| Distance | Average Speed | Max Speed | Time | Elevation gain |
| 77.71 miles | 15.4 mph | 41.0 mph | 5:02:02 | 5498 feet |
Today, of all days, I forgot to use my inhaler.
Today was the big one. The anchor to the whole week. The big climb over Elkhorn Pass, elevation 7398 feet. It was a relatively warm morning (~40 in camp) with clear skies again today. Anticipating that everyone one would be up early because of the big climb and also having Jonathan mention getting up early would be a good thing last night, I was up early myself. I work up to go to the bathroom (as always) around 4.30am, and I just decided to stay up. I did my usual routine of putting away my sleeping bag and therma-rest followed by dressing in my base layers of cycling clothes under my fleece. It was a very dusty field, so I wore my regular shoes to breakfast.
I went to stand in line for breakfast around 5am. It was already starting to get pretty long. Much to my surprise, they opened the line at 5:15am! So I was already off to an early start which was actually a little unfortunate since as mentioned last night, they were going to hold everyone at the lunch stop until noon to allow the firefighters plenty of time to do what they needed to do down in their base camp.
I dawdled as much as I am capable of over my scrambled eggs, English muffin, ham, oatmeal, granola and yogurt. Then I went to take down my tent...It really doesn't take very long. For layering today, I went with just wool socks, toe covers, leg warmers, arm warmers, vest, and skull cap since I figured I'd be climbing all morning right out of the gate anyway. It warmed up really quickly on the climb which was already bathed in warm sunlight as we ascended. I stopped at the first rest stop to fill my bottle with Gatorade. Then came a long (11mile), cold (~34-37 degrees) descent to Granite. It was a pretty fast road, but I was intentionally slowing down so the wind chill wasn't quite so bad. I road much of it no-handed with my arms folded across my chest and my hands under my arms to keep them warm (I did have long fingered gloves on, but the knit gloves don't do much to keep the cold wind out). Everyone was freezing at the Granite ODS stop. There were a few people who had been a lot less prepared than I wearing only shorts and maybe arm warmers. I stood around trying to stay warm, ate some snacks, took some pictures, and waited for the sun to come over the ridge to warm up a little bit. It finally did. I grabbed a bagel sandwich and asked one of the volunteers if they had a plastic bag for my carry for later. She didn't but she improvised one out of a plastic glove they use when serving food. (If I haven't mentioned it before, the volunteers on this ride really do all that they can possibly do for us. We really appreciate all of their efforts. I know I try to thank everyone I can when I stop.) There was a big black horse standing in a field across the road, so I took a picture for Ellen since we just finished the book Black Beauty not too long ago.
Finally, I felt the suns warming rays, and I pushed off again. I was thankful when the climbing started again so I could warm up. And warm up, I did on the 6 mile climb to the turn off to the Elkhorn Scenic By-way. This road was closed to all traffic except for CO and fire/park official vehicles so that was nice. This was the big one - 15 miles of straight climbing. It was pretty gradual over rough chip seal at the beginning, but it eventually ramped up nicely. I pulled into the water stop on the climb to empty my bladder and refill my Gatorade. Since it was only 9am, and there wasn't that much farther to the top, I figured I'd just chat with Matt the Bike Gallery mechanic stationed at this stop. It was one of the few times I encountered a mechanic without a bike already in the stand. I talked to him about the shifting problem I have where the spring in my right shifter for the rear deraileur won't engage in the mornings when it's cold, and I had been stuck in 2nd gear all morning. I piqued his curiosity, so he looked at a it bit (I told him I had showed it to many different mechanics over the last 3 years with no luck other than the recommendation that I'd need to replace the group to make it work again. These are R600 series group which is the predecessor to Ultegra, which is 10 years old, after all). He shot some WD-40 into the lever assemblage. He said it may be the grease Shimano used during assembly that was interfering with the proper action on the spring. We'll see tomorrow if it still works, but it's working now, so that's good.
The rest of the climb was great. The views were terrific under "blue bird" skies. I stopped to take a few pictures which allowed some of the folks I had passed to catch up with me. I was wearing the polka-dots of climbing champion, so people were trying to give me a hard time, but I honored the jersey by passing everyone I came upon. I stopped for another picture and was caught by a guy named Keith wearing a pro team kit. We rode together into lunch catching another guy in a team kit, Drew from Georgia. The lunch stop was at Anthony Lake over 7100 feet elevation right next to a ski area. They were BBQ-ing pulled beef and chicken for sandwiches right there in the road next to the picnic area. It was super yummy. We were joined a bit later by some friends of the first guys I rode in with. We were all wearing racing kits of some type, so we were teasing each other over that. It was a really beautiful stop. I walked down to the lake shore to snap some pictures of Gun Sight hill. As I was heading back to the entrance to the park to collect my bike, I chatted with Jerry the President of Cycle Oregon, and he told me that we were free to go any time. The fire marshal for the fire zone at the bottom of the mountain had given the OK, and it was only 11am! I was outta there.
The 11 mile descent was awesome! After the pocked and rough upper section came a beauty of a smooth, twisty road. The turns had good visibility and not too tight that I had to use my brakes much, but I did try to keep it under 40 mph. I had to slow down at the bottom as we passed the fire camp to keep my eye out for traffic, volunteers, equipment, and what not. It smelled strongly of camp fire, but we didn't see any smoke in the area. I thanked the park folks as I passed through. I was able to get a good picture of the smoke rising from the side of the mountain after I was down the road a ways past the helicopter landing field.
At the next rest stop in North Powder, I caught up with the guys I had met at lunch. After meandering around to get snacks and potties out of the way, Keith pointed this guy over to me who worked with the Baker City news paper. They wanted to know if this was the toughest climb I had ever done on Cycle Oregon. I diplomatically said that it was a good, fun climb with great scenery, but I didn't think it was the hardest I'd done. CO had done some really tough days in the Cascades in the past which I thought were more difficult. I'll have to see if I can find a paper in Baker City on the option day tomorrow. I ended up leaving the rest stop in the company of 6 guys who formed up a nice little pace line to get through the strong head wind we were going to fight for the next 15 miles to the finish line. I'm glad I caught up with them. We sprinted for town signs, attacked each other out of the line, and we even swept up one more person along the way bringing us to 7 in the pace line which is the limit that Cycle Oregon places on them for safety reasons. It was fun. I haven't participated in a strong pace line in a very long time. Jada and I have lead them before, but no one pulls through when you're a tandem on the front.
I got my tent setup and showered after finishing my chocolate milk (Thank you, Alpenrose). We got to camp on a nice soft football field for our 2 day layover in Union. I took off my shoes and put up my tent in my bare feet. It felt great. I found some shade in the football field's grand stand to work on my journal for the day's ride and relax until I walk into town to find a pay phone.
I ended up walking from one end of town to the other, asking several people, but there was not 1 pay phone in all of Union. So I bought a couple post cards and mailed them on the way back to camp for dinner. I also heard that tomorrow will only be 50 degrees for a high with a chance of rain. So I put the rain fly on the tent and went to dinner. I ended up being first in line some how. While I was standing there, the lead volunteer for dinners asked if I'd mind if I got the demonstration plate. I said no problem. I found out that the demonstration plate is the plate they use to show all the volunteers (high school kids, town elders, who ever they can find to serve us food) how they should portion out the food to we riders. So I got to eat first that day, and I got to learn something new about the behind the scenes goings on while we're out on our bikes all day. After trying to take my time for dinner, I went back to call home on the cell phone. No one was there. So I went to the main stage as I do every night to wait for announcements and write in my journal some more. Tonight's entertainment was the '80's band Quarterflash, unplugged. Marv and Rindi Ross who both live in Portland and were the founders of Quarterflash. Marv is the entertainment coordinator for CO. I did finally get a hold of Jada just before evening announcements. I headed to bed after 1 song since tomorrow was going to be a long day in the saddle for the option day. Plus wind was picking up, and it was getting a bit chilly.
Continue to Day 5.