The Climbs

Adin Pass – Similar to the ride from Adin to Camby, the ride back up the pass starts with a long, gradual climb at river grade, followed by a 4.5% stretch for the last 1.6 miles.

Eagles Lake and Antelope Pass – After the Grasshopper water stop on Eagles Lake, between Adin and Susanville, there is a 1.6 miles climb as you leave the lakeshore, at about 4.5% grade. The road climbs just a little while longer at a more gentle grade and then descends towards Antelope Pass. The climb to Antelope pass is similar, somewhere between 5 and 6 % for 1.4 miles and then a tiny bit more gradual climbing to the crest. Each of those climbs is followed by a long, steep descent. For most riders, this section comes at night before a night stop in Susanville, so we’ll need to bring good lights, and perhaps ride in a group.

Janesville Grade – The hardest climb of the GRR comes on the way from Susanville to Antelope Lake. The road climbs 2200 feet in about 7 miles. The first 2.3 miles averages 5.5%, the next 2.5 miles are close to 8% average, and the last 2.3 miles at about 4%. From some of the ride reports I read, the averages that I calculated looking at Google Maps may not give you a good picture of this climb. The middle section includes some short, steeper sections that are going to be interesting. Overall, I think that the low gears that I am bringing with me (26×27) should make it slow but manageable climbing. Of course, this comes after more than 800 km of riding, and what may be easy to do with fresh legs may be really hard when you are tired. The good news, of course, is that after the top of the GRR at 6000 feet, it is mostly downhill to Oroville. The stretch of road after the top, several miles of rollers at close to 6000 feet, should be spectacular. I look forward to riding in that section.

Jarbo Gap – The last significant climb of the ride is between Tobin and Oroville, as we leave the Feather River canyon to get back to Jarbo Gap. That climb is close to 6 miles long, but at an average of around 3%. The prevailing winds here are from the central valley, so we may end up climbing against some headwind.

The Times

Alturas to Adin -In 2005 the fast riders did this in 3.08, getting in Adin around 2 AM on day 3. Interestingly enough, the mid-pack riders were leaving Adin for Alturas around the same time. Quite a gap. The mid pack riders did Alturas-Adin in 3:12, arriving in Adin around 3 PM. The lanterne rouge riders did it in 4.27, arriving in Adin at 10.40 PM.

Adin to Susanville – In 2005 the fast riders did this in 4.47, getting in Susanville around 8 PM. The mid pack riders did it in 6.07, arriving in Susanville around 10.15 and taking a few hours rest. The lanterne rouge riders did it in 8.10, arriving in Susanville at 7.30 AM. I suspect that for these riders this time included some ditch napping, and perhaps some rest at the Grasshopper water control.

Susanville to Taylorville -In 2005 the fast riders did it is 5.04, arriving at 1 PM. The mid pack riders did it in 5.41, arriving in Taylorville at 8.45 AM. They probably finished climbing the Janesville Grade around sunrise, which would be really cool. The lanterne rouge did this leg in 7.29, arriving at 3.50 PM.

Taylorville to Tobin -The fast riders smoked this section in 1.48. They arrived in Tobin around 3 PM. The mid pack riders did it in 2.08, arriving around noon. This is a long gradual downhill stretch, which will be very fast if the headwind is not too strong. The lanterne rouge did it in 4.27, arriving at 9.50 PM.

Tobin to Oroville -The fast riders did it in 3.17, arriving in Oroville at 6.15 PM, just a few minutes more than 48 hours after starting. Very impressive. The mid pack riders did it in 3.42, arriving around 4 PM. I don’t have arrival or departure times for this control for the lanterne rouge, but they took about 16 hours to go from Tobin to Davis.

Oroville to Davis – I don’t have good data for this leg, but the mid pack riders did it in 7.23, arriving before 1 AM on Friday, with 11 hours to spare.

Overall, I am surprised to find that the difference in ride times between the fast riders and the mid pack riders is not huge. The big difference is the time that they spend at the controls.

In 2001 the ride was held in early July, and the weather was hot in the valley and reasonable at altitude, with occasional showers and thunderstorms.

I looked at a couple of weather web sites for historical weather patterns. Looks like Davis, Oroville and Alturas have airports that collect weather data, and the other control locations don’t. This means that if you search for Susanville or Adin, you actually get the Alturas data. Which may be OK, since they are all in the high altitude desert part of the sierras.

For July 6 through 10, Davis typical high/low temperature is 92/58 and Oroville 92/61 (no surprise, and no significant difference here). For Alturas, the typical temperature is 87/44. So the high is a few degrees lower than on the valley floow, but not enough to make a big difference. If it is hot at the start, it will be almost as hot during the day all through the ride. The low temperature (which is usually right before sunrise) is quite a bit lower in the high desert. Again, not surprising, but it may be worth having an extra layer with us for riding at night and in the early morning hours.

So what is it going to be like this year? Chances are, scorching hot in the central valley, fairly hot during the day on the rest of the route, and pretty cold at night and in the early morning. Sounds like 2001 had fairly typical weather, while 2005 was warmer than normal. I am hoping for a return of typical weather for this year.

After we drove back to Oregon I took the bike to the Bike Gallery in Beaverton. I love their service crew, they are knowledgeable and experienced. Just darn difficult to get them to work on your bike. Their standard answer is “We are busy, leave the bike here and we’ll get to it in two weeks.” The guy looked at the crank, and suggested that I get a new crank. He also said that there was something I could do to fix the problem, but for liability reason he could not tell me what it was. That was bizarre. He recommended getting a “touring” Shimano crank, but they did not have it in stock, and none of the other BG stores or their warehouse had one. It would take two weeks to get one, he said. So I wrote down the exact model that he recommended, went to Universal Cycles, and had it in my hands in two business days.

I removed the old crank and put on the new one, but I could not get the shifting to work. So I took everything back to BG. I talked with another person, who gave me the standard “we are busy, we’ll get to it in 2 weeks” answer. I asked if he could at least look at it quickly to see if I was doing something wrong, and he put the bike on the stand, and told me that he could do it, since it was kind of slow at the time. He quoted me $45 for the install, which was OK with me. I don’t mind paying for quality service.

He replaced the shifter cable because it was too short (and that should have been a hint to what was wrong with the bike), and started reinstalling. The crank came with three spacers, and no instructions. I did not put any spacers in, he decided to put two of them in. He tried adjusting the deraileur for a while, but he had no better luck than I wad at getting shifting to work. He asked another couple of service techs, and they told him that it would not work. The crank was not compatible with the 105 shifters. “The parallelogram is different,” said one of them.They recommended installing bar end shifters. I never quite understood why indexed bar end shifters would work, while my brifter would not.

I was really not happy about having wasted $130 on the crank that they suggested, but I paid $5 for the new shifter cable, and went home to see what I could do. I decided to try removing one of the two spacers, and in five minutes everything worked perfectly. Easy, crisp shifting. Wow, that was surprisingly easy.

So the next morning I go to the Lewis and Clark 24hr race with my brand new crank, and right before the start I go to mount the pump on the bike frame, on the attachment for the third bottle holder that is behind the front wheel. That’s when I notice that the new cable is routed over the pump holder, not under it. I don’t have time to fix the problem, so I ride with the misrouted shifter cable.

The kind of riding I do, much longer and much slower than the typical racer that buys road bikes at BG, benefits from parts that are not standard, and fit and adjustments that are often not standard. Even a good service department may not be much help. While I really want to give business to a local bike shop, more and more I am finding that they don’t know how to work on my bike (they make rookie mistakes if you have a pump holder in an unusual place), and that I am better off doing the work myself.

Feeling the scents around you, being immersed in the experience of the fields and the forests you ride through, is something that is easy to miss when you drive along the same roads in your air conditioned car.

The maps on the web site are really hard to read, but it looks like the coverage is good until half way up Jarbo Gap, after Oroville. Spotty coverage around Taylorville, and spotty again from a few miles before Susanville through a little after Eagle Lake. Nothing anwhere else.

ATT

Same spots with no signal along the Feather River canyon, and to Antelope Lake and the Top of the GRR. But stronger signal in Taylorville and Susanville. Plus good signal in Alturas, and spotty signal at the turnaround point, Davis Creek. 3G data signal to Oroville, and then only in Susanville.

Verizon

According to the map on the web site, phone coverage is much better than ATT, with a smaller section with no signal in the Feather River canyon, and another one (also smaller) around Antelope Lake. They even have coverage in Adin. The data coverage is about the same as the voice coverage. Overall, quite impressive.

Based on this, I am tempted to get a prepaid Verizon SIM to use on GRR to stay in touch.