Cyclists dominate endurance race

Grinding through the desert night saps the will. You're in pain, pushing through on sheer determination, sustained by months of training and a dedicated support crew. Your pedals turn a million times as you traverse miles upon miles of some of the most inhospitable terrain ever to see two wheels; 508 of them to be exact.

They don't call the Furnace Creek 508 "the toughest 48 hours in sport" for nothing. It takes everything you've got just to finish. And yet... in the end...

Triumph.

Kara Calmettes and Gregg Geser of Sisters conquered what many call "the Great American Bike Race" October 5-7, taking first in their category - two-person mixed team over 50. And first in the two-person mixed overall. In fact, only four two-man teams and four four-person teams finished in front of them, out of a total of 60 participants.

It was a triumphant performance in a grueling race, made more remarkable given the challenges the duo faced in their final month of training in Sisters.

"That last month of training here in Sisters was worthless," Geser said.

Smoke from the Pole Creek Fire made riding unwise; they had to try to find time to get out of the area to train. And life's obligations also got in the way.

"In reality, we could have done better," Geser opined. However, he was quick to add, "neither one of us is disappointed about anything."

The course crosses 10 mountain passes across with a total elevation gain of over 35,000 feet as cyclists roll across Mojave Desert of Southern California through Death Valley National Park and Mojave National Preserve, to the finish line at the gateway to Joshua Tree National Park.

Geser and Calmettes rode the race as a relay, each rider taking a leg of the journey in turn, swapping out only at time stations.

"They (the legs) vary in difficulty, they vary in length," Geser said. "As it worked out, Kara had more climbing; less distance and more climbing."

The race is continuous, a night-and-day grind that creates a mental challenge every bit as stiff as the physical challenge.

"Whether it's teams or whether it's a solo, the first 200 miles of the race is physical," Geser said. "The rest of it is mental."

Calmettes faced her sternest mental challenge on a six-hour nighttime leg.

"You don't really have a concept how far you've gone... where you are, how fast you're going - because you can't see anything," she said.

Calmettes sometimes uses music to get outside herself. Geser, on the other hand, never gets outside the work.

"I spend the total time thinking of who I'm going to pass... how fast am I going," he said. He allows that Kara is probably correct when she says that he's "possessed by cycling."

Grueling as the race is, the true discipline comes in training for it. That requires months and months in the saddle, hours and hours and miles on miles every week.

"There's a lot of days you finish work, it might be fun to go to the lake and go swimming," Calmettes said. "You've got to put it in when you don't want to put it in."

Another critical element of success is the support crew. Rich Hummel and Jerry Norquist of Sisters (both avid cyclists in their own right) went south with the racers to man the support van, which stays with the racers throughout the race for safety. Norquist was behind the wheel for 31 straight hours, while Hummel provided massages to the off-duty cyclist. They monitored food and water intake of the cyclists and made sure the bikes stayed in running order.

"They're just as much of the race as Kara and me," Geser said. "They're more."

The camaraderie of this year's race was extraordinary. Geser, who has done many ultra-endurance races - and swears off after each one - isn't so definitive this time.

"It was so much fun that I'm not saying so loudly that I won't do it again," Geser said.

The "why" question isn't easy to answer. Part of it's the challenge, of course - the satisfaction of setting a goal and achieving it. But there's something deeper than that, something ineffable and profound.

"It's a life-changing couple of days," Geser says. "It's an amazing journey."