Apr-21: NCBC 300 Brevet Pre-ride

My main goal for the year was to do the Raleigh Region Series.
I did the scheduled 200 on April 6th.
That ride had gone better than I expected -- see the above link.

I couldn't do the 300 on the scheduled day of the event due to work.
Instead, I would do a pre-ride the weekend before the scheduled day, and
Write up a pre-ride report of whatever I found that would be useful to day-of riders.

A second goal for the year was to help my friend Harvey get to Paris for PBP.
We had done the High Point Region 200 on January 5th to get Harvey's 200 out of the way.
At mile 42 of that ride, Harvey had wanted to quit, but I wouldn't let him.
So, we completed the 200 with smiles on our faces, or at least Harvey was smiling.
See the last photo of the Jan-5th 200 blog report. 

By the time the Raleigh Region 300 was rolling around,
It appeared that PBP pre-registration would fill up before
Riders that had only done a 200 in 2018 would have a chance. 

And, unfortunately, since his longest 2018 ride was a 200,
Harv had changed his goal(s) for 2019, and was no longer targeting getting to Paris.
[In the event(s), it turned out that there were six (6) pre-reg spots still open 
AFTER all the "only did a 200" riders had pre-reg'd.]

Harv's new 2019 goal was to do a Series.
I understood that the Raleigh Region 300 had always been on his list of brevets to do in 2019,
So I asked if he was interested in doing the pre-ride with me as a "ride-along rider".
 
Since I had to work late on the Friday going into the weekend of the 20th / 21st,
And I had learned earlier in the year that that would mean tired legs on the 20th,
I planned to do my pre-ride on Sunday-the-21st.
[I kinda' figured Harvey would not be able to join me since 
Sunday-the-21st was Easter Sunday. 
However, he somehow managed a kitchen pass for Easter Day.]

To possibly assist the reader in understanding the story, 
Here is an embed of the RWGPS map of the 2019 Raleigh Region 300-km Brevet:



Background completed, on to the brevet pre-ride story.

Although the brevet-event-proper was scheduled to start at 0700 on April 27th,
Harv and I wanted to get as much daylight as possible for our pre-ride, and
We also preferred, if at all possible,
To have an extra hour between ride completion and Monday work that an 0600 start would provide.

[Checking the "almanac," sunrise on the 21st would have been approx 6:34 am EDT. 
Sunset would have been approx 7:54 pm EDT. 
Civil Twilight is typically approx 22 minutes before and after sunrise and sunset. 
Thus we would have a total of approx 14h04m of effective daylight for our ride. 
The riding after approx 8:16 pm would be after effective daylight. 
And riding after approx 8:38 pm would be in more-or-less complete darkness.]  

RBA "Fearless Leader" Alan agreed to the 0600 start time.
And given the early start time, the required paperwork would be "hidden" near Alan's front door.
H and I found our waivers, control cards, and cue sheets in the "hidden" package.
We kept the cards and cue sheets, but
Obviously, we signed the waivers and returned them to within the package.
We then proceeded to the brevet start location to prep our bikes and ourselves for the ride.

We had found an interesting thing or two in the package:
A signed waiver and another piece of paper pertaining to BradW.
Looking at that extra paperwork, I realized what it was.

Closing the loop on that extra paperwork (since I might otherwise forget to do so):
At rides end is revealed in the following story,
Alan was awake and came to his door while I was putting our completed cards
Into Alan's collection device.

Alan inquired as to whether our ride had gone well.
He also asked about the third rider -- clearly referencing the aforementioned extra paperwork.
"Oh, Alan," I replied, "I think that is Brad's waiver ... from his 200 pre-ride."
I could see the brain cells working, and Alan responded, "yes, that makes sense."
[The quotes are probably not perfectly accurate, but allow me some poetic license.] 

Harvey and I set off on our pre-ride more-or-less on time.
Certainly not more than a couple minutes after the agreed upon 6 am EDT.
The sun going about rising in the eastern sky behind us. 

Nothing notable happened the entire outbound ride

• To and "through" Snow Camp (the first intermediate control), 
• To and through Siler City (the second intermediate control), and
• To (and through) Seagrove (the turn-around control), 

Except for the following:

• I was repeatedly amazed that Harvey remembered the course.  He had only done the 300 once, two years earlier, when he DNF'd at the control in Seagrove because one of his shoes had "exploded." 
• On at least one occasion, perhaps two, maybe even three times, Harvey indicated that he thought he needed to call his wife to come rescue him.  At each instance, I told him, "no, you are doing fine."  [If you have read the blog post regarding the Jan-5th 200-km brevet, this will have a very "deja va" sound.] 

While lunching at the control in Seagrove, Harvey indicated that he hoped we could finish by 10:30 pm.
So, when we left Seagrove, with me knowing that with just a little extra effort,
We could pop all the inclines, or all but one or two of them, for the first 7 or 8 miles from Seagrove.
And possibly "get ahead" of a "10:30 schedule" by 7 or 8 minutes.

I paused at the 101.2-mile mark (there's a turn there to stay on Fork Creek Mill Rd),
To properly re-combine with Harvey and to take a quick break, and ...
Harvey interrupted to admonish me for picking up the pace.
I explained that I knew we could pop those inclines, and
"Get ahead" of his desired 10:30 pm finish time.
[I'm pretty sure that Harvey was skeptical.]

After that, we pedaled on, more-or-less maintaining the avg pace we had done all day.
Keeping the Siler City and Snow Camp returning controls to somewhat quick stops,
We seemed to be on target for a finish at approx 10:30,
Even taking into account the likely slowing after darkness would descend.

Still nothing interesting happened.
Then, the one interesting thing of the entire ride happened.

But before I can describe the interesting thing, I need to fill in some background information.

Several days before the pre-ride being discussed herein,
I had gotten my mechanic to replace the chain and jockey wheels and
Had some other minor tune-up work done.

To the best of my recollection,
Every previous time I've had the chain replaced,
It has been easy to shift from the 39-tooth chain ring into the 50-tooth, and
Somewhat difficult to shift into the 30-tooth chain ring. 

This 300 pre-ride was the the first real ride since the chain, etc. replacement(s).
Certainly the first time I needed / wanted to shift among the chain-rings.
Early-ish in the ride, I had learned that chain-ring shifting was in "opposite mode" --
That is, shifting from the 39 to the 50 was near impossible;
That would be okay since I didn't need the 50 on the 300.

However, it was VERY easy to shift from the 39 to the 30.
I should have attempted a barrel adjustment on the fly,
But I didn't.
After all, I would need the 30 repeatedly during the ride, and
If it was easy to get into the 30, well, that seemed a good idea.

Darkness had descended upon us.
We had completed Jones Ferry / Hamlet Chpl Rd in the darkness.
And the shifting into the 30 on JF / HC Rd had been fine.

We were on the last little climb to get up to the Andrews Store, 
Only about 20-miles from completing the brevet.
Harvey riding next to me.
I think it would have been better if he were ahead,or behind, but ... .

That last little climb is just a bump if one is doing the 200 brevet.
It may be just a little bump for fast riders that get to that point in daylight.
But, for me, in the darkness, somewhat tired near the end of a 300,
That little climb is not so little.

I wanted / needed to shift from the 39 to the 30.
The chain was thrown completely over the 30-tooth chain ring.
And when I pushed down with my left foot,
There was no resistance from the drive system (since the chain was connected to nothing).

I started going over onto my left side.
In that sped-up time and space of the mishap,
I did NOT want to crash into Harvey.
He managed to move a bit to his left and as he still had a useful drive system,
He moved slightly ahead, and
I came down, HARD, onto my left hip.

I was a bit tangled up in my bike.
The car that had been behind us, slowly closing, stopped.
Thank-you, car and driver!

Harvey was worried about me getting quickly onto my feet since
My head was essentially on the double-yellow.

I was not quite as interested in instantly jumping to my feet.
After all, as a result of the fall, my legs were trying to cramp.

After what seemed a long time, I finally got up.
It was probably less than 30 seconds.

I'm not exactly sure what a hip pointer is:
But if what I experienced is not a hip pointer, it ought to be.
I had a pain centered on where the left hip-bone is the most left it gets.

Also, my front and rear derailleurs were a bit messed up.
As best I can recall, I rode the rest of the brevet in the 39-15 gear combination.
[It turned out that the fall had created a bit of twist in the chain, and 
That twist prevented smooth pedaling and discouraged / prevented shifting among the rear cogs.]

Harvey had already announced a desire to stop at the Andrew's Store,
So after I walk the bike and me to the crest of the little climb,
I remounted and the two of us made our way to and into the store.

Harvey looked for something approaching real food.
I recall he may have found some Spagettios (or similar).

He also thought I might want some food, but
All I wanted to do was get back on my bike and finish the ride.

Additionally, it seemed that Harvey was playing for more recovery time for me,
To get closer to being "over" the effects of my fall.

However, I was getting stiff, and I really wanted to get back on my bike
Before I got completely stiffened up.

We finished the ride at 11:00 pm.
Dropped our cards off at Alan's, and
As indicated above, I chatted with Alan for 30 seconds or so.
I couldn't accept Alan's invitation to step inside and chat for a bit since
Harvey wanted to get home as soon as possible to begin recovery.
After all, he had a whole series of sit-down work meetings on his Monday agenda.

That was the only interesting thing that occurred during our ride.
That is my story, and I will be sticking to it. 
==============================
Oh, I did send a pre-ride report to the NC-rando-list serve.
I'll duplicate that and discuss it in the next blog post.