Team Mang's Big Ride Weekend of Suprises

Team Mang at the Flying Wheels start line

The turning of the months between May and June fell on an exact weekend this year.  As luck would have it, 2 major pre-summer rides were scheduled by the cycling community.  On May 31st, Cascade Bicycle Club's Flying Wheels Classic couldn't be missed.  The annual ride takes participants from Marymoor Park towards the east and north east of Seattle's suburbs - Redmond, Duvall, Snohomish, Monroe.  The day after, June 1, Tacoma Wheelmen's Bicycle Club held their classic Peninsula Century - a rolling hills ride that goes around the Gig Harbor/Port Orchard area starting and ending at the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Both are rides that Team Mang joins annually as part of their training run up to STP.  Some Team Mangs chose to ride both events - with only Mang Cris being able to complete a double century (100 miles both days). Some did a century plus a metric while others only chose to ride one event.  Either way, Team Mang's presence was felt in both occasions. At the Flying Wheels, the announcer couldn't help but mention the team at the start line - looks like we're picking up a reputation for being the fun group!  At the Peninsula, we were visibly the biggest group of riders. And we stuck together most of the time!

Even in the midst of a flat, Mangers are having fun
and laughing...probably at themselves!

Surprises came in the form of reroutes on both rides.  While many of us have done Flying Wheels several times and are familiar with the 65 mile and even the 100 mile route, Cascade modified the routes this year to completely avoid the town of Carnation (probably due to the fiasco last year where residents didn't take too kindly to 3,000 cyclists clogging up their roads on the same day as a Mud Run).  The reroutes added a few more feet of elevation gain to both routes - putting riders into busier streets (highway 202).  Nevertheless, those that rode it had a blast.  Our 65 milers even made it to the finish line so fast that hardly anyone was at the finish line yet when they arrived. Century riders finished with the pack and everyone did pretty well - enjoying the sunny weather and the fellowship of other cyclists.  The beer garden at the end wasn't bad either!

The Peninsula ride started and ended at the
Tacoma Narrows bridge - which offered numerous
photo opportunities

On the Peninsula ride, the surprise came in the form of added hills - lots of it!  Those who contested this route in  previous years were caught by surprise at the amount of hills and not just the amount but the steepness.  It wasn't uncommon to crawl up grades of 17% to 23%...on the first half!  By the time the group reached the first rest stop at the Southworth Ferry terminal, some of us were seriously doubting whether we could actually complete the century. Just before the second stop, after 2 more surprise 17% hills, many of us decided to finish the metric instead of the English century instead. We decided we'd never make it to the finish line by 5PM if we continued.  So at the second rest stop, around mile 45, we parted ways with the 5 determined riders - 3 Mangs, 1 Aling and 1 H2Velo.  

We have to mention these guys -
H2Velo rode with us all the way
and we enjoyed their company!

All of us made it back to the finish - a total of 71 miles with over 5,600 feet of elevation gains. Even our friends from the green team who had done the 100 miler admitted to the difficulty of the course.  One of our team members had a severe mechanical and had to be picked up at mile 80 by the support vehicle. He vows to complete this challenge next year!  A couple of hours after the 71 milers arrived, riders who did the century started trickling in.  Our team members were the last ones on the course - coming in at exactly 5PM. Winded but coming away with a sense of accomplishment, 3 Team Mangs and 1 H2Velo rider were congratulated by those of us who stuck around even after the event organizers had closed shop.

Selfies on the bridge!

Here are the Garmin stats for the 71 milers: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/512126156.  The century riders did more than this - they put in over 8,000 feet of climbing - check them out in the picture below! 

Special credit to the 100 mile Peninsula
finishers who did 8,000 feet of climbing!

We're getting close to the highlight of our summer - the 1-day Seattle to Portland ride in the middle of July and we're building up to it.  A few more weeks of hard training with saddle time and hills and we should be ready for 204 miles.  

The next big ride for the team is our grand (no) fondo on the 28th.  Check back after that day for a recap.

The Rain did not Defeat Us at the Tour de Cure!

One of our riders, Mang Roland, always says, "in regard to your cycling, do not let the rain defeat you!"  Saturday, May 10, was the Tour De Cure ride put together by the American Diabetes Association - a fund raising event to help find a cure for Diabetes.  Most of the region was wet that day - but we all followed Roland's advice and rode anyway in spite of the showers.  With some careful riding, we came away with only a couple of slow crashes along slippery tarmac - some road rash and bruised egos but no serious injury.  The rain did let up eventually and we even got some sunbreaks in the midst of all the clouds.  The cool weather actually made for some ideal climbing conditions along those Redmond hills.  Some of us opted to do 40 miles while the rest attempted 70.  Unfortunately, due to some signage problems, a few of us got lost and ended up doing less than what we signed up for and just making our way back to Chateau Ste Michele in Woodinville. Oh well.

The 70 milers hoping to get into the cover of a Tour De Cure brochure -
expressing their gratitude to their TdC donors.

It was never just about the ride itself anyway.  The whole event was an opportunity for Mangers and Alings to give back to the community by raising funds individually and as a team to help in the efforts to fight Diabetes. Diabetes is a disease that affects at least 26 million Americans including a few Mangers themselves. Our official red rider this day was Mang Aldwin. All of us are connected in some way to someone who is afflicted by the disease. 

Team Mang, through the leadership of Mang Rene, managed to raise the second largest donation amount by a private friend/family group.  As of this writing, the team had raised close to $10,500, with three of our riders entering the VIP fund raiser crowd by raising over $1,300 individually - one even raising over $2,100.  So the whole day itself was just a celebration of our team accomplishment.

The 40 milers and support crew just before the ride.

The day started out with fun and revelry even as the riders were still making their way into the parking lot.  By a little past 7:30 AM, the first group of Mangs had started their journey.  The 40 milers rolled out  around 8:15.  The usual mix of laughter, pseudo-racing, clowning around and pedaling were there throughout both the 70 and the 40 miler adventures. Most had gotten back (completed or lost) by around 1PM when the festivities at the winery were just getting started.  70 milers started returning just a little past 2 pm. The band played fun dance music, sponsor tents handed out giveaway promo materials, LMPs gave free massages and food trucks cooked lunch for everyone (riders got free lunches and non-riders paid - with some proceeds also going towards the cause).  In spite of the rain and messed up directions, team members had a blast doing the ride, getting free massages, sampling wine, eating food truck offerings and hanging out with each other through late afternoon.  We even got special mention from the organizers for our team accomplishment.  None of it would have been possible if not for the donors who gave to our individual riders and to our team.  Special mention goes to Swedish Medical Center for their awesome support of the cause through Team Mang.  So on behalf of the team, we'd like to thank everyone who helped out regardless of the amount.  It all added up!

Team Mang got special mention at the event for their enthusiasm and fund raising excitement!

As usual, many were drawn to the unusual energy brought by the team to the event - a spirit of fun and family, all for a good cause.  In the words of Mang Raf, "Team Mang is good at two things: FUND raising and FUN raising!" Hopefully, we will always bring the spirit of bicycling fun among friends in everything we do.  Here's the video courtesy of Mang Boni and Aling Virna!  Go Team!

 

Tiptoe through the Tulips with Team Mang

The invasion continues as Mangers and Alings traveled north to Skagit county to participate in the annual Tulip Pedal Bicycle Classic on Saturday, April 19.  The event is part of the county's Tulip Festival and features several options of lengths for rides around the tulip fields.  Most of the ride is flat but man...those winds!

Mangers with their "adopted riders"

As with any ride we participate in, there was no shortage of laughs, clowning around and making every situation as fun as we can make it. Don't get us wrong, the ride was actually brutal - most of the riders did the 60 mile ride but with the headwinds constantly pushing against you, that 60 could have easily been 80 with hills!

Mang Raf put it this way, "It was a beautiful route what with all the flowers - planted or cycling - around. The relatively flat terrain was made brutally hilly by the harsh headwinds which at times would turn, naughtily it seemed, to side winds that tried to knock us off our balance. The brief time that it turned to tailwind was a welcome downhill pedaling. Good thing the rain was intermittent with probably a total of just 5 minutes of "daan lang yan" (passing through) rain. "

Mangers clowning around in public...I really dunno
what they're doing...

That Saturday didn't give the region much to celebrate in terms of good weather - most riders were drenched that day but the heavens spared the team and only gave up a few sprinkles in northern Washington during the ride. Special mention goes to Joji's wife, Christine, who used this opportunity to do her first official ride - it's always good news to find out we've got a new (Team) Aling!

The riotous group even attracted the attention of a couple of lady cyclists, Julie and Amber, (see the picture above) who hung out with the crew and wanted to join up for future rides.  Of course, we never got their contact information (if you two ladies are reading this, please contact us again)!  Like we always say, riders of all types are welcome in the "team"...nah, we're not really a team, we're more like a family. Team Mang and Team Aling - always synonymous with a fun time bicycling with friends!