Big Bad Scary Ride Is Over!

"Okay, I admit it - I'm really nervous."

"Yep, I'm scared to death."

But there it was in front of us - Newberry Road.  A short 2.1 mile climb over the west hills.  About a thousand feet of elevation gain, with an average grade of around 7%.  In itself, that's no big deal, really.  But there is a stretch of this road that is at 12%, then 13%, then 14%, topping out at 15.8%.  That's the part I've been having nightmares about.

Camera Crew and I were riding in the Chris King Gourmet Century, a 70-mile outing and - more importantly - Event 34 in the 50@50 Project.  This one was a biggie, probably the hardest event we'll do in this adventure.  But if you know us and you noticed the word 'gourmet' in the title of the ride, then you will also realize this is just our kind of thing.  We love food, and the CKGC is amazing.  With chefs from Portland's top restaurants providing the sustenance along the way, not to mention an amazing pre-ride breakfast buffet and a post-ride dinner beyond compare, how could we NOT do this ride.

Chris King is the owner of Chris King Precision Components.  They are a US manufacturer of high end bicycle components - hubs and headsets, mostly.  They have vehemently said 'no' to the the temptation to make their products overseas at lower costs.  Chris King bike parts are USA-made, baby!  Go, 'murica!!  The story about how he got started is pretty simple - he rode bikes and thought he could make better hubs and headsets than what was being put on factory bikes.  So he started in his barn back in the '70's and the rest, as they say, is history.

Chris King is also passionate about food - local sourced, organic, free-range, grass fed, etc.  He is so into food that his company headquarters in NW Portland has it's own cafeteria, kitchen, chef, kitchen staff for the 100 or so employees!  In fact, when possible, fruits and veggies are sourced from Chris King's own farm.  So it was a no-brainer for him to come up with the Gourmet Century.  This year there were chefs from Crown Paella, Verde Cocina, Clyde Common, Kitchen Cru, and Prasad as well as folks from several local coffee roasters.  All of these culinary masters worked with Chris King's own chef to coordinate feeding us riders to power us along the way.  It's good to be a rider under these circumstances, trust me.

I could write paragraphs about the food but instead I'll let those who are curious about that aspect look it up on their own at www.chrisking.com , click on 'Company' and then click the tab to the Gourmet Century where you can access the menu.  Crazy delicious.

Back to the ride...
We loaded up the bikes Saturday morning and made the short drive to Chris King HQ.  In reality, it's only 2 miles from our house.  We considered riding TO the event but the thought of riding home AFTER made us decide to drive instead.  This was a good call, in the end and for our 'ends' if you get my drift.  We parked the SUV, double checked snacks and gear then rode down the alley to Chris King for breakfast.  After fueling up on baked eggs, veggie hash, granola, coffee, juice, and fruit we faced up to the real reason we were there - the ride.

The first 7 miles were on Highway 30, which was thankfully not too terribly busy early in the morning.  Oh, there was traffic but the shoulder was mostly debris-free and once we got past the St. John's Bridge traffic was pretty light.  We were both getting nervous about Newberry.  We had driven the course the week before to scout out the hills and see what we had gotten ourselves into, so knew this first climb was a doozy.  

It was.

We made the turn off 30 and the road immediately kicked up as it began to snake over the west hills.  We got part way up and took a break, then started climbing again.  The grade didn't seem too bad, actually, so we were chatting away.  Then we came around a corner and saw the real hill.  OMG.  

"Yikes.  Talk to you later."

"Talking is over.  Let's meet up at the top."

It was the steepest road I've ever climbed on a bike.  It wasn't too long a stretch but - wow - was it tough.  It was so steep in spots that when I would pull the pedals around then push down, I could feel my front tire come off the ground like I was going to flip over backwards.  Of course, I was leaning forward enough to counter it, but feeling the tire bob up and down with each downward pedal was a little weird.  I'll admit I took a couple of breaks, struggling to get started again on the incline.  But I rode the whole damn thing!  There were several people who walked their bikes up, something I just wouldn't let myself do, although it was tempting.  Each person tackles these obstacles in their own way and they were out there doing the event, so more power to them, I say!!  

Just around the corner from the one mile marker, there's a flat spot in the road.  People used that to catch their breath before continuing up the last mile.  Camera Crew and I met up there for a brief rest then chugged on.  The second mile was much easier than the first, still a climb but compared to the super steep part, it was cake.  Elated, we got to the top with smiles on our faces, knowing we had just conquered the first big climb of the day!!

From there, the route took us along Skyline Blvd, then down the very steep fast Springhill Road - this was a blast!!!  The ride west through the farms was very nice.  Rolling hills,  very little traffic.   Being a small race (limit of 200 or so riders), it was often just the two of us on the road.  We rolled along, enjoying the time together on this gorgeous day.  After about 17 miles we hit the first rest stop.  We were served flaky chicken vol au vent salads with a wonderfully salty arugula base.  These were light enough to keep riding but filling and savory enough to feel like we ate.  We refilled water bottles and kept heading west.  We stopped at Old Scotch Church to look around a little.  We have driven by this many times so took this opportunity to explore for s few minutes.  It's a Presbyterian church founded in 1873.  Beautiful grounds and cemetery.  We saw headstones with birth dates from the early 1800's.  Read up on it at www.oldscotchchurch.org  

We gradually made our way all the way out to the town of Banks for the much-anticipated lunch stop.  Now, loyal readers, I'm going to let you in on a little secret.  If you read this blog you know there is a super secret brunch spot that Camera Crew and I frequent, a place I've been reluctant to share for fear of it being overrun with, well, YOU.  If that happened, we wouldn't be able to get seated.  Selfish, I know.  But now - I'll share.  Just don't go there when I'm going to go there, okay?  Promise?  Pinky swear?  Okay.

Lunch was put on by Verde Cocina.  We love this place.  They do a fantastic brunch on the weekends, make great drinks and have a couple of locations in the area (Hillsdale and the Pearl district, downtown).  It's farm fresh Mexican food - lots of vegetables, fresh made tortillas to order.  They even have a booth at the Saturday farmers market downtown by PSU.  The food is spectacular and, believe it or not, quite simple.  In fact, Camera Crew has replicated the style several times at home and, honestly, it's like eating at Verde Cocina.
Check out their website at www.verdecocinamarket.com  But remember what you promised, okay??

We ate, enjoyed the live music, refilled water bottles and hit the road to start the ride east toward the finish.  Oy.  The second half of the ride was much harder than the first.  There were a lot more climbs and it was getting warm.  In fact, the only improvement I would suggest to the fine people who put on this event would be to have a water stop somewhere between lunch and The Barn (Chris King's house/farm/barn where he started his business).  At 20 miles between the two and out in the middle of nowhere, more water would have been good.  Temps were rising and I tend to take in a lot of water.  I ran out with a few miles to go.  Unfortunately, some of these miles were up Mason Hill Road - 'Hill' being the operative word there.  I think I was speaking in tongues by the time we finally arrived at The Barn.  This was at the 55 mile mark of the ride, the last rest stop before starting the last big climb back over the west hills to NW Portland.

We filled water bottles, drank deeply, refilled them and sat in the shade for a bit to rest.  They were serving sliders at this stop but neither of us thought that was a good idea, seeing as how we had 1,000+ feet to climb, starting almost immediately upon leaving The Barn.  I did have a cup of iced coffee, which really did me good.  Camera Crew had a brown butter mousse cake (tasted a bit like tiramisu).  We walked back out to the dirt driveway where we left the bikes - they were still there - and we figured it's now or never.

As we rode out, the SAG wagons were pulling in to pick up another load of riders who were opting out of climbing the hill.  Some were getting rides to the top, some were checking out and being delivered to the finish line.  We knew we were going to ride this thing, and we did.

After climbing up a ways, we turned off on Germantown Road for half a mile, then cut off on Old Germantown Road.  Keep in mind that the grade of Germantown Road looks bad enough.  It's a bit like Newberry.  Also keep in mind that when Germantown Road was built, it was considered to be an improvement over OLD Germantown Road.  The sucky part of this cutoff was that the first thing Old Germantown Road does is drop down for about a quarter of a mile, losing a lot of the elevation we had just fought to gain.  Thanks.
Then it was switchback time.  The road kind of winds back and forth on itself, climbing the hillside.  After almost three miles and several brief rest stops, we made it to the top where Old and New Germantown Roads join together again.  

All I can say is - WOOHOO!!!!!  Camera Crew and I had just conquered this ride!!  I can't begin to tell you how good I felt.  Yeah, we still had a few rollers and ten miles to the finish.  But a lot of this was some screamin' downhills - Thompson, Cornell, Lovejoy.  We cruised through NW P-town, feeling pretty proud of our accomplishment and looking forward to dinner.  We got back to Chris King HQ and stopped by the SUV to change clothes, load/lock the bikes.  Like a lot of riders, we didn't have time to shower.  Meh.  We bought a bottle of wine and waited for the seating to start.  

Dinner was amazing!  Multiple courses - check the menu on the website, remember.  Salad, gazpacho, paella with mussels, clams, prawns, chicken, and chorizo; dessert was a maple chocolate tart topped with berries and a vanilla cream sauce.  I enjoyed black coffee with my dessert.  It's that bitter/sweet combination that I love.  Camera Crew even took a few sips.

We chatted with our table mates - a couple from Austin, a guy from Houston, another from Atlanta.  There were riders from all over the country.  This event is so popular it sells out in a matter of hours.  I highly recommend this ride.  It's a little spendy but extremely well done.

Event 34 was complete and left us sore, tired and feeling amazing.  Yep, I'm patting us on the back - so proud of what we did!!

But in the category of 'no rest', here is what is coming up:
Thursday 8/1 - The Dual Duel, a 10 mile relay on a 1/4 mile track - we alternate running laps, passing a baton between us until we've each done 20 laps (five miles).
Saturday 8/3 - Super Hero Fun Run, a 5k to support music education in Portland's schools
Sunday 8/4 - XDog's Whine on the Vine, a 5 mile obstacle course run at a winery out near Hillsboro - note the 'h' in the word 'Wine' (it is an XDog event, after all)
Saturday 8/10 - Aurora's Colony Days 5k
Sunday 8/11 - Bridge Pedal, 36 miles with Fremont Express option, meaning our ride starts on the top deck of the Fremont Bridge at just before sunrise = awesome!

See ya!