On October 11th and 12th I rode the MS100 "Bay to Bay" tour with Team NetApp! The
team was comprised of people with a link to NetApp from Keith Davenport,
NetApp Vice President Systems Engineering to Joe Manisco, Robert
Ehlbeck's "Big Brother" to David Rhodes, a NetApp customer. Our
nine person team did a great job with fundraising, raising $5,731 prior
to the ride with more donations still coming in! It’s not too late if
you want to give us a donation, just click on the
Team NetApp link!
Top fundraising honors went to Joe Manisco who qualified for an MS
"Bronze Top Fundraiser" jersey by raising over $2,000! We also had
some personal records on this ride! David Rhodes was our only
teammate to complete the 150 mile route, riding 107 miles on Saturday
(his first century length ride!) and 43 miles on Sunday. Keith also set
a personal distance record with the 58 mile route on Saturday. But
most impressive to me was Russell Balzan who's longest ride prior to
this event was 20 miles. He just about tripled that distance by
finishing Saturday's 58 mile route! Great job to all!
A quick side note before I get into the ride report.. I recently
"upgraded" to on-bike navigation with a Garmin Edge 705 computer.
I've been using it for a few weeks of training, but this was my first
"event" ride with the 705. I was able to get a copy of the route
details spreadsheet and used Garmin's MapSource software to create
routes to transfer to the 705. For some reason on each day the
MapSource software created two routes instead of one complete route.
I'll have to figure out how to merge routes or modify a route to correct
that issue. The spreadsheet also showed that we would be routed
onto bike paths (not listed in the Garmin mapping software) so I had to
guess on appropriate roads in those spots. The 705 worked pretty
good overall. It was REALLY nice seeing how far it was to the next
turn. I only have a couple complaints about it. First, the
device shuts itself off when a route completes. Since each day was
broken into two routes I had to watch for the end of the route so I
could turn it back on. The first time it shut off was pretty
confusing. "What the..?!? My Garmin just shut itself off!!"
My bigger complaint is that I can't seem to transfer the rides to the
Garmin Connect website, MotionedBased website or the Garmin Training
Center software on my computer. I have an email to Garmin Support
about that... But several of my teammates had other Garmin models
(Forerunner 305 and 405s), so here's a link to
Saturday
and a link to
Sunday
from one of their devices. Put the map in motion to see exactly
where we rode. That's just too cool!
SATURDAY
David Rhodes left at 7am for the Century Challenge. The rest of us
planned to meet at 9am and leave at the 9:30am start time for a nice
social paced 58 mile ride. We were waiting for Dave Hempy when
someone came up and said it was "last call" to start ... but it was only
8:30! So much for official starting times... Apparently
everyone else had already left so they started taking down the start
barriers! Dave got there about 8:40 and we headed to the start
line. But just as we got to the line, there was a loud hiss and
Russell's rear tire went flat. We waited a bit while he had the
guys at the bike tent fix it. Luckily that was his only flat of
the day! We got off the start right around 8:50. It was a
pretty nice day overall --sunny with a really nice tail wind. We
stayed together for the first 10 miles or so riding at a nice warm up
pace then got split up a bit by lights, but we regrouped at the rest
stops. We stopped briefly at the first rest stop at mile 12, but
the lines were pretty long, so we continued on. Most of this ride
was within view of the Pacific Ocean, often riding right along the coast
(check out those Garmin links!). I can't think of a ride I've done
that has been more scenic. The tail wind we had at the beginning
just got stronger as the day progressed. It wasn’t long before it
felt like I had no chain and started really enjoying the ride!
Keith and Dave H. got a bit of a head start from the lunch stop, but the
rest of us weren't too far behind them. We got onto a bike path
that looked like it was an old road. Having no cars to worry about
made for some really nice riding! Robert and Joe decided they
wanted to exercise their legs and took off. I rode with Kim and
Russell for a while, but started to get that need for speed myself and
picked up my pace. With that tail wind, I was riding 26-27 mph
maintaining around 260 watts, what a great ride! I called out "on
your left" as I approached and passed people. I noticed a couple
NetApp jerseys in front of me and thought it would be Robert and Joe,
but it was Keith and Dave, so I kept my pace up, called "on your left!"
and flew by. Apparently Robert and Joe did the same thing and I
got a couple "Hey!" responses as they realized it was another NetApp
teammate going by.
We re-grouped at the rest stop before going into Camp Pendleton, but
didn't stay together too much after leaving that stop and going through
the US Marine Base. I think Joe Manisco was on my wheel going up
one hill, but he dropped off when I got a bit frisky and took my power
to 700 watts for a fast climb up the hill! Just as we were leaving
the base Annette called to check our progress, so I stopped to talk to
her. Everyone went by before I got going again. When I
caught up to Russell he was feeling the effects of 50+ miles in the
saddle, so I rode with him to provide some encouragement and morale
support. He's got great determination and willed himself to the
finish even though he was suffering from quite a bit of neck and back
pain. If you set your mind to it, you really can accomplish great
things!
Annette (my wife), Danielle, Jacob (my kids), Tyler and Alexis (Robert
and Kim's kids) were waiting at the finish to cheer us on. After
we dropped our bikes in the overnight bike cage, Robert called David R.
and found out he was 11 miles from the finish. We didn't know his
course, but the 100 mile option includes a 40 mile out and back past
the finish. The last 20 miles he had to come back into a really
strong headwind, so it took a bit longer than we expected! Dave
H., Joe and Keith were all local, so they headed home. The kids
didn't have lunch yet, so Annette took them over over to an Olive Garden
across the street. David did fantastic and looked great coming
across the line! We put his bike in the overnight bike cage and
went across the street to join Annette and the kids for some
all-you-can-eat pasta!
SUNDAY
Russell's back was still giving him problems, so he decided not to risk
aggravating it any more. So he solved a logistics problem instead
by driving Kim, Robert, Dave and myself to the start line then shuttling
Robert's van to the finish (Thanks Russell!). Our plan for day 2
was to leave at 7:30, but we wound up leaving around 7:15 or so.
This time David R. rode with us and he was looking forward to
challenging me up the "dreaded" Torrey Pines Hill (a 2 mile climb at
around 6-8% grade). The first part of the course was pretty flat,
but we didn't have the tail wind we had on Saturday. The course
followed the coast line again, so we had more great scenery. At
one point Robert had an issue with his chain falling off the right side
(by the crank arm). He's had that happen a couple times.
Lucky for me, it happened close to a beachfront restroom, so I took a
break myself. We kept a pretty quick pace for the first 20 miles,
then hit THE HILL.
Ok, so it wasn't as bad as people made it out to be. A bit harder
than Usery Pass in terms of grade. I started the hill a bit harder
than I should have and had to back off. As soon as I did David R.
went around and I jumped on his wheel. We were riding about 10
mph, which is pretty good for that grade. About 3/4s up, he put
the screws on and increased his pace to a whopping 12 mph! It was
enough to make me crack. I didn't have the running Phil
Liggett/Paul Sherwin commentary I've had in the past probably because I
was near the top, just one "I do believe he's cracked!" before I dropped
off. There was a guy using a speaker at the top to announce people
as they reached the summit and I got "There's another NetApp rider!"
David and I waited for the rest of the team to get to the top.
Dave H. was the next one up, but he didn't stop and we wouldn't see him
again until the finish.
Someone said the rest of the ride was flat, but there were still quite a
few hills, including a 14% climb and one descent with some pretty knarly
cobblestone. But the view next to that cobblestone section was
fantastic, so I stopped and waited for the rest of the team so we could
get a group photo. We split up again after the picture, but slowly
regrouped as we headed through stoplights and completely regrouped at
the last rest stop. We rode most of the rest of the way together.
There was a stiff headwind along the final stretch, but we were going at
a pretty easy pace and enjoyed the finish where Annette and the kids
were their cheering for Team NetApp! NetApp's tagline is "Go
Further, Faster" and as a team, we did just that!
The
L-R: Keith Davenport, Russell Balzan,
Robert Ehlbeck, Kim Ehlbeck, Joe Manisco, Mike Enfield, David Rhodes,
Dave Hempy