2021 Five Rivers Staff Ride

Amber and I rode the Five Rivers 300k staff ride on Sat 13th. We started at 5am, a few hours after a major storm had left the area. It was 43F, dark, and calm. I had forgotten to bring my leg warmers but I had some light hiking pants and they worked. I kept them out of my chain with my reflective ankle bands.

About the only thing you need to know is that there is a protected bike lane on the left side of Green River Rd on the steep descent (about mile 5.5) that you should use. At the end of the lane the road splits three ways. You want to use the center split (keeping the construction fence on your left).

Up the middle

I like the new rules for running brevets in the pandemic and I hope we keep some of them. We skipped the official control and ate at The Crema in Seal Beach. As well as a lovely breakfast, we picked up some pastries for the next control which is a rather boring 7-Eleven. The pants came off here. I hope I didn't scare any locals when I dropped them.

Yum!

We were dismayed to find we had a gusty headwind as we headed inland to Duarte which slowed us down to about 14mph. Normally the onshore flow gives us a nice tailwind through this stretch. "Still," we thought, "we'll have a tailwind on the way back." 

There used to be a pizza store next door, but they moved.

At Duarte we ate our pastries and topped up our water bottles. When we headed to Long Beach we found we still had a headwind despite completely turning around. In reality it was a powerful crosswind which feels like a headwind in both directions. We were crawling along at 12mph most of the way to Long Beach :-( At least it wasn't raining!

After Long Beach we picked up a nice tailwind and scooted along to the Chronic Tacos in Belmont. There's a ton of places you can use for the control, but the cheese quesadillas here really hit the spot.

Cheese quesadillas, chips, salsa, and real coke

Moving on, still with a tailwind, we took the beach path through Huntington beach, which was very crowded in places. PCH would have been faster. We headed inland to Irvine, still with a tailwind, and got to the last control just before the sun set. We ate at the Ha-Long Vietnamese café and here was where Amber made a rare mistake. The coffee was very strong and Amber didn't eat much of her noodles. That came to haunt us later.

Chicken Pad-Thai, garlic noodles, Vietnamese coffee

As we rode away from Irvine the sun was setting and we still had a nice tailwind. This section has more climbing than any other section on this route. Amber's stomach started bothering her on the bike path as we were approaching Green River Rd. Tums didn't help. We assume it was the massive hit of caffeine without eating much food. We used the bike lane as we climbed Green River and I (for the first time ever) had to wait for Amber at the top. We probably averaged 5 mph over the last 10 miles.

We had about 100 miles of headwind and 60 miles of tailwind. Fortunately the tailwind was at the end and helped us up the hills. No rain except what was already on the road and thrown up by our tires. The temperature was between 43F and 75F. It was 50F at the end. No detours, and no road work. No guarantees for next week, though. That will be your adventure.

Because of the pandemic, we are relaxing the rules slightly.

• Just before you start riding, you must visit me in my room (I will post it on our Google group or you can call me), sign the waiver (I will provide the waiver) and get an official start time. You may do this any time between 5am and 6am. Please wear a mask.
• While riding you must hit the controls in order and get proof of passage. This can be a receipt, a timestamped photo, or a rwgps ride that I can look at once you have uploaded it.
• You must ride at least 188 miles - this is the official length of the route.
• When you finish, please take a photo of the hotel and text it to me with your name so I know you are done. This will be your official finish time. You need to finish within 20 hours of your start time.
• Within 48 hours of the end of the ride, please email me with either the url of your rwgps ride, copies of the photos, or scans of the receipts.

I will be driving on the course and available for SAG after about noon. There will be no SAG available before then.