AS the guy on the single cranked past us, I asked him plaintively "How do you _do_ that?". "Focus. Cadence." came back the reply, and then he was gone, leaving Joyce and me to continue slogging north towards Columbus through the 20-mile-an-hour cross wind. It was the tip I had been needing, and had forgotten. Putting that reminder into practice, our speed crept up a bit and held at a steady 12 mph- tolerable if not exactly world class. We knew then that we would finish the trip, something I had begun to have nagging doubts about up to that point.
WE had begun the trip the day before, leaving Columbus OH about 6:40 Saturday morning headed for Portsmouth OH, on the Ohio River. Our two-day, 210-mile round trip would go into the books as one of the classic TOSRVs (Tour of the Scioto River Valley): cold, wet, windy, and _unbelievably_ long at the end. This was the 35th running of the event, and it absolutely typified the weather conditions that make up the dominant feature of the ride. If it weren't for the weather, TOSRV would be just another ride. As it is, however, the weather dictates what the conversations will be like. At one rest stop, for example, we were chatting with another rider who, on hearing that I had never before ridden a century completely in the rain came to the correct conclusion: "This must be your first TOSRV."
SATURDAY morning had come early and wet. We got up about 5:00 and began preparing the bike and ourselves for what was to come. I was traveling with three companions: my stoker Joyce, and our friends Jeff and Alice, riding their Co-Motion Cappuccino. Friday evening, as we enjoyed a superb Vietnamese dinner at the Saigon Palace in Columbus, the rain had set in. It was one of those steady, all-night-and-all-day kind of rains that will cause you to think long and hard before you set out on a ride. I dressed and went outside for a temperature check so that we'd have an idea of what the temperature was doing and what things to wear versus what to pack through or carry with us. It was tolerably warm at that moment, but we knew the rain was being followed by a very slow-moving cold front so that the temperature would probably never get much above the mid-50s. Joyce, who hasn't a gram of extra flesh about her, immediately donned four upper and two lower layers, and packed another couple of items into the panniers. Being slightly better insulated, I chose the two layer approach: regular jersey and shorts, with rain jacket and rain pants outside. I wrapped an extra pair of tights in a plastic bag and dropped them into the panniers, along with some socks in the unlikely event that the weather ever dried out. We were ready!
AFTER dropping some of our luggage at the vehicle, the four of us headed to the starting point and loaded our overnight gear onto the trucks for shipment to Portsmouth. A final quick check of the bikes, last-minute adjustments to our personal effects, and we were off. The advertised 6:30 tandem start either left a bit early or we missed it, but we had no problems with crowds: the rain must have caused many riders to reconsider what they were about.
AS we spun south out of Columbus, Alice remarked that these same miles now zooming by would crawl past on the morrow. Her warning went heeded but not fully appreciated by Joyce and myself, who had never experienced the "accordion effect". Still, we were not in any particular hurry, knowing that there were _many_ miles to go and all weekend to do them. The rain was a steady drizzle, and the temperature was holding about 55, where it had been when we arose. The terrain for the first fifty or so miles is flat and relatively open, so that with the aid of a 10 mph tail wind and the slight downstream gradient we were covering about 16 miles every hour.
TWO hours into the trip we arrived at the first rest stop, Circleville. We had been skirting along the edge of the front for several miles prior to arrival, and were now in the cooler air mass. As we had hit alternating pockets of warm and chilly air, our glasses had fogged and then cleared and then re-fogged. By the time we reached the rest stop they had cleared and didn't fog any more. The rest stop had all the usual goodies: cookies, bananas, sports drink, etc. In addition, they had what would turn out to be a real boon and ride-saver for the four of us: endless amounts of hot chocolate. We each guzzled a cup or two, standing under the picnic shelter in the town park. While there, somebody told us about the space heaters in the equipment storage room, in the back of the shelter. You don't have to tell me twice where the heat is! We migrated back into the "inner sanctum", grateful to be out of the chilly breeze and the wet.
JEFF made some remark about getting more hot chocolate and disappeared, as did Alice a moment or two later. Joyce and I remained for a bit longer, chatting with another rider. After several minutes, when our companions had not reappeared, we went looking for them, only to find that their bike was nowhere to be seen! It was a puzzlement to us that they would have left without us, but we put it down to miscommunication and shrugged it off. After resecuring all the baggage, we set out to catch them if we could. The four of us are pretty evenly matched, so we knew that it would be a near thing unless they realized we weren't right behind them and slowed down to wait for us to catch up.
AS it turned out, they had simply moved the bike under shelter, to be out of the drizzle while they fiddled with their back brake. It had been troublesome the weekend before, and they wanted to make certain it wasn't dragging now. Alice saw us mount up and take off, but wasn't able to shout us down. She, too, was puzzled about why her companions would just up and leave without so much as a warning! But, the brakes being fine, they jumped on the bike and lit out after us, riding hard but knowing we were only a minute or two ahead.
NATURALLY, we too were making good time, thinking to catch them if possible. Somehow our two pairs took different courses out of town, so that they ended up ahead of us without knowing it! Since they were still in "chase" mode, they just banged along all the way from Circleville to Chillicothe, the midway point in the day's ride and also the lunch stop. They never _did_ catch us! You can imagine their amazement when we pulled in a few minutes _after_ they arrived, and our collective amusement when we figured out what had happened. Once reunited, we enjoyed lunch (it was 10:00 by this time) and a respite.
AFTER lunch, we mounted up and headed for the next stop, Waverly. We had all come to the conclusion that, unless we could get out of the wind and rain, rest stops would be brief affairs due to continued cool temperatures and the breeze. None of us had shed any layers, and Joyce was considering adding one. But, since we were warm enough while riding, we just stayed as we were. The rain continued, but was beginning to abate so that we had moments where we began to dry off, only to be wetted again later on.
THE rain had so far prevented us from doing much by way of drafting, and had seemingly discouraged pace lines in general. Apparently, it had also discouraged a large proportion of the participants sufficiently that there were noticeably fewer riders at the stops and along the road that usual, although we were still never out of sight of other riders.
IN between Chillicothe and Waverly is the only terrain that could be described as "hilly", and that only with the qualifier "very modestly". It's really more of a set of rollers, and absolutely no trouble. The real benefit is a chance to take some butt breaks and stretch the legs with a bit of standing. The four of us negotiated that stretch in good order, without any troubles.
WAVERLY's rest stop is perched atop a hill, so we climbed the stairs for a view of the valley. What we had been observing all along was especially apparent from up top: there has been a _LOT_ of rain in southern Ohio recently. The river has occupied large amounts of its flood plain, and the farmers may not be able to get into their fields for another couple of weeks.
MORE hot chocolate and bananas prepared us for the final leg of the day's ride, so after a suitable pause we set off. The other damage the rain had done was to wash out several of the bridges, and we stopped several times at one-lane temporaries waiting for the traffic lights to change. I used the opportunity to practice my low-speed bike handling and timing skills, so we rarely unclipped. Between bridges, we began to feel our oats, and our speed crept up from the steady 16 or so we had held through the day to more nearly 20 for this final stretch. After Jeff reminded me that there was still tomorrow to consider, however, we slowed back to our former pace.
ABOUT three or four miles from the end of the day's journey, I flatted the front tire and had to stop. Fortunately, the rain had eased off by then so we had pretty well dried off, and we were once again in a pocket of warmer air. I patched the tube, remounted the tire, pumped it up, and promptly pulled the stem out of the valve! Just as I finished changing the tube and squaring everything away, our bubble of comfort moved off and the chill returned (without the rain, happily enough).
THANKS to the flat, our arrival in Portsmouth was a bit of a denouement but still welcome (to us, at any rate!). We had some more hot chocolate, then headed into town proper to find our respective lodging for the night. Alice and Joyce were staying at a school some three or four blocks from where Jeff and I had been placed, so we dropped them off and found our way "home". Our school's "shower" facility consisted of a lawn sprinkler and a garden hose, rigged from the tap in the boiler room! The "shower stall" was a (fairly) sheltered and (relatively) private exterior stairwell, but that didn't detract in the slightest from the joy of a cascade of truly hot water washing away the grit and grime of 105 miles of rainy road. Neither Jeff nor I had the energy or drive to do much about the condition of the bikes, though, so they stayed dirty. (I'm pretty certain there isn't any grit left along the course, as it all seemed to be adhering to my bike!)
MANY of the Portsmouth churches had put on carbo-feeds for the riders, and we gladly partook of the one next door to our school. For four dollars, we feasted on spaghetti, salad, bread, dessert, and drinks. The extra dollar for another helping of spaghetti was well worth it! I hope that the churches feel they were suitably rewarded for their efforts despite the relatively small turnout of riders, as they did a magnificent job.
AFTER dinner Jeff and I walked the ladies back to their school, and returned to our own. We spent the rest of the evening chatting with other captains (our school seemed to be "tandem central") and finally called it a day about 9:00. We never did clean the bikes.
SUNDAY dawned clear but very cool. We awoke promptly at 5:30 when the lights in the gym came on, and rapidly broke "camp". This is considerably simpler and neater when you've been sleeping indoors, and do not have a wet tent and ground cloth to take care of! Jeff and I each chose a multi-layered approach, basically donning all of the clothing we had brought. If you had told me that, in mid-May, I'd be wishing for booties and full-fingered gloves I'd have thought you were crazy. _Next_ year I'm packing 'em! (And both my long-sleeved jerseys, too. And a turtleneck. And a heavier jacket. And a pot-bellied stove.)
OUR "dates" arrived on schedule, and we set off downtown to find the church where Chris Cakes had set up. For the uninitiated, Chris Cakes is a mobile pancake kitchen, geared specifically towards event support. One of the trademarks is the "air mail" delivery of the goods- just stand back with your plate and catch the cakes as they're flipped at you! We made the acquaintance of Al and Chris, a father/son team, while eating and saw them throughout the day.
BY 7:30 we were on the road, heading back north out of Portsmouth at a steady 15 mph pace. None of us was cold, though we wouldn't have minded a bit more atmospheric warmth. We were definitely appreciating the bright sun and blue sky, and thanking our lucky stars that it had not been this cool the previous day. We began to notice that there was no tail wind, and in fact there was something of a cross wind/head wind. To counteract its effects, we started a two-tandem rotating paceline- a mile pull, a mile rest.
THIS carried us northwards towards the first rest stop, in Waverly. We had been noticing a much larger number of cyclists, and this was confirmed at the rest stop. There were many more people there, though still considerably fewer than might have been. We enjoyed our hot chocolate, scarfed up some M&Ms and bananas, visited with other riders for a spell, and hit the road again.
ALTHOUGH we were aware of the wind, it still had not fully unleashed itself on as we continued towards Schoolhouse hill and the next rest stop. The lower part of the Scioto valley is fairly sheltered by trees, so that we were screened from the worst of the wind. We managed to catch up with Chris and his dad Al, but lost them shortly after when we stopped for a moment to shed a layer.
JEFF and Alice began to show their strength as we negotiated the rollers following the rest stop, and finally got far enough ahead that we lost sight of them. We knew we'd see them again in Chillicothe, so we weren't worried about it. Besides, they were trying to shake an uninvited klingon, and we thought they'd need to slow up a bit after doing so. It turned out that they dropped him on a hill- just climbed away from him. They attributed it to "JATO" power- "Jeff and Alice Taking Off"!
LUNCH in Chillicothe was agreeable, though we had begun to feel the true nature of the wind. Where we had made the lunch stop by 10:00 the previous day, it was more like 12:30 on Sunday, and we were _very_ glad of the break. Our trials were beginning in earnest.
ON the way out of town, Alice and Jeff dropped their timing chain, and managed to get the pedals 180 degrees out of phase when they put it back. Alice noticed immediately as they started, so we stopped and corrected the problem. This was, mercifully, the last technical glitch of the trip and not a serious one at that.
MUCH of the remainder of that day is something of a blur to me: I know that at some point we kicked up a piece of metal that wedged between the timing chain and the stoker's chainring, but it came immediately free when we stopped and spun the cranks. Once again, our friends were slightly stronger than we, so we spent the bulk of the afternoon on our own. I do recall that we met at both of the two remaining scheduled rest stops, as well as at an unplanned one somewhere ten or fifteen miles out of Chillicothe.
AT the first scheduled stop north of Chillicothe, I finally took the plastic liners off my feet and changed into dry socks, convinced that my feet would now stay warm enough without being sheltered from the wind. As compensation, I re-donned my jacket to ward off the insidious chill from the wind. My diet of energy bars continued as I watched the two tandem riders dressed as Elvis move through the food line.
THE wind was beginning to take its toll on my mental faculties, and the miles that had whizzed by effortlessly yesterday ground on and on forever today. We were definitely leaned into the wind, and every time a car or truck passed by I had to remind myself to sit more upright as the wind shadow passed. Some of the gusts cut our speed to about 8.5 miles an hour, and it was taking increasingly long to climb back to 11 or 12. Neither Joyce nor I had much to say by this time, or at least not the energy to say it. It was in this stretch that I was reminded by the other rider to focus, and as I did so our cadence slowly rose and strengthened. We brought our speed back up to about 12 mph from 10, and held steady there.
BY the time we hit the final rest stop, only 7 or 8 miles from the end of the tour, I was definitely nearly bonked. I had been spending all my focus on keeping the bike upright and pointed in the right direction, so the lemonade Alice brought me was as ambrosia! I snatched up an energy bar and wolfed it down, followed by some cookies. This food and drink got me feeling _much_ better, and ready to do the final leg into town.
OUR "treat" for the day was the mile or so we did headed east along the highway back into Columbus- our cross wind was now a tailwind. As we moved up High Street with the riders around us, it was difficult not to turn each two-block stretch between red lights into something of a sprint. But, we restrained ourselves and finished smoothly, about 5:45, making it among the longer centuries we have done.
WE headed for the van, dropped off the bikes and gear, then walked back to the Vietnamese restaurant we had eaten at on Friday night. When you're tired, hungry, sore, and strung out from a hard ride, there's nothing like a BIG bowl of soup to restore you! We enjoyed not only the meal, but also visiting with the owners, who were very gracious and friendly. We already plan to return next year!
ON the whole, this was an enjoyable trip. The rain and the wind and the temperature made it "interesting", and the company certainly made it fun. The sponsors and organizers of TOSRV certainly go all-out to make it a successful event, and they do a SUPERB job of organization and support. So long as you're prepared for inclement weather, it's not an event to miss. Everyone should try it, at least once.
-= Keith Adams =-
� May 1996 All rights reserved
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