Mick Walsh Coup de Cascades Win – Race Report

Story by Mick Walsh,

Mick Walsh - Kelly Kyle Photo

Coup de Cascades, September 24^th-25^th 2011

When I was planning my season, the Ring of Fire 24hr TT (ROF) was to be my last race of the season, but then in May, a friend sent me an email about a new Ultra Race in my home state of Washington that was two weeks after ROF.  Well how could I not to that one?  No travel, no time off work, though I might regret that, and on top of everything else, it was a fundraiser to eliminate Polio, so I was in.

I figured that there would not be too many racers since it was the first year of the event, so it would be ok to do just two weeks after a scorching hot Ring of Fire.  It would also give me another chance to see if cutting out nightshade vegetables was doing anything to eliminate my terrible stomach issues.  I survived the Ring of Fire without being sick, but that was a night start and temperatures were cooler.  So, I was hoping for hot weather to test me in this race, but that was a little too much to ask for Washington state in late September?

I put out a call for crew to my JL Velo team in Seattle, and Jamie Vanek and Garth Ferber stepped right up and volunteered.  Jamie even borrowed a minivan for us to use.  So, I was set to go and very excited to have such an enthusiastic crew, hope they knew what they were in for.

After receiving final instructions from Kelly Kyle of the Redmond Rousers Rotary , we started off at 8am from Marymoor Parkin, Redmond,WA.  It was just me and Shannon Henery, who being 5 months pregnant, changed her plans to race solo and assembled a group to race the team division.  When all her teammates withdrew, Shannon elected to start solo and ride a portion of the course, not the entire 420 miles.

The race was a clockwise loop around what’s called the Cascade Loop including the North Cascades Hwy, up Rainy and Washington Pass, topping out at 5,400ft.  Then through the Methow Valley to Chelan and the Apple Capitol of Washington,Wenatchee, also home to Pro Cyclist Tyler Farrar.  From Wenatchee, the route went through Leavenworth and over Stevens Pass at 4,000ft, then back down to Snoqualmie Valley and return to Redmond.

As I had no competition I just wanted to have a good steady race and try to minimize stops, oh and keep all my food in my stomach!

The day started out cloudy, and we had some fog after a couple of hours as we passed through Snohomish and it soon warmed up.  I passed some of the rec riders who were riding the first 54 miles of the course, and started before us.

I made it a goal to be descending Washington Pass before darkness at 7pm, and I just about made it.  Before the descent I added a few layers as it had cooled off quite a bit from the 80 degrees I had seen earlier in the day.

Mick Walsh

I was happy to see Shannon and her husband cheer me as I went through Winthrop, and I encountered some deer on the road to the next time station at Twisp.  I was starting to get sleepy at this point, so I had a doubleshot (Coffee) at the stop in Twisp (I had to stop at night to feed as there was no support allowed from the moving car) I also had some cheese and rice pudding, loaded up my pockets and was on my way.

I started to feel not so good on the road to Pateros, but it was mostly downhill.  Even so I was able to maintain a good speed and even spotted a couple of coyotes during this stretch. Bright starlight when I reached Pateros and off the bike to the bathroom I went to get sick.  I started back out to the next time station at Entiat, but only got a few miles before I had to stop and sleep for a bit in the hope of feeling better.  I slept for 20mins in the van and before getting back on the road.  On the road to Chelan we got to see some lightning strikes and encountered some wet roads.  My stomach was better, but after Chelan I was still very sleepy, but I set my goal to push on to Entiat and see how I felt there. I was still REALLY sleepy getting to Entiat, but made it there and layed down for 30 mins, which ended up being 1 hour.  I got back on the bike before I thought too much about it because I knew I would feel better when I got moving. Got through Wenatchee and on towards Leavenworth, but soon realized I would have a head wind all the way up Stevens Pass, ouch.  I started to think that I needed to eat more in Leavenworth to get me over the pass, and I suddenly got a craving for an egg McMuffin!  I called my crew up and asked them to get one for me, and it really hit the spot with a nice cup of coffee.  Certainly not what I would normally eat on a race, but it worked for me today.

The ride up Stevens Pass seemed to take forever, especially with the headwind, but with 3 vehicles leapfrogging and offering support I made it to the top in the rain.  I kept going over the top and stopped later to put more clothes on.  The road on in from Stevens Pass was quite busy and hard to get support.  I stopped at the sag in Sulton to get food and take some clothes off.  I ate a sandwich which went down well and was enough to get me in the last 50 miles.  I finished into a crazy windy day in Redmond, tree limbs falling all over the place and power outages on the last stretch of traffic lights.

My time was 30hrs and 20 mins for the 420 miles, a few hours slower than I had hoped.  The extended stops with more sleep than I had anticipated along with heinous winds at the end, slowed me down considerably.

This was a well planned event for a first time event promoted by someone who had no experience of race promotion.  I’m sure that it will get even better as it grows by leaps and bounds over the next few years.  The state of Washington has so many good Ultra Racers, it’s only fitting it should have some great races too.

Thanks to Redmond Rousers Rotary  and my crew for a great event,

Mick Walsh

Coup de Cascades Race Director Report:  http://www.coupdecascades.org/winner-of-st-inaugural-coup-de-cascades/