Not for glory, nor award, I raced the #ebike category last Sunday on my Niner. An ebike is no substitute for training or talent. Yes, for a moment, I can move faster than any other rider on course but you must be acutely aware that the battery on my RLT E9 RDO would not last the entire 130km (rumor is that a full charge is good for approx 50 miles in economy mode) so I spent 4 hours getting dropped, pedaling without the electronic assist, while trying to hang with the lead group, then the chase group, then in no-woman’s land and eventually in the chase chase chase group. I did not want to pedal a 40ish pound bike (with stock wheels still on it) up the dreaded fiNAL climb, often where a race winning move goes away as the defining feature in the last few miles of the course.

It was a strange, humbling experience. I’ve been recovering from a muscle tear, so I have no fitness but, I have experience is using what I’ve got. I managed the battery usage so that I was in the final bar of available power as we began climbing THE peak. I hit it into turbo-mode and though my legs were cramping, I caught and passed the dozen riders that put me outside of the top 20 to finish in 9th place overall once I crossed the finish line.

Will I race ebikes again? Probably! I’m still healing FROM A HIP INJURY and trying to be a smart athlete, not overdo it NOR push myself too hard in these long off road races and rides. until I get the OK from my doctor. Did it feel like cheating? Honestly, no. ebikes all weigh around 40-50 lbs and even with a fast set of @envecomposites wheels, that weight is a limiter to performance over longer distances and absolutely on any climbing grades. While riding in “Economy” mode I could not keep pace with a group I normally would easily be able to. Yet in the next step up “Tour” mode, I could maintain a pace near my unassisted steady-state / tempo pace while exerting less energy so I could ride just a little faster for much longer while burning less matches.

I love mass-start all categories start together at the same time. They designed the course with a small selective climb within the first miles miles and a longer climb in the first 5 miles so the field would safely and naturally sort itself out. I moved into the front group on the climbs with the assist and then sat back off the back of the lead group to let the non-e riders race their own race. I mostly tried to stay out of the way of errrybody.

It was FUN AS HELL. And, hard! Ebikes are silly, effective and a completely new and exciting way to experience riding bicycles and racing bicycles. Battery management will always be a consideration and that heavily defines how you will race an ebike on any given course. It has opened up a whole new world of exploration to me on a lot of my regular training routes. I am stoked.

RLT e9 RDO

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Cyclocross Nationals 2021

My travels to Fayetteville Arkansas for CX Nats 2021.

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An easy spin on the bicycle around Sauvie Island in Portland, Oregon on a hazy yet, sunny March afternoon. I shot this to practice video and audio editing with Davinci Resolve 16 on my decade old Macbook Pro.

Filmed entirely on the new GoPro Hero 8 https://amzn.to/3agAS0K

Audio credits:
DJ GONZ – One More To Come – https://thmatc.co/?l=F91545F4
Onistus – Clandestine – https://thmatc.co/?l=45D92D8D
Chris Lux – DNA – https://thmatc.co/?l=1A5B3B7C

The Sauvie Island loop is a Portland classic bicycle ride. The island has 1 bridge to get on or off and vehicle traffic is relatively low; mostly slow moving farm vehicles. The island is about 10 miles north of town and it takes about 40 minutes by bicycle from NW Portland via the bike lane on Highway 30 Northbound to reach the Sauvie Island Bridge. From the St. Johns bridge leaving North Portland, it should only take you about 20 minutes to ride to the Sauvie Island bridge. There is a small (free and public) parking lot on the island at the Eastern terminus of the bridge where you can park if you do not want to ride up Highway 30. There is a single convenience store on the island just north of the parking lot. There is no gas station on the island so if you are driving make sure you’ve gassed up before exploring.

This video shows a counter clockwise pass of what is considered the “main loop” 12 mile loop on the island. There are many more miles of this kind of riding on the island to explore!

More information on Sauvie Island can be found here: https://sauvieisland.org/visitor-information/bikers/

Please hit the like/dislike and subscribe buttons! I welcome your feedback and criticism. What would you have done differently with this video? Tell me; what other rides and routes would you like to see?

#GreatPortlandRides

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