Fast America 2011
Costa Mesa CA – Amesbury MA
24 April 2011 – 26 May 2011
Patrick and Jason Kelly
This event is a fully supported cycling tour which is organised by America by Bicycle Inc (see www.abbike.com.) Jason rode with this company in 1999 when he completed the 52 day Cross Country Tour which travelled from San Francisco in California (Pacific Ocean) to Portsmouth in New Hampshire (Atlantic Ocean.) Looking for a shorter duration tour, the 33 day “fast” ride fitted the bill and after some planning, this year was it.
This event is a tour, not a race, even though some excessive tootling (racing) did occur from time to time. There were just two rest days (both of which were cold and wet) which meant 31 days of cycling to cover the 5,584km from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans.
The fast ride is run in alternate years on a northern route and a southern route, both of which start at Costa Mesa in California (basically southern Los Angeles) and which diverge from Albuquerque in New Mexico. This year was the northern route which went through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas and then up to Amesbury in Massachusetts via a number of other states.
Twenty ones riders, aged from 40 to 64, and with a wide range of training and ability, signed up for the 2011 edition. With the official “qualification” being to achieve a century (100 miles / 161km) in under 6 hours in the months leading up to the ride, rider ability ranged from approximate Ramblers A grade through to F grade. Among the diverse group, there was one woman, three riders from the UK, one from Norway and us two from New Zealand with the rest being from various US states. A little surprisingly, most riders had little racing experience. Based on past experience, this meant riding with them in groups was not a viable or safe option. This was borne out when some of them rode together and ending up hitting the road more than once.
There were basically four staff supporting the group, each of which normally rode some of each day’s route. They had two support vans and one trailer which carried the luggage along with food, water and mechanical supplies.
The staff and organisation were well oiled which made riding easy for us riders. Staff also took thousands of photos which we could purchase on CD. As such, we now have only 3,000 screen saver images of our trip.
Each day was a designated point to point ride e.g. Day 1 was from Costa Mesa to Palm Springs. Route sheets were provided which gave the route and directions to follow. The directions varied from very simple e.g. get on the Interstate and ride to the next town, to numerous turns every 0.1 or 0.2 of a mile or so. Generally, the route sheets were accurate and presented few problems. On one day, the roads had been re-routed since the route sheet was drawn up which required some navigation by the stars. Each route sheet also had a profile but these were generally misleading as to the effort required as the wind and other conditions were more important.
Hotel accommodation was provided at each destination. Breakfast was included and was normally at the hotel while all food (including nuts, raisins, bananas, muesli bars, cookies, other salty snacks etc) required for riding was provided on the road along with water and Gatorade. Lunch was self service at one of the stops and was basically sandwiches and variations thereof but with a large range of cheeses, meats, salads (including pasta salads), jam, peanut butter, nutella, bananas, other fruit and vegetables, and the ubiquitous can of soft drink. This was much looked forward to, especially on hot days.
Daily routines were quickly established and most days saw breakfast at around 6am, on the road around 7am, the first rest (sag – Support & Gear) stop at around 1/3 of the ride, lunch at around 2/3 of the ride and then a final 30-40 miles to the hotel. On longer and or hotter days, the sag stops were closer together with a third sag also added. Similarly, on the shorter days, only lunch was held. Arrival at the hotel was generally around 2-4pm which gave time to shower, relax, find and eat dinner and other recovery food (milkshakes were a favourite of many riders), attend rap (Route & Planning where route maps and details of the next day’s ride were given out. Sometimes this was done the following morning), prepare for the next day, including any mechanical work required, and go to bed to be up in time to do it all again the next day. It was a full time job most days.
As it was not a race, Patrick and I just settled into a riding rhythm each day that we could handle all day. This meant the riding was generally easy and comfortable. Some riders tried to race from time to time and appeared to suffer badly from this with numerous “bad” days reported. We had no bad days and were riding with the view that every day on the bike was a good one. Our legs were never as tired as after a Saturday Ramblers race.
The tour was tough on the bikes and two riders had frames fail – both of which were relatively new Trek Madones which saw the owners buying new ones and worrying about any warranty and insurance issues later. Patrick also cracked his back rim while Jason had his back wheel re-trued twice after the rough roads saw it buckle. Punctures were not a major issue with Patrick suffering four and Jason just one. The Armadillo tyres we used helped with this.
Travelling with our bikes in cardboard bike boxes saw them transported both ways without damage with us on the planes. The airlines did take some convincing they should not charge us for these but this was achieved. Due to Jason’s business travel in the last few years, we also managed to get upgraded to Business Class for the return flight from San Francisco to Auckland (after flying from Boston to San Francisco) where we celebrated our achievement with champagne.
Jason has a daily blog, including some photos and links to other blogs, at http://jasonsabb.blogspot.com
A summary of the cycling is set out in below. In a remarkable coincidence, the recorded average speed for the entire trip of 28.8km/h matches that of Jason’s 1999 ride across America.
And what is the next challenge? Well, Jason is targeting a probable world first of five hours of cycling plus five hours of gliding on the same day. Summer daylight hours are required to achieve this so roll on summer.
+
