A Classic End of Season Ride at the Kitsap

The cover of the latest Team Mang
album hit - photo courtesy of
Aling Veronica

The Kitsap County Classic, a romp through the rolling hills of north Kitsap county, is the traditional end of season official ride sponsored by Cascade Bicycle Club.  More often than not, it's a rainy ride because of the time of year, but this year's event promised spectacular weather inviting quite a few more riders than usual.  This year, Team Mang and Team Aling represented again. They rode the whole 57 miles (both the Hansville loop and the Port Gamble/Poulsbo loop) in under 4.5 hours including those long winded breaks and around 3,400 feet of elevation gain.

Bike all over the ferry!

As with other rides, Mangs were instantly recognizable and we got those usual compliments and kudos for our fun but brisk (and musical) riding style. One of the riders who rode with us at last year's RSVP actually had his team ride with us while he went on ahead.   It got a little "windy" there for a while.  Yet he couldn't resist hanging with us - I guess we're just a fun group.

Cyclists all over the tarmac on the ferry causing quite a stir
among regular ferry commuters

Averaging around 20 - 21 mph on the flats, the  team members consistently worked together, swapping turns at the front of the pace line to keep the brisk pace.  Sometimes it did seem too fast, though, because the sights were just so good to see and we didn't do too much sightseeing.  Yet we still snapped our customary pictures - go figure!

Both ferry rides to and from Kingston were quite an experience - not that we haven't ridden ferries before but this was another one of those where cyclists simply overwhelmed normal commuters - walking around in spandex, helmets and shoes that clicked on the floor, laying their bikes all over the place.

Mangs at the end of the ride - on the way back to Kingston

 It's always an exercise in psychology when huge numbers of people who are different surround you.  And we saw that with the reaction of some of the commuters, a few who were visibly "terrified" of us - hello, it's not like we're going to run over you with our bikes.  We're more terrified of your cars! A group of teens was also walking around making jokes of cyclists, loud enough to get heard (trying to provoke a response). Cyclists are usually a peaceful bunch, though, and they don't stoop so low as to engage in the negativity.  Maybe it's all that triptophan flowing in their insides because of their workouts that's causing them to be so relaxed.  Thankfully, there were commuters who were just business as usual - just be careful not to run over them cyclists.  I guess someday, we'll be in a world where cyclists are a normal part of the commute where they're afforded the same respect and courtesy as motorized vehicles.  But enough commentary...

The 2014 KCC goes down in the team's books to formally close the cycling season.  Thanks to Aling Veronica and Mang Edgar for promoting the event and getting a lot more of us to join in.  I personally enjoyed the ride.  Weekend rides will still continue in the fall with the goal of just getting our legs spinning and keeping our base healthy - when the weather is good.

Alings Cycle The W.A.V.E...and have fun!

Team Alings still smiling after their CTW rides

Somebody pointed out that throughout the year, our cycling is always focused on the Mangs - their pace, their speed, their routes, their rides.  Well at least once a year, all the focus goes to our sisters, Team Aling, who give us so much support during the year.  Aling Annie serves as the ambassador for the Cycle the W.a.v.e. ride (Women Against Violence Everywhere), a ride to support the programs focused on raising awareness and prevention of domestic violence.
This year, 6 Alings represented, with 2, Aling Veronica and Aling Fatima, doing the "Burly Girl" ride - a 61 mile hilly ride through the east side (Redmond, Issaquah, Bellevue).  4 other Alings did the 14 mile "Little Sister" ride, including 2  who rode this as their first organized ride.  Aling Arlene and Aling Marisa repeated their exploits from previous years, choosing the shorter ride to lend their support to our two newbies - Aling Emily (cycling and Aling's latest recruit) and Aling Christine (who signed up on the day of), both of whom bit the bullet to try their hand at riding on the street with hundreds of other women for the first time.

Mangs and Alings poke fun at themselves at the end

Mangs were present, too, cheering them on at the start line, at the pit stop and at the finish.  The Little Sisters' ride took just a little over an hour so we had lots of time to hang around the festival.  Our burly girls lent support to a couple of newbies, too, so their ride took longer than expected - but we were all there to welcome them at the finish line with all the enthusiasm we can muster.
The team has such a presence in this event that organizers constantly recognized us and approached us thanking us for our support and enthusiasm.  Even the local high school cheerleaders wanted pictures with us (what are we? Celebrities?)  Apparently, our silly pictures are a big help to the event when they approach sponsors (you see these wacky folks?  These are the kind of people who do Cycle the Wave).  And as usual, cyclists give the whole team kudos for bringing our brand of fun and happiness to all cycling events ("Hey, you guys were at the RSVP - we followed you and we got lost...oops").
Great weather, coupled with great sponsors, good food, fun at the finish line festival (how about that Sounders marching band?) and a whole bunch of awesome supportive people pulling for a relevant and important cause (specially these days) make this a truly special event.  Here are a few highlights of the action:

Mangs blast through the Tour de Blast

Sitting around after the climb

They call it the Tour de Blast because it's a ride into the heart of Mount St. Helens' blast zone peaking at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, a little over 4,000 feet above sea level.  From the stories of the Mangs who did it this year, I can understand why - they had a "blast".
With a total climbing effort of around 6,500 feet over three peaks, the way down would be the most enjoyable.  The scenery is breathtaking and the support from the Longview Rotary Club was awesome.
Four Mangs, together with our friends from H2Velo, decided to try their hand at this ride this year.  From all accounts, they all did extremely well, finishing the ride of about 86 miles in about 6 hours - including picture taking at the top, of course.  As with all rides the Mangs participate in, there was no shortage of joking around (at the top of the climbs, of course).

Congratulations, Mang Ferdie, Mang Gat, Mang Rene and Mang Roland for another great showing at another epic ride!  Maybe we'll get more Mangs and Alings to do this next year!

Here's a video of the ride from one of our friends, Eric Tuazon - you see some of the Mangs on their way down the mountain.

Mangs open and close the Whistler Gran Fondo

Most of the Team Mangs rode in to the start line from
Capilano - crossing the Lion's Gate Bridge at 5AM for a
warm up.

Some of us just signed up for a 74 mile ride from Vancouver to Whistler - a cumulative climbing effort of little less than 7,000 feet. Ok, it's going to be difficult, but we should be able to handle it, right? And then we can enjoy Whistler.  But on the day of the packet pickup, someone (yes, you know who you are..wink) convinced the rest of us to upgrade to the 94 mile "Forte" ride - which goes through the same route except it adds a 10 mile, 2,500 foot climb up the Cypress mountain and back.

Team Mangs at the start of the Forte line

The Whistler Gran Fondo is one of those epic rides where locals and semi-pro riders descend into the neighborhood.  Local community and government participation is high - specially since it's a significant economic boost for the resort.  Major arteries, the Highway 1 freeway, and the whole stretch of Highway 99 (Sea-to-Sky Highway) from West Vancouver to Whistler were blocked off to give riders at least one lane (in the case of Highway 1, the whole southbound lane was dedicated to the ride from 6 AM to 11 AM).  Thousands upon thousands of cones to guide traffic and ultra nice and good looking (really!) government workers assisted in waving traffic away from cyclists until around 3 PM.   The organization, crowd support, cooperation from drivers and locals was all superb. This was by far the best road experience Team Mang has ever had...except maybe for the food on the stops (which wasn't much).  But then again, it's not a typical Cascade relaxed ride - it was a fondo...which basically means, you go and race!

The event entourage waiting on our flat tire repair so they can
reopen Cypress Boulevard, an hour and a half behind schedule

We rolled out at around 6:15 AM to the sound of the starting gun.  Even as the announcer made sure to let everyone know it was a neutral start all the way up to around mile 3, it seemed like we were already getting left behind just riding up to Lion's Gate Bridge.   Our fast riders, Mang Boni and Mang Alex kept up with the lead group and kept their race pace on. But the other half (the group I was in) took a more relaxed pace with other riders. It turns out that the unwritten expectation was for Forte riders to be done with the Cypress climb by 8:30. But a few riders and the other half of

At the top of Cypress Mountain

Team Mang were still on a relaxed climbing pace going up the the top by 9AM.  A couple of flats on the way down further delayed the trip.  We actually had the whole event entourage waiting on us do a flat repair just to make sure we were out of the Cypress road before they reopened it to the public.
Racing by ourselves on Highway 1 was a unique experience - as the empty freeway felt eerie and we were a bit embarrassed by the fact that by then, even the fondo (74 mile) riders who had rolled out of the start line 45 minutes after us, had already gone past on the same freeway.   It felt a bit better, though, on the Sea-to-Sky Highway as we slowly started catching up with the tail end of the Fondo group.

Mang Jay cruising along the sealed
off sections of the Sea-to-Sky
Highway

We all went on our own pace - trying to stick together and work together but we eventually all got separated into 3 groups.  A little after we reached Squamish (the start of the long 30 mile climb to Whistler), the lead group of Mang Boni and Mang Alex was only a few miles from the finish, crossing the line around half past 1. The other half of us slogged through, as temps reached the mid 90's.  The consistent rolling hills combined with the heat to drain the second half of the team.  Pit stops on the last half of the ride were abundant - almost every 10 miles - which was good for shade and hydration.  At the last stop - 9 miles from the finish - we all decided to wait for each other...except that the sweeper car was already there! Uh,oh...
So we soldiered on so as not to get swept up.  The lead rider of our group, Cris, finished maybe a half hour before the others, just past 3PM.  Mid pack of the tail end, Mang Jay, Raf and Dondi finished around 3:30 while Mang Harry literally closed the event - leading the sweeper car behind him about 20 minutes later.

Mangs at the Whistler Village after the "race"- From left to right:
Raf, Jojie, Jay, Cris, Alex, Boni, Dondi and Harry

This "race" goes into our history - another event where we represented in front, in the middle (Mang Jojie did the fondo event and finished with a decent time) and at the end - literally.  We may not have gotten great race results but we did get great ride memories! I have to give kudos, of course, to our friends from H2Velo, who were there to race with us - at least with the lead group.  They are an awesome group of riders, too, and awesome to hang out with.
Scratch that off the bucket list...and you can be sure we'll be back next year to do better...or not.