Day 14 (6/5/09)

Two weeks on the road! For the engineer types that are following our trip, here are a few stats. We covered a total of 1,383.5 miles (98.8 miles/day). Climbed a total of 89,461 feet (if we were astronauts, at what level of the atmosphere would we be? outer space?). Sam burned 100,865 calories (7,204/day) (now down from a chunky 198 to a svelte 191 lbs. Jere is maintaining the 40 lb weight differential, he's down to 149 lbs). Today we covered 122 miles at an average speed of 17.5 mph (thanks to two great descents from summits and a tailwind), and climbed a total of 7,466'. Two days left in the mountains, and we are on schedule to finish by June 29th.

When I left for college, my high school sweet heart, (now my wife of almost 28 years), gave me a St. Christopher's medallion to wear. Back in the late 70s, when disco was raging, you had to wear some sort of medallion, even if you weren't Italian. At some point during the early Reagan era, I took off the medallion only for it to reappear before this trip. My wife re-gifted it to me to keep me safe for this journey. My daily ritual is to put it on each morning when pulling on the Lycra. Today, the patron saint of travel worked overtime. On the second decent of the day, after cresting the Dallas Divide at 9,000', we quickly shifted to maximum gears for the decent. Jere took off, followed by me, then Tim, and the support team brought up the rear guard. The road was particularly rough, and I tried to follow Jere's line through the rough spots. At some point, exceeding 50 mph, I lost sight of Jere's line, and found my own bumps. Suddenly, my whole bike began shaking violently. I thought I blew a front tire and was riding on my rim. It was all I could do to hold the front wheel pointing down hill. I couldn't remember in my panic, which brake lever was the front brake and which was the back brake, so I gingerly applied pressure to both to try and slow down. With virtually no steering, I went where the bike took me, holding on desperately and trying not to let the front wheel turn at an angle that would cause me to flip. I drifted across the right hand lane and I believe even into the on coming lane. The traffic on the road had been busy, but thanks to St. Christopher, there was a break in the traffic. Even as I began to slow, the oscillation did not diminish until the bike was completely stopped. I was able to maneuver the bike back to the right shoulder where I was able to finally able to stop. Tim witnessed the whole episode and knew I was in trouble; he wasn't sure what was happening, but thought my wheel was disintegrating. After I was stopped, Tim checked my bike and nothing was amiss? Still white as a ghost, I gingerly continued down the mountain, riding my brakes. At the bottom, Jere had realized we were not right behind him and had turned around and started heading back up, where we met him. (Jere topped out at 58 mph on the decent.) I told him of my near death experience, and he nonchalantly said; "Oh, yeah, light bikes sometimes osculate at high speeds, all you need to do is squeeze the top tube with one or both knees". If they put warning stickers on ladders telling you not to place them on uneven ground, or caution, "Coffee is HOT", why isn't there a sticker on my bike, or a GPS warning, or words of wisdom from my mechanic BEFORE hand, that light carbon fiber bikes can experience severe osculation at high speeds? I told Jere not to hold anything more back, tell me what other secrets he knows that can save my life. He said; "Don't ever hand a mechanic a cleaning rag again, while he's working on your bike." Thanks to St. Christopher and the techniques I picked up while watching Professional Bull Riding (actually falling asleep to it while my wife watches it), I live to write about it. Tomorrow's decent out of the 11,000' Monarch Pass, will be very conservative, I don't want to rely too much on St. Christopher's benevolence.