Team Mango

Inland Empire Century - May 7, 2005

Pierce, No Meato Burrito and Johnny Methane made the trek to the red state of Eastern Washington for the Inland Empire Century sponsored by the Tri-City Bicycle Club.

Methane’s in-laws live half the year in Richland and it is where Mrs. Methane grew up. The team and support crew (including progeny) crashed in Carol’s childhood home a block from the Columbia River.

I didn’t sleep much the night before the ride. 15-month-old Audrey was in the room with us and flopped around in her crib all night like a big fish. I finally moved to the sofa in the living room at 2:00am and managed to sleep until 5:40.

We got out of the house at 6:45 and rode the 1.5 miles down the bike path along the Columbia to the ride registration and start. Organizers said this ride typically gets about 200 riders, half of which are local and half from out of town (probably mostly Seattle).

The ride started out downstream along the Columbia on the bike path, then crossed the river to Pasco. After about two miles, I crashed. I had my hand off the handlebar to signal a post in the trail when I hit a raised manhole cover and went down medium hard. Nice road rash, as you can see, as well as a messed up thumb and a little more road rash on my arm. Later I thought my thumb might be broken, but the next day it actually felt much better so apparently just a strain.

I brushed myself off and on we went. Down the Columbia a couple of miles to the Cable Bridge, where we re-crossed the Columbia to Kennewick. Then on more bike paths upstream. There are many miles of great bikes paths along the river in all three cities.

We stopped at the first rest stop at 18 miles. I got to clean out my wound and they summoned a sag wagon with a first aid kit so I could put a bandage on it.

The ride then left the Columbia and turned west out of Kennewick toward Benton City. Along the way I got one flat and Jason got another. Both from “tackweed”, a bush that has small thorns that apparently are famous in that area for causing punctures. Apparently local riders use tire liners or slime to prevent flats from it. Jason’s flat was on the frontage road right next to the freeway, which made it hard to locate the leak by listening to it. Throughout the day, we would get a good paceline going and pass a lot of people, only to have them pass us again while we were fixing a flat or some other problem.

Here’s a map of the route (click for larger version):

After the Benton City rest stop at about 33 miles, we started up Webber Canyon into the Horse Heaven Hills. It was a long steady climb, with another rest stop conveniently located right at the top. I had heard of the Horse Heaven Hills before; Carol’s ancestor (grandfather or great-grandfather) was a sheep herder there. I expected an area of rolling dry hills. But actually once you get to the top, it is a huge relatively flat plateau with irrigated agriculture.

After the rest stop we had a long straight stretch going due west into the wind along County Well Rd. and then Hiway 221. Another flat for John along the way. Actually the wind was kind of a cross headwind for a while and we successfully tried out the “echelon” formation the pros ride in in such situations.

After 15 miles into the wind, we came to the steep descent into Prosser. No Meato bombed down it, but Pierce and myself were disconcerted by the wind and the wakes of passing Wal-Mart semis and we slowed down. I had quite a bit if bike wobble and found it pretty scary.

Prosser hosted the 4th rest stop. Bagels with peanut butter and Gatorade and cookies. Mmmm. Then we finally got to turn in the direction of the wind and head back to Benton City. Of course, when you turn around after being in a headwind for a long time, the tailwind is never as steady and helpful as you imagined during all that struggling, but at least it wasn’t a headwind.

I started bonking a little during this segment. I was ready to skip the last loop of the ride out of Benton City and head straight back to Richland. But after getting to the Benton City rest stop again and eating I felt better and off we went on the last segment. We turned north for a few miles, then east through West Richland and toward Richland and the finish.

At the finish, there was a hot dog cart (unrelated to the ride). No Meato and myself scarfed down a polish dog and a Mountain Dew. Pierce wasn’t game for that immediately following the ride.

We ended up with 94 miles (plus a little back to the house) in 5:40 for an average speed of 16.5 mph. Here’s the ride elevation profile:

Pierce took off for Seattle for some mysterious reason, while the Burrito and Methane families dined at the Atomic Ale Brewpub and made the return trek on Sunday morning. Overall a fun road trip and ride.

Posted by jmethot at May 11, 2005 2:41 PM