Elite Tour Post Script
June 2007
June 2007
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Tom Rosenbauer
First Day
Previous Day
Back to Journal Index
Elite Tour
PA Randonneurs
PAC Tour
Contact
Tom Rosenbauer
Final Thoughts
In order to put the my Elite Tour into perspective, I need to digress a bit about some of the motivations behind my bicycling.
There once was a time, when riding a 100 miles in a single day was considered a good day's work. Actually, the 100-mile 'century ride' is still a noble achievement that many avid cyclist work towards -- somewhat equivalent to the runner's marathon (although running a marathon is probably quite a bit harder than cycling a 100 miles). Ever since I was a teenager with a 10-speed bike, I considered myself a century rider -- the one or two 100-mile rides I did each year was certainly the highlight of each season. A couple of these rides were a bit longer -- maybe 120 miles -- and these seemed like truly epic events back then. But about 5 years ago as I turned 40, it would've been a real struggle to complete a 100-mile bike ride.
As it happens so many times in life, keeping fit had been neglected as work, family and other life circumstances diverted my attention. Keeping a balance in life is very difficult -- it is so easy for the pendulum to swing towards one thing at the expense of others -- and at that point in the Summer of 2002, my fitness was completely out of balance. Over a 2 year period, I had declined from being in great shape, having completed my first PAC Tour (a 2,000-mile ride from Florida to Maine) to being in absolutely pathetic shape. In the process, I had put on over 40 pounds; below is a picture of me back then:
In order to put the my Elite Tour into perspective, I need to digress a bit about some of the motivations behind my bicycling.
There once was a time, when riding a 100 miles in a single day was considered a good day's work. Actually, the 100-mile 'century ride' is still a noble achievement that many avid cyclist work towards -- somewhat equivalent to the runner's marathon (although running a marathon is probably quite a bit harder than cycling a 100 miles). Ever since I was a teenager with a 10-speed bike, I considered myself a century rider -- the one or two 100-mile rides I did each year was certainly the highlight of each season. A couple of these rides were a bit longer -- maybe 120 miles -- and these seemed like truly epic events back then. But about 5 years ago as I turned 40, it would've been a real struggle to complete a 100-mile bike ride.
As it happens so many times in life, keeping fit had been neglected as work, family and other life circumstances diverted my attention. Keeping a balance in life is very difficult -- it is so easy for the pendulum to swing towards one thing at the expense of others -- and at that point in the Summer of 2002, my fitness was completely out of balance. Over a 2 year period, I had declined from being in great shape, having completed my first PAC Tour (a 2,000-mile ride from Florida to Maine) to being in absolutely pathetic shape. In the process, I had put on over 40 pounds; below is a picture of me back then:
At the end of 2002, I was completely disgusted with myself and decided that being out-of-shape and overweight was going to end, starting right here and now. The key to making this work and sticking to this plan was setting a goal for myself. My goal was to get in good enough shape to ride the Mountain Tour -- a week of riding about 90 miles a day in the Arizona desert. The tour was scheduled for March of 2003 which gave me 5 months to prepare. That was the motivation to get the pendulum swung the other way towards a more healthy life style. Losing the weight was rather a straight forward process which involved 'eating less and exercising more' -- all diets are essentially variations on this simple formula. But having that looming bike tour on the calender was the one thing that really helped me keep focused on sticking to my diet and make getting to the gym job number one each day.
I managed to get in good enough shape to have a successful tour -- I was back to the point where riding a 100 miles was doable. Now that I was well along the way to getting back in shape, the problem now was to find a new goal to avoid slipping back into my old ways of neglecting my fitness. By pure coincidence, a whole new world opened up for me, chock full of worthy goals to strive for. This new world was the world of Randonneuring -- and I have long time riding partner, Paul Shapiro, to thank for showing it to me. About a week after my Mountain Tour, I got a call from Paul, asking me to join him on this 200k ride that he's doing this weekend. That 200 kilometer ride was just a bit longer than a century ride that I knew I could do -- about 125 miles -- so I told him I was in. Little did I know at the time, that the 200k ride was the first in a series of Randonneuring events that would lead to much longer rides -- distances that I never imagine would be possible to cover on a bike at one time.
Randonneuring is a sport with the goal of covering long distances on a bike within a given time limit. Self-sufficiency is emphasized: you are not permitted to get assistance from a support car that follows you, but you are allowed to get help from your fellow rider. This aspect promotes a lot of camaraderie -- the race is against the clock to compete the ride within the time limit, not against the other riders -- so it is very common for riders to help one another along the way in various ways. This help may take the form of assisting with a mechanical breakdown, sharing some food, providing a wheel to follow or just some encouragement to keep riding when moral support is needed. With the introductory 200k (125-mile) completed, I looked forward to the remaining three events that composed a series of successively longer rides that if completed, would qualify me for the ultimate Randonneuring event: Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP for short).
As the name suggests, PBP is a long bike ride that starts in Paris, goes out to Brest on the Brittany coast, and returns back to Paris. In order to participate, you need to compete a series of rides that starts with the 200k (125 miles in 13.5 hours) which got me started in Randonneuring. The remaining events were 300k (186 miles in 20 hours), 400k (250 miles in 27 hours), and 600k (375 miles in 40 hours). I completed each one that spring and discovered that each ride prepared me for the next longer challenge. I learned all sorts of new techniques to deal with the big mileage from my fellow riders. It was during this time that I discovered that along with physical preparation, the mental and experience aspects were equally important for a successful ride. That August, I was on my way to the Big Ride, and completed all 1200k (750 miles) in about 77 hours, well within the 90 hour time limit. Below is a picture of me on my way out to Brest and a big turn around in fitness from just over a year before.
I managed to get in good enough shape to have a successful tour -- I was back to the point where riding a 100 miles was doable. Now that I was well along the way to getting back in shape, the problem now was to find a new goal to avoid slipping back into my old ways of neglecting my fitness. By pure coincidence, a whole new world opened up for me, chock full of worthy goals to strive for. This new world was the world of Randonneuring -- and I have long time riding partner, Paul Shapiro, to thank for showing it to me. About a week after my Mountain Tour, I got a call from Paul, asking me to join him on this 200k ride that he's doing this weekend. That 200 kilometer ride was just a bit longer than a century ride that I knew I could do -- about 125 miles -- so I told him I was in. Little did I know at the time, that the 200k ride was the first in a series of Randonneuring events that would lead to much longer rides -- distances that I never imagine would be possible to cover on a bike at one time.
Randonneuring is a sport with the goal of covering long distances on a bike within a given time limit. Self-sufficiency is emphasized: you are not permitted to get assistance from a support car that follows you, but you are allowed to get help from your fellow rider. This aspect promotes a lot of camaraderie -- the race is against the clock to compete the ride within the time limit, not against the other riders -- so it is very common for riders to help one another along the way in various ways. This help may take the form of assisting with a mechanical breakdown, sharing some food, providing a wheel to follow or just some encouragement to keep riding when moral support is needed. With the introductory 200k (125-mile) completed, I looked forward to the remaining three events that composed a series of successively longer rides that if completed, would qualify me for the ultimate Randonneuring event: Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP for short).
As the name suggests, PBP is a long bike ride that starts in Paris, goes out to Brest on the Brittany coast, and returns back to Paris. In order to participate, you need to compete a series of rides that starts with the 200k (125 miles in 13.5 hours) which got me started in Randonneuring. The remaining events were 300k (186 miles in 20 hours), 400k (250 miles in 27 hours), and 600k (375 miles in 40 hours). I completed each one that spring and discovered that each ride prepared me for the next longer challenge. I learned all sorts of new techniques to deal with the big mileage from my fellow riders. It was during this time that I discovered that along with physical preparation, the mental and experience aspects were equally important for a successful ride. That August, I was on my way to the Big Ride, and completed all 1200k (750 miles) in about 77 hours, well within the 90 hour time limit. Below is a picture of me on my way out to Brest and a big turn around in fitness from just over a year before.
Reflecting back on my year-long turn around, I realized that the key to success was to have a series of manageable goals to strive for. Our local Randonneuring patriarch, 80-yr old Leroy Varga, has been known to say that there are two great cycling achievements to strive for: riding PBP and riding across country. 2004 was the year of my first cross country trip. With PBP and a cross country trip accomplished, completing the remaining events for the prestigous R5000 award was the focus for 2005. This included a 24-hr Fleche and a 1000k (625 mile) ride out in Colorado. In 2006, I became an RBA (Regional Brevet Administrator) and started organizing my own Randonneuring events. This allowed me to start giving back to the sport that had been so important in my turn around. But 2006 had no big event to prepare for, so I found myself gradually slipping back out of shape. It was towards the end of 2006 that the Elite Tour became my new goal to reverse this alarming trend.
With the huge challenges that lay ahead on the Elite Tour, I mapped out an ambitious training plan. Due to a number of factors, I was not able to prepare as much as I had originally hoped for. This undoubtably, contributed to my not being able to complete the tour. However, the most important thing wasn't completing the Elite Tour -- the point was to have the Elite Tour as a goal to work towards -- it was the carrot on the stick that got my fitness back on track.
By the time I started the Elite Tour, I had lost about 15 pounds of weight that had gradually crept back over the previous year. I was able to ride myself into better shape by the 4th day of the tour. Day 4 or 5 of a PAC Tour is usually the make or break point -- and I was feeling much stronger by then. I had also survived the first 3 days in the desert; the one thing I was dreading the most. That accomplishment alone, is something I'll cherish from this trip. I even felt very good on the first bunch of hilly days up over the continental divide. While I wasn't finishing with the top riders, I felt somewhat optimistic at this point that I might be able to complete the entire tour under my own power. However, the next couple of days, starting with Day 6, were very tough for me. I felt myself beginning to wear down, with the limited amount of recovery time between days. This stretch had a bunch of days with unfavorable headwinds, and fighting these mostly on my own, took a lot out of me. And ultimately, I didn't have enough reserve to ride fast enough on Day 9.
Many of the riders got through these headwinds by finding a paceline they could live with. But as you can see from the ride reports, these pacelines could be very dangerous and I opted not to participate when I thought it was unsafe. I know a couple of riders got through this without pacelining but they had aerobars which made them more efficient. Using aerobars can increase your speed 1-2 MPH faster, and looking back now, this might've made the difference for me if I had used them on this tour.
After a week of recovery, I now feel very good. Going out for some rides, the bike feels light and snappy. Perhaps if I were starting the tour now, I might have a better chance to complete it. While it is a bit disappointing to have come up short, the most important thing is that the tour has allowed me to get my fitness back on track.
In a way, the Elite Tour was like riding a series of seventeen 300k brevets in a row, with a minimum pace of 14 MPH (typical brevets are at a 10 MPH pace including stops). But the Elite Tour was far from the Randonneuring brevet events that I had grown fond of. There wasn't the same sense of camaraderie but rather, it had a competitive edge to it. And having all those support vehicles along the way is contrary to the self-sufficiency concept of bicycling and solely using your own power and wits. I often would wonder about the huge amounts of fuel that all these vehicles were consuming as they lumbered across the country along with us. Ultimately, it was one of these vehicles that cut my tour short with an unwelcome ride in the SAG wagon. I was fully prepared to come in on my own power, in the dark with my lights if I had to, but this wasn't permitted.
With the realization that I will always need some goal to focus on for my fitness, I don't think I'll be doing any more organized tours in the shadow of a support vehicle. Instead, I will focus on organizing my own events. As many of the those who participate on the PA Randonneur brevet series know, each of my events is a labor of love that offers the best roads I know for biking. I plan to keep on developing new challenging routes for the PA Randonneur brevet series ... thanks for reading this journal and hope you can join me on some my rides.
Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA
June, 2007
With the huge challenges that lay ahead on the Elite Tour, I mapped out an ambitious training plan. Due to a number of factors, I was not able to prepare as much as I had originally hoped for. This undoubtably, contributed to my not being able to complete the tour. However, the most important thing wasn't completing the Elite Tour -- the point was to have the Elite Tour as a goal to work towards -- it was the carrot on the stick that got my fitness back on track.
By the time I started the Elite Tour, I had lost about 15 pounds of weight that had gradually crept back over the previous year. I was able to ride myself into better shape by the 4th day of the tour. Day 4 or 5 of a PAC Tour is usually the make or break point -- and I was feeling much stronger by then. I had also survived the first 3 days in the desert; the one thing I was dreading the most. That accomplishment alone, is something I'll cherish from this trip. I even felt very good on the first bunch of hilly days up over the continental divide. While I wasn't finishing with the top riders, I felt somewhat optimistic at this point that I might be able to complete the entire tour under my own power. However, the next couple of days, starting with Day 6, were very tough for me. I felt myself beginning to wear down, with the limited amount of recovery time between days. This stretch had a bunch of days with unfavorable headwinds, and fighting these mostly on my own, took a lot out of me. And ultimately, I didn't have enough reserve to ride fast enough on Day 9.
Many of the riders got through these headwinds by finding a paceline they could live with. But as you can see from the ride reports, these pacelines could be very dangerous and I opted not to participate when I thought it was unsafe. I know a couple of riders got through this without pacelining but they had aerobars which made them more efficient. Using aerobars can increase your speed 1-2 MPH faster, and looking back now, this might've made the difference for me if I had used them on this tour.
After a week of recovery, I now feel very good. Going out for some rides, the bike feels light and snappy. Perhaps if I were starting the tour now, I might have a better chance to complete it. While it is a bit disappointing to have come up short, the most important thing is that the tour has allowed me to get my fitness back on track.
In a way, the Elite Tour was like riding a series of seventeen 300k brevets in a row, with a minimum pace of 14 MPH (typical brevets are at a 10 MPH pace including stops). But the Elite Tour was far from the Randonneuring brevet events that I had grown fond of. There wasn't the same sense of camaraderie but rather, it had a competitive edge to it. And having all those support vehicles along the way is contrary to the self-sufficiency concept of bicycling and solely using your own power and wits. I often would wonder about the huge amounts of fuel that all these vehicles were consuming as they lumbered across the country along with us. Ultimately, it was one of these vehicles that cut my tour short with an unwelcome ride in the SAG wagon. I was fully prepared to come in on my own power, in the dark with my lights if I had to, but this wasn't permitted.
With the realization that I will always need some goal to focus on for my fitness, I don't think I'll be doing any more organized tours in the shadow of a support vehicle. Instead, I will focus on organizing my own events. As many of the those who participate on the PA Randonneur brevet series know, each of my events is a labor of love that offers the best roads I know for biking. I plan to keep on developing new challenging routes for the PA Randonneur brevet series ... thanks for reading this journal and hope you can join me on some my rides.
Tom Rosenbauer
Eastern PA RBA
June, 2007