Sisters cyclists win epic race

Sisters residents Kara Calmettes and Gregg Geser won the 2011 Race Across Oregon, held on July 23-24. The race is a grueling 515 miles, which the competitors ride non-stop.

Calmettes and Geser, or Team Kareezmo, won three of the race's relay team categories: Two-person mixed team, two-person age 50+ team and the overall two-person team with a time of 32 hours, 6 minutes. They qualified for the 50+ category by their average age. Kara is 43 and Gregg's "race age" is 58.

Team Kareezmo, the name derived from Kara's name and Gregg's nickname, "Geezmo," performed better than they expected.

"When I saw our competition," said Geser, "I didn't think we'd be in the running. There were some really good racers, finely tuned athletes."

It turned out that they were more than up to the challenge. Their time beat the men's open two-person-relay team's time by two-and-a-half hours.

"Kara was amazing," said Geser. "She had never done anything like this before, and she rode better than I could have imagined. She really toughed it out. Even when she was feeling terrible at two in the morning after riding for 17 hours, when it was her turn, she got on the bike."

The race on the extremely difficult course began at 7 a.m. Saturday in Hood River with a "parade ride" in which all of the competitors ride the first seven miles together. After the parade ride the teams began the 515-mile race in earnest, starting with a 4,700 foot climb up Mt. Hood. The climb was just a taste of things to come. This year's route consisted of over 44,000 feet of climbing. A diagram of the route's elevation change looks like a seismographic printout of an earthquake. On the entire course, the longest stretch of flat road was eleven miles.

The Race Across Oregon website describes the route this way: "After a one-mile neutral start, the race gets underway with a 35-mile 4,700 foot climb up Mt. Hood.

After descending to the Deschutes River Valley, riders cross the Deschutes at Sherar's Falls and ascend a breathtakingly steep climb to Grass Valley.

The route follows backroads to Moro and then heads east to Condon.

The climbs are unrelenting and the scenery unchanging as the route travels through Ruggs and Heppner and then heads south down 395.

The scenery through Battle Mountain is beautiful, but you'll most likely be traveling through this section during darkness.

The course exits 395 near Long Creek and RT 402.

Riders will follow 402 back toward Hamilton, Monument and Kimberly.

After a lovely ride alongside the John Day River, they'll turn and head toward Spray.

If you've ridden RAO in the past, you're now on familiar territory though going in a different direction than before as the course travels through Spray, Service Creek, Fossil, Clarno, Antelope, Shaniko, Bakeoven, Maupin, Dufur and Forest Road 44.

A 25-mile descent on highway 35 will take riders back to the start hotel on the banks of the beautiful Columbia River - the best the gorge has to offer!"

A race like this isn't for everybody. Geser is now a four-time veteran, having won the men's solo category in 2003. He placed second in 2004, again riding solo. In 2005 he teamed with Rich Hummel, placing second in the two-person men's relay category.

Gregg wanted to race this year, but not alone.

"The training for a two-person team race is easier on the body," he said. "Kara was the first and only person I thought about asking to be my teammate. I had ridden with her before. During a ride together about a year ago, she was on my wheel (drafting) and I tried to pull away from her. I hit it pretty hard and she was right there, so I knew she was strong. And I knew she had run a marathon, which takes endurance."

Geser approached her and asked if she'd be interested. He explained that there would be hours and hours of training; that the preparation would be as difficult as the race itself. She said she would think about it.

"I had never thought about it before," said Calmettes. "It wasn't on my list. It took a couple days, but then I called Gregg and said, 'I'm in!'"

They began training for the race in the middle of March.

"It was horrible training weather," said Geser, "but we had to put in the miles. Riding in the cold and rain is no fun, but the loneliness is worse."

Most of the time they trained alone. They rode together on the weekends. They estimate they rode 7,500 training miles in a little over three months.

"The pressure was on Kara," said Geser. "She had no idea how she would perform. But toward the end of our training, she was so much improved the pressure turned on me. You don't want to let your teammate down."

Rich Hummel, a trainer at Sisters Athletic Club, helped Kara with her training. He knew what she was in for, having ridden in the race before. He put together a training program for her.

Hummel was part of Kara's support team. The support teams are an essential part of the team, taking care of the racer not riding at the time with food, massages and helping them try to get some rest. At the same time they are leapfrogging ahead to a predetermined changeover location. The support crew closely follows the rider for protection from traffic and to help light the way at night. Jan Hay was the other half of Kara's support team.

Geser's support crew was his wife Anne, son Ryan, just home from Afghanistan where he was in the army flying helicopters, and Jerry Norquist.

"The support crew was great," said Geser. "We ride and they do everything else. They don't sleep, they eat lousy food, they help us get on the bike and they help us get off the bike."

When the race got started after the parade ride, Kara took the first shift on the bike, riding the first 21 miles. Gregg then took over and rode to the 65-mile changeover point. The plan was to take 45-minute to one-hour shifts for rest of the race after that. They rode all day. They rode all night. The team was fortunate not to have any mechanical problems, but Calmettes had some physical problems.

"In the middle of the night I got a real bad upset stomach," she said. "I was vomiting and couldn't keep anything down."

A 500-mile bike race is no time to diet. A cyclist needs a calorie intake to fuel a ride like that.

"From two in the morning until about nine in the morning I was hanging on by a thread. I was shaking and could hardly ride in a straight line. My team put energy gel in some water, and I was finally able to keep that down and started to feel better."

While the two-person teams began the race at 7 a.m. Saturday, the solo racers started two hours earlier,

at 5 a.m.

"My favorite part of the race is chasing down other racers," said Geser. "Seeing a racer up ahead gives you a kick of adrenaline. Passing someone makes you feel good."

They passed all of the solo racers.

The last few hours of the race they were changing over every 20 minutes. The support teams, having not slept for 30-some hours, were really busy getting their rider off the bike, loading the bike, getting the rider situated and comfortable and driving ahead for the next changeover a short distance down the road. Once there they would get their rider ready for the next

changeover.

Finally, with the end of the race on the horizon, and the knowledge that they were close to winning, they rode the last four miles and crossed the finish line together.

They won the race. They beat seasoned racers by two hours. They beat a team riding a shorter version of the race. They beat their goal by three hours.

At the finish-line ceremony, besides the medal for their win, Kara was given the "Shark Award" for having such a great "go get it!" attitude, and Gregg was given the "Dinosaur Award" for being the oldest

finisher.

"Sunday and Monday were real highs," said Geser. "There are lots of emotions; pride, elation, relief. Then you come down quite a lot. You've worked so hard for so long and then it's over.

"It was a great experience. You learn a lot about yourself and your teammate. I've gained so many things; memories that I'll have forever and a lasting friendship. More than winning, it was sharing the journey with Kara."

Kara says she doesn't know if she'll race next year to defend their crown. Gregg says he probably won't.

"At my age, the whole thing is too much now," he said. After a moment of reflection, and with a hint of a glint in his eye, he said "Maybe come next year I'll feel differently."

Calmettes rested for two days after the race before her first post-race bike ride. Geser rested for one day and then got back on his bike. In the week since the race he's ridden close to two hundred miles.

"The thing about Gregg and cycling," said Kara, "Gregg is obsessed."