August 2006 Newsletter, page 3   (1 2 3 4 5 Next>)

Area HPVers ride in Wolverine 200

Several MHPVA members participated in the Wolverine 200 May 27 on Belle Isle in Detroit. Here are the comments they sent to Wally Kiehler, as well as Wally's. Some editing was done by Mike Eliasohn:

From Wally Kiehler, Grosse Pointe Woods, Lightning F-40: How many miles, number of stops, average speed, etc. for you guys? I had to quit at 100 miles in 5.5 hours with three stops.

From Thom Ollinger, West Milton, Ohio, Coslinger streamliner: I stopped at about 80 miles. I think it was about 3 hours. I felt good,but I'd had enough of getting BANGED by the bumps by the fountain. Big bumps jar me -- a smooth track-loving woosie -- to the core and slam my knees against the top of the close-fitting shell My mission was to see how the Cos worked for greater distances and what kind of speed was achieveable at long distance exertion. What I found was that once I got out of the turns, I went 29 mph into the (perceived) wind and 31+ the other way. This was my speed at the end; it was faster when I was trying to catch up after my delayed start. My speed when passing the A pack the first time was 36 (though my speedo showed a max of 37). A good experience, but I'd had enough of a beating. The Cos ran well once I stopped and adjusted the rear canopy to stop dragging on the tire. A few things rattled loose, but nothing important failed. My chain never came off once:
Good times. Now, where's that smooth oval?

From Frank Geyer, Brighton, Challenge
100 miles, two stops, 4:30 total time.

From John Foltz, Haslett, Baron.
This is an annual "personal best" ride, although in years past it was a 24-hour event. It is held on Belle Isle, in the Detroit River. Car traffic was blocked for the day. Most of the roadway used was four lanes wide, but puddles reduced that to two in some places. The route was more or less a dog bone, with a loop at each end of the island and two-way traffic along the length, and 5.25 miles per lap. No part of the island was more than 10 feet above the river, so I guess you could say it1s *really* flat. I've never done a double (200 miles), and in fact I didn't have any centuries under the pedals yet this year, so I had no idea how I would do.

I got my NEW FRAME on Thursday, built it up that night, and did the final adjustments Friday night at 11:30pm. There was no time to test everything beforehand, so I took a borrowed bike, just in case. The celebrity lap started late, which meant the 12-hour time limit was really an 11:45 time limit. We followed the pace car, first at 12 mph, then gradually speeding up to 16 mph by the end of the lap. Then the pace car pulled over and the Wolverine elite team went charging by. A few of the faster recumbents took off with them, two streamliners and two low racers. Even though I was doing 26 mph, I quickly fell behind them! For a while, there was almost no wind, but as the morning wore on, a slight wind gradually built from the northeast. I settled into a groove, 21 mph into the wind, 24.5 mph with it. One thing about a loop like this, you never run out of bikes to pass! On the other hand, the streamliners passed me with depressing regularity. One later told me he was routinely doing 29-31 mph on the straights.

By mile 80, my left foot was starting to hurt badly, and I was famished in spite of drinking almost my entire hydration bladder full of Perpetuem. So I made that my lunch time. At that point I had about a 24 mph average. (I didn't mark the time exactly, so I don't have a hard number, but it was somewhere between 23.8 and 24.5 mph.) As it turned out, my left shoe was too tight. After eating, it took about 15 minutes to massage it and stretch it out to the point where I could walk on it again.

In spite of the earlier and longer than originally-planned lunch, I managed to finish my first century in 5.5 hours - right on my desired pace.

At 110 miles, I found myself dozing off, so I pulled over to rest in the shade by the Giant bikes gazebo. That was about 20 minutes. No more stops until about mile 165, when I took a quick porta-potty stop. As the afternoon wore on, the wind strengthened, but shifted to the southeast. That direction was more neutral for the course. My insufficiency of training started to show, and my cruising speeds slowly dropped to below 20 mph. But the higher my mileage went, the more it looked like I might have a chance of doing the entire 200!

Finally with four laps to go, I decided it was going to be close, but it was mine if I wanted it! So I pushed with everything I had left (which wasn't much.) I rolled into the pavilion with 7 minutes to spare, at 200.42 miles! Interesting to note, there were only FOUR riders who did the entire 200 miles: Dave Johnson (Great White), Bill Hannon (Velokraft 2), Chris Evans (Velokraft 2) and me (Baron). Do you see a common element?(Congrats to Frank, Thom, and Don, who despite '"only" doing centuries, really put on a show while they were there! (Editor: The answer to John's question is, Great White is a streamliner and the other three were low racers.)

(Webmaster note: I think he meant they are all recumbents!)

From Chris Evans, Flint:
Nothing else much to add here. I took about as many breaks as John, just at different times. I had a lot of fun drafting behind Dave and Thom a few times when they came around. I managed to stay behind Dave for almost a lap once. It was enough to get me caught back up with Bill Hannon who had been drafting a large paceline earlier on. I'm just about recovered today I think. I showed 200.18 miles.

That ride was a good warmup for the Black Bear race

From Dave Johnson, Olivet, Great White streamliner:
Great White had a great day. We did 201.6 miles in 7:59 ride time, about 10 hours total time with two 1 hour breaks. Lost the chain off the big ring one time while trying to peel a banana and almost swerving off the course! Put chain back on with foot.

Almost ran over two squirrels, several Canadian geese, one low flying seagull, and a small dog that was being chased by its owner. Several close calls with other riders due to silent approach and whizzing by at twice the speed before being seen. Andrea and Milie each did 55 miles. Andrea rode 45 of it on her low racer, enjoying every mile. We all had a good time and are planning to return next year.

Toward the end Bill Hannon (?) came alongside asking my stats. I was at 187 miles with a 26.2 mph average. He was at 185 miles with a 26.2 mph average. This was at about 6:30. I pushed it to the 200-mile mark watching my mirrors.... Put him in a liner and he would fly!

Also, when Frank gets his liner, he will be untouchable. If he can come in 20 minutes behind me in the 100 mile Black Bear on his low racer, there is no way I will be completive against him. It should be fun seeing what he can do.

Question from Jon Stinson to Wally Kiehler:
Wally, thanks for passing on the Wolverine 200 info - very interesting!!! A thought: I wonder how many of the riders participating in the Wolverine 200 had rearview mirrors? It doesn't sound like any of the streamliners rear ended anyone.

Jon:
This is an interesting observation. I was on the track for 5 hours and some of the course was narrowed quite a bit (like the width of the Waterford track) because of ponding on the road from all of the rain last week. And in some of the narrowed areas there was two-way bike traffic. And remember in the early hours there were women and children on this course. Only us recumbents used mirror(s). Some of us had bells for alerting the slower uprights. Note that there was no accidents that I heard of.

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