Team Mango

RAMROD: Ride Around Mt. Rainier in One Day

RAMROD is an annual bike ride around Mt. Rainier that totals 154 miles and 10,000 feet of elevation gain, hosted by the Redmond Cycling Club. This year’s ride was limited to 800 riders and I was lucky enough to wrangle a pass two months before the ride.

My alarm clock went off at 3:30am Thursday morning and I set off for the starting line in Enumclaw. I arrived at 5:00 and quickly found John, Jason and John’s friends Bill, Chris and Scooter. Scanning the landscape, it was a very lean and mean pack of riders (read intimidating by this author-rider). No “fat people on mountain bikes” here as you see in the shorter club rides.

Around 5:30 we passed through the starting gate and set out in the darkness, with plenty of police officers stopping traffic and guiding us through town. We found our way into several pacelines and were making good time at 22+ mph. At some point we missed our turn and ended up in Orting before realizing there weren’t any other bikers around. We tried to take a shortcut back to the route, but that ended with a steep hill in the wrong direction. We backtracked and found the group again, with a 5 mile penalty. As one rider put it as we rejoined the pelaton, “154 miles isn’t enough for you guys?”

Cruising quickly into Eatonville at 32 miles (37 for us, with our side trip), I felt great. There was minimal climbing and we were still enjoying the cool overcast skies. I scarfed down two brownies and away we went.

From Eatonville the road had a few hills in it, but into the Nisqually entrance of Mt. Rainier National Park, the legs still felt strong. There was a checkpoint where they read our bib numbers on-the-fly.

I was near the Kautz Creek lunch stop (59 miles) where I saw a rider go off the road and fall down a steep ten foot embankment. At first I thought someone threw a bike off the road, it flew through the air with such deliberation until I saw the rider tumbling underneath. She got up right away and seemed to be ok. Around the corner in the food tents I found Jason who didn’t look his best, unsuccessfully trying to eat a bagel. Once the rest of our group arrived, I was off again, to what I thought would be the worst part of the day.

Don’t get me wrong—it was bad. Better riders passed me like I was standing still. Towards the top I had quite a few rest breaks, my stomach feeling queasy at times. Luckily most of the ride was in the shade.

I met the others at the top, filled up on cold water and cooled off on the descent. Eleven miles, topping out at 41 mph. Like Herbie the Lovebug, I was passing riders once again.

Down to the Box Canyon picnic area, I loaded up on power bars, which seemed to be doing more good than “real food”. Other than more stomach queasiness, my legs felt capable, although I knew I’d quickly fall to the back of the line once any climbing began. Backbone Ridge was a gradual hill, that didn’t cause any suffering. However, two miles after that descent, the real climbing started in the sun, with temperatures on the asphalt in the 90s. I was stopping every mile, then half mile, so light-headed I couldn’t stand up when I dismounted the bike. My stomach was so finicky, I couldn’t put down any food without fear of errupting.

The combination of heat, physical stress, lack of electrolytes and too much water dilluting my bloodstream’s remaining sodium — I would later realize was likely hyponatermia — would eventually get the best of me.

Less than a mile from Cayuse Pass, trying to regain composure, I watched a woman vomit 3 dozen power bars on the gravel and I realized that this, too, would be my swan song. Another cyclist pulled up for a break in the shade and I announced my finish. He kindly reassured me of my decision. I thought of Alessandro Petacchi, the winner of four of the first six Tour de France stages this year who abandoned the race the moment he reached the base of the first climb of the seventh stage, preferring to lay on Italy’s beaches than suffer in France’s mountains. When the sag-wagon pulled up to check the vomiter, I threw in the towel.

I ended the ride with 115 miles of cycling and ~9,600 of the 10,000 feet of elevation gain, in 13.5 hours of cycling.

Adrian, the driver, and I made a few status checks of the other riders lower on the mountain before heading back up to the top of the pass. I was impressed with their concern especially this late in the day on the steepest climb, driving by every few minutes. The tail end of the pack looked like cyclists in a war zone with riders flailed out on their backs at various turn-outs. “This is the busiest time of the day,” Adrian noted, as another vehicle was loading up 4 more riders. We’d pull up to someone lying on the side of the road and he’d ask if they needed any help. After they said “no, just resting”, he’d mumble, “Ok, we’ll get them on the next round.”

He mentioned one rider being pushed off the road by a motorist and breaking his collarbone. A few others experienced falls and road rash. Other than that, it was a fairly smooth day. With this being my first organized ride, I was impressed with the level of support and organization that goes into an event as complex as this.

Back at the finish line, Jason, John and the others had just rolled in. I was still feeling weak, queasy and tired so I headed home. Craving starches, I ate three burritos, a plate of pasta served by my lovely wife and promptly passed out on the couch.

Posted by scotts at August 2, 2003 11:26 AM