TandemThings: Riding through the night: Santa Rosa 600km

Assorted notes from this weekend's 600km

According to the Garmin the temperature peaked at 113F, on the way out over Sulfur Banks road . In reality probably a little less, but still it was certainly hot. Lots of white clothing, having enough water with us to hydrate and also douse clothes, and keeping up with electrolytes right from the start all helped.

No stomach troubles, ate regularly on the bike and at controls. Didn't have any of the low glucose grumps.
Wish there was a formula to explain what it specifically was we did right but can't say!
Particularly surprising as through a lot of Saturday we struggled to eat much of substance as it was so hot. Went back to getting more carbs we could from drinks.
Used a couple gels on the way out, and Clif Shot Blocks heading back at the end. These are not our normal feeding strategy but good to tied us over low patches in long stages. Again, easier going in the heat too.
From 4am onwards Sunday morning I had ongoing craving for hard boiled eggs! Need more protein? (We did eat increasing amount of protein as it went on, but avoided Hammer Perpetuem after prior experiences.)

We tried this a couple times before (2010, 2011) and both times came unstuck around 4-5am, and ended up stopping anyway (one time, lying down on the tarmac in a quiet lay-by, I was that pooched!). This time, we were much faster on the road so pulling through the small hours is much easier knowing you only have maybe 4 hours to go, rather than 10.

A new departure for us, having always ridden with a dynohub on prior bikes, I was in two minds how I'd get on with battery lights.
At first they rattled around and I couldn't get them angled right, adding extra cable ties fixed both these problems (although doesn't win any awards for looks)
Having one set to medium (quoted as 4 hour) and the other on high just used when needed worked great. Runtime on a pair of lithium cells each was enough to ride right through the night (8pm to 5am, minus 3 stops) just fine.

I switched from Profile Designs bars to USE Tula / Boost / Rock N Roll (I don't know why it has 3 names) clip ons, with Specialized extensions and the Shimano extension Di2 shifters. Compare to Profiles which are just "clip on and go", this setup is a lot more fiddly to get dialed in and comfortable on, I reckon I'm about 93% of the way there now with these. But the benefits are great: really low weight, and minimal design leaves the hoods and tops freely accessible so I have loads of different, useful, hand positions. Just what you need on long rides.

A ride report from several years back had referred to a tandem being first back, and (knowing the SRCC 200km is very tandem friendly) I'd sort of convinced myself this was a particularly tandem friendly route. It certainly has a couple stretches (first 70km, and up around Clear Lake) that I could hunker down on the aerobars and bash out miles, and I know about the "headline" big climbs, but overall there was just a lot more sections with sustained undulations than anticipated. Not that tough in the grand scheme of 600s, just a bit more than I'd mentally prepared for.

As mentioned above, pretty pleased with how we dealt with the heat, but it started to unravel when we left Lower Lake heading to Middletown. The wind seemed to cool us less than traveling through still air, and our speed dropped right away just as the remnants of the group we were riding with got ripped up by the wind.

Normally we just go out and see what happens, but this time, as we were thinking to try and ride right through, we knew if we could get in a small but fast group it could be a big help.
So the plan (such as it was) to start out fast, see who stayed with us (usual tandem situation), try and take it in turns for a bit and see if we could team with anyone to ride right through.
As it turned out, we dragged about 20 bikes to the first control (right on its opening time) several of whom later packed as they'd spent too much too early on this hot day (sorry folks! That was not part of the plan). Then the big climb out of Hopland we were down to about 5; one of whom packed at the second control leaving us and 3 solos.
It was great company while it lasted - especially enjoyed the banter on that big climb. But it turned out we were not really that matched a group, especially as the heat got up it affected everyone differently. Also to work well in front of a tandem takes fairly reasonable level of "club riding" skills and experience (i.e. holding a steady pace, no sudden speed changes) otherwise it causes more effort that gain. Around 200km (when the headwind hit; ironically when a group can have most benefit!) we got split up by the differing speeds, and so rode the last 400km on our own.

While Di2 is magicness of gear shifting, on this ride it had an annoying hesitation shifting from 5 down to 4 that got worse as the ride went on. Turns out even with magic, it still needs regular cleaning. (Especially when new, getting that sticky factory wax off the chain).

A mistake in ordering means Roberta has "standard" rather than "compact" FSA bars. Not a great issue on shorter rides, but I didn't use the drops anywhere near as much on this ride.