AB in Canada
Stories from the famous JR Ewing look-a-like Aaron Broughton

RAMROD 2006
(from AB's on-line blog at http://broughton.id.au/)

A few months ago Art told me about a ride he did last year and one that he was hoping to do again. It is called RAMROD (or Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day). It is in and around the Mount Rainier National Park in Washington USA. Art told me it was an easy 150 with a few climbs. I said I might be interested and he sent me to the website.

Upon arrival at the website i discovered that the easy 150, was miles(!) and that the few easy climbs added up to about 10,000 feet in total. (Course Profile) For some reason i still decided that it seemed like a good idea so we entered.

Mount Rainier is the highest Mountain in the Mainland 48 States standing at an impressive 14,410 feet and is an active Volcano. It basically stands alone all by itself in the middle of nowhere. As we drove south towards Seattle you could see it off in the horizon, Art joked about taking it to school the next day, i was worried that if it looked this big about 110 miles away we were in for a long day.

Thank god we didn’t have to go all the way to the top. The peak elevation of the ride was only 5400 feet. After all this was Ride around Mt Rainier and getting up requires the use of Crampons and Ice Axes.

After taking in the Seattle Mariners Baseball on the Wednesday night, we were all ready for the ride the next day. Well as ready as one can be after about 5 hours sleep. The ride started in a town called Enumclaw and we still had to get there. As the ride was one of those rides where the whole aim is just to get it done within the time limit you were allowed to start between 5am and 7am. Art and I eventually rolled out at 6:40am after piss farting around and ensuring our bodies had the required caffeine for the day’s adventure.

Art prepares for a long day in the saddle.

The riders at the start line.

We were some of the last riders to leave and were on our own for a while. The day started a little overcast as a high fog was clouding the area keeping temps down. After about 30ks we were forced to wait for road works for 10 minutes. In this time quite the group had assembled and after the road cleared it turned into a stage of the tour de france for the next 20ks as a peleton formed and guys tried unsuccessfuly to jump off the front. It eventually fell apart just outside of Eatonville when a flat tyre caused chaos in the pack and Art and I rolled off the front into the first stop of the day.

Ahhh Double Espresso.

From Eatonville is was about 50ks to the next stop. These kilometers were very gradually uphill, so much so that you hardly noticed it. We picked up a few riders along the way who joined in for a while. As i was riding the Quintana Roo Tri Bike i found the others falling in behind me leaving me towing Art and several others along. I could hear Art saying things such as, “that’s why i invited him” and “Faster Micky Rogers, Faster!!”

After stopping for the second food stop outside the National park Entrance at about 100ks the fun began. The first climb was 16 miles from 1900 feet to 5400 feet. A really nice gradual climb through windy forest lined roads. All the way up Art was joking how we were moving up the GC standings now, as our late start meant we began to reel in a lot of riders.

Art Boileau on the Charge

The downhills were just as sweet as the climbs. Long switchback decents on either sides of huge valleys that Glaciers would have carved out many years ago. It was almost Tour de France style with only a small rock wall guarding vehicles and bikes from the valley floor 1000’s of feet below.

The Second climb was shorter and steeper (about 12-13 miles with a similar elevation gain), and this is where i started to feel the pinch. Having to stop about a third of the way up for roadworks killed what little rythmn i had left and i soon found Art attacking me and dropping me on the final climb. This climb was much more exposed and i was being absolutely cooked by the sun. Finally i crested the summit and rolled the 8 miles to the final rest stop for the day at the 200km mark.

At the Summit of the Climb to Paradise with Mt Rainier in the background.

The Final 50ks despite being a net elevation loss were into a brutal headwind. The beautiful scenery from the first 200ks had disappeared and i was pretty close to hitting the wall. Armed with 3 cans of Coke loaded into my bidons we pushed on. Art and I were taking turns of a couple of minutes each and despite riding down hill at about 34kph we were redlining. Finally after about an hour of working our arses off into the headwind, one of us popped.

Art had taken his turn and i was unable to keep on his wheel. Finally when he got about 300m in front of me he pulled off as if to let me have my turn again to realise i was not there. From here we had about 10ks of Aaron complaining about everything and anything; from boring scenery to headwinds, to why I’d never ride this again on a TT bike, to how much my knicks were killing me, to how much my feet hurt and did i mention the headwinds.

Luckily for Art those complaints ended as we reached the final 9 miles to Enumclaw of which 5 were actul downhill without a headwind and 4 miles of flat into town. With about 3 to go we were caught by a train of riders and i said to Art i am not losing this group and i hung on to get towed back into town. Finally we finished after 8 hours 28 minutes of actual riding with equated to an average of about 29.4kph for the 250km.

As i said to Art, “I am glad i did it, next year you can find some other poor bastard to keep you company.”

Well i got it done, would i go it again?? Not on a TT bike!!! But prior to the final 50ks the riding was awesome and totally worth it. I can now say my longest day on a bike is 250ks and i’ll never wear the knicks i wore for more than 100ks. That was there limit!! And it was good to do some riding in a awesome part of America. Well at least that’s what Art tells me, i think he is biased as he has spent all of his life in the North West Pacific.

Thanks Art… You Bastard…

FYI. Art has suckered me into another Event in a few weeks… The Hood to Coast Relay! Damn you Boileau.

AB