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Portland: A ride I'll probably miss...

Old 03-18-09, 09:39 PM
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Portland: A ride I'll probably miss...

because I like my knees. You can join it if you like:
https://www.erikv.com/blog/index.cfm/...25/De-Ronde-09

On the other hand, OPB is supposed to show up with multiple TV cameras. Who's brave enough to risk falling over on public television?

It's Saturday, April 4th, starting at 10AM at 2730 NW 31st in Portland. I'll probably be elsewhere- say, Mexico under an assumed name.

Video of a previous edition:
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Old 03-19-09, 08:43 AM
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lol 7,200 feet of climbing. Made my thighs burn just watching it. Also an excellent video compared to typical youTube offerings.
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Old 03-19-09, 09:42 AM
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Doesn't sound much worse than the SiR Populaire this past weekend.

100k
2263m gain
Max grade = 24%
And it was snowing at the start.

Too bad I'm already having to do a coin toss between 2 rides up here on the 4th...
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Old 03-23-09, 11:38 PM
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I have a friend in Portland who tried last year and couldn't finish it. He's determined to make it this year -- he practiced on the steepest hill, though, and discovered it's beyond his abilities until he switches out his largest cog for a bigger one.

My steel frame + my modest abilities = no way in hell could I do it.
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Old 03-26-09, 05:28 PM
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Oh, I can't wait!!! I watched the you tub vids a while back, and fell in love, I might not be the best climber but I love doing it!!!
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Old 03-27-09, 04:03 PM
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Ronde Portlandia! Some of the best climbs around. I've seen some strong climbers resort to walking up Brynwood Rd. Pain is bliss.
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Old 03-27-09, 04:10 PM
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if i wasn't doing the seattle 300k that day, i'd be all over this! damn.
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Old 03-31-09, 10:27 PM
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That actually looks like a lot of fun.

I won't make it anywhere on a fixed gear, though.
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Old 04-03-09, 02:29 PM
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Originally Posted by PluperfectArson
That actually looks like a lot of fun.

I won't make it anywhere on a fixed gear, though.
There's actually a lot of people who ride it fixed.
Vive le Ronde!
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Old 04-03-09, 07:13 PM
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I cannae wait nae longer. Bring it on! Eating plenty of pasta tonight!
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Old 04-03-09, 07:38 PM
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Good luck with it, opie! We want a ride report afterwards.

mattm and I will be out on the SiR 300k while you're attacking the Portland hills.
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Old 04-03-09, 07:55 PM
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Originally Posted by opie-gone-road
I cannae wait nae longer. Bring it on! Eating plenty of pasta tonight!
Ditto....as I am typing...oops....got pasta sauce on the keyboard
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Old 04-03-09, 08:48 PM
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This ride looks like fun and challenging. I would head down to Portland but I was in the area this past Sunday doing the Piece of Cake RR @ Woodland. I don't want keep adding car mileage when I really need is bike mileage! ;-)
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Old 04-04-09, 09:04 PM
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The ride was epic. I completed the course in about 3hrs 40 min, though had I not taken a wrong turn at one point near the Zoo/Washington Park, it would have been shorter.

I arrived at Council Crest around 8:45am and set about making my preparations for the day. While I am just as privy to knee-warmers as the next man, I prefer to use them during training and recreational rides. For the more performance oriented environment, I have found that Quoleum's Embrocation + shiny shiny Euro-skin oil (also from Quoleum) make for a perfect combo in almost any PacNW condition sub-60 degrees. Plus, you can't really beat the minty smell and eventual sparkle your legs exude. Was Stijin Devolder wearing fabric knee warmers when he soloed Vlaanderen last year? No. And the mud looks so much more Pro-stat on bare legs.

After ride-prep (which, with my organizational skills takes about 15 minutes) I headed downtown. I couldn't believe my eyes when I showed up at the MacTarnahan's Brewery parking lot and saw about 200 riders milling around. The first climb up Saltzman was incredibly pleasing, plenty of 'cross to be had as we sledged up the muddy sloped road. This is somewhat of a faux pax, but in honor of the actual Ronde, I felt compelled to wear my QuickStep jersey (something I usually only wear on the indoor trainer). I was surprised to find that of all the riders I saw, I was the only one in the QuickStep top, but there were plenty Belgian National Champion jerseys. Byrnwood was everything that I had hoped it would be and more. I am proud to say that I did not dismount, nor did I use any of the nearby driveways as momentum boosters. Straight up the gut with no regrets, and only the sound of "hup! hup! hup!" and an intriguing choice of a bystander's airhorn to invigorate me. Towards the end of that climb, every single pedal stroke was a concerted effort not to fall over, but I did it nonetheless. There were plenty of OPB cameras on the course which only encouraged my efforts throughout the ride, and made for an authentic "ProTour" feel.

The climbs between Byrnwood and College road were tiring and of no real consequence or need of mention. Only College compared to Byrnwood in sheer steepness. Sadly, I had to dismount and commence the Koppenberg walk of shame up college, however I attribute this dismount more to the fact that my cassette/rear derailleur had begun to hate its existence in light of the many climbs it had experienced prior as well as the slick road, so ha!

I really only began to go to the anaerobic-side of the force once we began the 30 or so minute foreplay with Council Crest. Bertha made me hate life again, but I really had no room to complain, 34/50 really makes the day much more approachable. By the time I reached Dosch road, I was glad that I had been able to consume a full PowerGel at the base of each and every super steep climb. All in all, at the finish of the ride, I was definitely tired, and pleased that I made it well in the top half of the group. Upon completion, I broke the seal of my plastic cooler with all of my cold 12oz friends and got to know the Friars at St. Bernardus Brewery in Flanders, beginning with their Abt 12. I'm sad that I will have to miss the ride next year as I will be in Scotland studying what better than History, but it has been a day I will not forget, and quite the ride at that!

~opie

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Old 04-05-09, 08:47 AM
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My day ended early after 2 flats. I only got to Washington park before I had to call for a ride. My last flat was on the 40mph decent down Burnside. That was exciting. Byrnwood was insane. I had to do the walk of shame up the second half of the hill.
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Old 04-05-09, 02:42 PM
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When all was said and done, my iBike read 6,079ft of elevation gain and a maximum of 24.2% grade, freshly calibrated and pretty accurate. The ride was impressive, opie and I rode loosely together until I had braking issues. My cantilever brakes on looong descents sounded like a flock of geese and, btw, the braking power of a goose is horrible.

There were some great climbs and the ride definitely changed my point of view on most of the hills I ride regularly that I feel are kind of steep... This is a good early season humbling of the "hills" you usually encounter, reminding yourself that they really aren't that bad. Also, I found some good training routes for once I get more in to power and hill training this season.

I finished in the top 75-100(?) at a few seconds over four hours and am damn proud. I was very sore yesterday but am feeling good today. I wish I hadn't done the ride with my 'cross gearing (38/46, 12-26) but my bike proved to be an excellent companion up the hills, down the curves, over the gravel, thru the mud, and all the way up to Council Crest. There's no better muscular endurance workout than to be forced to carry too big a gear up too steep a hill... I'm glad I don't have to commute or work today!

It was a heck of a ride going up Saltzman with hundreds of cyclists, chomping away thru the gravel and mud and overall the ride was amazing, especially for an unsanctioned event. I was happy to go and it was definitely worth the anticipated wait.
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Old 04-05-09, 09:37 PM
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Originally Posted by PandaDisco
6,079ft of elevation gain and a maximum of 24.2% grade...gravel and mud
Sounds like...uh...fun.


Thanks for the ride reports! We should have something like that here in Seattle. The Seattle Randonneurs have a couple of 100k Populaire's that attempt to seek out the bigger hills in town but not sure we have anything that forces that many people to get off and walk...
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Old 04-05-09, 10:09 PM
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Originally Posted by PandaDisco
I finished in the top 75-100(?) at a few seconds over four hours and am damn proud.
I finished in 4hr 3min. That puts me in the top 100? Awesome! I just wanted to finish!
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Old 04-05-09, 10:14 PM
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cdotbois, what were you riding/wearing?
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Old 04-05-09, 10:55 PM
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Photos from the Ronde

I followed the ride and took photos at several different locations, including the Brynwood and College climbs. I don't know if I got photos of any of you guys from this forum, so I apologize if I missed you. Anyway, feel free to borrow any of the images if you like them. If you want to re-post them, all I ask is photo credit.

Photos are here:
https://www.dmroth.com/ronde_09/ronde09.html
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Old 04-05-09, 11:45 PM
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Originally Posted by PandaDisco
cdotbois, what were you riding/wearing?
I was riding a dark green steel Torelli, and I was wearing a white Campagnolo jersey with world champion stripes. I also had blue arm warmers on for half of the ride.

I am also here in the background, not walking.

Thanks nelson_fisher! Try to put me up front next time, please!

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Old 04-06-09, 12:17 AM
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Originally Posted by cdotbois
I was riding a dark green steel Torelli, and I was wearing a white Campagnolo jersey with world champion stripes. I also had blue arm warmers on for half of the ride.

I am also here in the background, not walking.

Thanks nelson_fisher! Try to put me up front next time, please!
Sorry, I'll try to do better next time.

Hope you had a good time on the ride. At least in the picture, you were still riding, unlike the guy blocking you. That part of the hill was pretty brutal. You had just one more corner before the top, but the combination of people walking and the last steep section made a lot of people have to stop and walk. Anyone who climbed the whole thing, with walking traffic all around them, are totally awesome.
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Old 04-06-09, 01:17 AM
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came from AZ for this ride, had a blast, here is my post from the road cycling forum:


Here is the data from my ride:

https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/i...kValue=7934871

When we left the house around 8:30 am I was freezing all the way to the coffee shop meet up. I think it was mid 30's, being from PHX I just wasn't used to that. Fingers were so numb they were hurting, couldn't even shift into the big ring lol. I was wishing I'd brought more layers, but I kept telling myself that once it warmed up what I had on would be perfect, and I was right. Arrived at the copy shop, met all of my bro's friends who would be my riding partners for the day, downed a cup of hot chocolate and took off for the ride. We actually got there a couple minutes after 10 just as everyone was leaving, I think I rode for at least a quarter mile before remembering to turn on my GPS. The first stretch of the ride was through a woodsy area, almost like a hiking trail. Beautiful trees all around as we did a pretty easy ascend up the hills that were just a little wet from the rain the day before.

Here is a horrible on the bike shot of me with some green behind me:



Once we got to the top of this climb there was an awesome decent on a nice wide, smooth and most importantly paved road, I started shooting down and passing up all sorts of people and feeling myself way too much. When I got to the end of the descent I realized why everyone was taking it easy, this is where the real cimbing began. To be honest, the rest of the ride is a blur. I remember getting to Brynewood and going up half the hill before my front wheel started to lift off and I unclipped just in time to avoid toppling over. Pulled off to the side and gave it another go only to not clip on with my right foot and almost cause a pile up that I'm sure would have been legendary for years to come had some kind Portland woman not grabbed me and held me until she was sure I was stable. At this point I decided to just walk up the rest of the hill. Later I would discover that the front of my cleat had actually broken off which made it incredibly difficult to clip in and out for the remainder of the ride.

Here is a pic I snapped from the sidelines of Brynewood:



After Brynewood I remember slugging through Portland's hilly suburbs that look more like France than America, folks were standing in front of their houses handing out fruit and gatorades and other snacks, others were just looking at us like we were crazy. When we got to College I was determined to make it all the way up the hill, only to have a car come in the opposite direction and force everyone on the other side to unclip and go around. Back on my bike, I did manage to make it to the top by putting more of my weight on the front of the bike and not allowing the wheel to go up. Cursing and grunting for final 10 strokes, I felt a great sense of accomplishment making it to the top, probably the best part of the ride. According to the group, the steepest hills were over at that point, boy were they wrong. Again we slugged through Portland's suburbia, up and down but mainly up. Somehow I zoned out and ended up about 20 minutes ahead of my group, I had just taken some gravel road to the next via point and made it up an extremely steep hill when I got a call from my brother asking where the hell I was. Probably a good thing, I sat down in someone's front yard and waited for them, friggin exhausted, an old guy rode by me and asked if I was alright lol, I snapped out of it and put my HTFU face back on.

Here are some pics I snapped while waiting:

My bike chillin by the fire hydrant



The hill I just climbed


The last 15 miles of the ride were just grueling for me, waiting for 20 minutes really cooled me off and every hill was pretty much torture after that. I did manage to make it up every single one without pulling onto the flats for a break and only stopping to wait for the others to catch up. Honestly I don't remember too much from the last 1/3 of the ride, just that my eye was stuck on the 'Total Distance' data field of my Garmin watching the miles slowly tick by. I never thought 15 miles could last so long, ugh. Thankfully the beautiful Portland scenery was enough to sustain me, it never got old, I enjoyed the whole friggin ride. The last climb was up Crescent Crest, a fairly easy one but I was so exhausted by that time that it felt like Brynewood all over again. Made it to the top, relaxed for a little bit and enjoyed the view of the city. Here is a pic of me and my brother:



Oh, and my brother who weighs 15 pounds more than me and rides a steel Bianchi made it all the way up Brynewood and College without walking, he does have a triple, but I was still really proud of him.
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Old 04-06-09, 02:05 AM
  #24  
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Thanks much for the picture. I'm glad that my QuickStep boys pulled off the big result today in the real Ronde. Thanks everyone for such a great ride. Stay tuned for some "unsanctioned" races panda and I will be throwin down on Sauvie Island during the summer.
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Old 04-06-09, 11:07 AM
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Originally Posted by BengeBoy
Sounds like...uh...fun.


Thanks for the ride reports! We should have something like that here in Seattle. The Seattle Randonneurs have a couple of 100k Populaire's that attempt to seek out the bigger hills in town but not sure we have anything that forces that many people to get off and walk...
That ride looks awesome! Maybe I'll make it down there for it some time.

BengeBoy, you missed out on the Big Time this year, didn't you? 92nd Ave (20%+ grade) was covered in 1/2" of fresh slush/snow and forced a lot of people off the bike, as did the Thorn****/Barton climb.
The Mtn. Populaire in the fall starts with a 1000' climb up Zoo Hill and finishes with a 700' climb up Squawk Mtn., and there's some sections of 18% or greater on Squawk. At least it's all paved, though...

For the people who rode it, were a couple of those roads on the de Ronde just hardpack dirt/gravel? It sort of looks like it from the pix. (That's extra hardcore, if that's the case!)
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