On a bicycle ride one day, people were talking about long distance bicycle races & crewing for them. I'm always up for an adventure, so I asked how one gets involved in such an event. Ken Holloway said that it just so happens that his friend, Rick Ashabranner, is doing a ride next weekend & one of his crew members had to drop out at the last minute. He might be looking for someone to complete the 3 person crew. To make a long story short, by Tue., Rick's backup crew member couldn't make it so he invited me to join his crew for his Race Across Oregon (www.raceacrossoregon.com). He was thrilled to have me joining the crew & I was thrilled to be on the crew so it was a win-win situation. I now had 2 days to get ready for the trip.

The race covers 535 miles with 40,000+ feet of elevation gain. The riders can take up to 48 hours. And that's non stop. Well, people generally stop for 5 to 30 minutes, but that's about it.

I had never crewed for such an event, but based on my own bicycle experience, I figured that the crew would give the rider food & water every couple of hours & be prepared to fix a flat when needed. I figured two people could do that while the third person sleeps & then the positions would rotate over time. No, no, no. How very wrong. What really happens is …, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I met the team on Thurs. at Rick's house in Tracy, CA. Rick is such an easy going, laid back type of guy that it's hard to picture him biking 500+ miles non-stop. Zafer Demir, an accomplished bicyclist himself, is great at packing everything is small spaces & keeps things lively with his friendly conversation. Jennifer Swenson, another avid bicyclist, having completed the Furnace Creek 508 on a team, is extremely organized, having gathered all the paperwork needed for the race & having it bound into a neat spiral bound notebook.

We got everything packed into the Jeep Cherokee & were off, with Rick & Jen in the Jeep. Zaf & I rode in my truck with camper, as I wanted to stay in Oregon after the race to explore the state. We kept in touch via radio during the 10 hour drive, stopping to eat & sleep before arriving in Portland, OR on Fri.

We still had many tasks to do to get the car & bicycles ready: mount special flashing lights on the back of the car, add special signs, put the rider number on the helmet, etc. After it was all checked off by a race official, we made our way to a bicycle shop to buy aero bars. Rick's had broken & he couldn't get any at home. Luckily, the shop (bigger than any I've seen in the Bay Area) had them & Rick put them on his bike. This is ONE DAY before a 500+ mile ride! Pretty last minute stuff, but Rick is so mellow during the whole thing. Jan, Zaf & I do last minute grocery shopping & pack it & the ice into the car. Somehow it got rather late & we'll be up early tomorrow morning for the race, but no one seems concerned that we'll get little sleep. Hey, it's just a little bike ride.

Sat., 4:30 am. It's about race time & Rick has his bike clothes on. He finally looks like a bike rider. Turns out his inner tube is defective so we have to change it, but hey, no rush, there're still several minutes before the race starts. The 70 riders line up with their lights on to pierce the darkness, someone does a count down & there're off! Actually, it was a rather calm start, as the first 10 miles are behind a pace bicyclist, as they go through the city bike paths. At mile 10, the real race begins, although the support cars don't meet them until mile 18. We will now keep within shouting distance of Rick for the duration of the race.

We start in "leap frog mode" ("follow mode" comes at night). We drive past Rick & then pull off & stop by the side of the road. He passes us. Repeat ad infinitum. If he needs something, e.g., water, one person will hold it in an out stretched hand & start running. Rick will bicycle along side, toss his old water bottle (that we pick up) & scoop up the new one. We actually kept pretty busy getting everything ready. These bicyclists expend an incredible amount of energy which has to be replenished regularly.

It turns out the entire county was having a heat wave. Eastern Oregon is rather hot to begin with, but add on a heat wave & it was hot, hot, hot. Then you add the "hills", i.e., 23 mile (!) uphills to the 107 degree temperature & you get an idea of what it was like there. At this point, every time we pulled over (which was every 3 minutes), Rick needed something: water, liquid food, ice, etc. Now we were really busy in the car, getting everything ready. I would jump out with a water bottle, run to give it to Rick & then rush back to the air conditioned car before the heat melted me into a puddle.

And Rick was out there all day, climbing mountains. Quickly. The 23 mile climb in 107 deg. heat took him about 1.5 hours. This calm, laid back guy turned into a climbing machine. His personality was still calm, but each pedal stroke was more powerful than a locomotive (well, almost). As someone said, "he has muscles I can't even describe." At the top of the climb, I was there jumping up & down, with both arms in the air, giving two thumbs up, cheering him on.

What did we do all day? We had 3 positions. Every 2 hours we rotated so each person did all tasks. The driver drove & talked with Rick on the radio (here's what we're giving you next, what do you want, the next turn is …). The passenger seat person navigated & wrote down everything as to miles, time, amount, what was given, etc. The back seat person got all the stuff ready & gave it to Rick: water with ice, Perpetuem (liquid food) with ice, ice in sock to put around his neck, cut up fruit, make sandwiches, put electrolyte etc. pills in container, etc.

If he needed 2 things, 2 people would get out to do the hand offs. We also had a garden herbicide sprayer (filled with water & ice) to spray him down while running beside him. Sometimes we did bike swaps (he had to stop for 5 seconds to do this) & swapped out a wheel when he had a flat (which was fixed in the car). When there were a few spare moments, I jumped out to take pictures.

Before the trip, I asked Rick how the crew could sleep in the car. He said, "sleep?" Now I see what he was talking about. Jen & Zaf work very well together. They are always bouncing ideas off of each other, discussing what should be done next. I thought the rider would be directing what to take when, but it's the crew who keep track of everything & dole things out.

Once it became dark, we switched to "follow mode." Here we drove right behind him, as he used our headlights to see the road ahead of him. If the crew have to stop for any reason, Rick has to stop also, which would slow him down, so we make one last "find a bush" stop. We are required to turn on the flashing yellow lights on the top of the car so we plugged them into the 4-way cigarette lighter adapter (which also had the inverter plugged in to charge the camera battery). After awhile, we smell smoke. Egads! The cigarette lighter adapter is melting & smoking. It was a little scary to reach through the smoke to "pull the plug" but I figured that was better than having the car burst into flames. Whew. Ok, no inverter. Just using the flashing lights works just fine.

Now when he needed something, the driver would carefully pull to his left side & a crew member would lean out the window to do the hand off. This was really cool. Here we're going umpteen miles an hour & passing things back & forth. You could even have a conversation with him. Ok, it's a bit dangerous, but still. Also, using the speakers mounded on the hood, we blasted Rick with music to keep him going. Talk about bizarre. We're in the middle of no where in the middle of the night, closely following a bicyclist, with music blaring. What are they thinking?

Well, the heat was taking its toll. Rick's blood was going to his skin to try to cool him down so nothing in his stomach was getting digested. He said he had a "belly ball." It was so painful, he finally had to stop for the first time. He tried to clear his stomach (if you know what I mean) & rest in the cool car. He tried various mild drinks & food & was on his bike again. But not only was the pain intense, he was getting no calories so was running on empty. He tried resting again, but it just didn't help. Since he couldn't get calories into his system, he couldn't continue.

He had reached mile 268 on the top of a hill. It was pitch black, in the middle of no where. It was so very quiet. The stars & milky way galaxy were spectacular.

We repacked everything to get 4 people in the car & then drove back to Portland. I finally had time to think about the race. I loved being part of a highly skilled crew that was supporting such a strong rider. It was so intense with figuring out what to do & getting everything ready. Every minute was occupied. I felt I was using a lot of my skills. It was great to feel so productive & part of a team.

When we got to Portland Sun. morning, I got my truck, we said our good byes & the 3 of them started the drive home. As they drove away, Rick was giving me the 2 thumbs up that I had given him at the summit. I really had to smile. It was his special way of thanking me for being on his crew.

--Vicki Pelton