Tour de Cure 2006
A few weeks ago my brother Chris
asked me if I was interested in riding with him in the Tour de Cure, a fund
raising ride for Diabetes in which Greg LeMond was the honorary grand marshal.
Chris offered me a free ticket and a bike to ride. Now how can you turn down an
offer like that? I didn’t. I had a conflict that weekend, but worked things
out. Chris was riding the Tour de Cure in
This cause was especially important to me because Chris has had diabetes since he was a young child. It hasn’t held him back much. He’s extremely successful in the business world, starting and selling a number of companies, and he is quite fit on the bike, especially when climbing. I’ve been donating to the American Diabetes Society ever since I started working, so this was a natural fit. It cost $50 to sign up for the ride, where they provide you with food, water, and support, plus you have to get at least $150 in donations. The first day I sent out my email requesting funds from friends, I was swamped with donations. What an incredible bunch of generous friends I have. By the end of the second day I had raised over $1100 for my two rides.
It’s not too late to donate to my cause. You can do it here: Tour de Cure.
Seattle, Washinton, May 19, 2006, 50-mile Course - photos
Chris and I rode on the LeMond Fitness company team in the
rack.
For nearly ten years he was ranked second in the
After dinner we drove down to the Marriot hotel, which was less than a mile from the ride’s start. The next morning Greg, Chris, and I had breakfast in the hotel and then rode our bikes over to the start. Bernie, of LeMond Fitness, had arranged for me to have a bike to ride and it was waiting for me at the hotel. I just slapped on the pedals and Greg did some tweaking to get it adjusted for me and I was set.
We hung out at the ride’s start, hobnobbing, until the 9 a.m.
start of our 50-mile ride. Greg was the officially starter for our ride and
then led the peloton out of the parking lot and onto the course. We rolled out
easily and rode along in a wide shoulder until we turned left and started
climbing up a steep hill. We were at the front of the pack at this point, but
things shattered here, with big Paul slipping back quite a ways. He was the
biggest guy in the bunch, making Greg look svelte, and he had just got a cast
off his wrist, so he hadn’t been doing much cycling. He was out star sprinter
though and we knew that if we could just get him to the finish line, he deliver
the win, so Chris and I took care of him on the hills. Here I dropped back and
gave him a little surreptitious push. I
don’t think any officials noticed.
Over the top of the
hill Bernie was driving a break of about 6 or 7 riders, including LeMond. I
chased hard to catch them, covering the move for my team leader, Chris. I then
realized that I didn’t have my team leader with me. I dropped back and waited
for Chris and Jeff and then pulled hard to chase down the breakaway. With
Bernie on the front that wasn’t likely, but thankfully was enticed by a rest
stop and we regrouped there. This ride has frequent, well-stocked rest stops
and we indulged at each of them.
After some refueling
we were off again, riding through beautiful, verdant valleys on quiet country
roads. The ride was pretty casual, but also at a quick pace due to Bernie
pulling all day and one guy (whose name I forget right now) who was a big,
strong triathlete and would go to the front and push
the pace. The latter part of the Tour was nicely rolling – my favorite terrain
for riding. I attacked on one of these rollers and they let me go off the
front, knowing it was just a bluff since I wasn’t a threat for the G.C. and had
to return to the peloton to work for my leader or my sprinter, which I did do.
Toward the end of
the ride, a detour, a short, steep hill, and a required phone call left the
Wright/Swift team behind the lead group. We worked hard to close it down, but
ended about three minutes back, giving Greg LeMond a substantial cushion
heading into the big mountains on the following day.
As a cool down, Bernie and Paul took Chris and I over to the local Velodrome, which was in the park where we started/finished. This was a big, outdoor track that was 400 meters around and had corners banked at 28%. It was very cool to be riding here and we took a few laps and got some photos. With the velodrome riding, Chris and I did about 50 miles on the day and around 2000 vertical feet of climbing.
After the ride Chris, Greg and I headed over to Greg’s hotel
room for a quick shower. We packed the rental SUV and headed back over to
the Tour de Cure where Greg signed countless autographs and gave quality time
to everyone who waited in a long line to see him. Afterwards we picked up
Nicole, the head of the Tour de Cure for the 
Now this private jet is a pretty neat little toy to have in your travel arsenal. Of course, by using it you miss out on a lot of the travel experience. For instance, you don’t pay for parking, walk to the shuttle bus stop, nor hop on the bus to the terminal. You drive your car right up to the plane, literally within twenty feet of it, and climb aboard. You don’t wait in line to check-in. You don’t check your bags. You aren’t pulled to the side because your name is “William Wright” and you’re on the “No Fly” list. You don’t go through security, pull your laptop out, take off your shoes, nor do you have to turn your head and cough. There is no train to take to your gate. No escalators to ride, no moving sidewalks. You not only don’t have to turn off your cell phone, but you can use it anytime you want, along with your iPod, laptop, and anything else you want to do. There is no safety briefing (unless you want one) and just before we took off our pilot, Craig, just turned around and asked, “You guys ready to go?” We said, “Let’s roll.”
Chris’ jet cruises at 350 knots per hour (knots? I thought
that was just for ships. What’s a knot anyway? Eric told me: a knot is named
after knots tied on a rope that was tossed off a ship, tied to a log, to determine
a boat's speed. It is equivalent to 1/60th of a degree of arc at the equator
- about 1.15 miles) and comfortably seats six people
(or four and two bikes), plus two pilots. Mark was also joining us as co-pilot,
so we were well taken care of. We chatted about a variety 
of
topics on the way down including ice ages, giant prehistoric floods, tsunami-caused
Biblical flooding, the Da Vinci Code, Scientology,
and, of course, many hilarious bike racing stories from Greg’s teenage years.
We landed in
Palo Alto, California, May 20, 2006, 120-kilometer Course - photos
For the ride in
We rolled out a bit late because we were waiting for Jeffery’s
shoes to be delivered by Liz. He had forgotten them at the house and Liz was
nice enough to drive all the way down with them. As usual, Liz saved the day.
It’s a habit for her. We rode along at a conversational pace to the first
long climb and then just cranked up it at our own paces. Some subgroups formed
with the Reese brothers prominent at the front and Jeffery off the front,
getting in some tempo hill training. Greg was frequently towards the back
keeping Mark Mercado company. When I lived out in
Actually, Greg rode very strong on the hills, frequently setting the pace on the lower parts. I was worried that he’d burn himself out, but he finished the entire ride and was attacking the group to the very end. He’s usual attack tactic was to hammer the descent. With the roads being damp and dangerous, he had even more of an advantage than usual. Chris and I would frequently start the descent with Greg and then be well off the back by the time things leveled out. Greg would up front with some fellow escapees driving the pace and trying to solidify his G.C. position. Having started the day three minutes up on Chris, we couldn’t afford to lose any time. Being Chris’ uber-domestique, I was frequently pulling hard on the flat trying to bring it all back together. Our strategy was to take back the three minutes on Greg on the final climb up Tunitas Creek road.
Riding up one the hills later in the ride, Greg was riding next to Bill Minner and they were discussing body fat percentage. Greg said that in his Tour days he would aim to start the season at 7% body fat, then race at 5% body fat, and he’d sometimes finish the Tour at around 3% body fat! That isn’t healthy, but no said riding 2000 miles at an average speed of over 25 mph over a bazillion feet of climbing in three weeks was healthy. Bill had nearly died last December of a brain aneurism and said to Greg that he was probably down around 5% body fat after losing 20 pounds in 20 days while in the hospital. Greg said that probably wasn’t true because when he got out of the hospital after nearly dying from his shotgun accident he weighed only 120 pounds, yet was 18% body fat! All his muscles had atrophied due to bed rest. Chris piped up and said, “Bill, you were probably 60% bone, 20% fat, and 10% muscle. Heck, you were 7% mustache!” It’s true that Bill does have a rather prominent Sam-Shepard-like-ala-The-Big-Lebowski handlebar mustache.
After a long descent down towards the 
After this climb we rode about ten miles of slightly downhill, flattish, and rolling terrain to the next rest stop and we got a serious paceline going here. Except that there wasn’t much rotation going on. I pulled mostly, but also Jeffery, a Reese brother (I think), and Josh. We had a very interlopers in our group as well and they were extremely excited to be in a paceline with Greg LeMond, flying along at 25-30 mph. Our train would come up along individual riders, who were working hard and riding at maybe 22 mph, and just blow by them. We had probably 15-20 riders initially, but then one of the interlopers slid his back tire, nearly crash, recovered, slid it again, recovered, and then finally went over the handlebars and crashed. Thankfully by the time he crashed he was going slow enough and off the side of the road that he didn’t get injured. Unfortunately, anyone caught behind this fiasco was dropped from the train and wouldn’t get back on until the rest stop.
Closing in on the rest stop we had a crosswind and Greg tried to get the front organized into an echelon. At the time I was on Greg’s wheel. After one frustrating rotation of the front four guys, Greg decided to demonstrate what happens when others won’t work an echelon. He guttered the entire group and hammered at the front. He can still produce prodigious power on the flats. I barely hung onto his wheel, but a gapped open behind me and we were off the front. Once the gap opened, Greg and I worked a mini-echelon together and cruised into the rest stop as a pair. The group was just a few seconds back. We all dismounted for some foot, water, and camaraderie
After refueling we had ten miles of rolling terrain before hitting Tunitas Creek road and the final 2200-foot climb. It was a few miles before the road tipped up steeply and when it did Jeffery and Dike immediately attacked, with Dirk going off solo a shot time afterwards. Greg looked over at Chris and I, as expected, and taunted us, “My son just went up the road. Are you guys just going to let him go?” I asked Chris if he wanted to chase him down but he said it was a long climb and there was plenty of time. Eric said it was about time to be placing bets on the first one up the climb and Greg said, “I’d put $500 on Jeffery.” Chris responded, “I’d take that bet.” Nothing more was said on this though.
Once again, Greg did the leading for the first 10-15 minutes of this climb and it looked like he was chasing down his own teammate. Chris, a strong climber, kept his effort in check for the early part of the climbing. Perhaps he was fearing another huge bonk, like he did last year. But last year he hit this climb without any food, assuming that the rest stop at the base of the climb was the appropriate place to refuel. He found out too late that they only had water there and it made for a near delirious ascent. He was better prepared this time, but cautious.
At some point Chris determined it was time to shatter the group
and went to the front, with his loyal teammate, and gradually turned the screws.
When I looked around ten minutes later, we were alone and closing on one of
the Reese brothers. Soon, we blew by Dirk and he was quickly out of sight
on the dark, twisting road through the dense woods. Not a single car passed
us for the entire climb. This is a bit of a strange road in that there are
only about two driveways on the entire 6-8 miles of road. It feels more like
a wide bike path and is only about one and a half lanes wide.
Chris and I still had two riders in front of us and after another five minutes or so, we spotted Dike, alone. Jeffery had obviously dropped him and was soloing off the front. We passed the last Reese and dropped him out of our sight. Chris said that he didn’t have the legs today and said that I should go run down Jeffery and try to take the stage victory. My work was done in that my leader had a commanding lead on all the other G.C. contenders, having regained the 3 minutes he lost yesterday and more time. He wanted to reward me for my work with an opportunity for the stage victory.
I took off at a hard pace (you can see my heart rate jump on the last climb in the graph below). I caught and flew by many other riders ascending the hill, but didn’t catch sight of the yellow and white LeMond team jersey for quite awhile. I wondered if we had waited too long to run him down, but it didn’t matter. I wanted to get in a good effort and now I had my opportunity. Eventually, across a ravine, I caught a glimpse of my quarry. I upped my effort and gave chase. Soon I had caught him. I pulled up beside Jeff and said, “You’re a hard man to catch.” He told that he had crashed. He said, “It was embarrassing, since I was only going about 3 mph.” He had a scrape on his knee and a little blood. We rode together for a minute or two before I decided to attack him and not leave it for the sprint finish.
I immediately got a gap and worked hard to stretch it out. I used my standard technique to win a climb like this: I was the only one racing! I’m sure Jeff was just pedaling away at a comfortable pace and was wondering what the heck I was doing, breathing so hard and sweating from every pore. This climbs flattens out a long way from the finish. Chris had warned me about this, but it still seemed to go on forever, probably nearly two miles. I topped out at the aid station and immediately turned around and headed back down. A few tenths down was Jeffery and a bit more was Chris. I continued past everyone until I found Greg and Mark casually spinning up the climb and chatting away about Mark’s ancient bike. I think they originally thought this bike was 25 pounds, but now it was up to 30 pounds. I figured by the end of the ride, Mark would be riding a 100-pound bike.
At the top we all took a break at the aid station, eating and drinking again. The threatened rain had held off all day, but now it was getting dark again. We jumped on the bikes and headed down the steep descent. I was at the rear with Eric and Chris, but we pulled it all back together at the bottom. Greg launched a few more attacks before the rain started. And boy did it rain! It came down super hard for the last twenty minutes of riding. Thankfully all the climbing and descending was done and we were headed for the finish, but by the time we arrived there, I was as wet as if I had jumped into a swimming pool.
At the finish there was pasta, burritos by Chipotle (yum! These guys support lots of athletic events and I’m a big fan because of this. Oh, and they’re delicious!), cookies, and lots of drinks. As usual, Greg had to sign a lot of autographs, mostly on jerseys. He was gracious and generous with his time.
In all I did 82 miles of riding and nearly 7000 feet of climbing. Another great ride with an incredible group of folks.
After the ride, Mark Mercado took me up to watch his kid’s
soccer game and then out for a snack before dropping me at the