The sun and clouds were fighting for dominance all morning on Sunday, June 6th. Saturday had been clear, sunny, and hot, so the ground and air were still warm when Sunday rolled around. The trades and the rising warm air gave rise to rain-bearing clouds that intermittently dumped heavy downpours in random locations. The week before, there was one good squall in the mid-morning, but it was clear and dry by ride time. This week, the enhanced moisture continually generated clouds, some occasionally ringing the peak of Mt. Olomana.
When the group gathered at the park before the roll-out, the pavement still showed signs of recent rainfall. The air temperature was hot though, so I figured the ground would be moist at most, and would be progressively drying out. I left as if I was going all the way into Waimanalo, so I got there really early. Chris must have been giving himself lots of time to resolve the kinds of things that preempted him from the rolls of the previous weeks’ rides, since he showed up soon after I did. We had a lot of time to go over some of my latest tactical gear purchases before Jeff, Sara, Doctor Paul, and Danny rolled up, followed shortly by Root in his rice probe. I’m not exactly sure how Jeff coerced Paul to come on this ride, but considering how fast he can do the Tantalus climb and how regularly he rides, I figured he would have little problem with this 11-mile loop. Sara had previously balked at this ride, but I was pretty confident it was well within everyone’s capabilities.
The climb up and over the footbridge immediately set the legs burning. Last year’s pre-winter fitness level was definitely more elusive this year with the terrible weekend and post-work weather throughout spring, resulting in very little saddle time until recently. The headwinds up Kalani’ana’ole were lower than last weekend, but we were also not doing the “small group dynamics” pacing. Traversing the old highway and climbing the first pitch up into the woods, I felt the same gasping lack of cardio-pulmonary conditioning that I felt last week. We took the traditional route through Norfolk and took a rest break at the big tree. After that it was all business until the end of Government Road. I took Chris up the tail end of the inner loop so he could see all the funny wooden features, then we sprinted to catch up to everybody. Root was waiting for us by the Ditch junction, and I could see the last of the rest of the group just going out of sight up the road. Having pushed a little harder than normal to catch back up to the group meant that the long climb would suck that much more.
Near the top, we passed four pedestrians on the way back down. After complaining about sitting pains at the rest stop, Dr. Paul said we should have asked one of the hikers, who was in fact a proctologist! Danny asked how far along we were at that point, so I checked the computer. We were about 11 km and a little over an hour into an 18 km, hour-and-a-half ride, so we were well over halfway done. All the riding we had done up to that point was just to get us here – the rest was the reward. Into the Luana contour trail we went, finding slightly less deadfall than last weekend. Everyone was enjoying the downhill sections, but the climbs were beginning to take their toll. A lone dude on a hardtail passed us at the tight right turn when Chris was trying to diagnose a mysteriously loose rear skewer. Several kilometers later, we ran into him again at the open grassy section when we were redistributing water and trying to find something to alleviate Paul’s leg cramping.
The ground conditions were ideal – slightly moist and grippy – just up until around the ferny chicane when a light drizzle started to fall. The rain brought a welcome coolness, but as the surface dampened, the exposed rocks then the hardpacked earth became progressively more slippery. By the time we junctioned the Mt. ‘Olomana hiking trail where the ground went from decomposed basalt to red clay, we were operating on greased ice. I gave up trying to ride after going sideways into a bunch of broken branches while running, straddling the fallen, lowsided bike and nicking my knee. This was not long after Chris overtook me in the erosion groove, sliding on his side, still somewhat in the normal riding position on his bike. Even walking was difficult – maybe just marginally less dangerous than trying to ride this surface. Thankfully I had Sidi spikes. The last pitch to the road after the old pump house was somewhat more ridable, probably because of the reduced angle and better tree coverage. It was still drizzling, but as we descended the road and headed back up to the park, the rain subsided and the sun came out once again.
Pictures here
D = 18.04 km (11.21-miles), Vavr = 8.9 km/h (5.5-mph), Vmax = 44.1 km/h (27.4-mph), T = 2-hours, 1-minute (total ride time about 3.5 hours)
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