(ABOVE) photo courtesy: Gary Breipohl from the Tulsa Tough. Notice the hole in the carbon frame due to a hailstone! Some riders were literally bruised and bloodied.
Ouch! The rain drops felt more like tiny rocks as my bicycle accelerated past 30mph.
Normally cyclists look forward to the massive 300 foot descent, a huge plunge out of the Osage Hills. Bikes can zoom toward 50mph. But during a severe thunderstorm it's a bit less entertaining, especially considering that instant death might be an option!
Lightning? Hydroplaning? Hailstones? These aren't the usual bike hazards I'm used to dealing with!
(ABOVE) A Friday evening fuzzy camera phone picture of the Criterium racers in downtown Tulsa. My much more casual ride took place the next morning.
Last Saturday morning I cycled in the 100km (about 60 mile) Tulsa Tough bike ride. It was a big deal to me as it marked my first ever big bicycle event. The ride wasn’t considered an official race, but then the organizers handed us timer bracelets. Great (sarcasm), suddenly the ride became semi-competitive.
6pm producer Chris Cordt and I before the ride. Channel 2 sport guy Jason Shackelford said that my shirt resembled a fruit salad.
Before this event my career longest bike ride was just over 40 miles and monster hill climbs weren't part of my usual routine. To simply finish was my main goal and hopefully in 4 hours or less. A 4 hour time equaled a moving average speed of 15-16mph.
My view looking back at the group. Nearly one thousand cyclists rode in three different distance events. Clouds spread overhead from distant storms.
But the weather had other ideas. I checked the radar on my cell phone before the race/ride started, and big storms were moving into Osage county which was our mid-ride destination. From there storms would likely develop southwestward along an outflow boundary and flanking line. Bottom line: the cyclists had better than a 50% chance of wet spandex. Yep, we're probably gonna get rained on!
And they're off! The bicycle pack leaving downtown Tulsa. The group thinned out after the first set of hills.
The first half of the ride proved uneventful. A couple of stronger riders, David Gardner and Lonnie Iannazzo from the Tulsa Bicycle Club let me draft with them, "Jump on George!" We averaged about 21mph for a stretch.
Morning cloud cover kept temperatures in the comfort zone. Then somewhere north of Skiatook, the weather changed. The south wind nudging me along quickly shifted northward. An outflow boundary pushed cooler air in my face from the northern storms. This same outflow boundary became the initiating line for severe storms which bubbled overhead.
We pulled over and dismounted at a rest area in Avant (Osage county). I refilled my Gatorade bottles and listened to thunder from somewhere in the distance. The cloud bottoms darkened and light rain wetted the asphalt.
My average speed dropped under 18mph, slowing in the rain and hills at the 35 mile mark. Notice the wet pavement. The Weatherman is wet too.
David, Lonnie and I jumped back on the bike, resuming the ride now heading southward back toward Tulsa. A series of huge hills including a near 400 foot climb provided the biggest challenge of the course. My average speed suffered as I struggled along at 7mph in my easy, 32 cog "granny" gear. A couple of lighter weight guys passed me.
The light rain stopped when I reached the hill crest. But other storms were forming along that outflow boundary now located between Skiatook and Tulsa. Strong storms organized with distant lightning strikes and scary looking clouds. Those distant storms were in my future, and I was about to break all the weather safety rules that I tell third graders!
We probably should have waited out the storms I guess, but that wouldn't give me as good of a story to tell!
A looming storm after I survived a 400 foot climb at Avant. David and Lonnie are well ahead of me.
A full-blown thunderstorm opened up and dumped on us near Skiatook. Rain, thunder, lightning, even a few hailstones, we got whatever the storm felt like doing to us. The wind blew, water rushed on to the road, creeks evolved into raging rapids, and my spandex got wet where water isn’t supposed to go!
The raindrops hurt. They felt like a sandblasting especially when my speedometer nudged past 30mph zooming down a moderate downhill.
Some of the riders in the group recognized my voice from TV, blaming me for the storm. Like a true professional, I deflected the blame toward meteorologists who work at other Tulsa stations. Sure I knew the rain was forming, but it's still someone from 6, 8 or 23s fault!
Lightning lightninged, and thunder thundered. How close did lightning strike? I couldn't count to five before hearing thunder.
My sunglasses fogged up. My brakes didn't work. A hailstone hit my helmet. Attempting humor, “Can I borrow some sunscreen?!" I asked another cyclist.
There was no place to hide for many miles. Finally, a shelter tent popped up ahead about 10 miles from the finish line. I pulled in along with a dozens of other 100% saturated cyclists. I wish I had taken a picture: I've never seen 40 dudes snuggled under a tent wearing neon-colored, wet spandex!
The lightning let up after a time, and I took to the road again. The asphalt partly disappeared under water as the quick 1-2 inch rainfall created minor flooding.
I picked up my pace again where possible when one of the strongest riders in the Tulsa Bicycle Club, Jay Mohrey, passed me on the left. He splashed me just a bit. I didn’t think I could catch Jay, but I did at least manage to pedal past a few other riders.
The rain completely ceased as I reached Tulsa, and I wanted a big finish. A couple of steeps hills remained…Jay was about 50 yards ahead of me...let’s see if I can power past him on the hills...
Uphill...I pushed myself as hard as my body allowed trying to seize the opportunity. My left leg said "no" and tried to cramp up. Jay took it easy on the hill. I was closing in; he didn't know it.
I reached the hill crest then kept pedaling downhill, rapidly accelerating down the stretch. Crank it, spin it up! My 200 pound frame plus somewhat heavy 25 pound bike helped me out here. Accelerate! Faster! I sprinted to 45mph, the fastest speed I've ever been on a bike!
In a tucked position I blew past Jay so quickly that he had little chance to catch me. He tried to keep up for a bit, but my "victory" was sealed when I rode through an intersection before the light turned red. Actually the light was red, but I won't mention that.
The finish line! I placed #61 out of 279 riders in the semi-competitive 100km. Wet streets slowed the pace.
The ride concluded near the Greenwood district in downtown. I mashed the pedal with my right leg as my left leg didn't like me much anymore. Jay probably could've caught me if he tried, but he wasn't racing me. At least for one day I was faster!
My wife met me at the finish line with a smile. She was "panicked" (those are her words!) for me and the rest of riders due to the storm. Other than my left leg not working I was fine. I cooled down chatting with Jay and also David and Lonnie who finished a few minutes before me.
My time: 3 hours 13 minutes-- quite respectable for my first bike event, and I easily beat my goal of 4 hours! My bike computer displayed an average speed of 18mph, but the timing bracelet provided by Tulsa Tough indicated 19.2mph.
Here's a blurry print out of my race results. My position improved throughout. At the checkpoints I was #85, then #77, finishing #61.
I finished #61 out of 279 riders who wore timers (select the 100km to see the results):
http://www.milliseconds.com/ResultsQuery2.php?varRaceID=1045&urlVarType=Distance%20is
Not bad, I’m #61. Even better, my wife considered me #1 for finishing my first 100km! And as a plus, I didn't die by lightning in the same storm that I was blamed for predicting.
(BELOW PHOTOS) I took these two pictures Sunday along Riverside Drive. On the left is Team Toyota winning a Criterium race. On the right is "that guy." No word on his results....
