Denbigh 600K Ride Report: June 14, 2003

A Successful 600
by David McCaw

It was a great weekend, except for the 6 hours of drizzle and some fog during the ride at night during the (Ottawa) Denbigh 600 had a great ride back to Ottawa yesterday in ideal conditions, sunny and 21C. I arrived back at Britannia Beach at 6:37 AM, after our 5:02 AM departure on Saturday. Last year I wanted to get back to avoid the heat, this year I had to baby-sit Alexandra, since Michele was going to church at 8:30.

I made it back to our house at 6:55 AM. My plan was to be back by 7:00 AM, which I was happy since this gave me time to clean-up and eat some carbs and protein.

There were six riders who started off on the Ottawa-Denbigh-Ottawa brevet - Jim, Trevor, Roy, Alan, Patrick and myself. I was riding with Roy at the bottom of Corkstown Road hill at the beginning, and thought we might re-group at the top, but I just kept going, the legs were good after the hill. The weather was drizzly and foggy for most of the way to Eganville. Colleen and Vytas met us at March Road and had us go under the road via the tunnel.

The ride to the first check point was uneventful, except for a lot of deer crossing the roads, sometimes four at a time. I only saw one car for almost 35K. I made it to the checkpoint at Pakenham at 7:09 AM. The first section is relatively flat. I believe that Vytas will change the start location next year to Cheshire Cat to add more hills.

The second leg was again uneventful, a few more cars around Renfrew, the fog and drizzle continued, and I arrived at Eganville store at 10:15 AM (approximately 142K - I think there is an error on the cue sheet ). I filled up my water bottles and CamelBak (which still had 3/4 left - next year only fill 1/3), and drank a chocolate milk and was gone by 10:27 AM. We usually stop and have a turkey sub, but I decided to keep to my mostly liquid diet of Sustained Energy, Hammer Gel, and water with bananas plus bars.

The hills started around 11:20 AM at Foymount. I took off my rainjacket, knee warmers and booties, put on the vest, plus fixed my 23T cog so that the chain would not hit the chain ring at Cormack. The bottom of the climb was fun. It is probably 0.8K of 14% and 1.5K of 10% grade. I switched to my 21T cog for the 10% grade.

I enjoyed the Quadville route. Some nice climbs, too bad it is only 17K. The ride towards Palmer Rapids was very relaxing and mostly flat by the river. The next real climb began near the bottom of Schutt. The hill looks long; unfortunately, I forgot to measure it, but I assume it was an average grade of 12%. I will remember to record the hills again next year. The next main hill was going to Denbigh. Again, the hill looks bad from a distance, but was probably only maximum 15% on some sections.

I arrived at the third checkpoint (Vennachar)at 2:22 PM. I reset my computer (I only had approximately 233K , but the computer only re-set elevation, and then re-set at 10 hours), grabbed a chocolate milk, three bananas, 4L of water, and re-load. Off by 2:34 PM. I still managed to get eaten by about 20 black flies, and still have the marks .

The next leg was faster with a tail wind, since it was approximately 100K in 3h 3 min to Maberly, even though it is mostly hills. I arrived at 5:37 PM, and went into the restaurant and got my bottles filled and asked for the CamelBak to be filled half way, but had to dump some up the road, since I only needed a third to go to the next checkpoint.

Everything was going well until about 25K from the checkpoint. My spacebar was rattling from the bumps on the road. I stopped twice and tried to tighten it, but my allen keys were not long enough. I taped it up once with Duct tape. Finally the spacebar came apart and I held it in one hand (it had my two lights, plus my computer and computer light), and steered and changed gears with the other hand for the last 10 kms into Desert Lake. I met Vytas and Colleen at the resort at 8:52.

I explained the situation to Vytas. He was very helpful, and removed the Lumotec light, Planet Bike light, and bike computer light. Unfortunately the nut fell into the bar and was a problem, but with his determination he fixed it. I originally was only going to fill the water bottles and leave, but Colleen and Vytas offered me food. I ate some pasta and had a Pepsi. They gave me some bananas and fig newtons. I almost passed out since I was over heating with arm warmers, knee warmers and polyester hat.

I took off the hat and rolled down the arm warmers. I finally got myself together with Vytas and Colleen seeing me off at 9:44 PM, and I was hoping that the spacebar would make it back to Ottawa in one piece.

My brother Richard had a similar problem with the space bar, and changed the screws and hex-bolt to longer ones, and added LocTite. I will be doing that this week.

I met four riders (Pat, Roy, Alan, and Trevor ) between Godfrey and Westport. It was hard to tell who was who, but all were visible to the cars. I finally met up with Jim about 8K north of Westport.

The ride back to Ottawa was very slow with the pavement still wet from the fog mist and rain during the day. I had no problems with lighting or riding. I kept eating and drinking and looking at my speed now and then trying to pick up the pace. I stopped once where I thought I missed Bennett Lake Road, remembering next time to take my Petzl out of my saddle bag to use for such occasions. I made it onto Bennett Lake Road, which was very dark and rough for at least 4-5K (or it felt like that ), full of potholes, that I was navigating at 1:30 am. I hit a few holes hard and just prayed that I did not have to stop and fix something. The rest of the ride to Lanark was uneventful, except just looking for the turn to Fallbrook Road. When I got to Lanark the main road was closed, and I had to find the detour into the village. I arrived at 2:44 AM, only a few people partying nearby, driving pick-up trucks down main street. I only regret not stopping by the vending machines to pick up a coke for the caffeine.

The ride to Ottawa from Lanark was much longer than it felt before. I kept chewing gum, but had to stop at least four times for about a minute each time to rest my head on the handlebars and then continue on since I was trying to doze off. This seemed to work until pass Appleton. I got off my seat several times to pick up the pace and to keep awake. Fortunately the last section was flat to Ottawa and almost no cars. I arrived back at Britannia Beach at 6:37 AM with no one in sight to sign my card. I noted the time and recorded it on the control card and cycled home with some learnings for the next multiday event.

My lessons learned from the Denbigh 600 - 2003- - bring extra jersey, shorts, gloves and socks - this is the first time I did not do this, and probably paid the price with a few extra saddle sores because of the rain

- take the opportunity to take a shower at the 400 km turn around point, it might help to keep me awake and did help me for BMB and Rocky Mountain 1200s
- always wear my Petzl head lamp at night, since sometimes, need to check signs
- stop for Coke at vending machines to get more caffeine in the system
- check fitting of other CamelBaks, the amount of stuff that I carried rounded it so it moved around more
- do not fill bottles at night, use only the CamelBak with sustained energy; this seemed to work and only need 1.5 L for 200 kms at night
- since the CamelBak moved around it affected my right shoulder, which I need to strengthen
- get longer rainjacket; medium works well with little in jersey pockets, but with full pockets need large to cover bottom of jersey
- the shoes seemed a little tighter when I took them off, probably because of the wool socks; next time when I replace the shoes go a size larger
- I left some food ( rice krispy squares and granola bars ) in saddle bag - make sure to empty bag into jersey pockets
- tighten all bolts (inside and outside) , before ride and during any incident like the space bar, plus use longer bolts and LocTite
- replace computer in the future with one that does not reset every 10 hours
- try Ciclomaster with 50-60 hours of data (altimeter stats plus riding stats)
- only have 1/3 of camelbak full for morning rides and 1/2 to 2/3 during day (of 1.5L capacity)
- use clear glasses early in morning; rose tinted glasses do not work as well in fog and mist
-1-day contacts do work for 24 hours plus, which are great for reading signs and cue sheets
- double taping of handlebars works great; hands were in great shape afterwards (used Shimano Gel over Profile )
- I did the ride on 30x23 low, which worked well, although for Quadzilla I will use 30 x25, to ensure enough spinning and saving the quads

I feel much better than after the 400K ride. Since I rode the 600K brevet more slowly to conserve energy, I am almost fully recovered and ready to do a short ride this afternoon or evening. Now training for Quadzilla, hope to see you in France or future Rando series. Again thanks to Vytas and Colleen for their support of the group at the turn around point, Desert Lake resort. It really helped me finish the ride and enjoy the brevet this weekend.