Preparing for RTL Qualifing ride

if it was me doing this ride (maybe next time), why not do an out and
back over-niter somewhere? Find a town some miles (km) down the road
and ride there in a day..stay the night, and ride back the next
morning. I would think riding in a figure 8 loop for that distance
would get really really monotonous after, say, 12km? Doing an out and
back, you have stuff to look at and such. Just plan to do some stops
along the way, i'd say about every 2 hours or so. Let someone know the
exact route you will be taking, for safety purposes, and just have fun
with it.

And might I suggest investing in a camelbak. You can easily ride two
hours with 100ml of water on your back, and you can carry stuff, like
your phone, MP3, a light jacket for the weather, and some meal
replacement bars or trail mix, and extra water for when your resevoir
runs out. I use mine everytime I ride, and love it.

Just some food for thought.

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Rubix

Unicycle
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Doing it on a loop course, you will be bloody bored, trust me, I did a
few (like 4 or so) laps of a 4.5 km loop course recently, and that was
boring enough.

Just go and do some rides on roads, it's supposed to prepare you for a
road race, not track racing after all. Have a proper road riding
adventure, maybe go somewhere you haven't been before.

I typically plan long road rides by just finding a place on the map
that either sounds interesting, has a funny name, or has some
interesting terrain on the way to it, then ride there. Over-planning of
routes is too often a waste of time, as you end up trying too hard to
follow a fixed route, and taking silly routes just because they are the
one you planned.

Joe

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joemarshall

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Riding 40 or so loops of a 2km track will bore the hell out of you, not
be much of a challenge (except psychologically), and won't be making
the most of your 29" wheel.

You're better off finding a hilly route, and, as Joe suggests, ride
there and back over a couple of days. If you don't want to carry all
your gear with you then you'll need to plan to drop stuff off
beforehand, or arrange to meet someone there.

If you've not ridden much long distance stuff yet, then perhaps build
up a bit before going for the qualifying ride. Say, ride out to
somewhere 20km away, then ride back, and, if you're still feeling good,
then carry on for 20km the other side, and back again.

But, whatever you do, good luck.

STM

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semach.the.monkey
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legtod2 said:

. . . at an outdoor 2km figure 8 course. .

Tire presure:
55 - 60 psi on Kenda Klaw XT

I thought about doing a lake circuit of 3.1 km but decided that I'd go
'loopy' trying that on a busy weekend day with lakewalkers, bikers,
etc. I did go so far as to buy a mechanical counter (the sort that
ticket taker will sometimes use to keep track of people passing through
a gate, for example) because I couldn't trust a mental count with so
many circuits. With the larger loop that I did end up using, I had no
need for it - easier to keep track of 5 than 35!

In my experience, the advantage of a small track like the one you are
proposing to use, is that speed can more easily become the focus of the
trial. But you're riding a 29er - so maybe speed won't be your focus.

I assume that you are gearing up toward a 36er purchase. I'd think
you'd want to get one at least a month in advance of RTL - but why not
now? You are going to be amazed and delighted by a Coker (or whatever
other 36er) so just bite the bullet and do it already! Besides, when a
better excuse to splurge on onesself than at X-mas time.

Doing the qualifying ride on a 29er will be impressive though.

Re: your tire. I'm not familiar with the model you're proposing to use
- but it sounds aggressive. If it is, are you sure you want an
aggressive relationship between your wheel and the tarmac?

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I also better like riding one 90km loop than 45 times 2km. As others
said, it's great to have some distractions along the road. On my
qualifications, I rode two 90km loops.
Point A to B rides are even more motivating. It's less tempting to feel
lazing and to think about getting back home.

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Thanks for the feed back.

Never thought about the bordom factor and easy out.

Replanning route to go some where.

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What kept me sane on the qualifying rides was not just a route with
varied scenery, but having company on the road. There were 2 of us on
36ers and another friend on a bike for part of the ride. The
conversation and silliness made it really fun.

Good luck on your ride!

Bill

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