Jamestown Canyon 200k Brevet

It’s always good to have one of your best training rides of the year, 5 weeks AFTER your big race. Hmmm. Compared to the sufferfest (at least for me) of Capulin Volcano 300k last week, Jamestown 200k was an unintimidating ride. I think I had more feet of elevation gain in two Cyclocross races on Saturday, than the entire 200k on Sunday. It was not the route, but my effort that made it good training. The ride up Lefthand Canyon to Jamestown is a nice gradual climb. The only bad part about that is that when you turn around it’s not a very fast descent. The route was on some of my favorite roads and we had nearly perfect weather.

Pumpernickel breadUnusually for a Colorado brevet, only one control was at a convenience store. My vegan chow for the ride included 4 scoops of Unflavored (I say, marshmallow flavored) Perpetuem, an Eggless Salad sandwich on pumpernickel, a Cherry Pretzel ProBar, and a Lemon Lara Bar.

I was pretty hungry when we arrived at the convenience store at mile 110, and for the first time in my brevet-riding career, I’d eaten all the food I’d brought a few hours before. I didn’t find any of my usual choices so I ended up getting regular Coke. It seemed to give me a headache, but there were only 15 miles to go.

These are some vegan foods I can frequently find at convenience stores where I ride. There’s a longer list of common foods that are vegan on PETA’s website.

  • Teddy Grahams
  • Chick-o-stix
  • Clif Bars
  • Nutter Butters
  • Twizzlers
  • Fritos
  • potato chips
  • pretzels

My preferred convenience store beverages during long rides are Pepsi Throwback, Mtn Dew Throwback, Peace Tea, or Lipton Pure Leaf Tea. All of those have cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Dr. McDougalls Tomato Soup Peace Tea wins over Lipton if both are available because it’s about half the price and the tall can is just the right size to fill my tall bottle.

After the ride I ate some black beans that I’d made at home and brought with me, and a little later, Dr. McDougall’s Chunky Tomato Soup. For some reason, I often crave that particular soup or Bubbies Sauerkraut after a brevet.

Vegan MoFo – Cyclocross Day

This is a biking weekend so there won’t be much cooking. This morning I drove to Frisco for Frisco Cross. It’s a two day event, but I have a 200k with RMCC tomorrow so no CX for me on Sunday. This was my third CX race, but the first Colorado Cup race of the year so there were more riders than when I raced a few weeks ago. I signed up for two races, Women’s 35+ and Women’s Cat 4. I realize that the age requirement for the “old” women’s race is not very old, but it still shocks me how young most of the 35-40ish women look. I could swear some of them must be first year college students. : )

I finished 9 out of 16 in the Women’s 35+. I had a horrible start. I missed my pedal and almost fell, and then “sprinted,” as much as I can sprint, to catch the back of the group as they turned off the pavement. The first lap I was hanging back a bit to check out the course, since I didn’t take any practice laps.

I don’t even know how I finished 9th of 29 in the Women’s 4. I thought since it was only 40 min we’d only have time for 4 laps. As I passed the start/finish at the end of the third lap I saw “2” to go. Ugh! I was pretty wasted by that point, I think I might have passed one or two on lap 4, but on lap 5, even though I had a couple riders close in front, I just didn’t have any bursts left to get around. I spent a lot of time in the dirt too. I never fell while riding, but three times, while getting on or off or just running along I fell. It’s funny. During the race I didn’t notice if I was hurt or not. I was just pissed at myself for dumping my bike.

Race numbers and race foodI have some photos and video of the new Frisco Bike Park. Unfortunately I got out of the house without the cable for my camera. Here’s a photo of a few things I ate. The ProBar Whole Berry Blast and Q-bel Double Dark (my favorite vegan candy bar) were after the race. I ate the Fruition about 20 min before the start of the second race when I realized I was low on calories and didn’t have any more gels. I love the Fruition Cherry! It seems like every time they come out with a new flavor it becomes my new favorite.

I also got some yummy pumpernickel bread from my friends’ bakery yesterday and had a PB and rice syrup sandwich for breakfast and ate one of the Eggless Salad sandwiches I made for tomorrow’s brevet when I realized I hadn’t brought anything for my 3-hours-before-the-race food.

This is roughly how I make Eggless Salad.

1 pkg extra firm tofu crumbled
1 tbsp mustard
dash of tumeric
dash celery salt
several dashes of black pepper
1-2 tbsp sweet pickle relish
3-4 tbsp Nayonaisse
1 tbsp chopped onions (optional)

Mix well in a container you can store it in. Why clean an extra dish?!

Installing Piranha tubeless tires

Recently there was a 70% off sale for Hutchinson Piranha CX tires and a number of people posted reviews which said the tires were nearly impossible to mount. I found the Piranhas easy to mount. While rims do make a difference, I’m guessing most people had previously mounted other tires on the same rim so it’s unlikely the problems were caused by the rim.

One issue I noticed is the second side wanted to flop off the rim when mounting, so you have to maintain contact until the tire is on. Here are some brief instructions that should make it easy to install these tires with most rims.

  1. Your rim should be prepped for a tubeless tire; either you have a tubeless rim or you’ve installed Stan’s Yellow Tape, and the valve is installed.
  2. Install the first bead. Start at the valve stem with the label (colored text on the sidewall) on the right side of the wheel at the valve. This is the pro-mechanic way to orient any tire, but these tires are directional so you’ll want to take care to at least get the label on the correct (right) side of the wheel.
  3. Check that the first bead is on the correct side of the valve stem. For any tubeless tire it’s easier to get the beads on either side of the valve when mounting the tire instead of trying to work one bead over the valve stem after the tire is mounted on the rim.
  4. Sit down and hold the wheel in your lap with the valve facing opposite you, at 12 o’clock.
  5. If you have weak hands or a stubborn rim set a bead jack within easy reach.
  6. Starting at the part of the wheel against your stomach mount the second bead using both hands working around the rim in opposite directions.
  7. Your hands should meet again at the valve stem and you can roll the last part of the bead over the edge of the rim. The best “tool” for this is the pads of your knuckles in your palm, but if you need assistance you can hold the bead in place with one hand while you use the bead jack with the other.

That’s it! I prefer unmounting a small section of the bead near the valve to add sealant, but if you’re worried about getting the tire on again you can remove the valve core and add sealant there.

My other tubeless tip: avoid getting sealant in the valve core by 1) closing the valve when shaking the tire to spread the sealant around, and 2) not releasing air from the valve before pumping.

Valles Caldera 2011

A video blog for 2011 (14:21)-
Link to 2x version for those with only 7:10.
Link to 4x version for those who want to see it in 3:35.

Valles Caldera 200k Brevet from Cathy Cramer on Vimeo.

A beautiful day for a ride in the Jemez Mountains. 125 miles, 11,000 ft of climbing. The ride starts at Overlook Park in White Rock, NM, goes thru Bandelier National Monument, by Fenton Lake and turns around at Jemez Springs. For more information about the route see nmbrevets.com/id48.html

Ride with GPS route and profile-

A few images pulled from the sequence in the video-

2010 Valles Caldera blog post

More information about this brevet at nmbrevets.com.