Sunday, April 4, 2010

Day 3 – El Centro, CA to Yuma, AZ (67 miles)

Saturday, April 3, 2010
We crossed in to a new state today (Arizona)!!! One state down, many more to go.
My team was on support today, so I had the day “off.” I use the term “off” liberally because, in fact, we were quite busy all day. Because we are a small team, and we are raising money, we cannot afford to hire someone to provide support for our team while we are out on the road. Therefore, we are divided into five different support teams, with either 4 or 5 members each. That means that every fifth day, a rider is off their bike and providing support for the team. My support team is Team Blueberry. Which, of course, is the best. My team consists of the most amazing group of people: me (of course, since it’s my group), Jeff, Adam, Roshan, and Jess. We rocked support today.

A little run-down on how “support days” work. The team who is assigned to support wakes up earlier than everyone else and gets out all of the food for breakfast. We pack up our stuff and start preparing the vans for the day. We wake everyone else up about a half an hour later. Everyone has to change into their biking gear, pack up their bags, and get all of their stuff in to the vans before they are allowed to eat breakfast. This encourages people to get their butts moving in the morning. Food is always a good driving force… We have three vans – a 12-passenger van, a 15-passenger van, and a cargo van. One of the passenger vans is labeled the “lead van” for the day. The support members who will be in the lead van wake up, pack up, grab breakfast, and head out the door as quickly as possible. It is their responsibility to mark the entire route for the riders. We mark the route with a combination of spray paint and chalk. This van needs to leave early, so as to give themselves ample time to mark the beginning of the route before the riders catch up (it takes much more time to mark a cycling route than one might imaging…). About a half hour after the lead van leaves, the riders are allowed to leave. The remainder of the support team is left to clear up breakfast, finish packing everything from the day, and clean up our host site. The cargo van then loads up supplies for lunch for all the riders and heads out to find a good lunch spot along the route. The last van, the “sweep van” has the most exciting job. We sit around and wait. For a long time. I was on “sweep” today, so I did a lot of sitting around and waiting. The purpose of the sweep van is to remain behind the riders and provide any support that they might need along the way (pick them up if they get hurt, provide a tire pump, supply tubes or a patch kit, refill water, supply food or PowerBars, etc.). We wait for a while, drive the van up to the last rider (the one in the back), make sure they are ok and don’t need anything, and then pull over and wait. We wait for a while, pull out, drive up to the last rider, make sure all is ok, pull over, and wait. Rinse and repeat. You get the picture.

Although support may seem pretty easy, it can actually be pretty crazy. We had some interesting experiences today. It actually takes much longer to load up all of our stuff (24 riders require a lot of crap!) into the vans in the morning. 24 riders can also make a HUGE mess, so it can take a while to clean it up. The lead van has the responsibility of assessing the route (as the route is prepared from online maps and no one has ever been on these routes before) and changing it if necessary. Some of the roads that were on our route today were un-rideable (covered with sand and then turned in to gravel roads), so our team had to make adjustments accordingly (this is also why it is very important for the lead van to go out way ahead of the rest of the riders…). We made lots of changes to the route today and had to frantically search through our atlases and GPS’s to find other suitable routes. There are also lots of opportunities for mishaps along the way. One of our vans got stuck in the sand on the side of the highway when they pulled over to mark the route. We had to call a tow truck to get it out. One rider blew about 5 tubes over the course of 10 miles or so. (No, this is not normal, but the combination of a faulty wheel and REALLY crappy, bumpy roads can cause this). Another rider had a run-in with the wheel of the rider in front of her and needed to take her bike to the bike hospital. All of this in the course of one day. Who ever said biking couldn’t be crazy?!? =)

Roshan (my partner in crime in the sweep van) and I did have a few adventures along the route. You need to spice things up sometimes! We walked to “the fence” and took pictures. Luckily, we did not get bombarded by Border Patrol. (It was around noon, so my theory was that they were on lunch break. Roshan thought they were in the bathroom.) We stopped at the “National Granite Museum,” but decided it wasn’t worth the $3 entrance fee, so we left. We also traveled to the Center of the World. It was an experience.
After all of the craziness of the day, everyone arrived safe and in one piece (although one bike arrived with parts broken in pieces…) at our destination. We are staying at the Gila Ridge High School in Yuma. They put us up in the wrestling room. While this is a little gross (makes me cringe thinking of ring worm…), the floor is very cushioned and, as long as we all wear our shoes, I think we should be just fine. Right now, the rest of the team is at an “event” at Buffalo Wild Wings in Yuma (AKA, they want to watch the Final Four games…). Someone had to stay behind at the high school to let everyone back in (because the doors lock when they shut and we do not have a key). Unfortunately, that someone is me. But, I don’t really care about basketball, the day has been a bit exhausting, and alone time is few a far between when traveling with 23 other people. Brian is currently out in search of the “perfect Mexican meal” and will be bringing me back some food very shortly. My stomach is growling just thinking about it. End of the third day. And it was hectic.

1 comment:

  1. Libby,
    Thanks for the description of some of the logistics of the ride related to the support roles. I continue to be amazed at the planning and execution that goes into each ride. And amused and entertained by the posts. Keep em coming.
    Godspeed to you and the team.
    Terry Bahn
    OSUCOM

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