11 + 2 = Audax ride

Rarely do so many factors conspire together to make it difficult to ride a brevet as we contended with on the 2015 Night Audax 200k which I hosted yesterday. This is a 200k brevet that starts in Huntington Beach at 7pm and heads inland to San Bernardino and then back. The intent is to ride as a group, but as we are Americans, this can be a challenge.

The weather forecast was appalling with 50% showers and thunderstorms predicted for the night of the ride. There were heavy thunderstorms all morning and continuous light to moderate rain all afternoon. As I drove down to the start at Huntington Beach I got a stream of phone calls and texts from people who had decided not to ride.

In addition there was a fatality on the Amtrak tracks around Oceanside and both north and south bound trains were seriously delayed. Mel called from Los Angeles to say he could not make it and Lisa and Hector called from San Diego to say they were going to be very delayed.

When I arrived at Huntington Beach the roads were wet but the storm had moved through leaving the air muggy and warm, but dry. As I waited in my car riders started showing up so we got their paperwork done. A couple of riders called to say they would be late for the start of the ride so I left their brevet cards on my windshield in case they got there within a hour of the ride's start time.

James called at 6:55 to say he was at the park - where were we? I don't know why Garmin likes to take people to the other side of the park. While we were waiting for him to drive around, Lisa showed up having ridden down from Anaheim Amtrak. We got started at 7:10pm with eleven riders and two more on the way.

The bike path was wet from the recent storm and exactly half of the bikes in the group had fenders. Five bikes had full fenders and I had a rear fender. The storm had reversed the prevailing wind so we had a headwind. It wasn't strong but is wasn't the expected tailwind. We rode cautiously on the wet pavement and got to the Mobil on Green River Hill a little late. As we rode by the road works on Green River Road Amber got a front wheel flat from some sheet metal that Caltrans had left by the side of the road which we fixed quickly. 

Atmospheric photo of bridge over SART - credit Brent Shaver

 

We felt a few drops of light rain for a few minutes at several points but it was never unpleasant. But when we got to the upper SART we started seeing lightning on either side but heard no thunder which tells me the storms were more than ten miles away. Still quite alarming. The storm had brought down a tree on the bike path which had left maybe 12 inches for us to squeeze by. It's a good thing we were running good lights.

As we regrouped at the top of the upper SART Lisa's front tire blew as she was just sitting there. Weird. She runs tubulars with slime. I have never seen slime work and it didn't this time either. It just ran across the bike path. Useless stuff.

With two flats, headwind, and wet roads, we were 45 minutes behind schedule so Lisa got 45psi into her tire and we rode the last 1.5 miles to In-n-Out for the turnaround. We thought Hector and David would join us here, but they didn't. We ordered an immense amount of food and somehow got some extra burgers and fries.

While we were eating it started to rain which was worrying, but by the time we were done the rain had stopped. As we were pulling away from In-n-Out, Lisa's front tire flatted again so she put a tube in and as she was doing that we saw Hector and David pull into the In-n-Out. We took off without them.

Riding back we had a strong tailwind and suddenly we were riding 18mph. We flew back until Doug caught a goat-head in his front wheel in Corona. Flat number four. We refueled at the Arco in Corona and kept on going - still with a tail wind. On Green River Road - almost exactly the same place she had flatted on the way out, Amber flatted again. Flat number five. By now the sky had cleared although the roads were still wet.

Dawn lit the eastern sky as we rode past Yorba Linda park and the tail wind grew even stronger. Hector and David caught us but David Nakai had ridden off the front so we were now twelve. We got to the end at 6:25 which put us 1:15 behind schedule. But considering the wet roads and five flats, I'm OK with that. The good news is we didn't get soaked, no-one crashed, and we weren't hit by lightning.

It's raining again as I write this. Damn we got lucky!

Although every rider who completed this brevet deserves credit for overcoming adversity, several riders deserve a special mention...

Brent (in blue) rode this bike on a 200k brevet

Brent Shaver who rode a beach cruiser wearing sandals. Single speed? Who does he think he is? Shai? That was a very impressive performance and if he ever gets a real bike he will be awesome. He also posted some photographs on his RWGPS trip.

Lisa, Hector, and Osvaldo took the train up from San Diego and were going to ride my 125km Anaheim to Oceanside permanent populaire with Doug and then ride on home. I think if you can do that then you're in good form for PBP.