An Apple Fritter???

The night before this race I took on a catering gig in the city that left me having a pre-race meal of champagne and Kistler Chard and a balance bar for dinner at 12:00 am. I headed out first thing in the morning for a cappuccino and, ick a giant apple fritter, must be hormones or something. Needless to say the fritter was great until the doughnut burps kicked in at mile 20. The day rocked, and I was pumped to ride with the crowd that showed up for this one. The start was a little annoying with the yahoos trying to pass with oncoming traffic btwn Occidental and Valley Ford but I held out mid pack. I passed the pea break- too weird squatting around a bunch of men who can easily go, bibs and all. Plus it was only 30 mins or so after the start, and I didn�t have to go awright� So the first climb settled the field out which I have to say was so cool to ride in. Looking ahead at 100 or so riders in front was something I had never experienced. Once we hit 1 I was riding solo which was tough but a nice group caught me and I was able to hang on and gain momentum, until my chain fell off. I was able to catch up on Marshall wall where I road with a Kaiser gal named Hillary until mid way through Chileno Valley when, yes the chain fell off again. We were picking up people, averaging 23 or so mph, and really doing well but here I lost them and road alone all the way to Freestone which was a bummer. It was even more of a bummer when my chain fell off 2 more times btwn there and the end, one of the times it was sucked in pretty tight. The rookie in me did not know that I could have kept peddling to try to get the chain on but I guess I did not lose that much ground. The climb up burnside was a biatch but I caught a few folks there as well as up boho hiway back to occidental where I finished 4th female. Yahooo another one under my belt�sooooo fun.

-Sarah P.

Hello Kitty Fantasy

It is a fact that I finish dead last on every single Grasshopper. The plan this time was simple, use a teammate and a tandem to propel myself to greatness! Here is the fantasy. We (Mary B. and I) take a little hit on the hills, go 50+ on the decents and ~30mph on the flats, wind will have no effect whatsoever. It will be fabulous with all those riders clinging to our wheel!

No matter we have not ridden this beast in at least three years. It weighs a ton so I replace the cages and saddles, shaving upwards of 1/2lb off the weight of the bike. It is now down to 1999.5lbs. I arrive at Marys place, wrench and measuring tape in hand and attempt to set up the stoker position similar to her road bike, the front well, lets just say I was not crowded up there. We roll.

Things seemed good for a while...

Kim was kind and let us take off early to avoid the mass start. I think Mary did not want to get caught, because I could tell she was just hammering back there (good for me bad for her). We managed to stay off the front until Marshall where we stopped to adjust the saddles/bars for the third time. We jumped back on and got to see some climbing action. I think we prolly got a little excited and spent some money we could not afford to loose. The downhill was as I expected it, so fast and stable. We even got to ride in a pack of 5-6 guys for a little bit. This great feeling was about to come to a screeching halt.

I start to notice some very abrupt power changes right before Wilson hill, it is apparent that my stoker is no longer comfortable, since it is Mary, she has probably been suffering a long time and just dealing with it like a trooper. We stop again and make some more adjustments then attack Wilson. We make it to the Cheleno turn, and stop for a snack and more adjustments, when Heather rolls up. We are then able to be of service to Heather on the windy Cheleno, so maybe we had a purpose after all besides generating pain and suffering. Wind does affect tandems, by the way.

It was now evident that that we were coming unraveled. I go to feel around behind myself to see how much space poor Mary has for her hands and all I can feel is my big fat booty on top of the bars where her hands are supposed to go! I think she was only able to hook her thumbs on those phony little brake hoods for all those miles! Oh god I should be put away for stoker abuse.

We manage to limp into Vly. Ford (Burnside was not even considered). We drink Coke and Gatorade and visit with some nice Cal riders who rode up from Marin. I move the bars down and out from under my rear at this point. When we take off again, it seems like Mary can feel her hands now and our sugar levels are where they are supposed to be.

Getting to Freestone was a grim crawl but, by the time we hit the climb up to Occidental, Mary had her power back! I could totally feel it! Nobody I know can bounce back faster and harder than Mary B.!! I have never been happier to see the little hamlet of Occidental and the smiling faces of Kim, Fisher, Ray and Carlin---WOOT!!!

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