andrew carter

I’m a little late on posting about it but I did Tour de Cure in Redmond two weeks ago.

There were at least 500 people that participated. Groups were sent off depending on distances - 100/70/45/20/10. My group (45) went out around 9 AM. I figured it would take me about 3 hours based on the pace I normally was training at.

It got off to an annoying start. Just as we were heading out, my bike computer decided to become detached and go flying off into the pavement. It didn’t seem to care for the fall and refused to work. So before I even started, my speedometer/odometer were gone.

The tour was in three stages of about 15 miles each. Rest areas were at the end of stages 1 and 2. The first stage was very easy. It took me a little bit of time but I worked my way up the pack to where I could maintain what I estimated about a 20 MPH pace. We went out Avondale and out towards Bear Creek. I don’t know those back roads that well but after a moderately hard climb, the end of stage one was at a parking lot.

My wife and daughter were at the rest stop so it was fun to see them. I was pretty sure I was closer to the front than the back and felt very good. After about a 5 minute break, I headed out. That’s when I made my big mistake for the day.

I had not been paying much attention to the map they gave us. There were signs and enough riders that I just followed along. So I passed some other riders after the rest stop and took the lead of a small group. We crossed 522 and then started to make some climbs. I concentrated on the climb and kept going. Pretty soon, I noticed that I was all alone. No one was behind me or in front of me. There were 3 or 4 very tough climbs and then I hit highway 9. I knew I’d made a mistake.

So I started to backtrack. I finally came across another rider who was working on a flat. He had made the same mistake and missed the same turn I had. I helped him with the flat and we kept doubling back until we found two more riders. Finally, we found the missed turn and got back on track. Total time and distance added - 30 minutes and around 5 or 6 miles. And I had just done 3 or 4 tough climbs for no good reason.

The rest of stage two went fine. I got back into a good rhythm and the course was very rural. The rest area was at the bottom of a hill off the road. Some of the 100 and 70 mile riders were there. I figured the last stage would be the easiest. Man, was I wrong.

The final stage was brutal. It basically was a climb for about 10 miles up to the top of Redmond Ridge. It seemed to go forever. I was beginning to get tired and my extra 5 miles and climbs weren’t helping. Finally, I was in the Trilogy golf course area so I knew that the hardest part was over. The rest was a steep downhill through Novelty Hill and back to Marymoor park.

My time was right about 3:30. Given my detour, I was pleased that I was very close to what I predicted for time. I held up much better than I thought I would. I was very tired but not wiped out. I’m glad I had done some training before but I’d need to be much more intense to do the 70 mile ride.

Now that it’s over, I find I’m lacking a goal to motivate me to train hard. I’d like to find some more events to ride in. I had a great time.

Lots of pictures (not mine) are here.