Event Report: R.A.T.S (Ride Across Three States), By Kevin Roberge

By Kevin Roberge

It’s July 21st, past midnight and you’re walking home from a night’s celebration in Orono or perhaps Bangor.  You notice lights up ahead, though not car lights.  It’s quiet and there are a half dozen bright pinpoints of light.  They’re approaching quickly.  What is it?  A line of bicycles zip past you.  A half dozen small blinking red dots shrink into the blackness.  You look at your watch and back over your shoulder at the now barely visible blips of red.  What was that?

RATS is an acronym which stands for Ride Across Three States, the creation of Jim Rose.  A ride which begins in Orono at the shop and ends in Burlington, Vermont.  Beginning at midnight, it crosses three states, 300 miles, almost two dozen hours.  If you’ve been around the shop long enough you’ve heard of this ride as I had.  It sparked your imagination and opened up your ambitions. 

RATS isn’t a ride you take lightly.  Last fall  it was tossed around that maybe 2013 was time for another installment of RATS, the last being 2009 (when he rode it with his two sons, amoung others).  I was elated to be asked if I wanted to participate.  Would I like to try and ride 300 miles in a day?  Hells yeah!  Sounds like a great idea.

                                             Photo Credit:  Corey Odermann

The 2013 RATS was originally slated for Saturday July 20th, but was moved a day forward on account of the weather and this was fortunate.  Sunday July 21st was a beautiful day.  The temperature was in the 60’s as we shoved off from Rose Bike on Pine Street Orono.  The first bit of riding actually heads out into Old Town along Rt 2 then Rt 43 before turning around and coming back to Orono via Bennoch Road.  This is to add enough miles to make it a triple century.  Burlington is not a full 300 miles from Orono. 

Before long we were heading west, along Route 2, the road we would follow all the way to our destination.  Once out of Bangor the traffic nearly vanished and we pedaled along in relative silence, reveling in having the entire lane to ourselves. 

Six started RATS.  Jim Rose, Adam Bland, Justin Waskiewicz (a RATS veteran), Andy Young, Jeremy Bousquet and myself (Kevin Roberge).  Unfortunately by the time we reached Newport Jeremy was having trouble with his blood sugar and was forced to bow out.  It’s frustrating not being able to test your limits when an unexpected complication arises. It’s fortunate that  RATS is a supported ride meaning that we don’t have to carry everything we need, there are several vehicles that carry the food, water and clothing required.  However we usually don’t meet the support car until Farmington in order to reduce the fatigue of the drivers.  This year however the first support car was close by and was able to come to our aid.

Our ride continued.  Not long afterwards I was having trouble keeping up with the paceline. There were a lot of miles left to cover and so I decided to drop off and ride alone. This is a tricky decision as riding in a paceline (the single file group of riders you see zipping along the roads) is generally an energy efficient way to ride.  The rider in front, who is taking their turn “pulling” saves the other rides up to 30% of their effort.  If each member takes a turn at the front it means you can maintain higher speeds with less effort.

Going it alone was dispiriting to be certain and it was early in the day.  It was cold (the temperatures came down into the 50’s before dawn) and when the road dipped into low lying areas you rode through chilly fog. My spirits rose as the sky lightened and I was able to remove the light from my helmet around 430, a relief despite it’s low weight.  As the day brightened so did my mood and I began to enjoy the riding.  I like to ride alone, keeping my own company and my own pace.  Sunday mornings are quiet and it was a joy to ride through the sleeping towns along Route 2. 

Trouble rose it’s head again however as I began to feel pain in my right knee.  I don’t generally have trouble with my knee and so this was unexpected, especially so early on (before the first 100).  From Rumford to Bethel I made good time as it seemed to be all downhill (except for the uphill parts Jim would say) but my knee continued to deteriorate. 

150: the halfway point.  Except for my knee I felt fine, frustratingly fine. Andy’s parents live in Bethel and would be providing lunch and showers and then providiing another support car (the other two driven Tilan Copson and Marlyse Waskiewicz).  I decided to just keep pedaling and so made it to New Hampshire first.  This was not a competitive move.  I was moving much more slowly than the group but in rides such as these time spent standing still adds up at an alarming rate. 

My knee continued to hurt and to hurt  more.  Taking pressure off it by using my left only resulted in my left knee hurting.  On one hill I actually walked for half a mile to try and loosen it up.  It’s a small price to pay if you can actually finish the distance.  Though I was coming to realize that I may not make it to Burlington, or that if I did, I could seriously injure my knee.  The miles passed and I worked in five mile increments.  I worked towards small goals and achieved them and was continually surprised when I would catch up to the main group at the support cars.

What would your mood be like at this point?  Your training going unused as a small but crucial part of your body malfunctioned?  Surprisingly my mood continued to improve all day.  I began to realize that these distances are extremely attainable.  The day was beautiful and even as I limped up the long hills I could not resist the stunning vistas and the realization that while today may not be my day, another one would.  The group ahead of me was much faster, partly because on any day they’d be much faster and partly because of my inopportune afflction.  Despite that I continued to catch up with them tortoise and hare style.  In fact, I also managed to reach the Vermont border ahead of them.

How is this?  Let’s take a moment to look at some numbers.  Both Jim and I had our Garmin’s with us and captured a lot of information about our rides.  I ended my ride at the Vermont border with 203  miles which took a total of 15h and 37m, but I was only moving for 13h33m.  I essentially stood still for 2h04m.  Jim made it to Burlington with a total distance of 303.77 which took a total of 23h33m but only spent 17h31m moving.  That means that the group out front spent a total of 6h02m not moving. 

Suppose I could have kept going and maintaining my pace and a proportional amount of stationary time.  That would have meant, ideally, that I would have taken an additional 7h49m for a total of 23h26m.  This is pure conjecture of course, but food for thought.  Without the bum knee you could actually ride much slower (my average moving speed was 15mph versus Jim’s at 17.3mph) and arrive in Burlington before the faster group! Of course if they were more efficient they would also arrive earlier, but it’s a message to those riders out there who don’t find themselves as brisk as others.  For long distances such as these you can ride them at your own pace, you need only substitute logistics for the difference in speed and you’ll arrive all the same.

From the border of Vermont to Burlington I helped support the riders for a while before going ahead to check into the Ho-Hum Motel where Jim had reserved rooms for the night.  Darkness came after the riders left Montpelier and they rode again in the dark, hill after hill (the total elevation gain of RATS is over 14,000 feet) pulling into town around 11:30pm. 

RATS 2013 concluded that night, though a big breakfast followed the next day and much conversation about the ride.  We parted ways with Justin and Marlyse since they were actually moving from Orono to Burlington where Justin will work at the University of Vermont.  His ride having an extra quality to it as he rode from one home to a new one. 

I’m at home now, several days later, and my knee is feeling better every day.  I’m glad I quit when I did as I look forward to racing in August and also putting in more miles on the road. If nothing else RATS or my attempt at it, has only inspired me to ride more and to keep looking for challenges.

I’d like to thank again the ride support: Tilan Copson, Marlyse Waskiewicz and Andy’s Parents.