Bike Against the Odds - Oakland

[bikerz]

For the NorCal TE girls hill climbing alums - news flash - they've added a century with 10,000 feet of climbing! (Although another page says 100 miles and 7500 feet of climbing)

This was my first organized ride last year, and it was a blast - I did the 30 miles. I think this year I'll shoot for the 47 or 65 mile route.

And I see that our very own Trek420 has already registered and is currently a top fundraiser!

[Trek420]

I am? Aw c'mon I don't believe that surf's off, nope, I'm second at this point besides, I don't think I could beat either you or Tomgirrl last year.

Velogirl aka Lorri, if you're lurking I hear the Yellow Jackets think they can beat the Velogirls again. We'll see about that. The gauntlett (or bike glove) has been tossed at the Velogirls team.

This ride quite frankly has kicked my butt each year. 20 miles in '05, 30 I think last year and that's AFTER doing the AIDS ride.

Why is this so hard?

I'll be tickled to tackle the 45?

Thanks Cindysue and Lunachix for organising the progressive training rides. Guess I should do them.

[tomgrrrl]

I did it last year, the metric, but this year there's a tentative BC Fund metric in Marin just before the BATO....I signed up for the Marin ride (before their website was temporarily shut down(, thinking the BATO would be in October....hmmm, the full century with 10,000 feet of climbing sounds very nasty, particularly in the heat!!! Climbing South Park in Tilden at the end of last year's ride in the heat of the day was bad enough.....IF, I do the ride I will likely shoot for the metric again and try to start as early as possible to avoid the oven killer hill that is South Park....

[cindysue]

I did it last year, the metric, but this year there's a tentative BC Fund metric in Marin just before the BATO....

Hi everyone -

Just want to give you a heads up on the LUNA Century:

As you may recall, Team LUNA Chix Bay Area Cycling was hopeful of organizing an all Women’s Metric Century this August. The response was fantastic and we started to talk to some event management companies about how to make the event bigger and better and include more participants. They advised us to plan the event for next summer – and after several weeks of discussion, we have to agree. So, keep a look-out for an announcement next year for the 2007 LUNA Century.

In the mean time, we are gearing up for the 2006 Bike Against the Odds

And we want you to be on our team!

You can sign up to be part of Team LUNA Chix by going to the Breast Cancer Fund’s website, where you will find more information about the event. When you are ready to register, just click on “register here” – then “join a team.” Select “Team LUNA Chix” from the pull down menu and continue….

By registering for our team, you’ll support the Breast Cancer Fund’s work to identify and eliminate the environmental causes of breast cancer. As a Team LUNA Chix team member, you will also receive a goody bag full of LUNA and Clif Bar goodies and a Team LUNA Chix water bottle. In addition to our training ride series for the event, we’re working on some other cool stuff for the team, so register today! Team members can choose whichever route they are most comfortable with; from 12 miles to 100 miles – and you can be sure you’ll have plenty of company!

you can also sign up for your own team or one of the other teams already listed including the Velo Girls. This should be a great year for raising money for the BCF!

[winddance]

That century sounds nasty!

I'd love to participate this year. By then I should be ready for the 47 or the 65. Where did the route go last year? That's a scary amount of climbing...

[Trek420]

The Lunachix will have a progressive ride series that starts with the 17 miles route and then is...well progressive.

Right Cindysue?

They haven't put full details on their website yet just the date of the series but I copied the routes here last year.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...ight=bike+odds

[winddance]

Thanks for the link! The route runs right past my apartment. I sort of wonder how I managed to avoid knowing about this last year, since it seems like they would've had to shut down some streets or something.

[bikerz]

Lisa - we can do the 30 mile route anytime you want - it's just an extension of Old Tunnel Rd, then along Skyline, down Redwood, and back up Pinehurst.

[tomgrrrl]

I did the metric last year and there was lots of climbing....not that bad until South Park in Tilden in the heat of the day. That is what concerns me about this year's BATO, the time of year.....it's going to be dang hot in September!!! I don't think I would like to do the century in that kind of heat thank you very much.....I will probably shoot for the metric again and make sure to start as early as possible to avoid the heat of the day....

Ellen

[bikerz]

Hi Ellen!

The heat combined with the hills is my main concern about the metric distance - I remember you saying that last year... I think I'd have to start the night before!

[cindysue]

The Lunachix will have a progressive ride series that starts with the 17 miles route and then is...well progressive. Right Cindysue?

We have a meeting to discuss the training rides next weekend, but it looks like we will start the training rides mid-June. That gives us about 10-12 weeks of training. The training rides will be different from last year (i.e., we won't limit ourselves to just the BAO routes), they will occur on Saturday and probably start at 40 miles so we can train up to about 80+ miles before the actual event (adding 5 miles per week). We'll also have more beginner level rides (i.e., starting with a bay trail ride of about 15 or so miles) on Sundays for those training for the shorter routes.

I'll have all the details after June 11th.

[tararat]

Glad to see that adding the century has perked some interest! I'm an Oakland Yellowjacket who has been on the committee organizing the ride since the first one, so I can answer some of your questions.

The century ride will have 10000 (!) feet of climbing...thanks for pointing out the inconsistency on the website. We did decide to eliminate Southpark from the route this year, although it's still an option if you want to tackle it! The route will take Grizzly instead.

Some more changes this year: Lunch will be served out on the route for the century riders; we going to add more food to the rest stops (yes, there WILL be peanut butter); we will be stationing volunteers at key turns to make sure people go the right way. Any other suggestions? I'd be glad to hear them as we are doing lots of planning now and we want to make it the best ride possible! We'll make sure to have lots and lots of water out there to help combat the Sept. heat.

Also, I'm the volunteer coordinator so if anyone isn't able to ride but wants to help out, let me know. We are especially interested in experienced cyclists to help out at the rest stops. Thanks!

Tara

[Trek420]

Tara,

Welcome to TE!

Thank you for organizing BATO, I've gone the last 2 years. And "point Trek in the right direction" control will help. Who told you I get lost easy?

Stick around, enjoy TE and surf on over to the getting to know you thread.

Hope we'll have great weather, last two years there was threat of rain.....is that why it's earlier?

Now everyone's here! We have Lunachix and Velogirls and Yellowjackets (oh my!)

Hope to see TE'ers out there. Join a team, form a team, let's ride!

It's a very challenging ride. Y'all know I don't climb particularly well.....yet but hey I've done the AIDS ride twice and last year all but 10 miles of it, came back and .... this ride kicks my happy b***.

I'd be happy to complete the metric.

[Trek420]

a word about start times:

Here are the registration cut-off times. These are slightly different than the
ones in the Orientation Packet you got when you registered for the event. Also, due to some road construction, and re-routing of South Park hill, the 65 mile route has been extended to 72
miles, but no additional climbing.

Registration/Check-in Times:
Check-in opens:
6:30 AM (100 mi riders should plan to be onsite at this time)
-----
100 mi route opens:
6:30 AM (10,000 ft. vertical climb)
-----
72 mi route opens/100 mi registration closes*:
7:00 AM (6,000 ft. vertical climb)
----
47 mi route opens/72 mi registration closes:
8:00 AM (4,000 ft. vertical climb)
----
30 mi route opens/47 mi registration closes:
8:30 AM (2,660 ft. vertical climb)
-----
12 mi route opens/30 mi registration closes:
9:30 AM (400 ft. vertical climb)
------
12 mi registration closes:
10:00 AM
------
*100 Mile Riders will NOT be allowed to register after 7:00am in order to ensure making the route cut-off times, so PLEASE plan accordingly!

Again you can register for any route...and do any route: register for the 12
mile route and want to do the Century? Fine and dandy, you just have to be on the road by the start time and/or finish before the route close.

I'm not posting the route close times because....we won't
miss the cut off time, right? ;-)

I will be riding with the Velo Girls. I look forward to seeing a lot of Velo Girls pink on the ride, c'mon out and ride with us.

There is a team fundraising competition and the Lunachix are ahead thus far. Congrats Cindysue but the two time winning team Velo Girls will get you next year. Just kidding, it's all about the cause.

I'm not competitive in the least, noooooooooo.

Also, while the ride is a fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Fund you do not have to solicit pledges to ride. You can just register (online is easier although I think you could do day of the ride) and go. Although it was surprisingly easy for me to meet my pledge goal as so many have been effected by the disease

I'm riding for survivors my Grandmother, friends Connie Duval, Jerri Vanderhoof.

[Veronica]

I wish they would at least give some idea of the route. Everytime I look at this ride I get frustrated and don't sign up because there are no route details. Or at least none that I can find.

The website says the Celebration ends at 3:30. That's 8.5 hours to do 100 miles. That means you need an average of 12.5 miles an hour, if you only take 30 minutes off the bike. The ride is like the equivalent of the first 100 miles of DMD. I know there are women who can do that...

V.