenge, but as a fun thing to do together, though it would be a good way to practice the preparation for a more substantial ride, and give some experience riding in a group. As it turned out it was an exercise in 'group avoidance' - but in general the bikers stayed to their right more often than not. This is another reason to get out there as early as possible. Those who waited until noon to start were out of luck, as they were turned back after a long wait. Weather concerns were cited by the officials. We had hazy sunshine, but the rain and thunder rolled in later.
I had heard it was good to get there early and that even though the event officially started at 8 am, we got there at 7:20 am and saw several riders already out on the course.
The previous night we suspended the bikes via a complex bungee system attached to the scaffolding of my brother's pickup truck.
Since I had a lot of things to do, including shower, put in contact lenses, and stagger around in circles losing my coffee and keys
When we got to the rest station, with adequate signage, and organizers directing traffic to a parking spot, we saw there was still plenty of room, and we got a nice corner spot.
Since it was a short ride (only 18 miles), I didn't bring water or food - I figured it would essentially be a battle into the wind, but didn't know which leg.
At this point we still had to cross north and south-bound traffic to get to the beginning, which was delineated by lots and lots of orange safety cones and barrels - bikers were all squeezed into one lane and directed through one turnstile. After about 400 yds the road opened up to two lanes and we were alone on the bridge except for a few other bikers. It was nice seeing off into the distance and viewing the ocean and the bridge structures.
The wind felt strong, though probably mild for an exposed structure like a bridge, and though we normally ride 18 mph on the flats, the wind immediately slowed us down to 12-14 mph, and at times slower. It was hitting us as a crosswind at times, but at a sharp angle, making drafting off each other more problematic. We did attempt to pass a camera back and forth in the strong breeze, reaching and swerving and joking about adding a mandatory baton pass on future rides, I was trying to keep my visor and thumb out of the shots when taking pictures on the fly.
Right at the start, my brother asked me what we would do if separated. I replied I would wait for him - but that turned out to be a bit of a mistake as I'll note later.
Although the weather kept threatening rain, we arrived to a beautiful red sun rising over the water of the Bay. The sky remained hazy but mostly clear for the next hour and a half.
We knew the course had at least one hill, reportedly between 5% and 8% grade, rising about 80 feet in 1000 feet over the trestle possibly with an inclined run-up. Turned out there were two trestle bridges on the route, both steep looking and at least one long run-up. I elected to shift down to 38x20 which is an easier gear than I'm used to using since I couldn't judge the length of the hill, better safe than sorry. About 200 feet from the top I had the choice of standing to pedal, or gear down, so I went to 38x26. Speed dropped to about 10mph thanks to the wind.
Coming down the hill, I expected to see 20-25 mph, but we were held back, going into the wind to 15 mph, coasting, with the feeling that pedaling wasn't going to increase that speed very much. We were both amazed momentarily and exchanged looks and big grins.
Since my brother was lagging behind, I didn't accelerate, but kept watch for him in my mirror. Because I had to accelerate before each of the two hills to the trestles, I eventually lost sight of him.
Only one person passed me, a hearty fellow, wearing cycling shoes and clipless pedals, and I could have kept up with him if I'd been paying attention. He ended up about 200 yds in front of me and stayed there. It's fun to wait for someone to go by and then try to catch them, but with the wind and watching for my brother, I got caught asleep at the switch. Later he said he was wondering if I was going to try and tuck in behind the guy in the yellow jersey and clipless. It definitely would have taken some skill and timing to have gotten up to speed as I was passed and be ready to tuck in and wheel suck. It's a lot different in 'ride conditions' to try and do this when you're distracted than in a training ride with a partner.
We passed a number of riders, on many different types of bikes from fixies to trikes to one four-wheeler. The Va Beach police were even seen riding their bikes, patrolling. They may have been staying in the middle section, because I saw the same officers both going out and coming back.
The turnaround came way too soon and I felt as though I could go on forever.
I would have loved to ride it twice, but wasn't sure if it was allowed - we later realized the best thing to do would have been to turn around at the top of the first bridge and ride the far end twice. That way there'd only be a minimal dose of the wind, and we could easily have added 6-8 miles to the trip. (There were quite a few riders who did the route again we found when comparing notes.)
Now, with the wind at our backs, we easily cranked it up to 19mph, and went up the hill in my 38x15 gear quite easily, although at the crest of the largest trestle, I had to drop down to 38x26 for 100 yards.
At the final hill, my brother blew by me, dancing on the pedals, having overcome some aches and pains to ride (he works a construction type job, unlike his retired brother and hasn't as much time to train). That was thrilling to watch. He had said he felt a little queasy after the first climb of the main trestle (the larger and longer of the two) into the wind, when we were first going out, but he felt much improved later.
Although I rode in bike shorts and jersey, he had on regular loose cotton shorts and a cotton T-shirt, and no helmet, representing the beach rider contingent, I suppose, lol.
We did the 18.3 miles in under 80 minutes, an average of ~14 mph. Had we pushed it, I feel sure we could have knocked off 10 minutes.
I'm already thinking about next year.
The only 'mistake' was that we neglected to realize the great views we'd have of the riders and the bridges on the truck ride back to Va Beach. I rolled down the window to see better and really enjoyed the parade of riders going up the hill with the distinctive background of the other bridge's main trestle. We had planned to take the cam-corder, and this would have been amazing to capture digitally. I captured an indelible image in my mind which will stay with me.
Organization of the race was very good, although I thought it was a little dicey trying to cross normal bridge traffic on the way out, and cross traffic from bikers riding from another parking lot. There were some complaints from the regular CBBT users, lamenting the delay, and lack of pre-notification, but the notice was on the site for many months. Anyone using the tunnel could have done a little research, just as I do when using the Hampton Roads tunnel.
Next year we've decided to leave the house about 30-40 minutes earlier. Still, it was nice seeing the sun come up over the bay, and it's an experience that I will always remember with great fondness.
Oh, here's a couple pictures of me training on one of the hills in my neighborhood. It's hard to get a sense of the steepness, though. Based on the bridge ride, which was supposed to be 3-4% at the trestle, I'm guessing this hill to be 4-5%.
posted by Max Johnson | 7:35 PM
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