Dave Holmes Rider Development Program Emily O'Brien "What possessed me to ride my fixed gear for over 500 miles? I like my fixed gear. I like the steady feeling of the momentum keeping my feet going around, the connection to the bike, the control over the rear wheel and awareness of the road that a fixed gear gives me." -- Emily O'Brien after qualifying for RAAM on a fixed gear at the Furnace Creek 508. By Janet "Osprey" Christiansen Photos by Jake Kassen About Dave Holmes

Emily O'Brien.

I really did not think our rider would complete the 508. She's young for ultra endurance events (only 23 years old). She has never been to the desert, let alone done a cycling event in an arid climate, and she lives in a city where it snows or rains in about 80% of the time. The odds were pretty long. Hubris of the young. Not burdened with self-doubt like us baby boomers.

I cannot tell you what Ms. Archeoptyerix endured doing the 508 on a fixed gear, only she can. But as one of her crew I can make these observations:

Ms. Archaeopteryx looked like she was in the middle of one of her weekend club rides.

First, the obvious question: What the h$$$ is an Archeoptyerix? I quote Ms. Archeoptyerix:

"It's Archaeopteryx, dammit. It was the earliest fossil discovery (found in 1861) that demonstrated an evolutionary link between dinosaurs and birds. A few people argue over whether it's actually an intermediate form, or 'missing link,' or not, since by some definitions it's really a bird already."

Moving on to less obvious questions: What on earth possessed her to consider riding a fixed gear for 508 miles over 35K feet of net elevation gain through harsh terrain. (Does 508 miles not seem hard enough as it is??) I suspect the following are the primary causes:

• She doesn't like multi-speed bikes - so many moving parts, too much time to clean them!
• She read Sam "Seal" Beal's Tall Tale from 2004 and got hooked on the notion of trying the "almost impossible."
• Not having a car, she rides around Boston day and night, in the middle of winter on snow, ice and potholes - now there's adventure! Two days after the 508 she was commuting back and forth to work but rumor has it she might have relented and used a multi-speed machine.

It was obvious early in the 508 that she had researched the ultra experiences of other fixies and applied what they had learned, like wrapping towels around your bars and using a Gelco saddle for the worst road surfaces. That lessened the hardship, at least a little tiny bit.

If Emily was suffering, she hid it well!

Less apparent was her game plan. Instead of peeling out of the parking lot and screaming through the first five time stations, only to take 12 hours or more to get to the last two (kind of like yours truly, Ms. Osprey), Ms. Archaeopteryx applied a sensible regimen including rest stops up to one hour and short naps in between.

Not realizing she had it pretty well figured, I fretted to the other crew that her chances of finishing in the next 24 hours were slim. After 24 hours we were fourth to last, and had scarcely covered 250 miles. On a positive note, she was riding a very steady conservative pace (~14mph) and showed no signs of mental or physical breaking down.

Leaving Baker a little before 6 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, the crew decided we had to get strict about time off the bike in order to reach 29 Palms by 7 a.m. But she was way ahead of us. The legs suddenly started turning up the after burners, and we marveled at her relentless pace up the 21-Mile Granite and Sheephole climbs. Watching her ride instead of coasting and recovering, it was easy to forget the extra discomfort of riding a fixie on bad road surfaces or having to spin 100+rpms down every descent. If she was suffering she hid it well. I think she only stopped once to switch chamois lube regimens.

The highlight of the 508, besides finishing, was the race she had with the other fixed gear rider, Sabertooth Salmon. She passed him on the Granite climb, and then had to relinquish her lead while the crew fiddled with a technical problem with the bike. She passed him again on Sheephole. He streaked past her and we could see him saying something to her as he passed. He was challenging her to a sprint-off! So they both went "supernova" up a steeper section of Sheephole, both crews waiting for them to collapse in lactic acid-precipitated organ failure. She didn't. Hmmm. She slowed a little and resumed her climbing rhythm. Poor Sabertooth Salmon blew up after his burst of speed, and was last seen falling farther back …

Emily O'Brien.

There were some bumps in the road along the way. Like the navigator (I think it was me) sending her the wrong way on Neutralia Avenue right before TS #1, or watching her lean over her bike and paint the side of the road with regurgitated V8 juice on the way to Baker. Ms. Archaeopteryx recovered nicely and was back on her bike within 20 minutes. She never lost her composure and was not once impatient or grouchy to the crew, although she did nearly break my ankle with an errant water bottle toss in the early going. "Hmm, I don't think she likes me very much."

Both my 508 experiences reduced me to tears, temper tantrums, and nearly giving up at one or more points. Photos of me at the finish line reveal what I will look like after a nuclear holocaust. In contrast, Ms. Archaeopteryx looked like she was in the middle of one of her weekend club rides, with only a few dark circles after cresting Townes pass Saturday night. She looked better with each passing hour Sunday evening and into Monday morning. She never complained, cried, or swore. I only saw her grimace at the head winds at the top of the Johannesburg summit and at the summit of Townes pass.

The crew, in turn, made every effort to supply whatever she wanted. We played 17th Century Italian Early Baroque music on the van speakers at 2 a.m., gave up our cozy sleeping positions so she could nap, served up her specially brewed Boston coffee, and performed stunning athletic feats on the side of the road during leapfrog support to keep her inspired. Jake, her boyfriend, crewmember and Michelangelo of the photojournalism world took shots of rider and desert landscape for posterity. OK that's my plug for our crew. Way to go, crew!

Ms. Archaeopteryx dislikes multispeed bikes.

We even performed ritualistic sacrifices to the Death Valley gods to spare our rider impossible heat and wind conditions. And they delivered. But with four hours to spare and plenty of energy reserves at the finish, I am not sure Ms. Archaeopteryx needed this dose of good fortune. Chris Kostman made her sprint up the driveway at the finish twice more until he could get a decent video clip. Both times she obliged, getting quicker each time. She wanted to wait up for Sabertooth Salmon to cross the finish line. Fixed gear solidarity I guess. Her exhausted crew bailed out on her.

What is next for Ms. Archaeopteryx? Graduate school (music), outdoor concerts, and maybe another 508-like adventure somewhere down the line.

Emily O'Brien adds: "I did not see the Furnace Creek 508 as something to be suffered through to begin with; I planned to enjoy it to the utmost. I expected that there would be times when it would feel like an interminable, grueling slog but those never materialized. I expected to have fun, but I never dreamed that I would have as much fun or feel as good as I did. I would never have believed it was possible to go 500 miles without encountering a single red light!"

O'Brien is also a professional musician and plays Baroque flute and recorder. She rides her fixed-gear Raleigh ProfessionaI to concert venues.

"What possessed me to ride my fixed gear for over 500 miles? I like my fixed gear. I like the steady feeling of the momentum keeping my feet going around, the connection to the bike, the control over the rear wheel and awareness of the road that a fixed gear gives me. In particular I like the position and ride characteristics of my 1974 Raleigh Professional. I have done all my longest rides on my fixed gear, and I take my fixed gear on the vast majority of my rides because I think it's more fun that way."

"Riding fixed over long distances and hills isn't all about making life more difficult. Because the momentum keeps your pedal stroke smooth and helps you around the weaker parts of the pedal stroke when climbing, it's advantageous on flats and moderate grades even if steep grades mean you're either way over-geared or spinning ridiculously fast. Riding fixed in the 508 wasn't a completely insane idea. So far, everyone who has entered the (pretty new) fixed gear category of the 508 has finished!"

"My 'hubris of the young' was more like a careful effort to be sure that I sort of knew what I was diving into. At times it took some effort to focus on the task at hand and not worry about what the crew thought."